Thinking Big

Today, after almost two decades of planning and development, a look at the significance of Adlershof as a location past, present and future reveals surprising insights and opens up new perspectives. The city of science, business and media has not only developed well internally. The concept of “creating economic growth through knowledge” could not only be proven to work but continues to be applied with ever increasing success. Current relocation activities are a case in point. With approx. 20,000 people working, researching or studying here, Adlershof has left its niche existence behind, has grown up and now shines in a new light.

Gerhard W. Steindorf, CEO of Adlershof Projekt GmbH, expects this figure to double over the course of the next seven or eight years. And he is also well aware of the fact that Adlershof now has a new role as a forward-looking example of urban development. Here, at the periphery of the city and away from its traditional commercial areas, new clusters could be established that have generated industrial production activities. Spin-offs have developed into businesses that now operate on a global scale; better still, Adlershof offers them the spatial and scientific resources for further expansion. Steindorf calls this stage the “third ring of development,” which was successfully put into practice by his development agency.

Given the successes achieved at this level, the systematic processes that made all this possible have come to be seen as a model for urban development in general and as a model for the industrialization of Berlin in particular. Steindorf is convinced that Berlin does need re-industrialization, and that this re-industrialization can successfully be achieved by adopting the same approach as the one that has led to Adlershof’s success. The Senate of Berlin agrees and its “Urban Development Project 2020” defines the “Strategic Area Southeast” as the most important project for the future. This area stretches from the city centre along the river Spree and the rapidtransit railway all the way to the new BBI airport – with the science city Adlershof right in the middle.

It was thus no coincidence that the Senate recently commissioned the managers of Adlershof Projekt GmbH, Hardy R. Schmitz and Gerhard W. Steindorf, to develop a concept for another part of the Strategic Area Southeast, the disused airport at Tempelhof.

Klaus Oberzig