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View of a high-rise building in Berlin's Hansaviertel, designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1957 as part of the Interbau international building exhibition.
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High-rise buildings in the Hansaviertel on the edge of the Tiergarten.
漏 visitBerlin, Foto: Angela Kröll
View of the Roman Catholic St. Ansgar Church in the Hansaviertel district.
The Hansaviertel in Berlin-Mitte is a prime example of modern architecture and urban planning in Berlin in the 1950s.
The Hansaviertel is still considered a showcase example of modern architecture. Where the district now stands between the S-Bahn line and the Tiergarten, there was mainly rubble and ruins after the Second World War. The heavily destroyed area was rebuilt in the 1950s as part of the International Building Exhibition. It was not only intended to provide new living space, but also to represent the idea of the city of tomorrow. The new Hansaviertel was the West German alternative to the tenements of Stalinallee that were being built in East Berlin.
The design of the Hansaviertel goes back to an urban planning competition held in 1953. Over 50 architects took part in the competition. In the end, a total of 35 buildings were realized. The architects involved in the reconstruction design were representatives of the "Neues Bauen" movement. The architects included Walter Gropius, Arne Jacobsen, Oscar Niemeyer, Hans Schwippert and Max Taut.
The buildings in the Hansaviertel each stand on their own. They have no connection to the neighboring buildings. The center of the quarter is Hansaplatz. Here there is a shopping arcade, a church, a cinema, a library and a kindergarten. The cinema is now a venue for the Grips Theater. A mixture of high-rise and low-rise buildings, interspersed with green spaces, has developed around Hansaplatz. The tower blocks in the Hansaviertel are particularly striking. The 16- or 17-storey buildings were created for social housing and blend in with the detached houses and apartment buildings.
In 1959 and 1960, the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) was built by Werner Düttmann in the Hansaviertel. The Akademie der Künste building in Hanseatenweg consists of three different parts that fulfill different functions.
漏 visitBerlin, Foto: Nele Niederstadt
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