The Second World War left significant damage in Potsdam. More than a third of all buildings in the city center were completely or partially destroyed. Almost 3,800 cubic meters of rubble made streets impassable. Food, water, and electricity supplies were largely disrupted. The city also had to accommodate over 50,000 refugees from the former eastern territories, who passed through Potsdam until the summer of 1946.
Additionally, Soviet occupation troops moved into the former Wehrmacht barracks in the city. West of the New Garden, the Soviets even requisitioned an entire district with over 100 buildings, expelled the residents, and established the Soviet military counterintelligence headquarters for Germany there. The intelligence area had its own infrastructure, independent of the surrounding area, and remained a "forbidden city" for Potsdam residents as Military Town No. 7 until 1994.
In the summer of 1945, Potsdam was at the center of world attention: the Allied victors' conference of the "Big Three" took place at Cecilienhof Palace. Harry S. Truman, Josef Stalin, and Winston Churchill (later Clement Attlee) negotiated the Potsdam Agreement, which determined the future fate of occupied Germany and sealed the European post-war order. During his stay in Potsdam, U.S. President Truman ordered preparations for the first atomic bomb drop on a Japanese city, aiming to end the Second World War in the Pacific and simultaneously send a signal of strength to the Soviet Union in the emerging East-West conflict.
As in all Soviet-occupied zones, the occupying authorities began the "antifascist-democratic" transformation of the political system in Potsdam, as well as the reorganization of the economy and society according to Soviet models. A key step in the spring of 1946 was the forced merger of the KPD and SPD to form the SED. From then on, the SED dominated political decision-making bodies. With the seemingly free and democratic local elections in the fall of 1946, the SED paved the way for the one-party state. This transformation was accompanied in Potsdam by the systematic persecution and expulsion of perceived and actual political opponents.
Potsdam remained an administrative and governmental city after the Second World War, initially as the capital of the Province of Brandenburg, and after the territorial reform of 1952, as one of 14 district capitals in the GDR. Numerous new educational institutions were established to convey their regional significance for the socialist construction of the GDR: The Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences (1948) with an attached workers' and farmers' faculty, the German Administrative Academy (1947, later the German Academy for State and Legal Sciences "Walter Ulbricht" in 1953), the Potsdam Pedagogical University "Karl Liebknecht" (1951), the Ministry of State Security's school (1951, later the Potsdam Law School in 1965), and the German Academy for Film Arts (1954, later the Academy for Film and Television of the GDR "Konrad Wolf" in 1969/1985).
The Berlin Wall, erected in 1961, which also passed through today's World Heritage parks such as Babelsberg Park, cutting some citizens off into a border zone, severed the city's old transportation connections to Berlin. Pirschheide station served as the new main station, and traffic to and from Berlin now bypassed the sealed-off western part of the city. Some Potsdam residents even lived in a walled enclave in Klein-Glienicke, connected to Babelsberg by a small bridge over the Teltow Canal. The nearby Glienicke Bridge became internationally famous as the "Bridge of Spies" due to three spectacular exchange operations between Cold War adversaries.
Potsdam's cityscape underwent significant architectural changes. Extensive development followed the ideological mandates of the SED dictatorship in the systemic competition with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The ruins of the war-damaged City Palace and the partially restored Garrison Church were demolished in 1959/60 and 1968, respectively, as symbols of Prussian-imperial rule. The city canal was filled in between 1961 and 1971. New buildings in modern architecture, such as the Interhotel opened in 1969 at the end of the Long Bridge, the Institute for Teacher Training at the Old Market (1970/74), or the popular swimming hall and terrace restaurant Minsk at the foot of Brauhausberg, permanently shaped the city's appearance.
Meanwhile, the city's population grew from 114,000 in 1952 to over 142,000 in 1988. The elimination of the inadequate housing situation was a top priority. In 1950, the reconstruction of the historic old town began. Part of the destroyed buildings was gradually demolished and replaced with new houses. By the early 1970s, many citizens' houses on Wilhelm-Külz-Strasse (now Breiten Strasse) had to make way for new construction, transforming the street into a socialist avenue for parades, like those held on May Day. Political rallies and, above all, national and international sporting events were held at the newly built Ernst-Thälmann Stadium, located on the grounds of the former Lustgarten. It complemented the sports facilities at the airship harbor, which were primarily used by athletes from ASK Vorwärts Potsdam for training and competitions.
With the introduction of industrially produced "socialist housing construction" at the end of the 1950s, many new multi-story residential areas were built in Potsdam in prefabricated concrete construction: Waldstadt I and Waldstadt II (1950s to 1970s), Am Stern and Am Schlaatz (1980s), and from 1988 in Drewitz. These highly sought-after new buildings were equipped with modern features, such as central heating and hot water connections, for the time.
While the SED implemented significant architectural changes in the city, it also worked to preserve the historic heritage of Potsdam's unique palaces and gardens, placing them under monument protection. However, due to material shortages, the restoration of individual palaces in Potsdam could only begin many years after the war. The successful film tradition from pre-war times continued in Babelsberg with DEFA, and numerous famous films of the GDR were produced there. The Babelsberg locomotive manufacturing company Orenstein & Koppel was expropriated in 1948 but remained one of the city's largest industrial employers under the name VEB Lokomotivbau "Karl Marx."
After the People's Chamber of the GDR passed the Monument Preservation Act in 1975, many Potsdam residents hoped to preserve the remaining parts of the historic old town from demolition. The city placed the area of the second city expansion and the Dutch Quarter under monument protection. However, resistance arose against the ongoing architectural decay and the plans of the state construction industry to replace the Friedrichian townhouses with standardized GDR buildings. Potsdam residents became involved in various initiatives, such as the "Working Group for Environmental Protection and City Planning" (Argus) or the "Pfingstberg Working Group" to save the historic buildings. Their social engagement culminated in the ever-growing opposition movement, which led to the Peaceful Revolution in 1989.
Author: Dr. Johannes Leicht (Geschichtslotsen)
