Turner Barracks

US forces represented the largest contingent among the Western Powers in Berlin and were largely accommodated in four barrack complexes. The smallest among these was Turner Barracks on the edge of the Hüttenweg housing aerea in Berlin-Dahlem. In 1951, barracks and repair shops for the sole US tank unit in Berlin, Company F, 40^th Armor, were constructed on a vacant lot in Grunewald Forest. While Turner Barracks was thus built specially, when it came to larger sites the USA relied on existing structures in Berlin: Andrews Barracks moved into the Prussian Main Military Academy from the early Wilhelmine era. For McNair Barracks, the Americans made use of the extensive building complex of the Telefunken works, whereas Roosevelt Barracks was housed in the buildings of the Prussian Guards Rifles Battalion.

Turner Barracks was named after Sergeant First Class Charles William Turner (1921–50), an American soldier who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military decoration for his service in the Korean War. Across from the barracks there was an AAFES garage complete with filling station for US personnel, and behind the barracks at Dachsberg there was an ammunition depot. In 1998, the barracks buildings were razed to make room for a new residential development.

The site

The residential complex at the “Am Petersberg” low energy development was a project of Gemeinnützige Heimstätten AG (GEHAG) and was primarily intended for German federal employees. The four-story urban villas were constructed in 1990 on a modular basis. Fifteen buildings are placed along five rows, thus providing more than one hundred residential units.

The site of the former American filling station is now home to a supermarket.

The route to the former ammunition depot first leaves the fenced in residential complex and then continues along the Am Petersberg path. The renaturalization of this area began in 1996. It is now designated as a protected zone and is surrounded by a dog exercise area.