A Potsdam Path
There's an interesting short piece in this week's Economist about a footpath along the Griebnitzsee in Potsdam the fate of which as public space or private amenity is being hotly contested. The residences along the watefront have at one time or another been homes to the Kaisers, to Jews expelled by the Nazis (many of their heirs having recently reclaimed title and in some cases sold this on to new owners), and to some of the stars of the Babelsberg studios. The Berlin wall ran along the Griebnitzsee after 1961 and following unification there has been heavy gentrification of the area. A few holdouts among the new owners are stonewalling the idea (championed by the city of Potsdam) of officially declaring the widely used footpath as a public park. One of these, a Dutch developer who owns three properties designed by Mies along the path, has threatened to take the case before the European human rights court if necessary to protect his rights to property.
I read the Economist piece with interest and would like to follow this issue. Has there been any suggestion that the City of Potsdam might be prepared to expropriate a strip of the waterfront property to create a public footpath?
— Alec McEwen · Nov 28, 09:03 AM · #
Alec,
I did a quick search prior to Christmas regarding your question.I was able to locate the original article from the Berliner Zeitung, which had a bit more information, primarily that the mayor, Jann Jakob , has submitted a development plan to the city. I checked the primary German competition site, competitionline.de and didn’t see any sort related thing posted. back to you. I believe I was told once that there is a trend or desire to enact legislation to make access to waterways publicly accessible. I still need to verify this however.
— Kaarin · Jan 4, 04:26 PM · #