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Berlin Housing Estates of the 1920s - on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Wohnstadt Carl Legien
Head of a block of U-shaped flats with preserved windows, in 2005
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Colours restored in 2004 according to findings, in 2005 |
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Erich-Weinert-Straße, in 2005 |
The Carl Legien Housing Estate was named after the first chairman of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund [German General Trade Unions Association] founded in 1919.
Of all six settlements, it offers the strongest contrast to the densely built housing estates of the Wilhelminian Era. Not by pure chance: it is the settlement located closest to the city centre. Accordingly, property prices are high and the population is dense.
Taut, therefore, placed emphasis on a concentrated multi-storey construction and designed a metropolitan settlement with four- to five-storey houses. In exemplary fashion, he used the street grid from the Hobrecht plan to prove the superiority of his new architecture to the traditional urban tenement development, even on its own ground.
Taut designed rows of houses, fringes of blocks and garden spaces in a semiopen space arrangement. The individual flats clearly orientate themselves away from the street and towards the back gardens crossing Erich-Weinert-Straße. This is emphasised by the use of colour: the fronts facing the streets are painted a sunny yellow, which optically broadens the narrow streets, while the backyards form colour schemes of their
own.
Settlement details
| Location |
District of Pankow, subdistrict of Prenzlauer Berg
Prenzlauer Allee City Railway station |
| Streets |
Erich-Weinert-Straße, Georg-Blank-Straße, Gubitzstraße, Küselstraße, Lindenhoekweg, Sodtkestraße, Sültstraße, Trachtenbrodtstraße |
| Total Area |
8.4 ha [20.76 acres] |
| Number of Flats |
1,149 |
| Flat Sizes |
1 ½ to 4 ½ rooms (80 per cent thereof with max. 2 rooms) [excluding kitchen and bathroom] |
| Constructed |
1928 to 1930 |
| Urban Design |
Bruno Taut |
| Architects |
Bruno Taut, Franz Hilinger |
| Landscape Architect |
Unknown, presumably Bruno Taut |
| Building Owner |
GEHAG Gemeinnützige Heimstätten-Spar- und Bau-AG |
| Reconstruction / Modernisation |
From the middle of the 90s until 2004, based on inspections for historic preservation |
| Owner in 2012 |
Prelios Immobilien Management GmbH [Real Estate Company] |
| Owner in 2006 |
BauBeCon Immobilien GmbH [Real Estate Company] |
| Tenants in 2006 |
1,200 |
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District of Pankow
Aerial photo
Settlement boulevard, in 2005
Red backyard with wide balconies, in 2005
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