Majakowskiring

The Majakowskiring (named after Vladimir Mayakovsky) is an ellipse-shaped street in the Pankow district of Berlin, Germany, in the Niederschönhausen locality. It was famous as the residence of many senior figures in the government of the German Democratic Republic.

The Majakowskiring neighbourhood (Ortslage) is situated between Grabbeallee to the west and northwest, Ossietzkystraße and Schlosspark to the east, Schloss Schönhausen to the northeast, and the Panke river to the south.

Until 4 May 1950, the northern section was called Kronprinzenstraße and the southern section Viktoriastraße. It was then renamed after the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovski. For a short time it was called Majakowskistraße.

Most of the houses were built in the 1920s and are mainly mansions which were inhabited by industrialists and artists, until the most of them were expropriated after the Second World War. In exceptional cases the former owners were allowed to remain if they continued to pay rent, for example in the case of the house No. 29. When the owners left East Berlin in 1950, these also were expropriated.

Until 1960, the members of the GDR government lived here, after the houses were converted to the taste of the new inhabitants by architects like Hans Scharoun. The Majakowskiring (and likewise the Pankow district) became a synonym for the GDR government. Thus Konrad Adenauer spoke of the "gentlemen in Pankoff", and Udo Lindenberg sang of the "special train to Pankow". The government representatives living in the Majakowskiring quarter became shielded from the outside world.

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Wikipedia