Frogs were still croaking on the nuns’ meadows when Siemens & Halske bought the first plot of land for what is now Siemensstadt in 1897. Exactly 125 years later, the global corporation presents how it digitally plans the city of the future in its city.
By Hildburg Bruns and Oliver Ohmann
“Fascinating! You can see the future before it’s already here,” marvels Berlin’s ruler Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) during a visit to the Rohrdamm. Spellbound, she looks into an iPad during the tour. Not only the use or architecture, but also details such as energy sources, construction time, costs can be understood at every corner.
On the previously pure industrial area (140 times the size of the Berlin Olympic Stadium), production will in future be concentrated in two areas (18 percent of the area): south of Nonnendammallee on the site of today’s Dynamowerk for Siemens. And in the far north, the spin-off Siemens Energy is the landlord.
The other areas not only have new space for offices (35 percent), restaurants and shops (13 percent), learning and research (8 percent), but also what Berlin urgently needs: 2,700 apartments (26 percent of the space) .
Even on the upper floors of the first high-rise factory building in Europe (the Schaltwerk high-rise building from 1928), the top of the twelve floors are being prepared for living.
Actually, the architects wanted to crown the “project of the century” with a skyscraper (150 meters) – but now you only see office towers with a maximum height of 60 meters. What has remained is a 400-meter-long boulevard that leads from Rohrdamm to the site and on which drones are already whizzing back and forth in the online version.
While a lot is already being moved in the factory buildings, the groundbreaking ceremony for a new building will probably not take place until 2024. A school and two day-care centers will also be built.
An important question at this time: “The required energy should be produced and consumed in the district. Solar thermal, geothermal, etc.,” says project manager Stefan Kögl.
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The fact that Berlin and not Asia was awarded the contract for this future campus is mainly due to a native of Wedding: Siemens board member Cedrik Neike (48), who studied in England and worked in Silicon Valley (California), fought for it for his old Hometown.
Berlins Building Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD): “Here, new technologies reconcile living with industry. That also shortens the distance to work.” Siemens is investing around 600 million euros and intends to complete its future city by 2035.
From the rear building in Kreuzberg to the world market giant
Siemens and Berlin – a long (success) history. The company was founded on October 1, 1847 in Kreuzberg. Engineer officer Werner Siemens and master precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske opened their rear workshop at Schöneberger Straße 19.
First product: a pointer telegraph. Just five years later, 90 employees and an area on Markgrafenstrasse. In 1881, Siemens let the first electric tram roll through Lichterfelde. By the turn of the century, Siemens (stock corporation from 1897) had become a globally successful electrical company. After the Berlin plants were relocated to the Nonnenwiesen, the “Nonnendamm” district became Siemensstadt. At times more than 65,000 “Siemensians” were employed, and between 1940 and 1945 there were also 80,000 forced labourers.
From 1927, the company built the Siemensbahn on its own, employees were given affordable, modern apartments. The Siemensstadt housing estate has been a World Heritage Site since 2008.
