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How have political regimes influenced Berlin’s architecture over the 20th Century?

The Fernsehturm is a television tower in the middle of Berlin. The initial idea arrived in 1958 when the Soviet government wanted to erect an iconic office tower at Alexander Platz. The project later became a television tower that was built and proposed by the architects Jörg Streitparth and Hermann Henselmann (known for his towers in Karl Marx Alee). The tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 in the time of the former DDR. The building is 365m high and is purposefully the tallest construction in the city of Berlin.

How has politics influenced Berlin’s architecture in this particular aspect then? During the Cold War, West and East Berlin were desperately trying to show their superiority and wealth to each other. After the end of World War II the Allies and the Soviet Union fail to find a field of agreement during the Yalta Conference. As a result, Eastern Europe was divided in two, puppet Communist regimes on the East side and free Capitalist government on the West. The city of Berlin suffered the same fate as the rest of Europe; the city was divided in two. However many East Germans decided to flee to the liberal West Berlin. As a result, the DDR government decided to close the frontier, but the number of people escaping increased and reached to 30,000 per month by 1961. Most of the migrants were young skilled people which the Communist government could not afford to lose. Since the end of the War and the division of Germany almost 3 million Germans had left the Communist Regime. East Germany could not sustain this, its independence was threatened, and the emigration rate could not be maintained at this level for very long. As a result Walter Ulbricht convinced Khrushchev to build the “anti-fascist protective barrier”[1]. The Wall undoubtedly solved the problem, but it was not good advertisement for communism (the West capitalist countries called it the Wall of Shame). In response, the Soviet German government tried to reverse the situation by building the Fursehturm. This iconic building would become the “showcase” of the DDR wealth. An iconic building showing to all the people in Berlin, East and West; power, wealth and superiority of the Soviets.

Over time, the two governments initiated what we now call the “race to the sky”. In 1964, Ulbricht’s government purposely built the tower near Alexander’s Platz. In that way, the monument could be seen from nearly every place in the city; even from the other side of the Wall. The aspect of the tower was also lengthily thought about. The futuristic aspect of the base and the edifice, the large pavilion covered with white painted roofs enclosing the actual tower and the cylindrical concrete shaft topped by a steel-clad sphere with the large antenna at the top gave the impression of incredible technology advancements; which was in turn the effect that the Soviets were after. It is important to know that at this time, the Soviet Union was in the middle in the “race to space” against the Americans, and they were winning it. In 1961, Moscow had sent the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in space. He was the first man in history to have made a journey in space during which he accomplished an orbit of the Earth. In addition, the Soviets had also been the first ones to send a satellite in orbit, the Sputnik, and by 1964 had launched the R-7 Semyorka. The R-7 was the fear of the USA since it was the first satellite to carry nuclear war-heads in space.

When the Fernsehturm was inaugurated, in 1969 the tower became the pride of the DDR and all the East Berliners. Many communist propaganda films were called to film there in order to promote the quality of life in East Berlin. As stressed by the website //A view on Cities//; “Even today the tower is once of Berlin's most important landmarks and in 1993 it was even officially designated as such.” The Fernsehturm had a special double meaning to all the Berliners. After the War in 1945, the main cause for the great escape of the Berliners from the East to the West was due to the television propaganda made by West Berlin (which could be seen from East Berlin). So the construction of such a building was some sort of revenge by the East Berlin Government on the West Berliners. The Fernsehturm became a reference site for television programmes form where quality programs were emitted for all the East Berliners.

In conclusion, politics have influenced the creation of the in several ways. In the first instance the location of the monument. The Soviet government wanted West Berliners to see their master piece, and it’s for that reason that they placed it near Alexander’s Platz. Now a days, under “normal” conditions, such a tower will never have been built in the middle of the city. Suburbs will probably have been selected due to health and aesthetic reasons.

An other aspect which was influenced was the design. The design of the base and the shiny steel-clad sphere clearly contrasted with the general style that reigned in Berlin’s edifices which most of them dated of the 19th century. In addition, placing the tower in that place contrasted greatly with the edifices surrounding it since the Fernsehturm is very close to the “Museum Island”, which is a place were many Victorian edifications are and where can find the greatest German museums (which most of them are ancient history ones). Here again we see how the DDR wanted to distinguish its modernity. As mentioned above, the tower was purposefully design with a futuristic aspect, in order to have an important impact on the people.

To finish with, the height of the building was also influenced. If we look at Berlin’s skyline, we clearly see that the architects of the Fernsehturm clearly broke this homogenous skyline since the tower comes out considerably from the other buildings. This again was done purposefully so that the Tower could be seen everywhere all around Berlin.

A picture showing Berlin’s skyline at sunset [] :...

REF: [] [] [] Berlin Ruined Vision_BBC documentary by Matt Frei

[1] East German government reference to the Berlin Wall