West:
Kleinmachnow
The nature-protected Bäketal, the Kleinmachnower See and the lock invite you to relax in the green – if you want, with a lot of history: from high-tech research of the Nazis to SED cadre forge, among others.
Whether during the Kaiser, Weimar, Nazi, GDR periods or reunification
Burning Mirror of German History
With local recreational value in nature
Historical development
Later than the surrounding villages, Kleinmachnow was first mentioned in the land book of Charles V in 1375. Yet the place has been settled for much longer. After the Suebi had left their homeland on the Havel and Spree rivers in the fourth and fifth centuries, Slavic tribes settled on the ground moraine area of Teltow. The name is therefore Slavic and means something like “moss-rich place”. To distinguish it from places with the same name, “Panva” (“small”) was added later. In the course of the eastern settlement, the Ascanians as the new lords of Brandenburg built a castle after 1157 at the strategic crossing of the river Bäke on the trade route Leipzig-Saarmund-Spandau. At least one more castle was to follow on this spot, which then belonged to the von Hake family for centuries. Accordingly, customs was one of the most important sources of income for the manor. Junker Heinrich von Hake from Lebus had bought the estate with the castle from the Quast family at the beginning of the 15th century and it was to remain in the family possession until the 20th century. However, the old Hakeburg, so-called Festes Haus, and the classicist manor house designed by architect David Gilly are no longer preserved. Instead, Dietloff von Hake had the New Hakeburg (see No. 11) built on the Seeberg in 1906-08.
Teltow canal and development
With the construction of the Teltow Canal (1901-06) and the increasing development of southwest Berlin by rail, real estate companies wanted to copy the successes of the villa colonies of Lichterfelde, Zehlendorf, Wannsee. Zehlendorf-Kleinmachnow A.G. bought land from the von Hakes. However, the First World War and the then difficult sale – after all, the infrastructure was not as developed as in the other housing estate projects – drove the company into bankruptcy. It was not until the late 1920s and early 1930s that real estate companies tried again with a new target group of middle-class people. Standardized single-family houses from this period (in the Bürgerhaussiedlung) and later other single-family (75%) and two-family houses (16%) still characterize the small town in Berlin’s Speckgürtel today.
World War II
In the Second World War, bombs destroyed the old Hakeburg and the old village center. During the Third Reich, the village is connected to the power grid. At the end of the war, the main war line runs below the Hakeburg. The Wehrmacht had blown up the Teltow Canal bridges, but this does not prevent the Red Army from taking the area. However, it retreats from the end of June until October 3, mistakenly believing that the area belongs to Zehlendorf and thus to the American sector. During this period of lawlessness, there is looting and violence from apparently both occupying forces.
GDR
The GDR turned the site into an ideological cadre training center, but in the process had to fight the conservative attitudes of Kleinmachnower’s petty bourgeoisie: on the grounds of the Hakeburg, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) trained its leaders at the Karl Marx Party College (1948-1954), while just 200 residents were SED members. But not only that. A resolution by 2,000 residents against traffic restrictions to West Berlin in 1952 prompted the Central Committee under Walter Ulbricht to hold a show trial against the “provocations in Kleinmachnow” in February 1953. Several defendants including the previous mayors were sentenced to several years in prison.
By the time the Wall was built, 4,800 Kleinmachnow residents were to flee. And even after the Wall was built, enclosing the town on three sides and making it accessible only with strict access restrictions, there was discontent among the educated citizens because of the now lack of cultural contacts to West Berlin. The SED tried to counter this with the Joliot-Curie Intelligence Club between 1965-69, but this never gained any significance beyond the immediate region. The Central Committee then tried a central special school from 1973 for the further training of leading cadres in agitation, propaganda and culture. Ultimately, it then converted the Hakeburg into a guesthouse for state guests from 1979.
Wiedervereinigung
After the reunification of Germany, the restitution claims on more than half of existing housing presented the village and the legal system with challenges that have not all been mastered even to this day. At its peak in 1994, the citizens’ movement and party Kleinmachnower Bürger gegen Vertreibung won 25% of the votes in elections. With corresponding construction projects, Kleinmachnow, as one of the most popular and expensive communities in the Berlin area, seeks to build on earlier successes and wants to create shopping opportunities with short distances (Fuchsbaueck 1993, Uhlenhorst 1995, weekly market at Adam-Kuckhoff-Platz 1996, business complex at OdF-Platz 1997, stores at Thomas-Müntzer-Damm 2002). With the construction of the town hall including residential and commercial development, a new center of the town was created in 2004.
Bäke Mill
The origins of the Bäkemühle (“Bäke” (name of the river) Mill; Zehlendorfer Damm 217, 8.8 km from your accommodation), a water mill, date back to the 17th century. The inscription from 1695 is still preserved: “Anno 1695 has Herr Ernst Ludwig von Hake, Seiner churfürstlichen Durchlaucht zu Brandenburg ‘Friderici III’ Oberster bei der Garde zu Fuß, diese arlige Freymühle hinwiederumb ganz neue aus dem Grunde gebauet, weilen die alte ganz zerfallen. doch ist die Mühle mehrfach abgebrannt.
The current structure dates from 1862, but the Teltow Canal put it out of operation, although it had previously been powered by steam and then electricity. In the 1970s, the abandoned mill deteriorated visibly until citizens prevented its demolition with massive protests in 1979. Then, in 1987-89, a hotel manager converted it into lodging and a restaurant. Today, a specialist medical practice uses the listed building.
Old village school
The Old Village School (Zehlendorfer Damm 212) is the oldest secular building in the municipality of Kleinmachnow. Built as a one-classroom school with a teacher’s apartment in 1846, the lord of the manor von Hake had granted it for the children of Kleinmachnow and Stahnsdorf on a plot of land measuring 2,300 square meters. A superstructure with a second classroom and a second teacher’s apartment was added to the former single-story building in 1876.
The house was renovated in 1901 and then modernized between 1927 and 1929, although the toilets still remained in the stable. Up to 170 students were taught here until school operations ceased in 1936 and the building became a residence. The foundation “Kirche und Kultur im Alten Dorf” (Church and Culture in the Old Village) acquired the building and the Förderverein Begegnungsstätte Alte Schule (Friends of the Old School Meeting Place) wants to promote human interaction and dialogue. For example, a meeting café for refugees has been set up on the first floor since 2015, and the Protestant church congregation uses the former school room for events and classes.
Medusa portal
The Medusa portal (Zehlendorfer Damm 209) forms the entrance to the Kleinmachnow estate. Of these, the old Hakeburg and the manor house, designed by the architect David Gilly, are no longer preserved, as they were destroyed in the Second World War and then demolished. But after passing through the gate still open the village church, the Bäkemühle and some residential buildings.
The portal is named after the Medusa depicted on it, a Gorgoness of Greek mythology with snake hair, glowing eyes and hanging out tongue, the sight of which turned to stone. Goddess Athena had the head severed from Perseus placed on her shield as a special protection. The second image on the gate shows Athena as the protector of craftsmen, trades, poets and teachers. However, Ahtene, the goddess of wisdom, also represents tactical warfare and is the guardian of knowledge.
Kleinmachnow Village Church
The village church (Zehlendorfer Damm 209) was built in 1597 by the landowner Margarete von Hake, née von der Schulenburg, next to the old Hakeburg. This makes it one of the first purely Protestant sacred buildings in Brandenburg and replaced the Stahnsdorf village church as the burial place for the von Hakes. A cross tower is attached to the west of the brick-walled hall church with a six-sided chancel.
Inside, a double winged altar carved by Hans Zinckeisen in 1599 is captivating. On the pedestal we see Moses before the burning bush, in the shrine the Last Supper and on the wings four scenes of the Passion. After the first consecration eight painted scenes of Christ become visible and on the outer sides the Annunciation is immortalized with brush. The baptismal font was made by Nickel Zinckeisen in 1597. The pulpit clock was made in 1711. An angel crowns the carved lid.
In addition, memorabilia of the von Hakes are exhibited in the church. For example, ten flags dedicated by Ernst Ludwig von Hake (1651-1713) to his brothers who died in the Turkish wars. The epitaph of the Prussian General Friedrich von Hake (1743) is also in the church. Theodor Fontane commented on the building when he visited it in 1882: “It is a surprisingly pleasing, almost finely stylized brick building […] charmingly situated between trees and ivy graves and enclosed by a stone wall.”
Gotteseinst So 11:00. ev-kirche-kleinmachnow.de
Forester’s lodge
The forester’s lodge (Allee am Forsthaus 5), like the Bäkemühle, was part of the previous Hache estates. It is located on the northern edge of the estate park to the. Machnower Lake. A forester employed for life saw here after 753 hectares of forest of the Hakes (total estate possession 1,055 hectares); nevertheless, also the electors leased this area for their hunts.
Tram 96
Streetcar 96 (lock Kleinmachnow / Wannseestraße) is a tramcar from 1938, more precisely a railcar TM 36, which today serves as an information center. An initially single-track line was run from Lichterfelde-Ost to Teltow in 1887, which was extended to Stahnsdorf in 1901 and to Machnower Schleuse in 1905. The original. Steam vehicles could not always take the easy grade at Teltow-Seehof and were therefore also called “lame duck”. It was not until electric operation began in 1907 that the driving experience improved. In 1930, the line was renamed Line 96. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, operation was discontinued and the railcar outlasted its time at the side of the road in Teltow. With the move in 2009 to the former terminus at the lock and the extensive refurbishment, the streetcar is once again open to visitors: April-Oct. Sat/Sun 13:00-18:00.
Kleinmachnow Sluice Gate
The Kleinmachnow lock (Stahnsdorfer Damm 1) was opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1906, after its construction was started in 1901 together with the Teltow Canal. It is a double lock whose south chamber has been out of service since the Second World War. The architect duo Christian Hafenstadt and Max Contag from Wilmersdorf ensured with their project an average 2.86 m high balance between the middle Spree and Potsdam Havel. The Kleinmachnower lock is the only lock on the 38 km long Teltow Canal.
The connection of the two 67 m long chambers allowed mutual loading and optimal use, which became the model for the Panama Canal (1909-14). The expansion of the Reich waterways according to Albert Speer’s conception from 1939 required a larger lock, since ships of up to one thousand tons were to ship, among other things, submarine parts from Berlin-Tempelhof from 1940. However, the 85 m long and 12 wide north chamber built then was only in operation until 1943, when it was filled with gravel to prevent a catastrophe in the event of bombing. This did not occur, instead the Allies hit the old Hakeburg. The Wehrmacht blew up the lock bridge on the west side on April 20, 1945.
Während eine Behelfsbrücke bald wieder für den Fahrzeugverkehr zur Verfügung stand, blieb die Schleuse bis 1981 ungenutzt. Interessanterweise funktionierten selbst dann noch alle beweglichen Teile.
Due to protests from environmentalists, the Federal Republic of Germany did not follow the advice of the European Community on the expansion of waterways in the case of Kleinmachnow: The Teltow Canal is not to be expanded beyond waterway class IV and thus the lock remains as it is. The original inn of the Teltow district from 1906 had to make way for the lock expansion in 1939. Instead, Prof. Walter and Prof. Johannes Krüger designed a functional building as the “Schleusenkrug”, which, however, did not fit in architecturally with the ensemble. Destructions caused by bomb hits were repaired by 1948, but since the West Berlin public stayed away in the post-war period, an institution for vocational training was built according to plans by Prof. Starke. On the other hand, the visitor can stop on the opposite side at “Schleusenwirt”, which has existed since 1905.
The Schleusnerbude right next to the lock is an information center about the Teltow Canal. Sat/Sun/Public holidays 12:00-18:00.
Imperial Postal Research Institute
The former Reichspostforschungsanstalt (Imperial Postal Research Institute) was built on the site of the Neue Hakeburg after the sale of the Neue Hakeburg the Reichspost. The SS Economic and Administrative Office conducted research projects there that were important to the war effort, such as broadband cable, radio technology including high frequency, television-based tank and missile control, infrared night vision devices, but also for aircraft such as the night fighter guidance system or the development of the flying wing. However, construction work could not begin until 1939 and around 900 of the total of 1,200 researchers finally moved from temporary offices in Berlin-Tempelhof to one of the seven institute buildings at the Hakeburg in 1943.
Ohnesorge regularly informed Hitler about progress. In May 190, for example, he presented a television torpedo, and by 1942 the scientists had cracked the code for radio communication between London and Washington. Read more in Hubert Faensen’s book “Hightech für Hitler. From Research Center to Cadre School. (2001). Today, the institute buildings house the Berlin Brandenburg International School (BBIS), a private, English-language, all-day school.
Reich Post Minister Wilhelm Ohnesorge was apparently also one of the driving forces behind atomic research. After World War II, several trial chambers classified him as the main culprit, and the verdicts were withdrawn. Although he did not receive his previous assets back, he did receive a pension. He died in Munich in 1961.
Hubert Faensen: Hightech für Hitler. Die Hakeburg – Vom Forschungszentrum zur Kaderschmiede. 2001.
On the Seeberg in Kleinmachnow south of Berlin, a strictly shielded building complex of the Reichspostforschungsanstalt was built between 1939 and 1943. Here, Minister Wilhelm Ohnesorge had new weapons technologies developed with which the war was to be won. The main areas of research were high-frequency technology, television, radar and atomic physics…
Ice cellar by the lake
The ice cellar on the Seeberg (approx. 200 m southwest of the New Hakeburg) was presumably built after the new construction of the Hakeburg and served as a refrigerator, so to speak, for the private knight’s residence.
Memorial stone Nordahl Grieg
The Nordahl Grieg memorial stone is located on the northern shore of Machnower See, southwest of Neue Hakeburg. It commemorates the Norwegian national poet Nordahl Grieg (1902-1943), who, as a war correspondent, accompanied a British Royal Air Force bombing mission on December 2, 1943. However, German anti-aircraft fire shot down Lancaster LM 316, which came down at Machnower See. All eight crew members died and were buried in the Döberitz Garrison Cemetery, which the Soviets leveled in 1952.
At the request of the Norwegian Embassy, the municipality of Kleinmachnow erected a boulder in memory in 2003. A wing of the British bomber recovered from Machnower See in 2002 has been on display at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin since 2002. On National Day, May 17, the Norwegian legation commemorates the lyricist and playwright with a wreath-laying ceremony. He became popular with many of his countrymen through the Norwegian broadcasts of the BBC, in which he read his poems. This is also reflected in the fact that his poem “Til ungdommen” (For the Youth) from 1936 is recited again and again at ceremonies and memorial services after Anders Breivik attacks on July 22, 2011.
Til Ungdommen
von Nordahl Grieg (1936)
Kringsatt av fiender,
gå inn i din tid!
Under en blodig storm –
vi deg til strid!
Kanskje du spør i angst,
udekket, åpen:
hva skal jeg kjempe med
hva er mitt våpen?
Her er ditt vern mot vold,
her er ditt sverd:
troen på livet vårt,
menneskets verd.
For all vår fremtids skyld,
søk det og dyrk det,
dø om du må – men:
øk det og styrk det!
Stilt går granatenes
glidende bånd
Stans deres drift mot død
stans dem med ånd!
Krig er forakt for liv.
Fred er å skape.
Kast dine krefter inn:
døden skal tape!
Elsk og berik med drøm
alt stort som var!
Gå mot det ukjente
fravrist det svar.
Ubygde kraftverker,
ukjente stjerner.
Skap dem, med skånet livs
dristige hjerner!
Edelt er mennesket,
jorden er rik!
Finnes her nød og sult
skyldes det svik.
Knus det! I livets navn
skal urett falle.
Solskinn og brød og ånd
eies av alle.
Da synker våpnene
maktesløs ned!
Skaper vi menneskeverd
skaper vi fred.
Den som med høyre arm
bærer en byrde,
dyr og umistelig,
kan ikke myrde.
Dette er løftet vårt
fra bror til bror:
vi vil bli gode mot
menskenes jord.
Vi vil ta vare på
skjønnheten, varmen
som om vi bar et barn
varsomt på armen!
Für die Jugend
Translated by Solveig Tofte (2022)
Faced by your enemies –
Faced by your time;
During a bloody storm
– never resign!
Fearful your questions are,
defenseless and open
What is my armament?
What is my weapon?
Here is your battle plan,
Here is your sword:
Faith in humanity
And all that it’s worth.
For all our future’s sake,
Find it, sustain it:
Pay any price – but,
Rise it and strengthen it!
Silent the weapons go
Rows upon rows,
call halt to their deadly drift
Our spirit grows!
War is contempt for life
Peace is creation
Throw all your power in,
to death’s true damnation
Love and enrich by dream
Our mighty past!
Unveil new answers to
All questions asked
after wheels still not built
Unrevealed planets –
The brave and ingenuous
Will make a difference!
Pure is humanity,’
the world full of seed
Where there is hunger,
It is born of greed
Break all iniquity
Injustice will fall (then)
Sunrise and bread and soul
Are owned by all (men)
She who with her right
Hand Carries a burden
A treasure she must protect
Cannot commit murder
Here is our solemn vow
From man to man:
Treasure our sacred
World Water and land
We will keep it close:
The beauty – affection
Like carrying an infant
With love and protection
New Hakeburg
The construction of the New Hakeburg (Am Hochwald) was commissioned by the nobleman Dietloff von Hake (1870-1941). The architect and castle researcher Bodo Heinrich Justus Eberhardt (1865-1945) designed it in the neo-Romanesque style. However, von Hake, who was concentrating on a two-volume chronicle of his family, had to sell it to the Reichspost in 1936 due to financial problems. Reichspostminister Wilhelm Ohnesorge (1872-1962), an NSDAP man of the first hour (membership number 42) and a physicist with a passion for technology, made it his official residence on the one hand and the research institute of the Deutsche Reichspost (RPF) on the other (see above).
The GDR expropriated the Reichspost and transferred the building to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The latter had the party college, founded in Liebenwalde in 1946, move in here in 1948 to train young SED functionaries in mostly two-year courses as the highest educational institution and to train executives in half-year courses. A quarter of the students came, mostly under different names, from the Communist Party of the western occupation zones. Wolfgang Leonhard (“The Revolution Dismisses Its Children”), FDJ founder and then Western GDR researcher Herrmann Weber, and double spy Carola Stern (“Double Life”) studied here.
In 1955, the “Red Monastery,” as it was popularly known, moved to Berlin’s Rungestraße, so that the Hakeburg served only as a district party school. Between 1965 and 1969, the GDR Kulturbund established the Klub der Intelligenz Joliot-Curie, named after the communist resistance fighter and physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958). Also known as the “Curry Club,” the meeting was intended to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange and to counteract the lack of cultural contacts to West Berlin since the building of the Wall in 1961 with intellectual stimulation and general orientation. It was also here that the writer Christa Wolf made her debut with “Der geteilte Himmel” (“Divided Sky”).
After reunification, the club became the Kleinmachnow Cultural Association, which, however, gave up in 2010 due to a lack of young people. In addition, apartments for large regional companies and an exclusive restaurant for wedding ceremonies and youth dedications were built on the Neue Hakenburg. Then, in 1973/74, the Central Committee built a special training center for foreign cadres before it became a guest house for the SED regime. State guests such as Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Yassir Arafat and Michael Gorbachev then stayed there.
After the reunification, hotels took over the area again and again. Most of the time, however, the building stood empty. The castle also serves several times as a backdrop for wedding photos and as a film location, for example for “Wege zum Glück”, “18 – Allein unter Mädchen” and “Schattenmoor” .The Treuhand hands over the building in 1995 to Telekom as the successor to the Deutsche Reichspost. A hotel opened in 1997 and went bankrupt again in 1998. Finally, the group sells the former research institute to the International School Berlin-Brandenburg. A group of investors renovated the property after 2020 and created condominiums.
“In Kleinmachnow, southwest of Berlin, a strictly shielded building complex of the Reichspostforschungsanstalt was built on the Seeberg between 1939 and 1943. Here, Minister Wilhelm Ohnesorge had new weapons technologies developed for the Nazi regime, with which the war was to be won. At the same time, he expanded the adjacent “residential castle” into his private residence, the Neue Hakeburg, built by the Wilhelmine court architect Bodo Ebhardt from 1906 to 1908…”
Stele “Silent Heroes
The “Silent Heroes” stele (Margarete Sommer Platz = Hohe Kiefer/Förster-Funke-Allee)) commemorates people who helped persecuted people in the Third Reich and stood up against the regime. The artist couple Julia and Rainer Ehrt designed the memorial in the form of a kind of house in 2014, where the names of the persecuted are written in the windows on foldable metal panels and on the other side their helpers. The idea of the house was to open doors and windows, to provide shelter and protection.
A Kleinmachnower project group from three generations and two denominations had come across Kleinmachnower citizens who helped others through large or small heroic deeds while researching Stolpersteine.
In the course of the unveiling on May 8, 2014, the square at the intersection of Hohe Kiefer / Förster-Funke Allee was also renamed Margarete Sommer Platz. Catholic social worker and lay Dominican Dr. Margarete Sommer (1893-1965) was one such hero: As business manager of the relief organization at the Episcopal Ordinariate, she helped Jews to emigrate, hid them, provided food, clothing and money. She also wrote detailed reports to the church leadership about the persecutions, situation in the concentration camps and mass shootings. After 1950 she fled from the communists from Kleinmachnow to West Berlin, where she retired in 1960 and died in 1965. In 2003 she was awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations”.
Sales office of the Citizens’ home foundation
The sales office of the Bürgerhaussiedlung (Karl-Marx-Str. 117) established the Zehlendorf-West Terrain-Actiengesellschaft in 1931 in order to sell the area south of the Stammbahn, which had been acquired and parceled out in 1927, with the low-cost homes then built on it. The house already exhibits the strict, cubic form and rational structure that was typical of the estate houses; after all, the owner of this real estate company, Adolf Sommerfeld, was close to the Bauhaus. The listed house awarded the municipality in 2019 in hereditary building rights with appropriate conditions to private.
Soviet memorial
The Soviet memorial at the Hohe Kiefer was solemnly inaugurated by the Red Army in 1946. In the last days of fighting (April 22-May 2, 1945) 104 of their comrades had fallen in Kleinmachnow. The local history society was able to determine 41 names they put on a plaque in 2012. Willi Ernst Schade had designed the memorial. A metal wreath on the front is considered lost and, in addition, modern vandals damaged and smeared the memorial.
Forest cemetery Kleinmachnow
The Kleinmachnow Forest Cemetery (Steinweg 1) was established in 1938. In the center is the chapel planned by Erich Dieckmann. It features a round congregation room and a cuboid extension for apse and side rooms. March-Nov 07:00-20:00, Dec-Feb 08:00-18:00
Memorial stone Adolf Sommerfeld
The memorial stone Adolf Sommerfeld (An der Stammbahn 57) is dedicated to the Jewish building contractor Adolf Sommerfeld or anglicized Andrew Sommerfeld (1886-1964). After an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he created a construction group in Berlin, in which he merged several terrain companies. With his ideas (and money), he not only shaped Berlin’s southwest, but also developed urban planning and social solutions.
His search for innovative solutions at prices that could be financed by the middle classes made him a protagonist of the New Building movement. He worked so closely with Bauhaus artists and renowned architects such as Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut that he can be seen as a promoter and financier of the Bauhaus. After terracing companies in Zehlendorf and Dahlem, he acquired 100 hectares of land in Kleinmachnow from the landowner Dietloff von Hake in 1927, and his Siedlungsgesellschaft mbH Kleinmachnow began construction in 1932 on the Düppelpfuhl section of the Bürgerhaussiedlung in Kleinmachnow, still popularly known as the “sommerfeld-Siedlung.” In 1933, Sommerfeld, who lived in Berlin-Lichterfelde (Limonenstr. 30), had to leave Germany. First he emigrated to Palestine, eventually Great Britain, and then in 1948 he participated in the reconstruction of Germany. In 1954 he moved to Switzerland, where he died in 1964.
Memorial Stone Victims of German Division
A memorial stone for the victims of German division (Adam-Kuckhoff-Platz) commemorates the more than 120 people who lost their lives until 1989. Four of them were from Kleinmachnow. A few steps away, a cross commemorated Karl-Heinz Kube, who was shot at the Wall in 1966 as a seventeen-year-old refugee….
New Chamber Theater Kleinmachnow
The Kammerspiele Kleinmachnow (Karl-Marx-Str. 18) was originally a cinema. The building owner and operator was Karl Bornemann, whose son moved to the Federal Republic in 1961 because the SED, after the founding of the GDR, wanted to impose its world view on the cultural program of the Kammerspiele. After that, the state expropriated the building and the Kreislichtspielbetrieb Potsdam took over the legal ownership. In the early 1970s, the Kreislichtspielbetrieb Potsdam renovated and modernized the building and it became the largest cultural institution in the city.
Then in the mid-1980s the municipality took over the property and finally it was re-transferred after the fall of the Berlin Wall. From 2004 to 2012, the grandson of the founder continued to run the business. Since then, committed citizens have come together to form the Neue Kammerspiele cultural cooperative to preserve the cultural venue and use it as a meeting place. neuekammerspiele.de
Church of the Resurrection
The Church of the Resurrection (Jägerstieg 2) was a church in Kleinmachnow, which was deconsecrated in 2018. In 1930, only the parish hall was built, which could be expanded in 1947. Prior to that, there was a building freeze on all non-war construction projects under the National Socialist regime. The current nave dates from 1955, and the altar, pulpit and baptismal font were also added in the early 1950s.
The building connects the parish hall and the bell tower, which houses a bell cast in 1938. Herbert Sander designed the colorful church windows in the 1980s. The church congregation, in 1948 from Stahnsdorf spun off and as had also created a blessing garden in the shape of a cross framed by a box hedge. Due to the sharp increase in membership after reunification, the congregation had decided to build a new building.
The name of the church was transferred to the New Church in the Parish Hall (Zehlendorfer Damm 211) in 2018. ev-kirche-kleinmachnow.de
Eigenherd School
The Eigenherd School (Im Kamp 2-12) was designed by the architect Friedrich Blume. It was inaugurated in April 1933 and was named after the housing cooperative Eigenherd GmbH, which had developed Kleinmachnower land with affordable single-family houses in the 1920s. During World War II, the regime uses the school building for mustering and administration. Afterwards, refugees and homeless people were housed here. In the GDR, it becomes a uniform school up to the eighth grade, with classes alternating every two weeks with morning and afternoon classes. In 1972 it is then named Georgi-Dimitroff-Oberschule after the first Bulgarian prime minister until 1990, when it is renamed Eigenherd-Schule. eigenherd-school.kleinmachnow.de
Seamen’s recreation home
The Seamen’s Rest Home (Zehlendorfer Damm 71/71c) was designed by the Charlottenburg architects Giesecke & Wenke in 1910. At the suggestion of Kaiser Wilhelm II, a corresponding association was founded in 1905 to build the facility so that members of the German navy and merchant marine as well as the German Schutztruppen could “find an opportunity to regain their lost strength after surviving serious illness,” as it was called at the time.
Landowner von Hake willingly provided a plot of land and the Empress Auguste Foundation raised the construction money. The four buildings – casino, officers’ house, administration and baths – had masonry base floors made of limestone, facades with grainy plaster and wooden superstructures. A low-pressure steam heating system provided heat in both living and recreation rooms, as well as the swimming pool. After the First World War, there is no longer an emperor, no more Schutztruppen and practically no more Kriegsmarine and thus no more spa guests.
The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church acquires the former sailors’ recreation home in 1922, primarily with American donations, and founds the Klein-Machnow Theological College. Only two buildings and the enclosure survive the Second World War, but the Theological College does not. It relocated to Oberursel and the rubble from the bombing of March 3, 1944 was used as building material for garages in the area during GDR times. The VEB Geräte- und Reglerwerke used the main building as a dormitory for single people. After the reunification, only four tenants live in the complex.
The building, which was listed in 2008, was then bought in 2011 by the rapper Bushido, who, however, had the historic wall and gateway torn down. After a corresponding ruling, he had to rebuild it and a roof truss fire caused as much destruction to the historic building as it did ambiguity as to the cause. The dispute between Bushido, whose real name is Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, and his longtime companion, business partner and co-owner of the 16,000-square-meter villa, Arafat Abou-Chaker, repeatedly made headlines, especially in the tabloid press. After Bushido’s departure to Dubai, Abou-Chaker’s son Ahmed bought the former sailor’s recreation home at a forced auction in June 2022 for €7.4 million (with an appraisal value of €14.8 million). How the penniless petty criminal can raise this sum will certainly continue to occupy the tabloids.
Villa Lily
The social democrat and women’s rights activist Lily Braun moved into the Lily Braun country house (Erlenweg 29) together with her husband Heinrich Braun in 1910. The villa, in Kleinmachnow, practically the first in the newly developed area, was designed by the pioneer of modern architecture, cartoonist and furniture designer Bruno Paul (1874-1968) from 1904. The aristocratic general’s daughter, née Amelie Jenny Emilie Johanna von Kretschmann (1865-1916), was particularly committed to reconciling motherhood and professional life (“Memoirs of a Socialist,” 1911).
She collapsed in 1916 as a result of a stroke while waiting for a letter from her son Otto from the front at a post office, and died. She was buried on the plot together with her son, who ultimately fell in France in 1918 after all. Her husband, also a Social Democratic politician and publicist, then lived in the country villa with his second wife Julia Braun-Vogelstein until his death in 1927.
Heiress Julia-Vogelstein emigrated to the USA in 1936 and after the war the GDR converted the building into a children’s home. After the fall of the Wall, the Berlin real estate businessman Christian Meyer acquired the property from an American foundation, which had managed it until then, and parceled it out.
The district of Potsdam-Mittelmark bought the villa with then still 2,200 square meter section and accommodated the special school Albert Schweitzer. Now, however, a Kleinmachnower real estate agent wants to sell the property for residential purposes. However, Lily Braun’s grave is now located on a plot of land belonging to an adjacent apartment building. In the shade of an old oak tree, a gravestone by the Berlin sculptor Hugo Lederer (1871-1940) adorns the graves of Lily Braun and her son, although the urns previously placed on the gravestones had later disappeared.
Villa Paterman
The Patermann country house (Erlenweg 33) was designed by the Berlin architect Joseph Ernster in 1912/13 for the organic malt manufacturer Georg Paterman. A veranda with Doric columns dominates the two-story country house with a mansard hipped roof on the 1,700 square meter property. The living space of 400 square meters is distributed among twelve rooms.
Patermann had to sell the house in 1925 for financial reasons. Undamaged, it survived both world wars and in GDR times was converted into an apartment building with six residential units under state administration. After reunification, the Treuhand auctioned off the listed property and it is now privately owned.
Villa Paul Heckels
The Paul Henckel residence (Am Weinberg 5) was designed in 1936 by Egon Eiermann, who was to become one of the most important architects of post-war modernism. Among other things, the new building of the Berlin Memorial Church was one of his works.
The Kleinmachnower brick residence is characterized by an asymmetrical roof structure. The client and namesake of the villa, actor Paul Henckels (1885-1967), is known to many primarily for his role as Professor Bömmel in the Feuerzangenbowle and his saying: “Wat is en Dampfmaschin? Let’s play dumb…”.
As a half-Jew, he was able to continue working at Gustav Gründgen’s Prussian State Theater in Berlin 1933-45 thanks to protection under the National Socialist regime – he was on the list of “Gottbegnadeten Künstler” and was thus also exempt from military service. After the war he moved to Essen. The villa is apparently privately owned.
Weinberg Gymnasium
The Weinberg Gymnasium (Am Weinberg 20) was built in 1937 in the style of National Socialist domestic architecture, although the right side wing and a residential annex to the gymnasium were not completed due to the start of the war. The interior from September 1938 also reflected the values of the regime from the beginning: no coeducation, racial education, military training. Girls could choose between the language branch or the “pudding baccalaureate”, i.e. the home economics branch.
From 1943, older students are trained as Luftwaffe helpers and in the last days of the war they go to the Berlin front for street fighting. The building, on the other hand, serves as a military hospital.
In the Soviet occupation zone, some students are dismissed in October 1946, grumbling at the local commander’s demand that they commemorate the heroic deeds of the Red Army, the revolution and the liberation from fascism. Later, conflicts with the GDR authorities continued, as many students came from educated middle-class homes and the system tried to influence propaganda with oaths of allegiance to the flag, military education, and a youth organization under the same control.
Since the fall of communism, democratic values are now being put in place for the first time wbgym.de