The Lenne Triangle ( German: Lenné-Dreieck ) is a site near Potsdamer Platz in Berlin , bounded by Lenneshtrasse, Bellevushtrasse and Ebertstrasse. It was named along Lenne Street, which in turn was named after the landscape architect of the 19th century Peter Joseph Lenne , who turned the nearby Big Tiergarten into a landscape park . In the time of divided Berlin , the Lenne Triangle, although it was located west of the Berlin Wall that passed here, belonged to East Berlin . In addition to this strangeness in the design of the border, in 1988 the Lenne Triangle gained fame in connection with its capture by the West Berlin left. In modern Berlin, in the Lenn Triangle, the Beisheim Center and the Henrietta Hertz Park are located.
Content
History
Until 1945
The triangle formed after the transfer of the city wall in 1735. To the north of the Potsdam Gate , a military parade ground was bounded by the customs wall, now Eberstrasse, an alley to Charlottenburg, now Belvyushtrasse, and Pushechny Lane, now Lennestrasse. Another parade ground, but much larger in area, appeared at the Brandenburg Gate - this is the modern square of the Republic . Under Frederick II, the parade ground at the Potsdam Gate turned out to be too small and in 1749 the king donated a plot for a school garden at an economic and mathematical real school under the leadership of Johann Julius Hecker .
By 1825, school botany gave way to entertainment. On the plot villas were built. In the days of grunding, they were replaced by representative four-story hotels and trading houses. In 1931, at the corner of Bellevushstrasse and Eberstrasse, the Columbus House was built according to the project of Erich Mendelssohn , which launched the complete transformation of Potsdamer Platz.
Divided Berlin
During the administrative reform, on April 1, 1938, the Lenne Triangle was transferred from Tiergarten to Mitte. Therefore, in divided Berlin, this land belonged to East Berlin. In the Columbus House damaged in the war, the People’s Police Station was located, which, during the unrest on June 17, 1953, was stormed and burned. The last building in the Lenne Triangle became unusable and was demolished, and in 1956-1957 all local ruins were demolished. In 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected along Eberstrasse, and the Lenne Triangle wasteland was surrounded by an ordinary fence, in which the inhabitants of West Berlin made several holes and moved directly through eastern territory along the laid paths.
1988
On March 31, 1988, West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic entered into an agreement on the exchange of territory, according to which 96.7 hectares, including the Lenne Triangle, were allocated to West Berlin for July 76 million marks . In West Berlin, they were planning to pave a street along the Lenne Triangle.
May 26, 1988, even before the transfer of the territory, the Lenne Triangle was captured by leftist activists from West Berlin. There they set up a tent camp with the aim of supposedly protecting wildlife. The seizure was favored by the political situation: West Berlin police did not have the right to infiltrate East Berlin, but blocked the site with a metal fence and tried to control the narrow passages at the border strip, while the GDR authorities did not show any interest in what was happening. Protesters renamed the site the Triangle of Kubat. Norbert Kubat was arrested on May 2, 1987 on charges of disturbing public order during the 1987 May demonstrations in Kreuzberg . On May 26, 1987, he committed suicide in a pre-trial detention center, having been denied release from custody.
After the Triangle was handed over to Lenna to West Berlin on July 1, 1988, he was cleared of the demonstrators by numerous West Berlin police forces. 182 participants of the capture on improvised stairs and gratings of the fence climbed over the Berlin Wall to East Berlin, where trucks were waiting for them on the border strip by prior agreement with the GDR authorities. The fugitives were brought to one of the canteens in East Berlin, where they were fed breakfast. Subsequently, in small groups, they left the GDR through the usual checkpoints.
In united Germany
After the unification of Germany , the Lenne Triangle was sold by the state of Berlin for 1 German mark to the Hertie trading house for the construction of its head office. In 1994, Hertie was acquired by Karstadt , and the Lenne Triangle accordingly became its property. Karstadt did not consider itself bound by Hertie's obligations to the Berlin Senate and made a profitable deal by selling the same plot of land to Metro AG owner Otto Beisheim in 2000 for 145 million euros . The court ordered Karstadt to pay compensation to the original owner of the site, the Wertheim family.
After the reconstruction of Potsdamer Platz in 2004, the Lenne Triangle is located in close proximity to the Sony Center and the BahnTower high-rise. The Beisheim Center with the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott International hotels is located in the eastern part of the Triangle, and the Henrietta Hertz park is located in the western part.
See also
- Steinstücken