The Hansa Quarter is just a few steps away on foot from the Gro\u00dfer Stern and the Siegess\u00e4ule. Visually, there is a “wild jumble” of buildings that do not fit together. The fact that these buildings were designed by well-known architects and why they were built there is a special story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
History of the Hansa Quarter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the 18th century, the “Sch\u00f6neberger Wiesen” were still undeveloped floodplains. But quite quickly the area developed into a middle-class Berlin residential area. In 1874, the Berlin-Hamburger Immobilien-Gesellschaft began to develop the area, and thus the Hansa Quarter was “born”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city railway, which was built from 1877-1882, connected the Hansa Quarter with the city centre. At the same time, it divided the area into two sections. On long narrow plots of land, residential buildings were erected in street-side development. These houses were representative, had small front gardens and were divided into front and back houses with small inner courtyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the nineties of the 19th century, the development was largely completed. In 1895, the Votivkirche Kaiser-Friedrich-Ged\u00e4chniskirche was consecrated. A Catholic church was built in Altonaer Strasse in 1926. There were also two synagogues in the Hansa Quarter. The proportion of the Jewish population was quite high compared to other areas of Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Destruction of the Hansa Quarter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
During the National Socialist dictatorship, the Hansa Quarter changed increasingly. During the Night of Broken Glass on 9 November 1938, the synagogues in the quarter were destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speer’s plans to transform Berlin into the Reich capital Germania also affected the Hansa Quarter. To make room for Aryan tenants from a demolition area, Speer ordered the “de-Jewification” of the quarter in 1941. When massive air raids were carried out by the Allied Air Force in March and November, about two-thirds of the Hansa Quarter was destroyed. Of 343 residential buildings, just 70 largely survived the destruction by the bombs and fire. The churches were also destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, attempts were made to divide the remaining flats, which had originally been built very large, into smaller units in order to provide accommodation for as many people as possible. The housing shortage was so great that the Tiergarten district wanted to organise a competition for reconstruction in 1951, but the Berlin Senate did not approve. It put a stop to building in the entire Hansa Quarter, and so valuable land lay fallow. It was not until 1953 that the Senate itself announced a competition for ideas for the reconstruction of the Hansa Quarter and declared the area the centre of the International Building Exhibition Interbau. This was to take place in Berlin in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reconstruction of the Hansa Quarter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
On 25 ha, 1300 residential units, a library, two churches, a day-care centre, a primary school and a shopping centre were built in a relatively short time. More than 50 world-renowned architects from 14 countries were involved in the planning of the buildings. Generous green spaces were laid out by ten landscape planners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Different building types were created: Point skyscrapers and four-storey rows of flats on the S-Bahn curve, disc skyscrapers with 8 to 9 storeys, flat atrium and angle houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the opening of the Interbau, only a good third of the buildings had been completed; the remaining buildings followed by the beginning of the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tour through the Hansa Quarter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My tour begins at the Hansa Quarterl shopping centre. Here, the former cinema is now home to the well-known youth theatre GRIPS. The selection of shops is rather limited. A few years ago there was definitely more going on here, today it looks very run down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bartningallee<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Directly behind the shopping centre in Bartningallee are the point skyscrapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here the architects Luciano Baldessari (no.5), Johannes Hendrik van den Broek and Jacob Berend Bakema (no.7), Gustav Hassenpflug (no.9), Raymond Lopez and Eug\u00e8ne Beaudouin (no.11-13), Hans Schwippert (no.16) built their buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n