Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

In Berlin there were enough existing buildings available to accommodate the government's relocation. Although they were in need of restoration, they were by no means derelict. With its preparatory investigation for the "Development Measure for the Capital City of Berlin" in 1992, the city's Senate Department for Building and Housing made an early and decisive plea for the use of suitable existing buildings and against their demolition.

The question of how to deal with historically tarnished buildings was complicated. The debate about whether to preserve or demolish this architectural heritage was very turbulent. The fundamental question was about how much of a new beginning the "Berlin Republic" needed? Many federal politicians stressed the necessity of making a clear departure from the city's historic legacy and beginning a new period. They felt the representative architecture of a dictatorship was unworthy of democratic institutions. The use of the former Ministry of Aviation on the Wilhelmstraße, was seen as being especially problematic.

The Federal Government's intention to demolish several of the most important buildings, including the former site of the GDR's State Council, released a storm of indignation - especially in specialist publications. A report commissioned by the Senate Department architectural history in the city underlined the importance of the buildings which had formerly housed the Staatsrat, Reichsbank and Treuhand building, as well as the Aviation Ministry, and refuted the economic inefficiency of these buildings. In time, however, a more differentiated attitude prevailed which allowed for historical questions to be addressed without forgoing a particular usage. Several prominent buildings from the GDR's legacy nonetheless remained on the list of buildings to be torn down: the Palast der Republik and the Foreign Ministry.

In the end it was possible to replace the first site planning concept developed in March 1993 by a Combined Commission of Federation/Berlin, which was predominantly oriented toward the use of new buildings, with one that gave more consideration to existing buildings.

Preserving a number of these existing buildings required a allocation of properties. The German Bundestag's budgetary committee had limited relocation expenditures to (a converted figure of) ten billion euros. This committee then expressly demanded there be a greater use of existing buildings. A new site planning concept was presented in 1994. In this concept the allow-able expenditures for new buildings for the Finance and Justice Ministries and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were reduced by one-half. The size of the effective area required by the Federation up to this point was also reduced by almost 30 percent, to 278,000 m². The concept of "adapting to the inventory" had thus prevailed.