The Berlin High-Rise: An Urban Planning Debate

Is Berlin becoming a European metropolis? There are currently around 300 high-rise buildings in Berlin. Berlin high-rise buildings have a height from 22m to an average of 100m. The building authorities note that high-rise buildings are clearly defined in the Berlin building regulations: high-rise buildings are buildings where the floor of at least one of the living space areas is located more than 22m above the defined ground surface. The reason for this is that Berlin block development of the late 19th century predominately consists of 6 floors with a gutter height of 18 to 20m. Compared to other German high-rise buildings such as the Commerzbank high-rise in Frankfurt am Main (approx. 300m) or the twin towers in Kuala Lumpur (450m), Berlin high-rise buildings seem rather like truncated giants.

High-rise buildings define the image and ambience of a modern metropolis. The German city most well-known for its high-rise buildings is Frankfurt am Main, also referred to as Mainhattan because of its high-rise skyline. It is one of the few German cities that has a strategic plan for high-rise buildings, permitting them primarily in the banking district. Berlin has witnessed a great deal of construction and the high-rise plays a crucial role in planning for the city. Yet how and where should new high-rise buildings be permitted in a polycentric city with many urban planning dislocations? What local value do high-rise buildings have in the urban planning development of Berlin? Do high-rise buildings lend an urban accent to Berlin? To answer these questions, it is necessary to look at the history of Berlin high-rise buildings and the debate about them.

The History of High-Rise Buildings

The history of Berlin high-rises is simultaneously the history of the debate with respect to urban planning, architectonic, functional, and political development. Measured against the first high-rise buildings in America starting from 1880, high-rise construction in Berlin was late off the mark due to tight building control regulations and Prussian authorities. The first designs for high-rise buildings appeared in 1910 as part of the Greater-Berlin competition, followed by concepts for Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Strasse.

In 1920, the architects Bruno Möhring, Otto Kohtz, and Hans Kraffert founded the Society of Friends of the High-Rise. In 1920, Bruno Möhring wrote that tower block construction in Berlin should be permitted provided certain conditions were complied with, as it was necessary for the development of a world trading city both in terms of commerce and visual charm.

In 1921, a special dispensation was issued by the Ministry for National Economy granting a certificate of exemption for high-rise construction. Basic rules were never issued; each high-rise project had to be negotiated between builders, the town council, and the ministry. The avant-garde Berlin architects, including Peter Behrens, Bruno Taut, and Mies von der Rohe, competed to design new architecture inspired by Expressionism and glasshouse structures.

One of the most spectacular glass high-rise buildings for Berlin was designed by Mies von der Rohe as part of a competition in 1921/22 for building development on the Friedrich Strasse Railway Station site. Mies von der Rohe's award-winning design was not implemented at the time. The building authorities, headed by conservative Chief Building Officer Ludwig Hoffmann, referred to the need to protect the cityscape from high-rise buildings at unsuitable locations.

One of the most monumental designs of the period was that of Otto Klotz, who envisioned a 200m tall imperial parliament house as a central administration building in Spreebogen on the Königsplatz. Berlin's first high-rise was erected not in the city centre but on the built-up factory grounds of the Borsig company between 1922 and 1924, designed by Eugen Schmohl. Early high-rises in Berlin were planned as solitary stand-alone buildings next to parks or rivers.

Most of Berlin's early high-rises were constructed during the period in office of Chief Buildings Officer Martin Wagner, despite his opinion that high-rises were not economically viable for Berlin due to traffic strains. Examples constructed during this period include the Kathreiner high-rise in Berlin-Schöneberg by Bruno Paul (1929-30) and Emil Fahrenkamp's Shell-house (1930-31).

The national socialists put a stop to Modernism and repealed the 1921 exemption decree. National socialist planning provided for monumental high-rise office buildings up to 100m in height along the planned north-south axis. Prominent architects of the Modern movement left Germany and built high-rise buildings in America, such as Walter Gropius (Pan Am Building) and Mies von der Rohe (Seagram Building) in New York.

After World War II, urban planning and architecture in Berlin became central to the political dispute between East and West. The first planning competition in the western part of the city was announced in 1947 for the neighbourhood near the zoo.

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