Majakowskiring
The Majakowskiring is a street, in the shape of an ellipse, in the Pankow district of Berlin, in the Niederschönhausen quarter. It was famous as the place of residence of many senior figures in the government of the German Democratic Republic.
The Majakowskiring runs west of the federal highway 96a, which has the name Grabbeallee in this section, up to east the Ossietzkystrasse present on the Schloss Niederschönhausen Park. Up until 4 May 1950 the northern section was called Kronprinzenstrasse and the southern section Viktoriastrasse; then it was renamed after the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovski. For a short time, at first, it was known as Majakowskistrasse. Most of the houses there were built in the 20's. The houses are mainly mansions which were lived in by industrialists and artists until the majority were expropriated after the Second World War. In exceptional cases the former owners were allowed to remain if they continued to pay rent, for example in the case of the house No. 29. When the owners left in 1950 East Berlin, also they were expropriated.
Until 1960 the members of the GDR government lived here, after the houses were converted to the taste of the new inhabitants by architects like Hans Scharoun. The Majakowskiring (and likewise the Pankow district) became a synonym for the GDR government. Thus Konrad Adenauer spoke of the “gentlemen in Pankoff”, and Udo Lindenberg sang of the “special train to Pankow”. The government representatives living in the Majakowskiring quarter became shielded from the outside world. In October 1956, a a revolt occured in Hungary. The East German leadership was afraid of the affect of such riots in the East Germany and decided that it's better for the elite to live in less inhabeted place. It first, it was decided to move to Hoppegarten, east of East Berlin, because there was a fast escape route from there over the motorway eastward. and a complex was built in Waldsiedlung, Wanndlitz, and the leadership moved there in 1960.
Because of this sealing-off process people spoke of a so-called “little town” (Städtchen). When Lotte Ulbricht wanted to return to the Majakowskiring, after the death of her husband Walter Ulbricht in 1973, the barriers and controls were waived. However she was forbidden to return to the house they originally lived in and instead she was assigned house number 12, in which she lived up to her death in 2002. In 1975 house 28/30 was demolished, as part of the process of erasing every reminder of Walter Ulbricht from history. The house in which Otto Grotewohl lived, is today literature workshop and the Jewish Claims Conference was awarded. The house of Johannes R. Becher was sold and is private property.
Houses and their inhabitants:
- Majakowskiring 2 guesthouse of the GDR government
- Majakowskiring 12 Lotte Ulbricht (after the death of her husband 1973)
- Majakowskiring 28/30 Lotte and Walter Ulbricht
- Majakowskiring 29 Wilhelm Pieck, late guesthouse of the mayor of east Berlin
- Majakowskiring 34 Johannes R. Becher
- Majakowskiring 46/48 Otto Grotewohl
- Majakowskiring 58 Erich Honecker