Guided tour

Social Housing: Werner Düttmann in Kreuzberg [German]
City walk with POLIGONAL

During the years in which Werner Düttmann was Senatsbaudirekor (Senate Building Director) of West Berlin (1960–66), two billion marks were spent each year on state-financed construction projects. About half of this sum went to housing construction, which allowed around 20,000 new housing units to be built annually, including in Kreuzberg between Mehringplatz and Kottbusser Tor. Under Düttmann’s direction, dense, urban neighbourhoods of social housing were created, which would become the focus of the urban renewal debate at the Internationale Bauausstellung ’87 (International Building Exhibition ’87; IBA) two decades later, and are now considered socially deprived areas.

This walk with POLIGONAL Office for Urban Communication explores a number of Düttmann’s social housing projects and traces their sometimes turbulent origins between urban renewal and civic protests. Düttmann’s architectural positions on housing and urban life are contrasted with those of his contemporaries and later generations of urban planners.


Meeting point: Tower blocks at Mehringplatz, Lindenstraße 112 (at the bus stop), 10969 Berlin
Duration: approx. 90 mins

Please note that this walk will take place in all weather.

Ticket booking is required to attend this event. You can purchase an online ticket on the exhibition website wernerduettmann.de two weeks before the event.

Note: The current distance and hygiene regulations apply, as well as a general mask obligation. The obligation to test is waived.

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