The Detlev Rohwedder Building German history reflected GFE = 1/2 Formathöhe The Detlev Rohwedder Building German history reflected Contents 3 Introduction 44 Reunification and Change 46 The euphoria of unity 4 The Reich Aviation Ministry 48 A tainted place 50 The Treuhandanstalt 6 Inception 53 The architecture of reunification 10 The nerve centre of power 56 In conversation with 14 Courage to resist: the Rote Kapelle Hans-Michael Meyer-Sebastian 18 Architecture under the Nazis 58 The Federal Ministry of Finance 22 The House of Ministries 60 A living place today 24 The changing face of a colossus 64 Experiencing and creating history 28 The government clashes with the people 66 How do you feel about working in this building? 32 Socialist aspirations meet social reality 69 A stroll along Wilhelmstrasse 34 Isolation and separation 36 Escape from the state 38 New paths and a dead-end 72 Chronicle of the Detlev Rohwedder Building 40 Architecture after the war – 77 Further reading a building is transformed 79 Imprint 42 In conversation with Jürgen Dröse 2 Contents Introduction The Detlev Rohwedder Building, home to Germany’s the House of Ministries, foreshadowing the country- Federal Ministry of Finance since 1999, bears wide uprising on 17 June. Eight years later, the Berlin witness to the upheavals of recent German history Wall began to cast its shadow just a few steps away. like almost no other structure. After reunification, the Treuhandanstalt, the body Constructed as the Reich Aviation Ministry, the charged with the GDR’s financial liquidation, moved vast site was the nerve centre of power under into the building. Its president, Detlev Karsten Nazi rule. It was from here that Reichsmarschall Rohwedder, emphasised the importance of people Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, drove over the letter of the law, thus setting the tone for the regime’s war plans forward. The road to death, a careful approach to privatising the GDR’s approxi- destruction and suffering for millions of people mately 8,500 state-owned enterprises. Rohwedder was marked out here, one of the places instrumental was only able to perform his duties for a few months. in preparing the systematic mass murder of He was shot dead on 1 April 1991. The police found a Europe’s Jews. Yet resistance, too, was alive within note at the scene written by the RAF terrorist group these terror-steeped walls, in the form of the claiming responsibility for the murder. The building Rote Kapelle group. was renamed in his memory in 1992. After the war, the colossal construction developed Is it possible, and is it right in democratic times, to into the political powerhouse of socialist Germany. continue to use such a site, a place tainted in so The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was many ways? This question was the subject of inten- founded and its first President elected here in sive discussions in the 1990s. The answer is yes. October 1949. From then on, the building served as After two dictatorships, freedom and democracy the “House of Ministries” of the GDR. The utopian have moved in. This does not mean that the past ideals of the young state are symbolised in a has been erased, but rather that the story continues. monumental mural, which can still be seen in the colonnade at the Leipziger Strasse entrance. Only a few months after the mural was unveiled, reality painted a very different picture of its own. On 16 June 1953, protesters gathered in front of Introduction 3 4 The Reich Aviation Ministry 1935 – 1945 The Reich Aviation Ministry The Reich Aviation Ministry 5 6 The Reich Aviation Ministry Inception The imposing state cars arrive at the ceremonial free reign to his boastful disposition and announced, entrance. The Nazi elite and the heads of the looking at the Reichstag, that he would build an Luftwaffe, Germany’s newly founded air force, take Aviation Ministry five times larger, with a roof on their positions. Leading the ranks is the man which aeroplanes could take off and land. in charge of the new Aviation Ministry. Hermann Göring, second only to Hitler in the Nazi regime Although that part of his plan never comes to fruition, and loyal servant of his Führer, takes his place as a colossus begins to take shape on a previously Reich Minister for Aviation. Beside him stands unknown scale. The people of Berlin take an ironic Professor Ernst Sagebiel (1892 – 1970), the architect view of the prestige project. “Plain and simple – responsible for the complex. Just three years pre- whatever the cost” is their comment on a construc- viously, Sagebiel was a construction and business tion which, in keeping with the senseless pace and manager for the famed Jewish architect Erich grandstanding typical of Nazi ideology and pro- Mendelsohn. It is 12 October 1935. On the very day paganda, breaks all records. The foundation stone on which Germany officially bans radio stations is laid in January 1935. A little less than ten months from playing swing and jazz, the country’s brown- later, the first 1,000 offices are in use. Just eight shirted ruling class gathers to celebrate the topping- months after that, Göring’s headquarters are com- out of this Third Reich prestige project. plete. Five thousand workers toil day and night to shift 260,000 cubic metres of old rubble and erect Göring’s pride and joy is a monumental endeavour, new building sections. Once complete, the minis- one virtually unparalleled in its expression of try boasts a floor area of 56,000m², spread over Nazi megalomania – the construction of a new Reich 2,100 rooms. The maze-like corridors have a com- Aviation Ministry. The chosen location is at the bined length of almost 6.8 kilometres, with some heart of Berlin, where Wilhelmstrasse meets Leipziger corridors up to 440 metres long. The underbelly of Strasse, within sight of two other buildings housing the gigantic building has space for 250 cars. the infamous apparatus of the dictatorial state, the Gestapo secret police headquarters on Prinz- Seventeen staircases and seven lifts connect the Albrecht-Strasse and the Propaganda Ministry different levels in the confusing complex, which on Wilhelmplatz, headed by Göring’s rival Joseph is designed to achieve one main aim: to intimidate Goebbels. At the end of 1934, Göring, who had never concealed his scorn for democracy, had given Floodlights shine over the construction site of the Reich Aviation Ministry at night, 1935. The Reich Aviation Ministry 7 by means of its menacing proportions. Old Prussian architect, cites the ministry’s inaugural deed in landmarks, such as the War Ministry building and his celebratory address, noting that the construction the Prussian Herrenhaus, former site of the Prussian marks an era in which Germany is “regaining the parliament’s upper chamber, are incorporated into freedom to exercise military might”. He continues by the new behemoth or swept aside in its path. This expressing his wish that the building should be a is an early indication that, contrary to their public place of hard, dedicated work for all those called to claims, the Nazi leadership has no intention of assist in re-establishing Germany’s power and great- continuing along traditional lines, but instead seeks ness in developing the country’s aviation potential. to break with the past. Even the mural of marching Wehrmacht soldiers and reliefs of Prussian military “For the honour and defence of Germany”, the build- leaders are essentially little more than gestures ing’s motto, is a saying that Göring, recipient intended to suggest continuity. of the Pour le Mérite order, First World War fighter pilot and Hitler’s obedient right-hand man, makes The Nazi planners apply extreme pressure to carry his own. He accumulates official titles and revels through their tremendously ambitious plans. in pomp and pathos more than almost any of his Privately-owned buildings that are needed are ac- fellow Nazi party climbers. His later titles of Reichs- quired within a single day at the end of March 1935. marschall and Reichsjägermeister are invented There are no records to show whether Erich Cohn, specifically for him. The power-hungry Göring the Jewish merchant representing the owners, ever showed his true unscrupulousness and brutality receives any part of the agreed price of 1.4 million as early as the end of January 1933 after Hitler had Reichsmarks. The unusual speed with which been nominated Chancellor and the Nazis began ownership is transferred indicates that part of the setting up their dictatorship. At the time, Göring was reason Cohn agrees to the sale is to expedite his Interior Minister of Prussia and in charge of the own emigration to the USA. Gestapo. He conducted an unprecedented campaign of terror against opponents of the regime, obliging The spectacular dedication ceremony just half a year the members of his police to make indiscriminate use on carries a clear message to the world. By building of their weapons. up an air force, defying an explicit ban in the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi rulers demonstrate their determination to rearm and restore Germany’s status as a major military power once more. Sagebiel, the 8 The Reich Aviation Ministry Left : Dedication ceremony in the Reich Aviation Ministry courtyard on 12 October 1935 : Ernst Sagebiel, Hermann Göring, site foreman Franz Hecht and State Secretary Erhard Milch. Right : View of the building site on Leipziger Strasse. Now he aims to create a Luftwaffe that will descend talent, he becomes increasingly indispensable to upon the enemy “like a choir of vengeance” if the the essentially incompetent Göring. Ernst Udet’s hour should strike.