The Berlin Mouse Bunker is now a listed building; BZ editor Andra Fischer comments Photo: Siegfried Purschke / BZ Montage
By Andra Fischer
Some find it ugly, others particularly – the mouse bunker in Berlin.
According to the wishes of the university hospital, the former animal testing laboratory of the Charité on Hindenburgdamm should preferably be demolished by now.
There are understandable reasons for this: The concrete giant is virtually unusable – and the costs of securing it are too high.
The state monument office has now decided to place the mouse bunker under monument protection.
It’s great that the Brutalist build is staying. Not for logical reasons, but because Berlin urgently needs to preserve special buildings.
Most of the new houses that are being built here follow the pattern: glass – concrete – eaves height. Nothing special, standard stuff.
I think it’s great to stand in front of a building and marvel at its architecture. The mouse bunker is such a building.