Architecture

 

     

From The Baroque to Classicism

See the Architecture of the old masters from Andreas Schlüter to Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the historic Berlin City Centre.

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours

   
     

The Diplomats’ Quarter in Berlin-Tiergarten: walking tour

Before the Second World War, many embassies were located in the area west of Potsdamer Platz and just south of the Park Tiergarten. During the Second World War almost all buildings were destroyed and all diplomatic representatives settled in the new West German capital of Bonn or in East Berlin. After the Wall came down the area was redeveloped as an Embassy Quarter. See the fascinating architecture of the different Embassies

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours.

   
     

New Architecture in the Government Quarter

In the past years many governmental buildings were built along the banks of the Spree river. According to a design by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank the modern buildings bring East and West together. Here you will find the Reichstag building, the Federal Chancellery and additional buildings of the German Parliament: Paul-Löbe-Haus, Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus and Jakob-Kaiser-Haus


Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours

   
     

Architecture around Potsdamer Platz: walking tour

During the mid 90s this was one of the largest construction sites in Europe. Experience the architecture of Berlin's new centre at the seam between East and West exactly where the Wall used to be at Potsdamer Platz and neighbouring Leipziger Platz

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours

   
     

Internationale Bauausstellung IBA Berlin '84-'87 (International Building Exhibition)

In the 1980s, Berlin became a field of experimentation for internationally renowned architects. The concept of “Critical Reconstruction” was drawn up to redevelop selected areas in Berlin that had been devastated in the Second World War. For the first time, an effort was made to integrate residents into the planning process

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours

   
     

Socialist architecture at Karl-Marx-Allee and the INTERBAU building exhibition in the “Hansaviertel”

The large-scale project of residential buildings with retail shops on the ground floor that were lined up on Karl-Marx-Allee (the former „Stalinallee“) in East Berlin in the course of the 1950s is under a preservation order today. Socialist urban planning aimed to provide every luxury for the residents here. The „Hansaviertel“ in the Tiergarten park was the response of the West Berlin city authorities. Internationally renowned architects realized new approaches of an “Open City” in the „Hansaviertel“ quarter which had been devastated in the Second World War

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours

   
     

Prefabricated buildings and mass housing estates: coach tour  

Following the initial phase of rebuilding after the Second World War, cities in both parts of Germany were redesigned according to contemporary ideas of functional zoning and the need for high density housing. In the 1970s and 1980s, the GDR built the largest connected prefabricated mass housing estate of Europe in East Berlin. Three new districts were thus created at the outskirts of the city: Marzahn, Hellersdorf and Hohenschönhausen. In West Berlin, some mass housing estates were built as well

Duration: approx. 2 to 3 hours