art:berlin - Berlin – Two models city - Die Karl-Marx-Allee 1949-69
Incentive
The significance of the IBA project in the Hansa Quarter only becomes fully apparent in view of the parallelism with the representative building activity along the old Große Frankfurter Straße, 1949-61 Stalinallee, since then Karl-Marx-Allee, which was the responsibility of the Magistrate of Greater Berlin. Here, the desire to build "palaces for workers" became a rallying cry, hygienic, comfortable and social housing for all executed in the highest quality craftsmanship. The second phase of construction corrected this aesthetic dedicated to the national spirit of reconstruction in favor of a strictly modern, internationally understood industrial building style. The architectural collectives involved never achieved the heroic status of their Western counterparts, but the remarkable works of Richard Paulick, Josef Kaiser and Hermann Henselmann nevertheless belong to the heritage of German architectural history.
in cooperation with the Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design
Further details
