On 17 December 2007, Daimler announced that they were selling their entire complex of 19 buildings at Potsdamer Platz to SEB Asset Management, a Frankfurt-based subsidiary of the Swedish banking group SEB. A Brief History Of Potsdamer Platz Founded by German merchant Georg Wertheim (18571939), designed by architect Alfred Messel (18531909), opened in 1897 and extended several times over the following 40 years, it ultimately possessed a floor area double that of the Reichstag, a 330-metre-long granite and plate glass facade along Leipziger Strasse, 83 elevators, three escalators, 1,000 telephones, 10,000 lamps, five kilometers of pneumatic tubing for moving items from the various departments to the packing area, and a separate entrance directly from the nearby U-Bahn station. Berlin traffic experts visited colleagues in Paris, London and New York. Discover what brings people to this destination within Berlin. Potsdamer Platz is a square located about one kilometer of Brandenburg Gate to the south. Also, a very large government presence, with many German imperial departments, Prussian state authorities and their various sub-departments, came into the area, taking over 26 former palaces and aristocratic mansions in Leipziger Platz, Leipziger Strasse and Wilhelmstrae. It did not run in 2009 or 2010 due to equipment problems, but is expected to be operational again in 2011. Potsdamer Platz (German: [ptsdam plats] (listen), Potsdam Square) is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about 1km (1,100yd) south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park. Even the Reichstag itself, the German Parliament, occupied the former home of the family of composer Felix Mendelssohn (180947) in Leipziger Strasse before moving in 1894 to the vast new edifice near the Brandenburg Gate, erected by Paul Wallot (18411912). [22] It is known as the Berlinale Palast during the Berlin International Film Festival, serving as the venue for the premieres of competition films and several special gala films, as well as the opening and awards ceremonies. One of the busiest squares in Berlin, thus all of Germany, Potsdamer Platz is Berlin's attempt at a commercial center. Remembering the effective use of propaganda in the leadup to the second World War, the opposing camps later began berating one another with enormous signs displaying loud political slogans, facing each other across the border zone. Another building by the same architect but which still stands the "Rosengarten" in Mannheim, has a remarkably similar main facade. It was hoped that this would encourage development of all the country lanes into proper roads; in turn it was hoped that these would emulate Parisian boulevardsbroad, straight and magnificent, but the main intention was to enable troops to be moved quickly. It was preparations for this concert, rather than historical interest, that brought about the first detailed post-Cold War survey of the area with a view to determining what, if anything, was left of Hitler's bunker and any other underground installations. Decades since its fall, little remains of the barrier, euphemistically called the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier . December 1924 in an attempt to control the sheer volume of traffic passing through.[6]. Steps away visitors can find the world-class Gemldegalerie, Music Instrument Museum, Philharmonic, or fan favorites like the German Spy Museum. A short distance away stood portions of the former Hotel Esplanade, including the Kaisersaal, used at various times as a much scaled-down hotel, cinema, nightclub and occasional film-set (scenes from Cabaret were shot there). The gate itself was redesignated Leipziger Tor (Leipzig Gate) around the same time, but reverted to its old name a few years later. The lower floors of a few buildings were patched up enough to allow business of a sort to resume. [7] These factors combined to produce some far more radical and futuristic plans for Potsdamer Platz in the late 1920s and early 1930s, especially around 19289, when the creative fervour was at its peak. By the 1920s the number of cars had soared to 60,000. Finally, on the corner between Potsdamer Strasse and the Potsdamer Bahnhof, stood Bierhaus Siechen, built by Johann Emil Schaudt (18741957), opened in 1910 and relaunched under a new name, Pschorr-Haus. Potsdamer Platz The remarkably low price Daimler-Benz paid to secure their plot prompted questions from the Berlin Auditor-General's office and the European Union in Brussels, which resulted in Daimler-Benz being billed an additional sum. Initially known as the Achteck (Octagon), on 15 September 1814 it was renamed Leipziger Platz after the site of Prussia's final decisive defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Leipzig, which brought to an end the Wars of Liberation that had been going on since 1806. One design submitted by Wagner himself comprised an array of gleaming new buildings arranged around a vast multi-level system of fly-overs and underpasses, with a huge glass-roofed circular car-park in the middle. [citation needed]) Facing towards West Berlin was the proclamation DER KLUGE BERLINER KAUFT BEI DER H.O. Potsdamer Platz Another annual tradition that began in West Berlin (in 1952) and was re-routed into the east via Potsdamer Platz following German reunification is the Weihnachtszug (Christmas train). It then went through an odyssey of re-openings, closures and relaunches under a number of different names including Conditorei Friediger, Caf Wiener, Engelhardt Brau and Kaffee Potsdamer Platz (sometimes appearing to have two or more names simultaneously), before its eventual destruction in World War II. The neon dome of Sony Center is a showstopper, towering over the largest international cinema in the city, restaurants, museums, offices, and a modern fountain. This deal was finalised in late 2009. Potsdamer Platz. Regional trains of the DB and the ODEG, the S-Bahn (northsouth tunnel) and the U2 underground line currently stop at Potsdamer Platz regional train station. The tallest structure in Berlin is the Fernsehturm Wine merchant Friedrich Karl Christian Huth, whose great-grandfather had been kellermeister (cellar-master) to King Friedrich II back in 1769, had founded the firm in 1871 and taken over the former building in Potsdamer Strae on 23 March 1877. Pink Floyd performed The Wall right here. A lot of more than 720,000sqft (67,000m2)[16] at Potsdamer Platz had been acquired by Daimler-Benz in 1987 as an expression of faith in Berlin; in 1990, adjacent plots were bought by Sony and the ABB Group. The Kollhoff Tower's facade needed major repairs due to water penetration and frost damage just seven years after completion, and was under scaffolding for many months. Unfortunately the worldwide Great Depression of the time, triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, meant that most of the plans remained on the drawing board. The crossing began operating on 11 November 1989. There are criticisms that the development does not sit easily with or connect with its surroundings, and as a result Berliners have had difficulty accepting it as theirs (despite the fact that the choice of Hilmer & Sattler's masterplan was partly because it was the only one to address the way the development juxtaposed with the Cultural Forum immediately to the west, although the Cultural Forum has itself faced similar criticisms of its own). During its 28 years in limbo, Potsdamer Platz exuded a strange fascination towards many people on the western side, especially tourists and also visiting politicians and heads of state. It was used for monitoring the border strip as well as the ministries close by. Instead, it grew in a fragmented and disorderly way, and became in time a symbol for wildness and excess, which contributed to its legendary status. The largest of these was Friedrichstadt, just south west of the historic core of Berlin, begun in 1688 and named after the new elector, Frederick William III, who became King Frederick I of Prussia. The Alt-Bayern in Potsdamer Strasse was erected by architect Wilhelm Walther (18571917) and opened in 1904. Potsdamer Platz from distance. Potsdamer Platz The Matthiaskirche (St. Matthew's Church), built in 18446, was an Italian Romanesque-style building in alternating bands of red and yellow brick, and designed by Friedrich August Stler (180065). WebHistory. Many of the properties in the neighborhood were the work of architect Georg Friedrich Heinrich Hitzig (181181), a pupil of Schinkel who also built the original "English Embassy" in Leipziger Platz, where the vast Wertheim department store would stand, although Friedrichvorstadt's focal point and most notable building was the work of another architectand another pupil of Schinkel. By 1938, 37 out of 52 embassies and legations in Berlin, and 28 out of 29 consulates, were situated here. This is also one of the firstChristmas Markets to open in Berlin. Smaller streets within the individual quarters provide for the connection of the underground parking garages. WebIn the 1920s Potsdamer Platz was one of the most prominent business districts in Berlin with its department stores, government offices and hotels such as the luxury Grand Hotel Esplanade. For the benefit of the former, the row of post-war single-storey shops in Potsdamer Strae now sold a wide variety of souvenir goods, many of which were purchased by coach-loads of curious visitors brought specially to this sad location. The Berlin Senate (city government) organised a design competition for the redevelopment of Potsdamer Platz and much of the surrounding area. Expect to pay slightly higher prices for convenience. [25], Since 2000, the two Potsdamer Platz venues have served as the two principal venues of the festival. The new U-Bahn station was being built at the same time as the hotel and actually ran through the hotel's basement, cutting it in half, thus making the construction of both into something of a technical challenge, but unlike the Wertheim department store (and contrary to several sources), the hotel did not enjoy a separate entrance directly from the station. It was thus given a strong steel skeleton, which would stand the building in very good stead some three decades after its completion. In the run-up to Christmas Wertheim was transformed into a fairytale kingdom, and was well known to children from all over Germany and far beyond. This development, known as Leipziger Platz 12, is a large complex with facades in three streets (Leipziger Strasse, Wilhelmstrasse and Vossstrasse) as well as Leipziger Platz itself, and when completed will contain 270 stores, 270 apartments, a hotel, a fitness centre and offices. Two other hotels which shared the same architect, in this case Ludwig Heim (18441917), were the 68-room Hotel Bellevue (sometimes known as the "Grand Hotel Bellevue"), built 18878, and the 110-room Palast Hotel, built 18923 on the site of an earlier hotel. There is minimal parking available, but there are many roads that lead to Potsdamer Platz with a few parking garage options.

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