History & Development

On its establishment on 17th April 1953 the foundation secured office space in Ring Stasse in Friedenau, a ground floor apartment. Through good teamwork between associations and senate departments 13,000 refugee children were able to participate in holiday games the same year. 20,000 old and infirm people were taken on “coffee excursions to the countryside". The foundation donated books and newspapers to the refugee camps and supplied the children's day-centres in new emergency processing centres with furniture and baby clothes.

June 17th 1953 Bloody defeat of the uprising in the GDR and East Berlin by the Red Army. The foundation supported the victims of the uprising.September 29th 1953Ernst Reuter died at home from a heart attack.1954 The introduction of the Federal Expellee Law on July 5th 1953 in Berlin enabled faster and improved economic and social integration of refugees.

On the advice of the American friends the foundation created a homestead for young fugitives with opportunities to study and make apprenticeships in Berlin. A suitable place was sought in the Berlin district of Wedding, a district which had always been close to Ernst Reuter's heart.April 1st 1959Acceptance of the Ernst Reuter Archives by the Ernst Reuter Society. June 20th 1960Laying of the foundation stone of the Ernst Reuter Home offering 415 living spaces with showers, wash rooms and toilets, as well as tea kitchens.

April 16th 1961 Inauguration and naming through the Governing Mayor Willy Brandt and the Commander of the American sector in Berlin, General Ralph M. Osborne.August 13th 1961Construstion of the “Berliner Mauer”. September 28th 1962Laying of the foundation stone of the Paul Hertz Home. Dr. Paul Hertz was the Senator for economy and credit and Chief Executive on the supervisory board of the Bürgermeister Reuter Stiftung. 

December 4th 1963 Completion of the Paul Hertz Home. November 16th 1964 Topping-out ceremony of the Paul Fleischmann Home, another workers’ living quarter with 532 spaces. Finalized on 28. October 1966. Paul Fleischmann was the president of the employment office between 1952-1957. Along with Paul Hertz, he strove towards the assertion of the emergency program. 1965 Owing to the high value placed on the historical material of the Ernst Reuter Archive, it became clear that its storage in the house in which he died was not secure enough and it was therefore relocated to the national archives in Berlin. 

May 25th 1967 Topping-out ceremony of the Walter May Student House. May 18th 1968 Naming ceremony after Walter May, a member of the Supervisory Board for national education and close co-worker of Ernst Reuter.