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Sightseeing
Architecture
Architecture in Berlin
Berlin is a city of social and architectural experimentation. Starting with Prussia's famous master builders, such as Schinkel, Langhans and Knobelsdorff, to the architects who worked here after the Wall came down. Their names, from Alvar Aalto to Peter Zumthor, read like a "who's who" of contemporary architecture.
Since 1996 the architecture office arranges individual tours for groups with main focus on contemporary architecture in Berlin and offers access to outstanding buildings in the city.
Panorama-b offers architecture tours by foot, limousine or bus around the multi-faceted cultural landscape of Berlin and Potsdam.
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As a consequence of industrialisation and population growth since the mid-19th century, new city quarters were erected in and around the city's historical centre. These quarters replaced suburbs such as the Spandauer or Rosenthaler suburbs and today still continue to embrace the inner city. Planning was rooted in the "Hobrecht Plan" (1862). Urban apartment blocks, typical for Berlin, were built within the urban rail circle; these apartment blocks featured noble front buildings and densely built yard buildings. Examples of more middleclass Gründerzeit quarters can be found around Kurfürstendamm in Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Neukölln in the south-east and Prenzlauer Berg, Moabit and Wedding in the north are where the more proletarian tenements are to be found. After the war came to an end, the main task of urban development was to rebuild a city that stood in ruins on both sides. Efforts in the west focused on the areas around Zoologischer Garten and the Kulturforum. The competition in 1947/48 titled "Around the Zoo" was the starting point for the reshaping of warravaged Breitscheidplatz. The so-called Ermisch Plan laid down traffic and building lines. In 1950, the "Zoo district development plan" was adopted and began 1956/57 with the "Zentrum am Zoo". The Kulturforum was built in the 1950s based on concepts by Hans Scharoun right next to the border to east Berlin in the former Tiergarten district. After 1870, this quarter had become a popular residential area for citizens and artists. During the war, the Tiergarten district was largely destroyed. Only the church of St. Matthäus on today's Kulturforum pays tribute to the historical architecture.
Even though the destruction of war and the many years as a divided city meant that Berlin had the unique opportunity after the wall came down to completely re-design entire quarters and building ensembles in central city districts, architecturally exciting projects have also been implemented at different locations as solitary urban jewels.
Bauhaus-Archiv
Ludwig-Erhard building
Convex high-rise building disc, extension to the GSW headquarters designed in the 1960s by Paul Schwebes, designed as a low-energy building. With its double-layer convection facade with colourful blinds that automatically change colour, this building is a true urban landmark.
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Berlin's history is reflected in architecture: The Gründerzeit buildings of the late 19th century when Berlin's population exploded in just a few years, the functionality of New Objectivity in the 1920s, the totalitarian architectural style of the Nazis and the architecture of the post-war era that documents the division and competition between the political systems of east and west in the divided city. After the Wall came down, Berlin had a historically unique opportunity and challenge to revive the lost and forgotten centre and to merge the two sides of a city that had been divided for decades. 15 years after reunification, Berlin is still not "finished". However, the "New Berlin" is already clearly visible in the newly designed Pariser Platz, Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz, and in the revived Friedrichstraße. The role as capital city has strongly shaped the city's recent development: The new government and embassy district with the federal government buildings, new and refurbished embassy buildings, the representation buildings of the federal states, institutions and organizations. New projects are being planned or have already been implemented: the new design for Alexanderplatz, the central train station, the new "Zoo Window", the banks of the river Spree or the restoration of Museum Island. 
The Hohenzollern dynasty added a very special splendour to Berlin - Prussia's glory was to be reflected in urban development. Places like Gendarmenmarkt, the most beautiful square in the city, create an almost Italian flair on the banks of the river Spree. The unmatched ensemble of buildings on Museum Island is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The names of famous master builders - first and foremost, Schinkel, Langhans, von Knobelsdorff, Stüler and Nering - have strong ties with Berlin. Their architectural masterpieces between Frederickian Baroque and Classicism mark the city's landscape and impress us with their all-encompassing beauty. 
The eastern part of the city also saw extensive destruction caused during the war. Initial planning in 1945 was not yet marked by the east-west conflict. The reconstruction programme by a commission chaired by Scharoun foresaw repair, new construction and drastic demolition programmes. East Berlin became the capital city of the Soviet sector, and the Soviet Embassy was the one of the largest representative buildings to be erected, a model for the strong Neo-Classicist reference of new representative buildings. The re-creation of Stalinallee was an attempt to implement this ideal on a large scale. The capital city of the GDR was under considerable pressure to perform and later ordered a realistic architecture of socialism which to a certain extent still expressed the tradition of Bauhaus and the Weimar Republic. Between 1955 and 1970, a time of industrialisation of the construction sector, the trend towards industrialised building with pre-fabricated parts came out on top.
Its new dome has become the symbol of the Berlin Republic: The Reichstag building, erected from 1884 to 1894 and designed by Paul Wallot and later converted by Lord Norman Foster, is not only the seat of Germany's Bundestag. This building with its cleverly designed dome structure has also become a symbol for the upright understanding between state and society and at the same time a magnet that attracts visitors in their thousands to the new capital city. On 20 June 1991, the German Bundestag decided to make Berlin the capital city of a united Germany and the seat of government and parliament. This was followed by a Bundestag resolution on 29 October 1991 to once again use the Reichstag building as the seat of parliament. The "Spreebogen" to the north of the Reichstag building was chosen as the central location for the new federal government buildings. The winner of a once-off urban development competition was the "Band des Bundes" (Federal government river walk) put forward by architects Schultes and Frank which crosses the river Spree at two points and not only connects the Federal Chancellor's Office to the offices of the parliamentary representatives in Paul-Löbe building, but also forms a visual bridge between the two parts of the city in east and west Berlin that had been separated for 40 years.
The urban development transformation of Berlin to Germany's capital city took place in three very different city districts - in Moabit, Tiergarten and Mitte. New homes had to be found for the federal government and parliament, for ministries, federal-state representative offices and embassies. Apart from using and converting existing buildings, an enormous number of new buildings and representative buildings have been added to Berlin's urban fixtures in recent years, a very compendium of contemporary architecture with its many different personal styles. The new embassy buildings and federal-state representations display a particularly diverse range of styles where regional elements of style and building materials have a strong role to play in the architecture.
After reunification, Germany had the unique opportunity to rebuild a complete city district in the heart of the city. In 1991, architects Hilmer and Sattler won the "Potsdamer Platz / Leipziger Platz urban design competition". Their concept was based on the model of the "European city" which consciously opted for dense high-rise structures. In 1993, work began on the buildings for the DaimlerChrysler quarter based on the master plan by Piano and Kohlbecker. This was performed by top international architects, such as Piano, Rogers and Isozaki. On the biggest construction site in Europe, a new urban centre was built from scratch in five years. Helmut Jahn's Sony Center with its futuristic flair, which was completed in 2000, strongly contrasts with the DaimlerChrysler quarter. Early in 2004, the noble Beisheim Center was opened at Lenné-Dreieck.
GSW headquarters
