Much of the series is shot in or around Alexanderplatz. In the picture we see two buildings with a very modern appearance that dominate the square. One may wonder why the producers did not make an effort to hide them. After all, they did "eliminate" both the TV tower and the World Clock, creations from the GDR (or DDR) era.
Well, it is not for lack of rigor that these two buildings were able to pass the sieve of the historical analysis. No, it's because they were actually there at the time of the series. Surprising? Not so much: in the 1920s, several buildings that seem modern even today, were designed in the German capital by architects like Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner or Erich Mendelsohn. The latter is the author of the Columbushaus (now disappeared), on a Berlin square as emblematic as Alexanderplatz: the Potsdamerplatz.
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Columbushaus
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The anachronistic looking (misplaced in time, I mean) buildings on the Alexanderplatz are called Berolinahaus and Alexanderhaus, by the architect and designer Peter Behrens (1868-1940). The eight-storey buildings have a reinforced concrete skeleton and were built with american money. During the Second World War they were damaged, but they were later restored.
Peter Behrens, who was part of the modernist movement, was able to continue his career during Nazism. He even took part in the planning of Germania, which Hitler meant to be the capital of his Reich. Hitler admired Behrens, certainly not for the Berolinahaus and Alexanderhaus, of a modernist style that the Führer loathed, but for the more classical looking German embassy in St. Petersburg, realization of Behrens in 1913.
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Ancient German
embassy in St.Petersburg
By K.K.
Bulla - http://www.encspb.ru/en/article.php?kod=2804004653, Public
Domain.
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Finally: the
presence of these two buildings in the Alexanderplatz of the series
is not completely justified after all, if we are picky, since they
were not finished until 1930, while the first episode of the series
is supposed to take place in late April 1929. But I still welcome the
effort of the filmmakers to give us a very credible Alexanderplatz of
1920s model.
P.S: On Saturday, June 18, 2016, the whole square was closed to the public all day long and filled with extras in 1920s clothes. Berlin Transport (BVG) provided a historic tram for the shooting.
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| Alexanderplatz (1934?) |
Alexanderplatz looked COMPLETELY different in 1929, it was one big building site with still a few old buildings.
ReplyDeleteFirst season takes place in April/May 1929, building of the Berolinahaus didn't even begin till September 1929, building of the Alexanderhaus didn't begin till 1930, Johnass & Co the company who's name you see on the Alexanderhaus didn't move in till 1934, the bank also didn't open till the 1930s.
In short, it looks nice but for a historical show with such a huge budget and so much effort put into how it all looks, this is a gigantic fail, alsmost as silly as the airplane scenes in season 2.
You may be right. Of course they could have chosen some other place than the Alexanderplatz, as they are parts of Berlin that have not been as severely damaged as that one. It would have simplified their job. I'm not familiar with airplanes so that I didn't react to the season 2 scenes you mention. Any interesting details?
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