Haus Friedrichstadt, Architectural heritage monument in Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
Haus Friedrichstadt is a seven-story building on Friedrichstrasse that extends across a significant footprint with a steel skeleton frame and ferroconcrete ceilings. The structure combines functional design with carefully detailed interior spaces.
Haus Friedrichstadt was built in 1934–1935 to a design by architect Jürgen Bachmann for Haus Friedrichstadt GmbH, on land freed by demolishing older commercial buildings. A 1931 design by Heinrich Straumer for a Kaufhaus Adam on the Leipziger Strasse corner was never executed because of the world economic crisis. During the Nazi period the building housed departments of the Reich Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Chamber of Literature. Damaged in the Second World War, it was restored with slight changes around 1950, converted in 1993–1994 and renovated in 1999.
The building's name comes from the Haus Friedrichstadt GmbH, the company that commissioned it. During the Nazi period it housed departments of the Reich Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Chamber of Literature. In the GDR era the Café Stadtmitte operated inside, and the Friedrichstrasse building line on the East Berlin side ended here, just north of Checkpoint Charlie.
The building occupies the entire western block front of Friedrichstrasse between Leipziger Strasse to the north and Krausenstrasse to the south, with 78 metres of frontage on Friedrichstrasse. The ground floor is 4.40 metres high, the four upper floors and attic about 3.50 metres each. The entrance hall and staircases are clad in red marble.
The steel skeleton was designed by engineer Gerhard Mensch, who also worked on the Reichsbank extension and the Reich Aviation Ministry. Under Nazi building rules the roof was given a reinforced concrete structure meant to be bomb-proof, and the basement was fitted out as an air-raid shelter.
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