Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Architecture
“Berlin is a new city; the newest I have ever seen,” remarked Mark Twain in
1891. A curious thing for an American to say, but the statement still rings
true. Certainly, by European standards the city is relatively young - founded
in the thirteenth century and only blossoming from the late sixteenth - but
it's the obliterating destruction of World War II that has made it so new. Few
buildings hark back to before this time (those that appear to are mostly
replicas), and the city has become a haven for modern architecture and
experimentation.
Prussia's imperial capital
A chronological tour of Berlin's architecture kicks off in the Nikolaiviertel, with the
medieval
Nikolaikirche
(see p.67). his is followed by the ornate Baroque buildings
of the seventeenth century - the best examples are the grand
Schloss Charlottenburg
(see p.153) and the
Brandenburg Gate
(see p.35). South of here, magnificent churches
with splendid domes stand on the
Gendarmenmarkt
(see p.47). hese and many other
buildings - such as the
Neue Wache
(see p.47) and the
Altes Museum
(see p.56) -
were later adorned by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), with his unmistakable
Neoclassical touch. As all these grand edifices were assembled, the industrial revolution
in Berlin's suburbs was leading to an explosion in the population: to combat the need
for housing a system of tenements around a series of courtyards was developed - the
Hackeschen Höfe
(see p.71) are a good example of this design.
he founding of the German empire in 1871 ushered in
Gründerzeit
architecture,
whose premise was largely to recycle earlier styles, and then to add ostentatious flourishes
- the
Reichstag
(see p.254) and the
Berliner Dom
(see p.54) are models of the style.
Modernism to Third Reich
As a backlash against all this nostalgia,
Modernism
arrived in Berlin in the early
twentieth century. Foremost among the Modernist architects was Peter Behrens
(1868-1940), who removed ornamentation and favoured glass, concrete and steel
building materials. One of the finest buildings from the period is Emil Fahrenkamp's
Shell-Haus
(see p.99). he Nazis brought any Modernist enterprises to an end,
preferring powerful-looking Neoclassical buildings for their
Third Reich
. An imposing
remodelling of Berlin was envisaged but defeat in the war scuppered the plans
- however a few Nazi buildings remain, including the magnificent
Tempelhof airport
(see p.124) and the
Olympic Stadium
(see p.158).
The divided city
Postwar town planners and architects on both sides of the divided city were presented
with a relatively blank canvas. East Berlin continued monumentalist traditions with
its enormous
Karl-Marx-Allee
(see p.130) housing schemes built in Stalin's favourite
Zuckerbäckstil
(wedding cake style), while its top project was the
Fernsehturm
(see p.62).
Meanwhile, planners in West Berlin did the opposite, in an effort to project a modern
yet sensitive image: the use of greenery around buildings was as important as the
architecture itself, as at the
Kongresshalle
(see p.103), and Scharoun's
Philharmonie
(see p.95). Prestige projects aside, both Berlins needed affordable housing and both
