The Siemensstadt Settlement (; also known as ''Ring Settlement'' or ''Ringsiedlung'') is a nonprofit residential community in the

Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf () is the fourth borough of Berlin, formed in an administrative reform with effect from 1 January 2001, by merging the former boroughs of Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Overview Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf covers the ...

district of Berlin. It is one of the six

Modernist Housing Estates Berlin Modernism Housing Estates () is a World Heritage Site designated in 2008, comprising six separate subsidized housing estates in Berlin. Dating mainly from the years of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), when the city of Berlin was particul ...

in Berlin recognized in July 2008 by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

because of their outstanding modernist architecture and contribution to the progressive housing reform movement during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

Geography

Despite its name, the larger part of the estate is situated within the locality (''Ortsteil'') of

Charlottenburg-Nord Charlottenburg-Nord (, literally "Charlottenburg North") is a locality (''Ortsteil'') in the northern part of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin, Germany. It is chiefly composed of after-war housing estates, allotment gardens and comm ...

, only the smaller westernmost part belongs to

Siemensstadt Siemensstadt () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. History The locality emerged when the company Siemens & Halske (S & H), one of the predecessors of today's Siemens, bought land in the area, ...

in the district of

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...

History

It was built between 1929 and 1931, under the overall master plan of German architect

Hans Scharoun Bernhard Hans Henry Scharoun (; 20 September 1893 – 25 November 1972) was a German architect best known for designing the (home to the Berlin Philharmonic) and the Schminke House in Löbau, Saxony. He was an important exponent of Organic arc ...

. Six prominent Weimar-era architects took part:

, Fred Forbát,

Otto Bartning Otto Bartning (12 April 1883 in Karlsruhe – 20 February 1959 in Darmstadt) was a Modernist German architect, architectural theorist and teacher. In his early career he developed plans with Walter Gropius for the establishment of the Bauhaus. H ...

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

, Paul Rudolph Henning, and

Hugo Häring Hugo Häring (11 May 1882 – 17 May 1958) was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had ...

. The nickname ''Ringsiedlung'' came from the association of some of these architects with

Der Ring Der Ring was an architectural collective founded in 1926 in Berlin. It emerged from expressionist architecture with a functionalist agenda. Der Ring was a group of young architects, formed with the objective of promoting Modernist architecture. ...

collective. The open spaces were designed by the German modernist landscape architect Leberecht Migge. Unlike the other significant public housing projects of the time, which were produced under government cooperative Gehag sponsorship, the Siemensstadt was constructed by a private housing cooperative as worker housing for Siemens' nearby electrical factory, which employed 60,000 workers. The shape of the settlement marked a turning point in urban thinking, the point at which Berlin's city planner Martin Wagner abandoned a low-rise, garden city-style project with individual gardens, in favor of much denser multi-story apartment blocks.

Special offers

Distributed within the whole settlement are information columns that give short, concise information on the architects and his buildings (currently in German language only).

Gallery

Image:Berlin_GS_Siemensstadt_Panzerkreuzer.jpg, "Panzerkreuzer (armoured ship)" by Hans Scharoun Image:Berlin_GS_Siemensstadt_Langer_Jammer.jpg, „Langer Jammer (Long Misery)“
by

Image:Berlin_GS_Siemensstadt_Ostabschluss.jpg, Postwar eastern termination (1956)
by

File:Lageplan des UNESCO-Welterbe "Großsiedlung Siemensstadt".png, Site of the UNESCO World Heritage site

References

External links