Karl-Marx-Allee

As a large urban development from the post-war period, Karl-Marx-Allee, together with the Hansaviertel in the west of Berlin, represents building in two political systems. Like few other streets in Berlin, it illustrates the city’s eventful history in the context of different ideologies. The East-West Magistrale was always more than an ordinary street: a demonstration of socialist urban planning, a playing field for experimental construction, a site of large-scale military marches and popular protests. During the guided tour you will have the opportunity to get to know the most famous section, the houses in the “Gingerbread Style” between Frankfruter Tor and Strausberger Platz – with the buildings by Hermann Henselmann and Ludmilla Herzenstein and the Café Sibylle. However, the tour also includes the so-called “second construction phase” between Strausberger Platz and Alexanderplatz. It bears impressive witness to the transformation of the GDR regime in the 1960s towards socialist modernity. This part of Karl-Marx-Allee is characterised by simple eight to ten-storey apartment buildings in prefabricated slab construction and striking solitary buildings such as the Café Moskau restaurant and the Kino International.

HIGHLIGHTS
Towards post-war modernism? Politics shape urban developments from Gingerbread Style to Modernism
Life on the grand boulevard An avenue to Moscow
Collective planning A competition behind closed doors

Project selection

Frankfurter Tor Hermann Henselmann
Kino Kosmos Josef Kaiser und Heinz Aust
Arcade House Ludmilla Herzenstein
Café Sybille
Highrise at Weberwiese Hermann Henselmann
Strausberger Platz
Kino International Josef Kaiser und Heinz Aust

Duration approx. 2.5 h