Style change II 1954–1969
Planning History
First high-rise residential slab block of construction type Q P under construction (right: Haus Berlin on Strausberger Platz)
Image: Schmidt, 1960. Leibniz-Institut, Erkner/Wiss. Samml., Berlin-Mitte, Sign. D1-1-1-16A-007
Dialogue with the Soviet Union
After Stalin’s death in March 1953, the Workers’ Uprising of 17 June shook the GDR state system. The following year, Stalin’s successor Khrushchev stimulated a transition to industrialised building and publicly denounced Stalin in 1956. This paradigm shift unsettled the GDR leadership.
Hermann Henselmann, Berlin’s new Chief Architect, almost succeeded in pushing through his radically modern design for the continuation of Karl-Marx-Allee to Alexanderplatz. However, Walter Ulbricht felt blindsided by this initiative and in 1958 rejected the design as a “copy of the Hansaviertel district in West Berlin”.
Discover more about this topic in the following short films, the web stories:
West Berlin responds: Interbau 1957
Formats: video/mp4
Planning together? The Fennpfuhl competition: a test case
Formats: video/mp4