Traffic school on Sachsendamm is about to end

By Johannes Malinowski

More than 1,000 elementary school students have been learning all this every month since the 1980s at the youth traffic school on Sachsendamm. The 4,500-square-meter, triangular area has belonged to furniture entrepreneur Kurt Krieger (74) for about 15 years.

But his company now wants to build a high-rise on the site and has terminated the lease with the youth traffic school in June.

“As the father of two little girls who are just learning to ride a bike, I’m really shocked,” says Peter Mair, local chairman of the CDU Innsbrucker Platz. “Without the youth traffic school on Sachsendamm, adequate traffic education in Schöneberg will hardly be possible.”

His harsh accusation against entrepreneur Krieger: Because he would not get a building permit for his high-rise building, he would leave scorched earth instead. “But wealthy entrepreneurs bear responsibility for society,” says Mair.

The Krieger company presents the situation differently. “We bought the property from the state of Berlin in order to build on it,” says Managing Director Edda Metz. The contract stipulates that the company must build a new youth traffic school and that the state of Berlin must provide a new plot of land.

“In order to support the district in its search for a property, we even commissioned our own employee,” says Metz. Proposed solutions were not right for the district.

In the end, you exercised your right to cancel. Metz: “We’re not driving the children away, it’s the district that hasn’t fulfilled its obligations.”

The district office is hoping for a solution. “Although the termination of the practice area is legally correct, I would be happy if the owner would extend the notice period in the interests of our children,” says school councilor Tobias Dollase (48, independent).

He emphasizes: “Suitable plots of land are scarce, but I am optimistic that we will find an opportunity.