Zentrum Kreuzberg, Modern residential complex in Kreuzberg, Germany.
Zentrum Kreuzberg is a twelve-storey residential block with 367 flats, built 1969–1974 to designs by Werner Jokisch and Johannes Uhl. Its long facade forms a slight angle toward Kottbusser Tor, and a two- to three-storey quarter-circle annex with around 15,000 m² of commercial space fronts the junction. The block spans Adalbertstraße and Dresdner Straße, the latter reachable only through a narrow pedestrian passage.
Built 1969–1974 to plans by Werner Jokisch and Johannes Uhl, the block was financed by West German private investors through the Schmidt & Press GmbH & Co. KG, founded in 1968, which gained tax breaks under the Berlinförderungsgesetz. The developers' eviction methods provoked protests, and the 1971 Rauch-Haus-Song by Ton Steine Scherben demanded that Schmidt, Press and Mosch leave Kreuzberg.
The building's name changed from Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum to Zentrum Kreuzberg in 2000. Its ground-level arcade houses bars, restaurants, a cinema and the district library, and the Rauch-Haus-Song by Ton Steine Scherben, first played in late 1971, names its developers Schmidt, Press and Mosch in the refrain.
The complex straddles Adalbertstraße and Dresdner Straße; Dresdner Straße is reached only through a narrow pedestrian passage under the block. The U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor, served by two U-Bahn lines, and several BVG bus lines stop directly at the square. The former multi-storey car park behind the building was converted into a kindergarten.
The block bridges two streets that historically met at the square: the Adalbertstraße and the Dresdner Straße, which today can only be reached through a narrow pedestrian passage. The semicircular complex was meant to shield the square from a planned urban motorway ring that was never built.
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