Government Precinct Tour
Federal Ministry of Justice
Bundesministerium der Justiz
Federal Ministry of Justice
Mohrenstraße 36-37 (main entrance), Jerusalemerstraße 24-28, Kronenstraße 41
10117 Berlin
Postal address:
11015 Berlin
The ensemble of buildings that make up the Federal Ministry of Justice is situated close to Gendarmenmarkt square in the heart of the area that once housed Berlin's ready-made clothing industry. The ensemble consists of buildings from very different periods that have been supplemented by a new building designed by the Düsseldorf architectural practice of Eller + Eller and moulded into a coherent complex.
The Mohren colonnades in front of the Prausenhof (1912-14) form the main entrance to the ministry. They were built in 1787 to plans by Carl Gotthard Langhans as part of a bridge over the moat.
The first courtyard in the Prausenhof, which now has a glass roof, is the centre of the complex and is used for representational purposes. Transparent façades afford a view of the Casinohof courtyard, which also has a roof, and of the new circular conference room in the courtyard of the adjoining new building to the west. This has replaced the Stern Building, designed by Carl Bauer around the turn of the 20th century, which was converted between 1973 and 1977 to house the GDR Press Office. All that remains of the original building is the art nouveau façade on Mohrenstraße that was designed by Otto Rieth. The new building erected behind it after 1999 has an austere glazed façade looking out on Kronenstraße.
The Prausenhof was built by Ludwig Otte for the commercial judge, Oswald Prause, shortly before the First World War. It later accommodated the GDR Patent Office, which also used the building erected in 1897 to house Nagel's department store.
The block is rounded off on Jersualemer Straße by an eight-storey building started in GDR times. Its six-storey wings reach into Kronenstraße and Mohrenstraße and fill in the gap with the neighbouring buildings. A shell that already stood in the courtyard was heightened and used for the cube that now accommodates the library and parts of the collection of historical legal documents.
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Images:
Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung (2)
Reiner Elsen
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