Building Exhibit with New City District

Max Pyko

Building Exhibit with new City District

6 July 1957

The international Building Exhibit of Berlin 1957 will be opened. In the middle point of the exhibit, stands the Tiergartener Hansa-District, where more than 1200 apartments are planned and some of which are partially erected. The Building exhibit that, on the 29 of September, ended, will have over 900,000 people from 74 various countries.

In his opening speech, the ruling Mayor, Otto Suhr, reminisced about the old

Hansa-District that was completely destroyed in World War II. In the presence of the

Bundespresident, Theodor Heuss, he showed future characteristics of the city plan at the exhibit to be the model, as a “Present to Berlin.” The new development lies in the triangle between the streets of the 17 of July, the Altonaer Street, and Klopstock Street.

There, more than 60 world-renowned architects and gardeners, from within and outside the country, took part in the creation of 50 models. They will be building flat One- and

Multi- family houses, four and five story apartment blocks, as well as high rises up to 17 stories. The heaviest part of the apartment will be financed for the general public. In the vicinity, there will be buildings like churches, a library, a school, a Day-

Care facility, and numerous stores. Close to the S-Bahnhof Tiergarten the projected

Berlin-Pavillon location will be open for the exhibit.

Also, in conjunction with the Building Exhibit, in the general vicinity of the plaza of the Republik, the Congress Hall will be built, as well as the Corbusier-High rises, on the Spandauer Heerstrasse. The congress hall, in the Tiergarten, that was built primarily with the finances from the Benjamin-Franklin-Grant also received funding from the USA.

The drafted high-rise, which was developed by the French architect Le Corbusier, stood as the most controversial object of the Building Exhibit. The place where the building was going to be built, as well as the concept itself, was the cause of the controversy. Before the end of 1956 the building process could begin.

During the exhibit, for the visitors of the Hansa-District, there is a cable-car, a tower crane as well as a motor driven train called the “Interbau Express” available.