The Europa-Center is a building complex on

Breitscheidplatz Breitscheidplatz () is a major public square in the inner city of Berlin, Germany. Together with the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, it marks the centre of former West Berlin and the present-day City West. It is named after Rudolf Breitscheid. Locat ...

in the

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

district of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, with a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

and an high-rise tower. Erected between 1963 and 1965, it is today a historically preserved building.

History of the site

From 1897 a residential building was erected at the site of the present-day Europa-Center, vis-à-vis the

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, but mostly just known as Gedächtniskirche ) is a Protestant church affiliated with the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia, a regi ...

and likewise designed in a

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style according to plans by

Franz Schwechten Franz Heinrich Schwechten (12 August 1841 – 11 August 1924) was one of the most famous Germany, German architects of the Wilhelminism, Wilhelmine era, and contributed to the development of historicism (art), historicist architecture. Life Schw ...

. Then part of Berlin's fashionable "New West" (today also known as "City West"), it was, from 1916, home to the ''

Romanisches Café The ''Romanisches Café'' ("Romanesque Café") was a café- bar in Berlin well known as a meeting place for artists. It was located in what is now Breitscheidplatz at the end of the Kurfürstendamm in the Charlottenburg district (although that ...

'', a popular meeting place for writers, artists and people in the theatre business, as well as those who aspired to join them. During a RAF air raid in World War II on the night of 22/23 November 1943, the building burnt down and laid in ruins. After the war, the cleared premises were used only intermittently for more than a decade, according to need. Makeshift constructions were used variously by wrestlers, circus performers and missionaries, followed by food outlets and briefly a cinema hosting so-called ''Sittenfilme'' ("films of

manners Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...

"). A local newspaper described the central site as a "stain on Berlin's calling card".

Construction

Soon after the division of the city by the construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

, in 1961, the situation changed. Upon the reconstruction of the Memorial Church, the

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

businessman and investor Karl Heinz Pepper was appointed to oversee the redevelopment of the Breitscheidplatz' eastern side. He commissioned the architects

Helmut Hentrich Helmut Hentrich (17 June 1905 – 7 February 2001) was a German architect who became particularly known for his striking high-rise buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. The architectural firm he founded, ''Hentrich, Petschnigg und Partner (HPP)'', st ...

and

Hubert Petschnigg Hubert Petschnigg (31 October 1913 – 15 September 1997) was an Austrian architect. Life Petschnigg was born in Klagenfurt, and went to school in Villach. In 1934 he began to study architecture at the Vienna University of Technology, where he e ...

to design and build an office and shopping complex modelled on American malls. Construction work began in 1963, with artistic consulting by the church architect

Egon Eiermann Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 20 July 1970) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at the Technical University ...

, and on 2 April 1965 the Europa-Center was inaugurated by Governing Mayor

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

. What had been built was a complex with a total floor space of 80,000 square metres, divided into distinct units: a two-storey foundation with a basement and two inner courtyards, a cinema, a hotel, an apartment block, and the box-shaped 86m high-rise, then the highest in Berlin, with 21 storeys and 13,000 square metres of office space. In 2005 the operators of the complex gave the number of shops and food outlets as around 100.

Notable features

Tauentzienstraße (Berlin-Charlottenburg)

On top of the high-rise, and visible across Berlin, is a large metal star-in-a-circle symbol, the logo of car manufacturer

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

. It weighs 15,000 kg, has an outer diameter of 10 metres,Mercedes-Stern wird umgelegt
''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...

'' (in German) completes approximately two revolutions a minute, and glows at night with the help of 681 fluorescent tubes. The shopping mall initially comprised an ice rink (closed in 1974) and the ''Royal Palast'' cinema, with the world's largest

projection screen A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed, as in a movie theater; painted on the ...

at the time of its opening in 1965 (closed in 2004). There was also an observation deck on the roof. Today's major attractions include " The Clock of Flowing Time", a high

water clock A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured. Water clocks are one of the oldest time-m ...

of communicating vessels, and the ''

Mengenlehreuhr The ''Mengenlehreuhr'' (German for "Set Theory Clock") or Berlin-Uhr ("Berlin Clock") is the first public clock in the world that tells the time by means of illuminated, coloured fields, for which it entered the ''Guinness Book of Records'' upon ...

'' originally located on nearby

Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...

. The basement is home to a ''

Kabarett Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. It ...

'' theatre and a large

Irish pub An Irish pub is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. Irish pubs are characterised by a unique culture centred around a casual and friendly atmosphere, hearty food and drink, Irish sports, and tr ...

. The building features prominently in the 1966 spy film ''

The Quiller Memorandum ''The Quiller Memorandum'' is a 1966 British neo noir eurospy film filmed in Deluxe Color and Panavision, adapted from the 1965 spy novel ''The Berlin Memorandum'', by Elleston Trevor under the name "Adam Hall", screenplay by Harold Pinter, di ...

'' and in the 1981 biographical drama ''

Christiane F. Christiane Vera Felscherinow (born 20 May 1962) is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978 autobiographical book ''Christiane F.'' (original title: ), and the film and television miniseries based on the ...

References

External links

Website of the Europa-Center in Berlin
(English version) {{Coord, 52, 30, 16, N, 13, 20, 20, E, region:DE-BE_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Buildings and structures in Berlin Skyscrapers in Berlin Tourist attractions in Berlin Buildings and structures completed in 1965 Shopping malls in Berlin Skyscraper office buildings in Germany

History of the site

Construction

Notable features

See also

References

External links