Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

We now cross the area of new buildings with the "Berlin Townhouses" on the Friedrichswerder, ending up at Kurstraße. The small-scale construction is orientated on the historical urban ground plan. This should become a lively part of the city, combining urban offerings with attractive inner-city residential possibilities. The revival of the inner city also results in an improvement of the utilisation of the urban-technical infrastructure with a responsible use of resources. The residents of the model "Berlin Townhouses" have realised houses and gardens according to their personal conceptions. Two as yet unnamed parks have been under construction since April 2007 along the street on about 1.2 hectares of land. The landscape architect Gabriele G. Kiefer, Berlin designed the areas with great sensitivity. She works with a few clearly formed elements of the low-cut hedge and the grey granite band in the context with spacious lawns and tree plantings. Both parks will surely be important for the residential areas and the employees of the adjoining office buildings, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The installation of the restored Spindlerbrunnen and a children's playground is being newly designed along with the construction of the parks.

We are now passing by the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs (designed by the architects Müller/Reimann) towards Spittelmarkt. We arrive at Petriplatz over the old Gertraudenbrücke. This is where the old Petri Church once stood; the founding date of Berlin is based upon the first official mention of the church in 1237. At least three different churches were built here over the course of time, the last of which was taken down between 1960 and 1964. Archaeological excavations have revealed traces of Alt-Cölln, one of the buried original sites of the medieval twin city of Berlin-Cölln. The basement walls of the Petri Church and the City Hall are still underground, as are the graves of the oldest residents of Cölln. The plans for the area around Petriplatz are part of an overall concept for Berlin's inner city. The aim of these plans is to increase the value of the inner city in its manifold functions, thereby also increasing its virtues as a residential area. Petriplatz, hardly recognisable today, will receive an architectural framework. New residential and office buildings will create spatial borders onto the parking lot and street areas, also giving it a new "face".

The area between Schloßplatz and Gertraudenstraße developed into a business district with a high residential proportion over the centuries. The street lines, however, hardly changed. The Breite Straße received its name at the beginning of the 18th century when it was Berlin's widest street.

From Petriplatz we now approach the Brüderstraße. It counts as one of Berlin's oldest streets and received its name towards the end of the 13th century after the Dominican monastery that stood here at that time. Going past the Provincial Representatives of Saxony, we turn back to the Spree Canal. The Friedrichsgracht has been newly designed, forming and depicting the former Mühlengraben in its floor surfacing. The building of the former Privy Council of the GDR, built for purposes of representation in 1964 and short-term office residence of the Federal Chancellor after the Reunification as well, was renovated 2004/05 for historical preservation and has since then been used by the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT).

We now continue on to the Werderscher Markt with the Bauakademie and Schinkelplatz to the north in front. The square bore this name from 1867 to 1965 until it disappeared from the urban view with the superstructure of the Foreign Ministry of the GDR. After the building was torn down, Schinkelplatz was at first only provisionally redesigned in its contours in 1996. According to the historical model and with the participation of the Provincial Monument Bureau, the square is to be reconstructed with a fountain and statues of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Peter Christian Wilhelm Beuth and Albrecht Thaer. Schinkel's Bauakademie has been missing since 1962 when the GDR government decided to tear down the building which had been partially destroyed during the war. The "Pattern Corner" built in 2001 by the handicrafts training depart ment offers a glimpse of how the Bauakademie, built 1832 to 1836, Prussia's most important secular brick building and a pathfinder for modern tendencies, must have looked at one time.

An exhibition façade was completed by the International Bauakademie Association, Berlin, in August 2004. This act is intended to attract attention to the reconstruction of the Schinkel Bauakademie, which is to be modelled after the original as closely as possible and must meet the highest standards. The utilisation concept intends to make the Academy a lively place of architecture once again.