Hans and Christel Nieske went through their emergency reception process in Kuno-Fischer-Strasse and at Kaiserdamm in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The Marienfelde reception center was not yet operating, but it opened a short time later – on April 14, 1953.
The Berlin Senate hoped that the establishment of the emergency reception center would improve the accommodations and arrival procedure for the GDR refugees. Instead of having provisional and overburdened reception centers scattered throughout the city, all services would be consolidated in Marienfelde. The center was built in the form of a housing estate.