I was in Berlin for the Berlin e-Prix in May (related post here), and I had a day to spare. I had seen the city centre and the main tourist attractions before, and I was not in the mood to visit museums (if they were open on Monday), so I decided to pick a theme and go along with it. The theme I settled on was brutalist architecture and I selected four spots from the nice Brutalism in Berlin: a Concrete Architecture Guide article on Felipe Tofani's blog. They were located conveniently in south-western Berlin, separated from each other by a short hop by bus (in one case, a double-decker!).
Mäusebunker
The former Central Animal Laboratories of the Free University of Berlin. The definite highlight of the day, my primary target, and one of two places which I knew about before. It makes me feel things like few other buildings do. An absolute one of a kind.
Battleship Berlin (40 min, Vimeo) is an excellent short documentary about the building, its perception, and the debate about its preservation (it has since been listed as a cultural heritage site in May 2023).
Institut für Mikrobiologie und Hygiene der Charité
Directly opposite the Mäusebunker. Also brutalist, yet completely different in style.
Bierpinsel
Another building I had been familiar with. It towers over its immediate surroundings, but if you step one block away it quickly tucks in behind other buildings, so it is not easy to find a good angle.
Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche
Interesting in its own right (and for some reason feels like it wouldn't be out of place somewhere in the mountains), but less spectacular than the other places.
Pallaseum
A huge block of flats. Curiously, the building bridges over a massive slab of a preserved World War II bunker, built by forced labourers. A board near one of the entrances tells a story of how urban management (or neighborhood management) actions, which included staircase renovation and converting a parking into a small park, improved the living standard significantly, after the place had turned rather unpleasant in the 90s (to the point when then CDU mayor spoke about demolition).
What's next?
I really enjoyed the day out. Picking an offbeat theme worked really well for me, and is an idea worth repeating. One of the things I want to see the next time I'm in Berlin is the remnants of AVUS (Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße, Automobile traffic and training road), a racing circuit from 1921. Here's a nice 12-min YouTube video by B Sport: AVUS - Germany's Temple Of Speed (And what's left of it…).