ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE: BERLIN 1927/1928

Ludwig Denkt Groß

Hilbersheimer’s 1920s urban planning design for central Berlin - Le Corbousier would have approved. (Image through The Art Institute of Chicago).

The 1920s were a time of much experimenting, plenty of limit-testing and of general “spitballing”. Urban planning was one of the large territories where this pioneering spirit was particularly alive and Berlin was no different. In fact, some of the city’s greatest urban planning developments hark back to that era: several of them made onto the UNESCO Heritage list.

But next to those great designs there were, as always, some that we should be collectively grateful for their not making it beyond the drawing board.

As much as Ludwig Hilbersheimer’s other creations are praiseworthy, it is hard to imagine that Berliners of today would be grateful for having large parts of Friedrichstadt (historic district stretching along Friedrichstraße from Landwehrkanal to Unter den Linden) replaced by the above.

Hilbersheimer’s high-rises juxtaposed against the 1910 Straube-Plan, Berlin. Image via The Art Insitute of Chicago.

His idea of the Hochhausstadt (High Rise - or Vertical - City) had its roots in an attempt to deal with many important big-city problems (more or less same as we are having today) but as large satellite high-rise settlements in and around Berlin show - both in the former East and in the West - it is not an ideal environment when tens of thousands of invidualities clash in a small (and often malfunctioning) lifts, corridors and staircases.

What would have been even less ideal is the necessary demolition of the historic buildings to have them replaced by concrete “machines for living”.

Luckily, this was just an idea and one that Ludwig Hilbersheimer, who in 1938 - together with other Baushaus members and tutors - had to leave Germany, kept re-working. Until he, basically, arrived at the conclusion that probably the best form of accommodation is a one-storey L-shaped house;-)