Mall of Berlin

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Mall of Berlin
Mall of Berlin
Mall of Berlin, 2018
Basic data
Location: Berlin-Mitte , Leipziger Platz 12
Opening: September 25, 2014
Total area: 210,000
Sales area : 76,000 m²
planned: 135,000 m²
Shops: 270/320 (planned)
Owner : High Gain House Investments
Transport links
Railway stations: Potsdamer Platz , Mohrenstrasse
S-Bahn : S1 S2 S25
Subway : U2
Omnibus : bus M41, M48, M85, 200, N2
Local transport : Regional line RB19, RE3, RE4, RE5
Parking spaces : 1000
Technical specifications
Construction time : 2011-2014
Architects : Architectural community Pechtold Ges. Von Architekten mbH,
nps tchoban voss GmbH
Building material : Reinforced concrete , sandstone facing

The Mall of Berlin , also known as LP12 Mall of Berlin and Leipziger Platz Quartier , is a shopping center in the Berlin district of Mitte in the district of the same name . It forms the north-eastern part of the octagon on Leipziger Platz . It is a covered pedestrian passage with high arcades and forms a line of sight to the Prussian mansion , the seat of the Federal Council .

history

Topping-out ceremony on August 15, 2013
One of several brass plaques in front of the escalators with historically significant quotes (here by Barack Obama )

The Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse

On the 22,000 square meter site at Leipziger Platz 12 and along the Leipziger Strasse formerly Wertheim department store located. This original building has been called one of the most beautiful department stores in Germany. It was built according to plans by the architect Alfred Messel until 1906 in a historicist style mix. It was Europe's largest department store until it was partially destroyed in the Second World War and the subsequent demolition in the GDR era.

The Wertheim ruins were torn down in the 1950s. Until the complete demolition at the end of May 2005, the vault in the basement and two rooms in the entrance area of ​​the Wertheim Bank on the ground floor of the former department store had been used by the Techno Club Tresor since 1991 . The property of the former department store has been transferred back to the Wertheim heirs by the Arcandor Group, paving the way for rebuilding.

The construction of the mall

After some preliminary project ideas had failed, the property with the shopping center and around 270 shops as well as the largest gastronomy area (“ food court ”) in Berlin was built in spring 2011. In addition, around 30,000 square meters of space for 170 rental apartments and a hotel were accommodated in the building complex . The project was set at a construction cost of 800 million euros. The branch mix mainly consists of brand-oriented textile shops and is supplemented by an electronics store. With the shopping center, the investors hope for a new Berlin shopping axis from Potsdamer Platz to Leipziger Platz to Friedrichstrasse .

In spring 2012, soil sagged on the construction site in the area of ​​the tunnel of the underground line U2 below . The underground traffic had to be interrupted for several months for safety reasons. After the foundation stone was laid on August 17, 2012, the topping-out ceremony was held on August 15, 2013 .

The shopping center has been open to the public since September 25, 2014. An opening ceremony took place the evening before. In the center there are 270 shops on over 76,000 m². This size is only exceeded (as of 2015) by the Gropius Passagen of the operator Unibail-Rodamco ( list of the largest shopping centers in Germany ).

Legal proceedings for wage fraud against construction workers

At the end of October 2014, it became known that 20 Romanian workers involved in the construction had been withheld significant parts of their wages. When they tried to demand their salaries, according to the workers, there were threats of violence on the part of the subcontractors commissioned to build the Mall of Berlin . At the end of November 2014, the Romanian workers again contradicted the statement by the construction management of the shopping center that “everything went correctly”, with the unions confirming the outstanding wages. The workers had worked for the subcontractors Metatec Fundus GmbH & Co. and Openmallmaster GmbH . The contractors left their former employees homeless at this point after they had removed the construction containers in which the workers were previously housed, which provoked further protests from the construction workers.

On December 9, 2014, an insolvency administrator was appointed for FCL Fettchenhauer Controlling und Logistic GmbH, which was responsible for coordinating the construction of the mall, and a lawsuit was brought against him for the delay in bankruptcy . Whether the subcontractors and workers will still be paid is just as unclear as the completion of the unfinished fire protection (as of August 2015). The Berlin labor court sentenced on April 10, 2015, involved the construction subcontractors in a not yet final default judgment to pay over 5000 Euros of outstanding wage claims to two former employees.

The investor and builder Harald Huth does not see his responsibility, but parted ways with Fettchenhauer in December 2014. The lawsuits over outstanding wages continued in 2015; they delayed u. a. because the sued construction companies or their lawyers did not appear at court hearings. At the request of the plaintiffs, the labor court then upheld the complaints by default judgment . Against these judgments, the construction company had raised an objection, but only justified it weeks later. Now the company has been sentenced to pay a total of 5600 euros to two plaintiffs. "The judgment was made for procedural, not substantive reasons," as the plaintiff's lawyer reported. Further lawsuits are pending. In one case, two workers lost in court. The construction workers are suing Huth in the last instance in 2017. In 2018, a former construction worker filed an appeal with the Federal Labor Court . But even there, the two Romanian workers Ovidiu Mindrila and Niculae Hurmuz did not get right on October 16, 2019.

The logo of the shopping center “LP12”, which is present in many places in the building complex in different designs, stands for the address “Leipziger Platz 12”.

See also

Web links

Commons : LP12 Mall of Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c facts and figures
  2. a b More sales area from 2015
  3. Center waiting . In: Der Tagesspiegel , May 28, 2014.
  4. ^ Article in the taz on April 15, 2005.
  5. ↑ Final spurt at Leipziger Platz. In: Der Tagesspiegel , May 8, 2014
  6. Earth sagged: construction work stops U2 . In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 31, 2012
  7. BVG gives the green light: U2 drives through again . In: Der Tagesspiegel , May 12, 2012
  8. ↑ Laying of the foundation stone at Leipziger Platz. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 17, 2012
  9. ^ Topping- out ceremony in the old new center of Berlin. In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 16, 2013
  10. Mall of Berlin doesn't open until the end of September. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 10, 2014, accessed on August 12, 2014.
  11. Emal Ghamsharick, Leila Saadna, Nadiye Ünsal: Mall of Shame - Pay your workers !. An interview with Bogdan Droma . In: movements. Journal for critical migration and border regime research . tape 3 , no. 1 , April 11, 2017 ( movements-journal.org [accessed April 14, 2017]).
  12. Construction workers at the “Mall of Berlin” were sometimes not paid. In: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , October 31, 2014, accessed on November 24, 2014.
  13. Romanian workers demand their wages. In: Berliner Zeitung , November 21, 2014, accessed on November 24, 2014.
  14. a b Mall Of Shame | labornet.tv. Retrieved March 31, 2017 .
  15. ^ Continuous protest by mall construction workers. In: BZ , November 24, 2014
  16. General contractor of the “Mall of Berlin” is bankrupt. In: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , December 9, 2014
  17. wage bruise at the "Mall of Berlin" verdict against construction company. In: the daily newspaper , April 10, 2015
  18. a b Laura Hertreiter: Give me my starvation wages . Romanian unskilled workers like Dimitru Cybylass toiled their way through the construction of the “Mall of Berlin” for five euros an hour. But even that they were cheated on. Chronicle of a Shame . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 12, 2015, p. 3.
  19. Andrea Beyerlein: "Mall of Berlin": Investor Harald Huth separates from general contractor . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on April 8, 2017]).
  20. Work is worth it. In: taz.de , August 5, 2015
  21. Uta Schleiermacher: Mall of Berlin - profit already collected . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed on September 6, 2016]).
  22. Mall Of Shame | labornet.tv. Retrieved March 31, 2017 .
  23. ^ Johanna Treblin: Four years without wages. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
  24. Slavery in the heart of Berlin [1]
  25. Stefan Sell, Judgment Days: [2]
  26. Press release No. 31/19 [3]
  27. Picture galleries, construction site tour at Leipziger Platz in Berlin. In: Der Tagesspiegel . May 2, 2014, accessed January 7, 2018 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 35.9 "  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 47.3"  E