Demolition, reconstruction and conversion since 1945

Soon after the end of World War II, the partial ruins above ground level began to be used on a temporary basis by companies from a variety of different sectors.

Most of the ruins were demolished in 1951. The property was divided and sold in 1955. The cleared former hall and garden complex was purchased by the Kreuzberg District Office. In 1959 the Richard-Weiss retirement home was built on the site.

The former Bockbrauerei site was taken over by the forwarding agent Walter Mann in 1955. The Albert Mann forwarding company was founded by Walter Mann’s father in 1918. It was the specialist in Berlin for transporting wine and spirits barrels which arrived at the Yorckstrasse freight depot and were put in temporary storage here in the former brewery cellars.

The vaulted cellars also housed a Senate Reserve stockpile of more than 50,000 litres of wine and spirits.

Walter Mann commissioned a number of construction projects in the years until 1958. Parts of the former stables were reconverted to garages, and a new warehouse was built on the site of the former brewery building. A single-storey office building was built to the west of this.

The chimney that had belonged to the former Schwankhalle, and which was still in use, had to be shortened by four metres in 1959 due to air safety concerns raised by the United States Air Force, because of its proximity to Tempelhof airport.

In the years leading up to 1960, additional parts of buildings were gradually rebuilt for new users. Many businesses moved in again. These included the wine distillery and liqueur factory Stück AG, the paper wholesale firm Johannes Klant, a roasting house and warehouse for Jacobs coffee, the liqueur factory Fugger, the automotive parts supplier Eberspächer, and for several years the wine wholesalers Habel, where Georg Leonard Hopf, the founder of the Bockbrauerei, had once been employed and began his life’s work over a century ago.