Potsdamer Platzin Berlin

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Potsdamer Platz in Berlin

The history of Postdamer Platz begins long before its reconstruction in the 1980s. This area of Berlin was already famous in its own right in the 1820’s, when it embodied the life of the Belle Epoque. All kinds of restaurants and bars were to be found around the square and in neighbouring streets and there was so much traffic that the first traffic light in history had to be installed.

The buildings that adorned the square were almost completely destroyed in the Second World War and the construction of the Wall made the area anything but captivating. In the 1980s, just before the Wall came down, some investors decided to invest in this area of West Berlin and so began a series of initiatives to rebuild the square.

In 1991 the decision was taken to run one of the most enterprising architectural competitions in modern history: the practically ex-novo design of a large district - a district already incorporated within a metropolis of world importance, Berlin.
The world’s major architects presented outstanding designs for the competition and the square was finally built as we see it today.

One of the key points of the area’s redevelopment plan was that the square had to “multi-task”. It was not to be transformed into a purely business or commercial centre, but had to harmonise within the single area an attraction-rich residential, commercial and craft district, so that the square would be continuously alive both night and day.
For this reason it was decided to build glass and aluminium skyscrapers in the square, leaving smaller buildings in the more outlying streets. The singularity of its buildings and the equilibrium between them, the open spaces, water features and roads (built on the original framework) make the whole area of the square worth a visit - paying special attention to the Daimler-Chrysler area by Enzo Piano (between Potsdamer Strasse and Linksrasse) and the Hand Stimman building by Hans Kollhoff.

Potsdamer Platz