The broad street was laid out in the manner of a Parisian boulevard according to the Hobrecht-Plan of 1862. It was then part of a larger road link from Charlottenburg through Schöneberg to the Berlin district of Kreuzberg named after victorious Prussian generals (therefore colloquially called Generalszug in German). The projected section was named after Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien (1760–1824) by order of King William I of Prussia in 1864, celebrating the 50th anniversary storming of French-occupied Wittenberg by the Prussian Army in the aftermath of the German Campaign of 1813. Tauentzien had been in command and, although he did not personally take part in the battle, he had been vested with the title von Wittenberg on the grounds of merit.
