Named after Leopold Jessner (1878–1945), theatre and film director.
Jessner ran Berlin’s Staatliches Schauspielhaus from 1919 to 1928, amid antisemitic and nationalist protests, and was known for his stepped stage, the ‘Jessner stairs’. He emigrated in 1934 and died in Hollywood. The street, first called Kronprinzenstraße after the future Emperor Friedrich III, was renamed after him in 1951.