Kreuzberg (Tempelhofer Berge)

The Kreuzberg (German for ''Cross Mountain'') is a hill in the Kreuzberg locality of Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin. It rises about above the sea level. It was named by King Frederick William III of Prussia after the Iron Cross which crowns the top of the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, on its inauguration on 30 March 1821. On 27 September 1921 the borough assembly of the VIth borough of Berlin decided to name the borough after the hill. The borough was subsequently downgraded to a locality in 2001.

Other names for the hill

Former names of the Kreuzberg were ''Sandberg'' (sand mountain), ''Runder Berg'' (1524) or ''Runder Weinberg'' (Round Mountain or Round Wine Mountain/Vineyard), ''Tempelhofer Berg'' and corrupted ''Templower Berg'' (both Tempelhof Mountain), ''Götzens Berg'' (1798) or ''Götzescher Berg'' (1818; both Götze's Mountain), ''Kreutzberg'' (1822, 1834) and ''Kreuzberg'' (1856). Since the 1850s the hill was also nicknamed ''Monte Cruce'' or ''Monte Croce''.

Geology

The Kreuzberg is a natural hill and forms part of the ''Tempelhofer Berge'' range (Tempelhof hills) stretching along the northern descent of the Teltow Plateau between Schöneberg and the ''Rollberge'' in Neukölln. It rises about above the sea level and above the northerly adjacent Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley. The Teltow Plateau is a flatly undulating ground moraine landscape. The Kreuzberg's relatively steep northern slope derives from the erosion by meltwater running into the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley, when it was formed by the Weichselian glaciation. The Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley stretches to between the southern Kreuzberg and the northern Prenzlauer Berg, thus forming here the narrowest point between the northerly Barnim Plateau and southern Teltow Plateau.''Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 20. .

History

The oldest surviving record mentioning the Kreuzberg is a deed of gift of 1290, by which Knight Jacob of Nybede (Jakob von Nybede/Niebede) from the Knights Templar commandry in Tempelhof donated the Berlin Franciscans a brick bakery and a loam pit on the northerly slope of the Kreuzberg.Friedhelm Schmuck''Neutempelhofer Einsichten'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 9. .Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 16. . At road constructions in the Methfesselstraße in the 1830s workers discovered under the roots of a felled tree the remnants of a mediaeval brick bakery, probably the premise where the bricks for Berlin's Franciscan Cloister Church (Franziskaner-Klosterkirche) have been manufactured.

The Kreuzberg, as well as the fields and farmland north and south of it used to belong to the village land of Tempelhof, a fief first held by the Knights Templar and with their suppression in 1312, Margrave Waldemar ''the Great'' enfeoffed it to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John in 1318.Walther Oschilewski, ''Kreuzberg: Ein Berliner Bezirk gestern und heute'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 16. No ISBN.Lothar Uebel, ''Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 1. No ISBN.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 3. No ISBN. On 23 September 1435 Order Master Balthasar von Schlieben of the Knights Hospitaller sold – among others – the Kreuzberg to Berlin-Cölln.Walther Oschilewski, ''Kreuzberg: Ein Berliner Bezirk gestern und heute'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 19. No ISBN.''Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 22. .

After the subjection of Cölln and neighbouring Berlin by the new Hohenzollern Prince-Elector Frederick Irontooth of Brandenburg in 1442/1448, and his abolition of their union and semi-autonomy, he seized Cölln's feudal seniority over the Kreuzberg and the surrounding area in his favour. However, the prince-elector soon later sold the vineyards on the slope east of the houses on today's Heimstraße to private owners, mostly Cölln burghers, but kept those west of it including the Kreuzberg.Lothar Uebel, ''Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 2. No ISBN.

On 15 July 1524 Prince-Elector Joachim I Nestor and his entourage fled to the top of the Kreuzberg (then called Runder Berg), the highest of the Tempelhofer Berge,Klaus-Dieter Wille, ''Spaziergänge in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 21. . in order to survive a flood predicted for that day by his court astronomer Johann Carion.Ilse Nicolas, ''Kreuzberger Impressionen'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 10. . After spending much of the day on the Kreuzberg in vain, at about 16:00 h, Electress Elizabeth of Denmark urged her husband to leave.Ilse Nicolas, ''Kreuzberger Impressionen'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 11. . They returned to town, where a thunderstorm started and a lightning killed four horses and the coachmen. According to another source the news of their frightful flight had spread among the Cöllners and Berliners, many of whom had tried to get as well onto the Kreuzberg, but were kept out by electoral guards. On their return the crowd awaited the elector and his entourage and welcoming him laughing.

In 1553 Joachim I Nestor ordered to plant vines on the slopes, in the private parcels on the slope as well as on the electoral slopes. He employed vintners, called wine masters, each responsible for a vineyard of a certain size, giving the name Weinmeisterweg (Winemaster Way, today's Kreuzbergstraße at the northern foot of the Kreuzberg). In 1588 the financial chamber of the city of Cölln recorded for one of the vineyards an output of 13 and a half tons of red and white wine, amounting to 35 threescore and 45 groats.Ilse Nicolas, ''Kreuzberger Impressionen'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 12. . For 1595 Cölln's financial chamber accounted for the sale of 36 tuns of wine for 144 rixdollars, partially exported to Poland-Lithuania, Saxony, and Sweden.

On 19 June 1631 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden captured the southerly adjacent Tempelhof Field, took the Tempelhofer Berge range and positioned cannons threatening to shoot Berlin and Cölln in order to force his brother-in-law Elector George William to support the Swedish efforts in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 21. . The severe devastations and depopulation by the Thirty Years' War caused the death or flight of many a vintner, causing the neglect and abandonment of their vineyards. The slopes became deserted and turned into sandy wasteland.

In 1718 Elector Frederick William II of Brandenburg (as Frederick William I King in Prussia) sold the vineyards covered by today's Heimstraße and the hills west thereof, and it were mostly the electoral wine masters already employed on them, who bought them and continued viticulture. For 1720 a mulberry plantation is recorded, with their leaves needed for the etatist attempts to establish silk production in Brandenburg-Prussia.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 7. No ISBN. However, alternative usages of the slopes remained mostly successless, so many slopes became again deserted and turned into wasteland, some owners continued viticulture. Western German wine had meanwhile outdone the local competition.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 6. No ISBN.

On the Kreuzberg, like on some neighbouring hills, remained vineyards until 1739/1740, when a hefty frost killed most of the vine stock, among them Red Malvasian and Muscateller are recorded.Martina Pirch, „32. Die Tempelhofer Vorstadt“, in: see references for bibliographical details, p. 83. .''Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 24. . In 1760 Austrian and Russian confederated troops under Tottleben defeated the defenders of Berlin on the Tempelhof Field and on October 3 posted their cannons on the Tempelhofer Berge shooting into Berlin.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 34. . The city surrendered and the confederated troops occupied Berlin for four days between October 9 and 12.Lothar Uebel, ''Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 6. No ISBN.

During the War of the Sixth Coalition against France, in 1813 Colonel Hermann von Boyen prompted to work sconces south of Runder Berg (today's Kreuzberg) and the other hills of the Tempelhofer Berge range. Plantations of about 4,000 fruit trees were stubbed and levelled.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 38. . Citizens of Berlin were draughted to work the sconces supervised by Captain Woldemar von Loos, among them also prominent figures such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte, August Wilhelm Iffland and Johann Gottfried Schadow.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 37. . On top of the Kreuzberg, protected by the sconce on its southern slope, a redoubt was built comprising seven bomb-safe powder magazines, two huts for altogether 500 men, officially called the ''Citadel of Berlin''.

Alone on the Kreuzberg 20 cannons were put up directing towards the approaching French ''Armée de Berlin'' under Oudinot.Klaus-Dieter Wille, ''Spaziergänge in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 9. .Hasso Spode, „Die Schultheiss-Brauerei auf dem Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 28–48“, in: see references for bibliographical details, p. 339. . However, with the Allied ''Northern Army'' under Crown Prince Charles XIV John of Sweden defeating the French already in the Battle of Großbeeren on 23 August, the sconce was never used for defence and was later called ''Lärmkanonenschanze'' (noise cannon sconce).Joachim Berger, ''Kreuzberger Wanderbuch: Wege ins widerborstige Berlin'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 20. .''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 12. No ISBN. Already in September 1813 the sloppily constructed huts of the citadel collapsed.

After negotiations on 27 August 1818 the merchant Gottfried Wilhelm August Tietz, the farming burgher Johann Friedrich Götze and Christian Weimar (Weymann) sold the top of the Kreuzberg (then called Götze'scher Berg, i.e. Götze's mountain) measuring 1.5 Prussian Morgen () and land for an access path. On 4 September 1818 King Frederick William III of Prussia approved the stipulated price of thalers 1,100 and an additional 400 as compensation for fixtures lost through the fortification works in 1813. The semi-circular original access path, measuring a width of 20 Prussian feet (), and branching off Methfesselstraße, was already under construction at that time. The adjacent land, measuring 72 Morgen (), remained property of Götze, Tietz and Weimar. In June 1820 the Lärmkanonenschanze was levelled again.

For 19 September 1818 Duke Charles of Mecklenburg arranged the laying of the foundation stone for the war memorial projected for the top of the Kreuzberg and designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, pp. 39 and 52. . However, the walls and moats of the sconces and the redoubt could not be completely levelled until the ceremony, so that scaffoldings were erected, allowing to overlook the remnants of the so-called citadel.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 39. . Masons laid a brick structure up to the level of the scaffoldings so that the foundation stone was to be laid on top of this structure, with the ground level around only later to be elevated to the same height. The laying of the foundation stone was attended - among others - by the king, Tzar Alexander I, Christian Daniel Rauch and Schinkel.

For the inauguration of the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars Frederick William III chose the 30 March 1821, the seventh anniversary of the conquest of the Montmartre in the Battle of Paris.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 41. . The inauguration was attended by the royal family, the Prussian generality, the senior pastors of all Protestant congregations of Berlin, and as guests by Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia), as well as by thousands of other spectators. As the national monument is crowned by an Iron Cross the king renamed Götze'scher Berg into Kreuzberg (i.e. cross hill) on the occasion of the inauguration of the monument.

A bit northeast of the hill's top, deeper on the slope thus not blocking the view, a guard's house was erected after Schinkel's design in 1821.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 13. No ISBN.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 51. . It was a brick structure in Gothic Revival style adorned with a Lombard band all around beneath the eaves of the flat pyramidal roof.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 21. . On 1 January 1822 the invalid Martin Herborn moved in, employed to guard the monument. In 1822 the Götze family still lived at the foot of the Kreuzberg in a farm later replaced by the houses Kreuzbergstraße 76 and 75.

In the late 1820s the Geri(c)ke brothers bought the triangular site on the eastern slope of Kreuzberg, an exploited sand pit, between the former road to Teltow, the Halle highway and Colonnenweg (today's Dudenstraße) preparing a colony of villas there, later called Wilhelmshöhe. In 1829 the Gericke brothers further opened the amusement park named ''Tivoli'', after the Parisian example, on the site of the levelled noise cannon sconce on the southern slope of the Kreuzberg, offering among others the so-called ''Russische Rutschbahn'', a circular roller coaster running over hill and dale.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 15. No ISBN.Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 28. . By 1834 a new sand pit had opened further west at the site of today's waterfall in the Victoria Park.

In 1837 the bankrupted Tivoli on the Kreuzberg was put up for public auction. The purchasers sold it on to Mr. Siegmund, who reopened the Tivoli with a two-storey ballroom in 1841, only to bankrupt again the year after. The Kreuzberg and the neighbouring hills, then still part of the Tempelhof municipality, were popular sites for excursions, because of the beautiful sight onto Berlin, but also because of the beer gardens and inns which already allowed smoking, since within Berlin's city boundaries the royal police had forbidden smoking in the public.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 14. No ISBN.''Festschrift 200 Jahre Polizeipräsidium Berlin: 1809–2009'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 27. No ISBN. After March Revolution of 1848 the royal government and its police had to reduce their authoritarianism and left smoking to everybody's own discretion. On 6 August 1848 people gathered at the monument demonstrating for the unification of Germany, rendering homage to Archduke John of Austria as regent of the to-be-unified Empire, flagging the monument with the union tricolour of Black-Red-Gold, much opposed by the various Prussian nationalist formations.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 82. .

The Tivoli burnt down after several further bankruptcies in 1856.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 17. No ISBN. Its name lived on in the brewery of the ''Berliner Brauereigesellschaft Tivoli'' (Berlin Brewery Company of Tivoli), built by Gustav Junghahn on the site of the former amusement park between 1857 and 1859.Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 332. .''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 19. No ISBN.''Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 35. .

In 1871 22 families founded the ''Villen-Sozietät Wilhelmshöhe'', an association to develop a neighbourhood of villas on the eastern slope of the Kreuzberg.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 20. No ISBN. At the eastern slope, partially quite steep due to an exploited sand pit there, a little dead end was laid out named ''Wilhelmshöhe'' after Wilhelmshöhe Palace.''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 18. No ISBN. Forty villas were planned, but only twenty were realised, since the area dropped in the favour of the better-off, when the urbanisation caused the adjacent quarters to be built up with blocks of flats. Four villas weathered the times, however, two of them overformed by later extensions alienating their original design. ''Lindenberg House'', on Methfesselstraße 23–25 by Ewald Becher in 1874, is one of the villas in original design, however, dilapidated.Sibylle Badstübner-Gröger, Michael Bollé, Ralph Paschke et al., ''Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler / Georg Dehio'': 22 vols., see references for bibliographical details, vol. 8: Berlin, p. 165. . It is - among others - the domicile of the house of literature, venue and organiser of readings named ''Lettrétage'' since 2006.

In 1878 Johann Wilhelm Schwedler carried out Johann Heinrich Strack's plans to elevate and turn the monument by 21° with its front into the axis of the Großbeerenstraße, before it was set to rest on its new socket building.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, pp. 73 and 75. . In 1879 Guido von Madai, president of the royal police, decreed a maximum height of buildings in the adjacent streets to uphold the visibility of the monument on the Kreuzberg. The ordinance, however, was annulled by the groundbreaking 1882 "Kreuzberg judgement" of the Prussian Royal administrative court, stating that the police had exceeded its authority to ensure public security. On 14 December 1887 the city of Berlin acquired of unbuilt slopes of the Kreuzberg from several owners, mostly north and west of the monument, including the westerly adjacent, lower hill called Rühlensberg.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 87. .

After 1889 a milk bar (Milchwirtschaft) moved into the Schinkel-designed former guard's house below the hill top, offering the milk drinking cures then popularised by Friedrich Grub. In 1891 Schultheiss-Bräu Actiengesellschaft, founded by Jobst Schultheiss in 1853 and by 1910 Europe's biggest brewery, bought Tivoli brewery on Kreuzberg's southern slope, making it its production department No. II.Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 29. . The eastern and northeastern slopes were built up with villas.

On 28 June 1888 Berlin's city parliament decided for City Garden Director Hermann Mächtig's design for a park on the acquired unbuilt slopes of Kreuzberg, including a waterfall between the monument on top of the Kreuzberg and the Großbeerenstraße. The park was named Victoria Park (Viktoriapark), in honour of Princess Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland, Prussian and German crown princess consort.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 86. . Mächtig and the sculptor Albert Manthe travelled through the Giant Mountains visiting natural waterfalls to get inspired.Rike Fischer, ''Auf dem Gipfel von Berlin – Ein Spaziergang durch den Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 54. . Having returned Mächtig himself assisted by a confidant foreman started modelling and constructions for the park. For the waterfall Mächtig used pieces of rock from the Giant Mountains and boulders.Ilse Nicolas, ''Kreuzberger Impressionen'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 14. . The ''Wolfsschlucht'' (lit. wolf's gully) was designed into another exploited sand pit east of the hill top.Rike Fischer, ''Auf dem Gipfel von Berlin – Ein Spaziergang durch den Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 74. . Some built-up parcels on the southern side of Kreuzbergstraße had been bought and the houses there were demolished in order to include their plots into the park. In 1894 the Victoria Park opened.

On 27 September 1921 the borough assembly of the VIth borough of Berlin, established on 1 October 1920 and provisionally named ''Hallesches Tor'', decided to rename the borough after the hill into Kreuzberg. In 1926 the Kreuzberg underground station opened for traffic, renamed into Flughafen (i.e. airport) in 1937 (Platz der Luftbrücke since 1975).Herbert Schwenk, ''Lexikon der Berliner Stadtentwicklung'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 245. .Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 47. .

Since 1935 Konrad Zuse experimented in the construction of computers in his parents' flat, moving with them into their new flat on Methfesselstraße 10, the street leading up the Kreuzberg.Hasso Spode, ''Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10 / Oranienstraße 6'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 418. . In September 1940 Zuse presented his experimental computer Z2, covering several rooms in the parental flat, to experts of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL).Hasso Spode, ''Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10 / Oranienstraße 6'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 424. .

The DVL granted research subsidies so that in 1941 Zuse rented a workshop on the opposite side in Methfesselstraße 7 and stretching through the block to Belle-Alliance Straße 29 (renamed and renumbered as Mehringdamm 84 in 1947).Hasso Spode, ''Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10 / Oranienstraße 6'', see references for bibliographical details, pp. 418 and 425. . On 12 May 1941 Zuse presented the world's first functioning computer, Z3 built in his workshop, to the public.Hasso Spode, ''Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10 / Oranienstraße 6'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 425. .Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 52. . While Z3 was destroyed with the workshop in an Allied Air raid in 1943 and the parental flat in the following year, the successor Z4 was constructed in a new premise in Oranienstraße 6 and evacuated from Berlin on 14 February 1945, only arriving in Göttingen two weeks later.Hasso Spode, ''Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10 / Oranienstraße 6'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 428. .

The Kreuzberg had been included in the Nazi plans for rebuilding Berlin into the Welthauptstadt Germania, but only preparations materialised. Ernst Sagebiel oriented his Tempelhof Airport building towards the national monument on the Kreuzberg so that the central hall's front on the forecourt of the airport and one edge of the monument's octagonal groundplan are parallel. The then planned axis consisting of a promenade and series of waterfalls cascading down the Kreuzberg hill towards the Platz der Luftbrücke, also employing Soviet forced labourers else held captive at Blücherplatz, started driving five tunnels into the northern slope of the Kreuzberg from Kreuzbergstraße.Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 94. . The semi-completed tunnels were meant and used as air-raid shelters, while constructions continued until February 1945. In 1944 British bombing left behind a wake of devastation leading from one block north up the Großbeerenstraße, over the waterfall to the monument, damaging its socket structure, destroying villas on the northeastern Kreuzberg slope, and blocks of flats along Methfesselstraße, including Zuse's parental flat. The abandoned Schinkel-designed guard's house, though undestroyed, was demolished in the 1950s, its site is now used by a ball playing cage.

In August 1952 Kreuzberg's borough mayor Willy Kressmann (SPD) inaugurated another monument on the Kreuzberg performing the form of a cross, Latin though.Rike Fischer, ''Auf dem Gipfel von Berlin – Ein Spaziergang durch den Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 64. . It is the ''Memorial for the eastern German Homeland'' (Mahnmal für die ostdeutsche Heimat), an cross of pine wood with a crown of thorns of barbed wire, located on the upper edge of the Kreuzberg's sodded northwestern slope, and commemorating the deaths of 100,000s killed in atrocities, by forced labour or other maltreatment, and the fate of the surviving 12 million refugees and expellees from former eastern Germany and neighbouring foreign countries ruled after World War II by pro-Soviet governments.

A historic wine-growing area, today the Kreuzberg is covered again by two small vineyards. One was founded in 1968 on the cleared site of Methfesselstraße 10, it is owned by the Borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, and cultivated by the adjacent market garden.Rike Fischer, ''Auf dem Gipfel von Berlin – Ein Spaziergang durch den Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg'', see references for bibliographical details, pp. 57seq. . The other, however, lacking authorisation to distribute its harvests as food, established in summer 2006 within the Victoria Quarter on the southern slope of the Kreuzberg. The vineyard on Methfesselstraße provides for the local "Kreuz-Neroberger" wine, gained from vines donated by Kreuzberg's twin towns Wiesbaden (1968) and Ingelheim am Rhein (1975), as well by the Bergstraße county (1971 and 1973) and from Bad Bergzabern (1985). About 600 bottles are pressed every year, not in Berlin, but in wineries in Mainz-Kostheim and Ingelheim.

In 1994 the Schultheiss brewery, department II, ceased production.Friedhelm Schmuck, ''Neutempelhofer Einsichten'', see references for bibliographical details, p. 102. . The brewery compound, with many excellent examples of industrial brick architecture, listed buildings, is since transformed into a new residential area called Viktoria-Quartier (Victoria Quarter).

The deformed villa of 1872 on Methfesselstraße 17–21, northerly neighbouring ''Lindenberg House'', is called ''the yellow Villa'' (die gelbe Villa), after the tiles covering the building since its extensions in the 1950s and 1960s into an eight-storey private clinic (Klinik am Viktoriapark)."Bauten für die Gemeinschaft: Die gelbe Villa"
, on

(2005), retrieved on 6 March 2012. Between 1927 and 1941 the villa was owned and inhabited by Wilhelm Lindemann, a then popular singer, musician and composer of operettas and drinking songs."Villa Kunterbunt"
Kinder ziehen heute in ein Haus, in dem einst Trinklieder komponiert wurden und das Rosa von Praunheim besetzte, in: ''Der Tagesspiegel'', 30 March 2004, retrieved on 9 March 2012. After the clinic had closed in 1987 the building remained vacant for 14 years, before it was renovated and reopened in 2004. It is since a youth centre for education and creativity financed by a charitable foundation in Hamburg. The brick building of an abandoned public toilet on top of the hill was refurbished and in it opened as a little café (XBerg-Hütte) in 2011.

References

* Sibylle Badstübner-Gröger, Michael Bollé, Ralph Paschke et al., ''Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler / Georg Dehio'': 22 vols., revis. and ext. new ed. by Dehio-Vereinigung, Berlin and Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, ²2000, vol. 8: Berlin, .
* ''Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer'' (¹1977), Ostfildern/Kemnat and Munich: Baedeker, ²1988, .
* Joachim Berger, ''Kreuzberger Wanderbuch: Wege ins widerborstige Berlin'', Berlin: Goebel, 1984, .
* Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, ''Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg'', Berlin: Haude & Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, 2003, .
* ''Denk mal Kreuzberg! Ein Architekturführer der kommunalen Baudenkmale im Bezirk Kreuzberg'', Bezirksamt Kreuzberg von Berlin / Hochbauamt and Untere Denkmalschutzbehörde (eds.), Berlin: no publ., 1998, no ISBN.
* ''Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986'', Geschichtskreis im Wasserturm auf dem Tempelhofer Berg (ed.), Berlin: Bloch & Partner, 1986, no ISBN.
* ''Festschrift 200 Jahre Polizeipräsidium Berlin: 1809–2009'', Der Polizeipräsident in Berlin (ed.), Berlin: self-publishing, 2009, no ISBN.
* Rike Fischer, ''Auf dem Gipfel von Berlin – Ein Spaziergang durch den Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg'', Verein zur Erforschung und Darstellung der Geschichte Kreuzbergs and Bezirksmuseum Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (eds.), Berlin: Kreuzberg-Museum, 2007, .
* Ilse Nicolas, ''Kreuzberger Impressionen'' (¹1969), Berlin: Haude & Spener, ²1979, (=Berlinische Reminiszenzen; vol. 26), .
* Michael Nungesser, ''Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel'', ed. on behalf of the Bezirksamt Kreuzberg von Berlin as catalogue of the exhibition „Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel“ in the Kunstamt Kreuzberg / Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, between 25 April and 7 June 1987, Berlin: Arenhövel, 1987, .
* Walther Oschilewski, ''Kreuzberg: Ein Berliner Bezirk gestern und heute'', Bezirksamt Kreuzberg von Berlin (ed.), Berlin: Arani, 1965, no ISBN.
* Martina Pirch, „32. Die Tempelhofer Vorstadt“, in: ''Topographischer Atlas Berlin: Ungekürzte Studienausgabe'', Senatsverwaltung für Bau- und Wohnungswesen Berlin / Abteilung Vermessungswesen (ed.), Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1995, p. 83, .
* Friedhelm Schmuck, ''Neutempelhofer Einsichten'', Berlin: self-publishing, ³2006.
* Herbert Schwenk, ''Lexikon der Berliner Stadtentwicklung'', Berlin: Haude & Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, 2002, .
* Hasso Spode, „Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10/Oranienstraße 6“, in: ''Geschichtslandschaft Berlin: Orte und Ereignisse'': 5 vols., Helmut Engel, Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Wilhelm Treue (eds.), vol. 5: 'Kreuzberg', Berlin: Nicolai, 1994, pp. 418–429. .
* Hasso Spode, „Die Schultheiss-Brauerei auf dem Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 28–48“, in: ''Geschichtslandschaft Berlin: Orte und Ereignisse'': 5 vols., Helmut Engel, Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Wilhelm Treue (eds.), vol. 5: 'Kreuzberg', Berlin: Nicolai, 1994, pp. 399–417. .
* Hasso Spode, „Zur Sozial- und Siedlungsgeschichte Kreuzbergs“, in: ''Geschichtslandschaft Berlin: Orte und Ereignisse'': 5 vols., Helmut Engel, Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Wilhelm Treue (eds.), vol. 5: 'Kreuzberg', Berlin: Nicolai, 1994, pp. XI–XXXI. .
* ''Stadt_Raum Kreuzberg: Kunst- und Sonderobjekte im städtischen Raum'', Bezirksamt Kreuzberg von Berlin / Hochbauamt and Untere Denkmalschutzbehörde (eds.), Berlin: no publ., 2000, no ISBN.
* Lothar Uebel, ''Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez'', Mieterrat Chamissoplatz (ed.), Berlin: no publ., 1994, no ISBN.
* Klaus-Dieter Wille, ''Spaziergänge in Kreuzberg'', Berlin: Haude & Spener, 1986, (=Berliner Kaleidoskop: Schriften zur Berliner Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte; vol. 32), .

External links

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kreuzberg #Berlin
Hills of Berlin
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg