Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
or government quarter; it's also the location of Berlin's new space-age
Hauptbahnhof
train station. But a lot is still missing on a human scale, with visitors left to potter
across huge empty plazas in front of giant buildings. he only exception to this is
alongside the Spree where a new hangout of sorts is emerging as deck chairs colonize
its banks and bars and cafés do a brisk trade, making it a pleasant place to while away
an hour or two in the summer as boats cruise by.
Before the war this part of town was known as the
Alsenviertel
, an area of luxurious
apartments that overlooked Königsplatz and a much shorter Siegessäule, which stood
midway between the Reichstag and the Kroll Opera House, until it was moved to its
present position (see p.102) to make way for a planned “Great Hall of the People”.
his giant structure, loosely based on Rome's Pantheon, was to be the centrepiece
of Hitler and Speer's World Capital Germania, with an unfeasibly large cupola that
would have been impossible to build with the technology of the time. In reality, the
war gutted and largely levelled the area, its proximity to the East Berlin border
deterring any redevelopment. West Berliners would come here to barbecue or learn
to drive in empty lots, while boats from the East - mainly Polish freighters delivering
coal to West Berlin's power stations - sailed through the only river checkpoint; all
were meticulously scanned underwater for possible escapees.
Regierungsviertel
New and strikingly well-designed modern buildings form Berlin's
Regierungsviertel
(government quarter), a district built largely in the 1990s to give the German Federal
government a home. Here structures straddle the Spree, symbolically linking East and
West; are connected to one another, underlining the correlation of government; and are
designed to be accessible and transparent, as a metaphor for the need for openness of
government. hese design concepts are best appreciated, in the first instance, by getting
an overview from the top of the Reichstag (see p.37).
Jakob-Kaiser-Haus
he Regierungsviertel's biggest but least attention-grabbing building is
administrative
Jakob-Kaiser-Haus
,
immediately east of the Reichstag, whose
1750 o
ces make it one of Europe's largest o
ce blocks. However, despite its size,
it avoids becoming too monstrous or monotonous by following Berlin's traditional
courtyard principle - almost creating a neighbourhood - and by integrating well
into its surroundings.
Paul-Löbe-Haus and Maria-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus
he o
ces and conference rooms of the
Paul-Löbe-Haus
and
Maria-Elisabeth-Lüders-
Haus
lie
just north of the Reichstag and west and east of the Spree respectively.
Symbolically joined to one another via a footbridge across the river and over the former
East-West border, both were designed by Stefan Braunfels and completed in 2001.
Of note are the large windows that form part of the buildings' energy-e
cient heating
system by collecting heat - along with the roof - while interior ceilings double as
cooling mechanisms.
Bundeskanzleramt
With its comb-like layout, the Paul-Löbe-Haus plays on design themes in the
imposing
Bundeskanzleramt
(Federal Chancellery), opposite. A pet project of Helmut
Kohl, it was cleverly designed by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank to contain subtle
references to Le Corbusier and Luis Kahn in the studied detailing and structure. he
centrepiece is a nine-storey white cube - earning the building the nickname “the
washing machine” - which contains the chancellor's accommodation. Originally
the building was to be connected with Paul-Löbe-Haus, to reinforce the symbolic
relationship between chancellor, administration and parliament, but the project ran
