ZERO HOUR: RUBBLE AND RUINS
A square experiences a border
In World War II, Potsdamer Platz was almost razed to the ground. Only the old Weinhaus Huth and the ruins of Hotel Esplanade were still standing in 1945. After the end of the war, Potsdamer Platz first became the 'border triangle' between the Soviet, British and American sectors with a corresponding flourishing black market. When the German mark was introduced in the western sector and the beginning of the Berlin Blockade in June 1948, the picture changed once again. On 21 August in the same year, the course of the border between the Soviet sector and the adjoining western sectors was first marked by a line on the asphalt.
On the assumption that it would soon be rebuilt, some of the buildings on Potsdamer Platz were rebuilt in a makeshift way. During the people's uprising on 17 June 1953, however, the buildings were again burned down. Nothing further happened. Investors lost interest in the area over decades.
