Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008
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Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
Between 1913 and 1934 six exceptional housing estates were built by a variety of classical modern architects in Berlin, in response to the lack of housing after the First World War: Gartenstadt Falkenberg (Treptow), Siedlung Schillerpark (Wedding), Grosssiedlung Britz (Neukölln), Wohnstadt Carl Legien (Prenzlauer Berg), Weisse Stadt (Reinickendorf), Grosssiedlung Siemensstadt (Charlottenburg and Spandau).
The architectural quality of these modern, affordable apartments set the standard for the rest of the 20th century.
The way they were planned and built marked a structural change in housing policy. They represented the new architecture of a new society, the antithesis of tenements and speculative private-sector building.
On 7 July 2008 the six Berlin Modernism Housing Estates were added to the list of World Heritage sites by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, as part of its drive to increase the number of modernist sites with World Heritage protection. These ensembles are an important architectural legacy and in a good state of preservation, making them doubly significant.
