Urban reconstruction 1954–1964
Urban Design
Eight- to ten-storey residential slab blocks in the social centre on Schillingstraße/corner of Karl-Marx-Allee
Image: Peter Garbe, 1966. Leibniz-Institut, Erkner/Wiss. Samml., Bildarchiv, Fotomappe Mitte
Boulevard and urban landscape
By order of Walter Ulbricht, selected GDR architects developed new urban development concepts in a 1958 competition. Their brief was to diverge from modern, western design principles.
The cooperative project by architects Edmund Collein and Werner Dutschke, with eight- to ten-story residential slab blocks in a rectangular layout, was chosen for implementation. It cleverly connects the continuation of the street to Alexanderplatz with a landscaped residential area for 15,000 people.
This project also earned praise from the West German daily press, which, on its completion, declared that “East Berlin [had] learned from West Berlin’s Hansaviertel district.”
Discover more about this topic in the following short films, the web stories:
Terraces, high-rise buildings, TV Tower: Plans for central Berlin
Formats: video/mp4
Industrial, rational, international: Bata City Zlín
Formats: video/mp4