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What can be made out of real estate?

The Red Houses

Until the late 19th century, only those who owned a house and land were able to run for election for the city council assembly in Berlin. Therefore, the resourceful Social Democrat Hugo Heimann commissioned eight terraced houses for his plot on Prinzenallee 46 in 1901 and signed them over to his fellow party members. The so-called Red Houses enabled his comrades, including Karl Liebknecht, Eduard Bernstein and Paul Singer, to successfully run for election.

Alfred Breslauer was a widely discussed architect while he worked in his profession, yet he is largely forgotten nowadays. He was seen as a traditionalist among the architects of the modern era. He added stylistic quotations from Prussian late Baroque and early Classicism to his buildings. Tradition was combined with modernity. The idea behind the houses that resembled cottages was to create atmosphere and ambiance. Inside, however, they largely served the needs of modern life.

Model of the so-called Red Houses, Prinzenallee 46a to 46h in Berlin-Wedding, built in 1901, demolished in 1960, Scale 1:1000

Model built by: UNIKAT Hentrich 2021