Communist architecture in Berlin

I am going to be in Berlin for a weekend and would like to photograph and tour some Bismarck structures, underground bunkers or any industrial complex. What are my options?

Best Answer

My favourite communist architecture in Berlin is definitely the Frankfurter Tor and the rest of the "Stalinallee ensemble".

Frankfurter Tor:
^{Thanks to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons}

Stalinallee / Karl-Marx-Allee:
^{Thanks to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons}

Building on Stalinallee / Karl-Marx-Allee:
^{My own photo}

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you mean by "Bismarck structures" though. These are normally described as Stalinist architecture.

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Answer 2

One amazing Soviet structure is the World War II memorial in Treptower Park, in the southeast of Berlin. (There are several Soviet war memorials commemorating WW2; another is in the Tiergarten. I haven't seen that one so have no idea what's it's like, but the Treptower one seems to be more well-known / renowned, in my experience.)

Many people seem to like the immense statue in the centre, but I personally find the friezes depicting the struggles of war very powerful and worth seeing. This page has a lot of photos, some of which are:

A frieze

A frieze

Overview of the park

Overview of some of the memorial.

I don't think these photos nearly do it justice, but unfortunately I don't have any of my own I can upload. The artwork in the friezes is astounding, and, even though you can view it as propaganda for the Soviet Hero, moving.

Nearby is Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park built in the Soviet era. Since it's an amusement park, it won't have 'standard' Communist-era architecture, but is an amazing place to visit. It is privately owned and fenced in, but ahem very fun to explore. It's like being in a post-apocalyptic world: ruined structures, trees, silence apart from the birds (it's in the middle of the forest!), rusting structures like roller coasters and other rides silently soaring through the trees. Don't get caught inside.

Famous face sculpture, part of the roller coaster ride in Spreepark

Image from Wikipedia.

Answer 3

Take the brown U5 metro out towards Hönow. Built by East Germany (the only major new line they built in 50 years, as it happens), the line's sole purpose in life is to serve huge housing complexes, which are about as Communist in style as it gets. This thread on SkyscraperCity will give you some idea:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=482518

Search for "commieblocks" for plenty more.

Answer 4

You can book an "Underground Bunker Tour" here: Berliner Unterwelten. There are several options to see bunkers or subway tracks that ran from east to west with underground checkpoints at the fromer border.

There is also the Gesundbrunnenbunker where you can book a tour. And you can see the Flakturm in the Humboldthain near by.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Pixabay, Martin Péchy, Ingo Joseph, Shvets Anna