#interbau 1957

Already in the 1950s and although the Wall hadn’t yet been built, Berlin was a divided city: East-Berlin was the capital of the German Democratic Republic while West-Berlin was the highly subsidized front-line city and the shopwindow of capitalist Germany. But it was the GDR that in 1952 started a signature project on Karl-Marx-Allee with a residential high-rise and a 90 meters wide boulevard flanked by apartment blocks. West-Berlin’s response was the 1957 Interbau building exhibition at the war-ravaged Hansaviertel: national and international architects were invited to contribute to the exhibition aimed at showcasing the „city of tomorrow“. A star-studded selection of architects, among them Egon Eiermann, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, designed a broad array of apartment buildings, bungalows and carpet housing for a democratic society. 

Some 70 years later both Berlin’s representative plannings still exist and, though very different in layout, count among the most sought-after addresses. The German photo artist Bettina Cohnen followed the ideas behind the Karl-Marx-Allee and the Hansaviertel, namely the provision of affordable and good housing for everyone, and documented the life going on behind the facades. The result is twofold: one is the exhibition „Duett der Moderne - Hansaviertel & Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin“ at Mitte Museum Berlin which runs through September 14 and the other the present volume edited by Jan Dimog & Hendrik Bohle and recently published by Deutscher Kunstverlag. In 8 photo series Cohnen portrays the apartments of 8 inhabitants in 8 buildings at both Hansaviertel and Karl-Marx-Allee. In view of the architectural differences between all buildings it is striking that all apartments share a great deal of natural lighting and it is difficult to tell from Cohnen‘s photos alone whether it is a Hansaviertel or KMA flat. At this point the editors’ information come in handy and add context to the photos, just like the 3 essays at the beginning and end of the book.