Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
German Democratic Republic-era building on Karl-Marx-Allee
JOHN FREEMAN/GETTY IMAGES ©
A Tale of Two Cities
Even before the Wall was built in 1961, the clash of ideologies and economic systems
between East and West also found expression in the architectural arena.
East Berlin
East Germans looked to Moscow, where Stalin favoured a style that was essentially a social-
ist reinterpretation of good old-fashioned neoclassicism. The most prominent East German
architect was Hermann Henselmann, the brains behind the Karl-Marx-Allee (called Stalinal-
lee until 1961) in Friedrichshain. Built between 1952 and 1965, it was East Berlin's show-
case 'socialist boulevard' and, with its Moscow-style 'wedding-cake buildings', the epitome
of Stalin-era pomposity. It culminates at Alexanderplatz, the central square that got a dis-
tinctly socialist makeover in the 1960s.
