‘Spittel’ is an old word for hospital: the square recalls the Gertraudenhospital.
Around 1400 the St. Gertraud foundation built a house here, outside the Gertraudentor, and in 1411 a chapel; it later became an infirmary for poor and sick citizens. From about 1750 the square in front of it was called Spittelmarkt – from Hospital to Spital to Spittel. The hospital moved to Kreuzberg in 1872, and its church, the Spittelkirche, was demolished in 1881.