Between 1936 and 1938, one of the first monumental Wehrmacht buildings of Nazi Germany arose upon the extensive site at the corner of the former Kronprinzenallee and Saargemünder Strasse. The building complex, which had been constructed according to plans drawn up by Fritz Fuss, housed the District Air Command (Luftgaukommando III) of the German Luftwaffe.

From 1945 onward, the USA first utilized this refurbished building, which had been freed from its Nazi symbols, as the headquarters of the US military government. Here, General Lucius D. Clay had his office. Clay served as the supreme commander of American forces in Europe and as military governor of Germany. He was also a central figure in the Airlift that supplied West Berlin during the Soviet blockade of 1948/49. On June 1, 1949, in recognition of his services, upon a decision by the Berlin Senate and in the presence of mayor Ernst Reuter, Kronprinzenallee was renamed Clayallee – an extraordinary honor for a person who, at this point, was still alive. Starting on May 12, 1979, the 30th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Blockade and just over a year after Clay’s death, the site also took his name and was thenceforth known as General Lucius D. Clay Headquarters.

Following the end of the military government in 1949, various agencies set up offices on the nearly eight hectare site – the most significant of these included the office of the US city commander, the staff of the Berlin Brigade (the name the US Army in Berlin called itself beginning in 1961) as well as the US Mission, which served as the diplomatic representation of the United States in West Berlin and was joined to a consulate. With the end of German division, portions of the headquarters were vacated. Finally, it was abandoned completely in 1994. All that remains of the US installation is merely the embassy’s consular division.