A new mega-mall being built at Leipziger Platz No. 12, near Potsdamer Platz. The area is the the former Wall’s no-man’s land
The commercialisation of the former Wall’s no-man’s land progresses as fast as the cranes can haul girders. A new mega-mall being built at Leipziger Platz No. 12, near Potsdamer Platz. There’s some historical justification for building a shopping arcade on this spot. In 1886, Georg Wertheim opened his eponymous department store here. It grew to more than 100 000 square metres of retail space, becoming Europe’s largest, the Berlin counterpart of Harrods or Galleries Lafayette. The Nazis attacked Jewish-owned department stores of Berlin almost immediately after they seized power. The store was laid to waste during the bombing raids of World War Two and its ruins pulled away in the 50s, only a few metres from where the Wall was built in 1961. High Gain Investments, the current developer of Leipzigerstr. 12, with no family connection to the Wertheims, is not shy in using the Wertheim legacy to promote the project.
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Photo credit: © Barry Lewis / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: berlin, building, cold, commercialisation, commercialization, east, germany, reunification, shop, shops, winter
