Frankfurter Allee 40 - History of the Sprachenatelier building




Sprachenatelier has been situated in the beautiful building on Frankfurter Allee for 13 years now, but the building has been around for over 100. Designed by architect Hans Liepe, the building was built between 1906-1907 by Oscar Garbe. In 1907, more buildings of a similar style popped up along Frankfurter Allee, which was a main transport link and a prestigious shopping street. It is, in fact, one of the oldest streets in Berlin.

The building is a plastered build covering five floors, with balconies situated on the front side. There are two exits which lead to the two stair towers at the back. The most obvious thing about the building is the roof (which was sadly damaged in the recent fire: see the last blog post for details). The roof is what is known as a “hipped“ roof meaning that all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. At the back there is a square courtyard between this building and another five-story building behind it.

Right outside of the building is the U-Bahn station Samariter Straße. This is on the U5 line, which opened in December 1930. In 1949, the Communist goverment of Berlin's east sector started reconstructing the mile and a half long Frankfurter Allee. It was widened and apartment blocks were built along it, with two identical tower blocks built at about one third of its length (Frankfurter Tor). Because of the reconstruction, a lot of buildings were knocked down and rebuilt. Our building here is the only one left of this style today.

Comments

  1. http://erogarbe.hwoodgroup.net/Bilder.html

    http://erogarbe.hwoodgroup.net/Hochzeitstag.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is the blog from the Garbe family, isn't it? Thank you for sharing it.

      Delete
    2. We updated the Blog Post, so when you click on the Oscar Garbe name you are redirected to the family page.

      Delete

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