By Gunnar Schupelius
A new foundation advocates reconstructing the historical center around the Rotes Rathaus. Computer simulations show that this is a very good idea, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Who actually said that Berlin’s historic center around the Red City Hall has to remain a barren, undeveloped area? There were small streets and many houses, including beautiful facades from the Wilhelminian period and the 1920s.
The old town perished in World War II and was never rebuilt. Even the ground plan of the street was leveled in the 1950s and large axles were added for car traffic and then for mass events in the GDR.
So the old Berlin lost its face. What remains is a characterless emptiness in which one cannot orientate oneself. Pedestrians feel lonely and lost on the Rathausforum and the Marx-Engels-Forum, i.e. in the entire area between the television tower and the banks of the Spree.
It can’t stay like this, everyone says. Should the old town be rebuilt? Opinions differ on this question. The Senate argued against this and held an “open space competition” in August 2021, which resulted in the entire area being transformed into a kind of park. “Berlin’s center is becoming greener, more attractive and more climate-robust,” said the then Senator for the Environment Regine Günther (Greens).
But would it really be the best thing to simply reforest the historic center? The newly founded “Foundation Mitte Berlin” is now presenting the counter-model. The foundation was set up by entrepreneur Marie-Luise Schwarz-Schilling and her colleagues. They want to “act actively, publicly and transparently for a densely built-up and lively inner city in the area of the former old town of Berlin.”
This is how densely built up the historic area around the Red Town Hall was in 1925 Photo: picture alliance / akg-images
On your website (stiftung-mitte-berlin.de) show what it looked like back then. And suddenly the viewer realizes that the Rotes Rathaus has not always stood alone and abandoned in a desert of concrete, but in the middle of residential and commercial buildings, many of which have ornate facades, such as the Moses-Mendelssohn-Haus from 1928 in front of the Marienkirche (corner of Karl-Liebknecht-/Spandauer Straße).
If you want to know what a rebuilt old town looks like, you can get an idea in Frankfurt am Main. The Dom-Römer district was reconstructed there between 2012 and 2018, including the squares and streets Alter Markt, Hühnermarkt, Hinter dem Lämmchen and Neugasse. Even the historic courtyards are back. Medieval and Renaissance buildings stand there, deceptively real, as if they had never been destroyed.
The new old town is very popular in Frankfurt. It might be the same in Berlin. Here, however, the debate is ideologically distorted. Reconstruction is opposed by the left-wing parties as “reactionary politics”. So far, this blinding has prevented the best way from being found for the design of the old center.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]