BERLIN QUOTE OF THE DAY: AUGUST ENDELL

Children living in the then brand-new Hochhaus an der Weberwiese (first tenants moved in from May 1, 1952), the first high-rise built in East Berlin, playing in the old courtyard of the nineteenth-century tenements. Photo: 13.06.1952 by Zentralbild, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-15091-0008 / Klein / CC-BY-SA 3.0

“Fog, mist, sun, rain and twilight are the forces that, in endless alternation, clothe the great nests of stone with ever new colours, fusing their forms, making them more coherent, even monumental; building a world of colourful wonders out of the poorest courtyards, out of the most desolate regions.

They mould the seemingly unchanging piles of stone into an eternal, ever-changing being. A single person could never exhaust all this richness; they have enough to do just to experience what their surroundings, their courtyard, their house, their streets they passes through every day, offer them.”

August Endell, “Die Schönheit der Großen-Stadt”, 1908