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24-615: Towards the end of WWII, Berlin was heavily bombed by the Allies. A significant portion of the city was razed. The Hansa neighborhood was no exception. Some argued that parts of the cities infrastructure could be restored and preserved rather than rebuilt from ground up. After the defeat of Nazi Germany the US, France and Great Britain controlled the Western sectors; while the East was under the grip of

48-560: A Komsomol delegation on the occasion of the Third World Festival of Youth and Students was formally dedicated on 3 August 1951 after being temporarily placed at a location on the newly designed and impressive boulevard. It remained there until 1961 when it was removed in a clandestine operation in the course of de-Stalinization . On 17 June 1953 the Stalinallee became the focus of a worker uprising which endangered

72-649: A Berlin building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Stalinallee Karl-Marx-Allee ( Karl Marx Avenue ) is a boulevard built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin Friedrichshain and Mitte . Today the boulevard is named after Karl Marx . It should not be confused with the Karl-Marx-Straße in the Neukölln district of Berlin. The boulevard

96-481: A prominent Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer Haus features 78 apartments with distinct blue and yellow balconies. The building is supported by v-shaped concrete pillars. Like many other buildings in Interbau, the apartment complex is lined with windows, allowing nature into people's homes. Alvar Aalto-Haus designed by a leading Finnish architect was eight stories high and contained 78 apartments. To bring nature into

120-630: Is a concaved structure with narrow sides. Like many other buildings in Interbau, the Gropius and Ebert design sought to ensure no visible line between the residential area and the park. Corbusierhaus was intended to be a remodel of the Unite d'Habitation in Milan. The building was intended to be a "city in a city".  Its  size, however, caused some commotion. In contrast to other billing Courbusierhaus included 530 apartments and 17 stories. Designed by

144-456: Is an important example of modernism, a successful integration of nature into the living space. While some of the individual buildings have been recognized, the community as a whole and the successful collaboration of notable architects have not been given the same prominent recognition. Although residential, the area is available for tourism and study. [REDACTED] Media related to Interbau 1957 at Wikimedia Commons This article about

168-473: The East German uprising of 1953 . Boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America , any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls . In North American usage, boulevards may be wide, multi-lane thoroughfares divided with only

192-530: The Kino International . The avenue, which is 90 metres (300 ft) wide and 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi) long, is lined with monumental eight-story buildings designed in the wedding-cake style , the socialist classicism of the Soviet Union . At each end are dual towers at Frankfurter Tor and Strausberger Platz designed by Hermann Henselmann . The buildings differ in the revetments of

216-427: The 601 apartment complexes and additional amenities, five buildings stand out. These buildings include Oscar Niemeyer-Haus, Walter Gropius-Haus, Alvar Aalto-Haus, Corbusierhaus, and Congress Hall. The Walter Gropius House was designed by Walter Gropius and Wils Ebert. The structure features pops of bright colors on the balconies and entrances. The balconies line the building in a checkered fashion.  The house itself

240-463: The Soviets. Both East and West Berlin suffered from housing shortages. For a brief period, the two sectors attempted to work together and rebuild. But, global power politics dominated and the city was divided. Both East and West Berlin saw Berlins reconstruction as a way to demonstrate the superiority of their values and way of life. A new law, LEX IBA was enacted to allow for planning and design without

264-520: The West. Most stores would not accept payment for purchased items without a receipt from an East German bank showing that the West German Marks had been exchanged for East German Marks at a rate of 1:1. In the West, the exchange rate was 1:8 but most restaurants and bookstores were not concerned with these requirements so bargains were to be found. In February 2009, an anonymous author edited

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288-476: The architecture, careful attention was given to landscaping. Led by Walter Rossow, Interbau could live up to its vision of "People in a green metropolis"  only by careful, integrated landscape design. In 1955, just two years before the opening of the exhibit, Rossow’s article “Green Spaces in the Hansaviertel” laid out the plan for landscaping Intebau. In 1956 work began on Interbau's green spaces. Among

312-614: The article "Karl-Marx-Allee" in the German-language edition of Misplaced Pages , claiming that during the time of the GDR the road had acquired the nickname " Stalin 's bathroom" due to the buildings' tiled façades. Subsequently, several media outlets reiterated this claim. No alternative verification for the term was given, making it a self-referential claim . After a letter written to the Berliner Zeitung questioned whether

336-434: The exhibition ended, Congress Hall was gifted to the city of Berlin. The building acted as a center for discussion of international contemporary arts, focusing on non-European cultures and societies. Unfortunately on May 21, 1980, the structure collapsed. The building has since been reconstructed in its original style. 60 years after its opening Interbau the mission is no longer to promote Western values of freedom. The exhibit

360-473: The facades which contain often equally, traditional Berlin motifs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . Most of the buildings are covered by architectural ceramics . By 1989 half the tiles on the outer facades of these buildings had fallen off, necessitating sheltering structures over the sidewalks in some places to protect pedestrians. A monumental Stalin statue presented to the East German government by

384-400: The grand scale', while Aldo Rossi called it 'Europe's last great street.' Since German reunification most of the buildings, including the two towers, have been restored. The boulevard developed into a commerce-centre in the GDR. It also served the ideological function of introducing visitors to the culture of its "socialist sister states". Commerce was a mixed experience for visitors from

408-593: The home, each apartment featured a large patio. Windows were included on all sides of the building. Additionally, the building bends towards the west and opens towards the east allowing all apartments to capture natural light.   Congress Hall, also known as the House of World Cultures, was designed by American architect Hugh Stubbins as a gift from the United States. The building was constructed on an artificial mound so that it could be seen from East Berlin. After

432-476: The power and the glory of the communist government. De-Stalinization led to the renaming of the street, after the founder of Marxism , in late 1961. Since the collapse of Eastern European communism in 1989/1990, renaming the street back to its prewar name Große Frankfurter Straße has periodically been discussed, so far without conclusive results. The boulevard later found favour with postmodernists , with Philip Johnson describing it as 'true city planning on

456-494: The previous building codes. In East Berlin, Stalinallee was created; in the West, Interbau. Stalinallee was inspired by Socialist realism and classicism. Because the buildings were structured in three tiers, they were often compared to wedding cakes. While the facade of the buildings on Stallinalle were uniform, the Soviets emphasized luxurious finishes within the buildings including stucco ceilings, parquet floors, double glazing on fixtures, and central heating. The focus Interbau

480-434: The term "Stalin's bathroom" had actually been in common use during the GDR period, Andreas Kopietz, a journalist at the newspaper, published an article admitting he had invented the phrase and identifying himself as the original anonymous Misplaced Pages editor, allowing the record to be set straight. The boulevard is referenced under its former name, the Stalinallee, in the satirical poem " Die Lösung " by Bertolt Brecht about

504-481: The world (excluding soviet occupied territories in Eastern Europe), were involved. By including architects from so many countries, West Berlin communicated that Interbau was not only German, it was multicultural drawing inspiration from around the world. Some of the more notable architects who worked on Interbau include Le Corbusier, Oscar Neimeyer, Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, and Walter Gropius. In addition to

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528-399: The young state's existence. Builders and construction workers demonstrated against the communist government, leading to a national uprising. The rebellion was crushed with Soviet tanks and troops, resulting in the deaths of 125 people. Later the street was used for East Germany's annual May Day parade, featuring thousands of soldiers along with tanks and other military vehicles to showcase

552-471: Was made by and for humans. In the words of Rolf Schwedler, the Senator for Building and Housing, "In this regard, the demands and requirements of the modern man are to be taken into full consideration." Unlike Stalinallee, the buildings of Interbau utilized a wide array of colors. While apartments within the builds had similar appointments, the outer structures were unique. More than 50 architects, from around

576-428: Was named Stalinallee between 1949 and 1961 (previously Große Frankfurter Straße ), and was a flagship building project of East Germany's reconstruction programme after World War II . It was designed by the architects Hermann Henselmann , Hartmann , Hopp, Leucht, Paulick, and Souradny to contain spacious and luxurious apartments for workers, as well as shops, restaurants, cafés, a tourist hotel, and an enormous cinema,

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