Skip to content

East Berlin Plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

On my ride east to the Global Craft Beer Festival this past weekend, I traveled along Frankfurter Allee and Alt-Friedrichsfelde, a long stretch of road that is part of the Bundesstraße 1, a federal highway traveling east-west in Germany. Since it’s a main thoroughfare for cars, there isn’t much “cultural” life on the road. Instead, there are shopping centers here and there, and a lot of Plattenbauten. These high-rise apartments are made of prefabricated material, which meant they were easy and inexpensive to make during the GDR.

On one hand, these buildings are really simplistic, mass-produced, and kind of ugly. On the other hand, they still have a lot of room for variation in color and design, so they’re not all the same. I stopped quite a bit on my bike ride to take some photos, because I think they’re so interesting, even if there is this sort of apocalyptic feel to them.

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

 

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten

east berlin plattenbauten