Großsiedlung Siemensstadt

The Siemensstadt Settlement (German: Großsiedlung Siemensstadt; also known as Ring Settlement or Ringsiedlung) is a nonprofit residential community in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin. It is one of the six Modernist Housing Estates in Berlin recognized in July 2008 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of their outstanding modernist architecture and contribution to the progressive housing reform movement during the Weimar Republic.^[1]

Geography[edit]

Despite its name, the larger part of the estate is situated within the locality (Ortsteil) of Charlottenburg-Nord, only the smaller westernmost part belongs to Siemensstadt in the district of Spandau.

History[edit]

It was built between 1929 and 1931, under the overall master plan of German architect Hans Scharoun. Six prominent Weimar-era architects took part: Hans Scharoun, Fred Forbát, Otto Bartning, Walter Gropius, Paul Rudolph Henning, and Hugo Häring. The nickname Ringsiedlung came from the association of some of these architects with Der Ring collective.

The open spaces were designed by the German modernist landscape architect Leberecht Migge.

Unlike the other significant public housing projects of the time, which were produced under government cooperative Gehag sponsorship, the Siemensstadt was constructed by a private housing cooperative as worker housing for Siemens' nearby electrical factory, which employed 60,000 workers.

The shape of the settlement marked a turning point in urban thinking, the point at which Berlin's city planner Martin Wagner abandoned a low-rise, garden city-style project with individual gardens, in favor of much denser multi-story apartment blocks.

Special offers[edit]

Distributed within the whole settlement are information columns that give short, concise information on the architects and his buildings (currently in German language only).

Gallery[edit]

"Panzerkreuzer (armoured ship)" by Hans Scharoun
„Langer Jammer (Long Misery)“
by Otto Bartning
Postwar eastern termination (1956)
by Hans Scharoun
Site of the UNESCO World Heritage site

References[edit]

^ "Berlin Modernism Housing Estates". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 4 September 2022.

External links[edit]

Mann.Mit.Hut.Touren, English language tours on request.
New York Times, Visionary Design for Berlin's Workers, J.S. Marcus, June 6, 1993
City of Berlin website on the project, in English
Siemensstadt Estate on Architectuul

52°32′18″N 13°16′48″E / 52.5383333333°N 13.28°E / 52.5383333333; 13.28

[WHC-1] "Berlin Modernism Housing Estates". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 4 September 2022.

[1]

v t e Walter Gropius
Buildings and structures	Fagus Factory (1911-1913) (with Adolf Meyer) Bauhaus Dessau (1925-1926) Kurt Weill Centre (1925-1926) Monument to the March Dead (1922, destroyed, 1936; reconstructed, 1947) (with Fred Forbát) 66 Old Church Street, Chelsea (1935-1936) (with Maxwell Fry) Gropius House (1938) Josephine M. Hagerty House (1938) Impington Village College (1938-1939) (with Maxwell Fry) Waldenmark (with Marcel Breuer) The Alan I W Frank House (1939-1940) (with Marcel Breuer) Aluminum City Terrace (completion, 1942) (with Marcel Breuer) Walter-Gropius-Haus (Berlin) (1957) (with The Architects Collaborative and Wils Ebert) Michael Reese Hospital (original plan for 8 buildings, 1946-1959; demolished 2009-2013) University of Baghdad (1957-1960) Gropiusstadt (buildings complex, completion, 1960) Embassy of the United States, Athens (1960-1961) MetLife Building (1959-1963) (with Richard Roth and Pietro Belluschi) John F. Kennedy Federal Building (1963-1966) (with The Architects Collaborative and Samuel Glaser) Tower East (completion, 1969) Huntington Museum of Art (enlargement project, 1968-1970, with The Architects Collaborative) Porto Carras (original project, 1973-1980)
Other buildings (supporting work)	Großsiedlung Siemensstadt (1929-1931) (co-authorship with six architects) Peter Thacher Junior High School (main authorship by The Architects Collaborative) Wayland High School (1959-1960) (main authorship by Herbert Gallagher and John "Chip" Harkness) Temple Oheb Shalom (Baltimore, Maryland) (completion, 1960) (consulting architect to Sheldon I. Leavitt)
Related	Bauhaus Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau The Back Bay Center (unrealised project, 1953) International Style Werkbund Exhibition (1914) The Architects Collaborative (co-founder) Bride of the Wind (2001 film)
Family and relationships	Martin Gropius (oncle) Alma Mahler (first wife) Manon Gropius (daughter) Ati Gropius Johansen (stepdaughter) Adolf Meyer (collaborator) Maxwell Fry (collaborator) Marcel Breuer (collaborator)