Originally this street was a causeway that led through the marshy area of the Mottlau and the old riverbed of the "Ohra Brook," from Ohra through Stadtgebiet to the Leegen Tor, and was blocked at its northern end by a turnpike. The name Küperdamm, like most street names in this area, probably derives from the personal name Küper, which in turn had been derived from an occupation. Whether this referred to stevedores (called Küper in Low German) or to coopers — also called Küper or Küffer — is unclear. The street name cannot have been derived directly from these occupations, since both Ohra and Stadtgebiet were too small to house enough craftsmen of one kind for streets to be named after them. Once the Herr Küper after whom the street had been named was long forgotten, the name was corrupted toward the end of the 19th century to Kieperdamm, and people believed it derived from the Kiepenträger, i.e., itinerant peddlers who carried their wares in a basket (the Kiepe) on their backs. And in this form it then appears on maps and in residents' directories. Only on 14 November 1933 was the original form of the name restored. Since the war it has been called ul. Równa, translated: Level Street.

History