{"id":20646,"date":"2022-05-23T10:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T08:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromplacetoplace.travel\/?p=20646"},"modified":"2023-06-22T10:32:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T08:32:47","slug":"siemensstadt-housing-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromplacetoplace.travel\/germany\/berlin\/siemensstadt-housing-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you know the \u201eLangen Jammer\u201c and the \u201ePanzerkreuzer\u201c?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I’ve been living in Siemensstadt for over 25 years now, but I haven’t really paid much attention to the architectural history of my neighborhood. Sure, I have seen tourist groups walking along here from time to time and I also know the signs on some rows of houses. But there must first be celebrated 100 years of Bauhaus, so that I then also realize, I live not only in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I even live in a Bauhaus building by Walter Gropius!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Between 1929 and 1930, the large housing estate Siemensstadt began to be built as an eastern extension of Spandau. The area outside the S-Bahn ring was to be used for social housing.
Hans Scharoun developed the urban planning concept. Well-known architects such as Walter Gropius, Otto Bartning, Hugo H\u00e4ring, Fred Forbat, Paul Rudolf Henning and also Scharoun himself each designed a block with 2-3 rows of houses of the new settlement. In addition, there was a landscape architect who was responsible for the design of the green spaces. The focus of the entire planning was the coexistence of residential city and open space\/green areas. The principle of “light, air, sun” was to be the focus of the planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the name suggests a connection with the nearby Siemenswerke, the corporation was not involved in the planning and these are not factory apartments. The settlement was created by a building program of the city of Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the National Socialist era, the architecture as it had been created in Siemensstadt was rejected. The architects were vilified and in some cases even banned from building. However, since the settlement was still very young, they did not want to demolish it. An attempt was made to make the buildings “invisible” by planting fast-growing trees. According to plans by Speer, Hitler’s favorite architect, monumental buildings were to be erected in Charlottenburg-North in the course of the urban redevelopment to “cover up the eyesore.” The only thing that came to fruition was a retirement home, which today has been converted into a residential building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2008, the settlement has been one of the six Berlin Modernist settlements on the UNESCO World Heritage List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you take the subway in the direction of Spandau (U7), it is best to get off at Siemensdamm station and take the Jungfernheideweg exit. If you go past the supermarket into Jungfernheideweg, you already enter the large housing estate Siemensstadt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the left and right of the street is a row of houses designed by Hans Scharoun. The building is somewhat reminiscent of naval architecture, with portholes and a bridge. The architect had in mind the positive image of seafaring: freedom, modernity, spaciousness\u2026 The vernacular rather picks up the martial tradition of seafaring with its designation armored cruiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scharoun was an architect (1893-1972) who is today considered a representative of organic architecture. He wanted to break away from prefabricated forms and develop buildings to fit their character of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n