Exhibition catalogue: Berlin plant. Erster Bericht, 1946
© Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hans Scharoun Archive, No. 1514
8 Ostkreuz
Berlin plans. First Report
On 22 August 1946 the exhibition Berlin plant. Erster Bericht (Berlin Plans. First Report) opened in the makeshift surroundings of the Weisser Saal in the Berlin Palace. Here a planning collective led by the City Architect of the time Hans Scharoun presented its so-called collective plan for the reconstruction of Berlin following the destruction of the world wars. Berlin was to become an urban landscape with greenery everywhere, containing large modern settlements in the heart of Europe – influenced by the traditions of the Werkbund and the Bauhaus.
The public was presented with extensive concepts and statistics that supported the planning of sufficient housing and appropriate living standards, transport infrastructure tailored to the city’s circumstances and facilities for culture and recreation distributed fairly across the city. The exhibition included model homes built of plastic to meet the urgent need for housing – with the aim that such easy-to-assemble homes could also be exported internationally. As well as Scharoun, the planning collective’s inner circle included architects and planners such as Wils Ebert, Ludmilla Herzenstein, Peter Friedrich, Herbert Weinberger and Reinhold Lingner. However, their radical, much discussed design was never implemented and, particularly due to the partition of Berlin in 1949, it remains a suppressed chapter in Berlin’s urban planning history.
Exhibition catalogue: Berlin plant. Erster Bericht, 1946
© Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hans Scharoun Archive, No. 1514
Manuscript for the opening of the exhibition: Berlin plant. Erster Bericht, August 28, 1946
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hans-Scharoun-Archiv, Nr. 1501
For What If Berlin, Akira Takayama transposes unrealised projects from the archives of the Berliner Festspiele and other Berlin cultural institutions, as well as from architects and artists, into the present and asks us which vision we want to realise in the future.
The future vision for the project Berlin plans … First report, that will be presented in the frame of What If Berlin from 28 August 2026 onwards, will respond to the following question: What if Berlin were to launch another planning competition for the whole city?
Which of the 27 visions for the future is the most exciting? Which project does Berlin need in future? Which idea should actually be realised?
Until 30 September 2026, you can vote for up to three of the 27 visions for the future. The results will be displayed live to give the latest impression of the public’s reactions.