Leninallee in Ost-Berlin

The 1960s marked the peak of Berlin’s transformation into a city for cars. The shadow of the Cold War meant that the planning and delivery of transport was done without much fanfare in either East and West. Despite the low number of cars, East Berlin’s transport specialists were planning for a future that brimmed with automotive travel. Leninallee, now Landsberger Allee, was the most demonstrably car friendly road in East Berlin. Its name – Leninallee – underscored its extraordinary significance, connecting the centre of East Berlin with Marzahn. It began at Leninplatz with towering buildings and a colossal statue of the road’s namesake. Leninallee offered and still offers an abundance of unused space. Indeed, at no point along its entire length might it be considered attractive to pedestrians. The buildings are mostly monofunctional, often appealing in isolation, but with little coherence or connection to the street. For example it is home to a landmark sport and recreation centre, the vast housing estates of Fennpfuhl and Marzahn, numerous shopping centres, furniture stores, and indeed the Marzahn Bock windmill.

Leninplatz was highly regarded as an example of exceptional modern socialist urban planning. Since 1970, high-rise residential buildings and the imposing Lenin Monument had been highly visible landmarks on Leninallee, which stretched eleven kilometres. Leninplatz offered all the amenities of a residential area, boasting a post office, shopping centre and kindergarten, but the road was also a transport hub, tourist attraction, and meeting place for political rallies. In 1991, the square was renamed Platz der Vereinten Nationen [United Nations Square] and the Lenin Monument was removed. Today the square presents as a secluded grassy area, tucked between Volkspark and Strausberger Platz.

Numerous sports and recreational facilities were built along Leninallee. Constructed to the south of the street were the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle (1950), and an outdoor swimming pool at Friesenstadion (1951). Added later, the Sport and Recreation centre (1981), and several additional sports facilities around Volkspark Friedrichshain. Lastly, there were sports halls and an indoor swimming pool built at Anton-Saefkow-Platz (1981), and an indoor swimming pool at Freizeitforum Marzahn (1989) added to serve the densely populated residential areas to the north of the avenue. The Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle and the Friesen-Schwimmstadion were demolished in the 1990s. The defunct SEZ sport and recreation centre will soon be destroyed.

From the 1970s onwards, two of the most notable new housing developments of the GDR were built along Leninallee. The Fennpfuhl housing estate comprised almost 16,000 apartments, and was the first residential area in East Berlin built on an industrial scale. The Marzahn housing estate, the largest in the GDR, was built to the north of Leninallee. By 1989, around 59,000 flats had been built there. A new tram network was built exclusively to serve these housing estates as they sat outside the S-Bahn ring. The social infrastructure included its own social centre, kindergartens, schools, medical centres and sports facilities.

Prioritising mass public transport over private transport and minimising transit through residential areas were the key objectives for transport planning in the GDR. In contrast to West Berlin, East Berlin always had an extensive tram network in addition to S-Bahn and underground railway lines. Nevertheless, the core features of automotive infrastructure remained, with multi-lane roads, tunnels, city motorways and the selective decommissioning of trams. For example, Leninallee was primarily geared towards car and bus traffic.

In 1992, Leninallee became Landsberger Allee – and a shopping destination. This led to its being referred to as the “most American of Berlin’s streets” (“taz”, 2002). 
Kaufpark Eiche (1994) on the outskirts of Berlin was soon joined by other shopping centres such as Allee-Center (1994), Forum Landsberger Allee (1996), Castello Kiez Center (2000) and Eastgate (2005). This was swiftly followed by furniture shops such as Möbel Max (1994-2014), Ikea (2010), Globus (2011), and Möbel Höffner (2017). The road is currently undergoing further developments to make it more car friendly. Lesser known is the fact that the road also serves as a main artery of Berlin’s water supply, which is expected to be completely renovated by 2029.