Ernst Thälmann Park was built on the site of the Dimitroffstraße municipal gasworks, which was shut down in 1981. The park-like residential complex and the Ernst Thälmann monument, which is central to the overall architecture, were a project with symbolic value for the SED leadership. While entire streets of dilapidated old buildings fell into disrepair, the state and party leadership concentrated its scarce resources and manpower on the prestige project. With great publicity efforts, Ernst Thälmann Park was inaugurated in April 1986. To this day, the complex is polarizing: opinions range between “example of successful urban planning” and “symbol and expression of SED rule”.
The construction of the housing complex was not without social conflict. Primarily, the dispute flared up over the listed gasometers. While the state planned to demolish them, residents, artists, and conservationists wanted to preserve and make cultural use of the impressive testimonies to industrial culture. Despite the protests, the gasometers were blown up at the end of July 1984.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, a debate flared for years about how to deal with the monument and the name of the residential area. The resolution to demolish the monument, which had been passed by the Prenzlauer Berg district council in 1993, was not realized. After complaints from local residents about adverse health effects and odor nuisance, large-scale contamination with pollutants was detected. The replacement of the soil contaminated by the gas plant and the remediation measures (ongoing until 2021) cost 12.3 million euros.
The residential buildings have been preserved in their original urban structure to this day and remain quite popular. 2011, an investor planned 600 new apartments on the adjacent former freight station site. In 2019, the district decided against the apartments and in favor of new school buildings in the park, also due to massive protests by a residents’ initiative.
