BERLIN PHOTOS

During my free morning in Berlin I went up the Fernsehturm (TV tower). It's something I'd done the previous two times I visited Berlin, and it's a complete tourist trap, but I am obsessed with the space age communist architecture. Constructed in what was East Berlin between 1965 and 1969, the tower was designed by Hermann Henselmann, who was also the architect behind the modernist congress centre at which the Mercedes / Raf Simons event was held. I love how the angular pavilion at the base of the tower offsets the sphere and chops up the view as you look upwards.

Some interior shots; the circular/spherical theme is continued throughout:

Berlin is by no means a picturesque city, but I like the massive scale and the rather uncompromising nature of everything. The city's history gives this interesting mix of different architectural styles, with huge, brutal buildings sticking up over the place, especially in the former East where large-scale urban planning based around social housing was put into action. You can really appreciate this from the viewing deck of the Fernsehturm:

When you come down there is a souvenir shop selling all manner of Fernsehturm tat from dodgy fragrances to cookie cutters shaped like the structure. It's funny how the tourist industry has completely reinvented the shape of the building, particularly in regards to the pavilion at the base..


Hermann Henselmann's congress centre:

Another interesting piece of East German design is the Alexanderplatz Weltzeituhr (world clock) created in 1969 by the largely unknown German industrial designer Erich John:


There is a shop devoted to merchandise based on the idiosyncratic former East German street crossing symbols (Ampelmännchen), including gummy sweets shaped like the two figures. The post-modernist reduction of a design emblem of a communist state to capitalist merchandise, and all that...