Sagebiel planned a square encircled by buildings of similar heights except for the taller buildings at the airport entrance, and a promenade and series of waterfalls cascading down from the National Monument for the Liberation Wars on the Kreuzberg hill opposite, but his plan was not realised; in the late 1930s the area was a grassy half-circle. The square was given the name Platz der Luftbrücke on 25 June 1949 by Ernst Reuter, the then mayor, and landscaped with a sunken lawn, trees, flowers and a low hedge with an opening to frame the monument. This landscaping has changed several times since the 1950s.