Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

The Spreeinsel forms the second spatial focus point in the development area and is a very important place historically. Here lie the beginnings of the settlement of the Berlin-Cölln twin towns. Here is the historical centre of Berlin with the former Stadtschloss and its successsor, the Palast der Republik, the Schloßbrücke and the Marstall, the Friedrichs werder church and the site of the Bauakademie. The Spreeinsel ideas competition was announced at the end of 1993. The competition was necessary because of the decision to locate the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior on the Spreeinsel and thereby build a second governmental focal point within the city. The goal of the competition was to obtain suitable suggestions for the redesign of the historical centre of Berlin - a great challenge for the participants, but at the same time the key challenge for the whole planning process. For public discussion and the shaping of opinion about the future of this sensitive area have not yet been completed. This has been revealed by discussions about dismantling the Palast der Republik and about rebuilding the Stadtschloss, now the future Humboldt Forum, which have continued until the present.

The competition was carried out as a two-stage selection process. In the first phase, sketch-like urban concepts were asked for, anonymously handedin. The successful participants then made their entries more concrete in the second phase. From the 1,105 entries submitted, 52 were selected for the second phase.

The winner of the first Prize was the Berlin architect Bernd Niebuhr. His concept is strongly orientated on the historical city plan and envisages a new building on the site of the Stadtschloss in the form of a closed structure based on the historical palace cubatur. Further, the jury praised the arrangement and use of space in the new block for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Spreeinsel Urban Design Competition had significantly less immediate consequences than the Spreebogen Idea Contest. None the less, the reconstruction of the historical city plan, modified to better suit the requirements of the city of today, has been continued in the subsequent planning steps.