Frankfurter Tor 1 (at the north west of the square), Frankfurter Tor 9 (at the south west of the square)
Construction period: 1955–1960
Architecture: collective Hermann Henselmann
Recognisable tower crown
The residential and commercial buildings at the rectangular square of Frankfurter Tor were built to Henselmann’s designs.
The impressive highlight on the square is formed by the two tower buildings at the confluence of the main street – just like the high-rises on Strausberger Platz. They all shape Berlin’s silhouette.
The cubic structures with nine residential floors stand head and shoulders above the surrounding block perimeter buildings. Their slender tambours (cylindrical elements) with domes reference the Classicist architecture in the Berlin’s city centre: Gontard’s domes added to the German and French cathedrals on Gendarmenmarkt in 1786, which in turn served as models for Hoffmann’s 1911 town house.
The glazed tambours, the substructures of the domes, were originally to serve as common areas or fitness rooms for the building’s residents. However, they were never used for those purposes.