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Departure into the modern age

The Hansaviertel and the exhibition Interbau in 1957

The Hansaviertel was an upper-class residential area destroyed during the war. Its redevelopment was highly symbolic. West Berlin hoped to demonstrate an international outlook, modernity and economic stability. The architect Hans Scharoun devised a development plan dispersing the quarter with green spaces. In this context, expropriations took place – also affecting heirs and descendants of victims and survivors of the Shoah.

The city invited renowned architects from fourteen countries to the international exhibition Interbau in 1957, to heal “a wound of the war“ and to set “an example of “modern reconstruction“.

Hansaviertel

Plan giving an overview of the buildings of renowned architects in the Hansaviertel, state of planning: 16 April 1955, scale: 1:200

Commissioned by the Berlin Senator for Construction and Housing, blueprint

Taken over from the district office for structural engineering in Tiergarten before 1990