Excelsiorhaus, Residential tower in Kreuzberg, Germany
Excelsiorhaus is a residential tower in Kreuzberg featuring 18 floors with over 500 apartments and commercial spaces distributed throughout the building. The structure rises prominently above the surrounding neighborhood and has served as a recognizable landmark since its completion.
The building was constructed between 1966 and 1968, replacing the former Hotel Excelsior that previously occupied the site. Architects Franz-Heinrich Sobotka and Gustav Müller designed this structure for Excelsior Tankstellen GmbH during the post-war period.
The building's name recalls the Hotel Excelsior, one of continental Europe's largest hotels before World War II, which stood on this site. In its early years the Canadian restaurant Saskatchewan occupied the 16th and 17th floors, and its large illuminated sign gave the tower the nickname "Saskatchewan-Hochhaus." In the 1980s the discotheque Turn Tower used these rooms and was popular with West Berlin's art scene.
The building is easily visible from street level and serves as a clear landmark for navigation in the area. You can explore the surroundings and view the structure from different angles to appreciate its scale.
The metal windows do not open sideways like ordinary casements: each pane pivots on a vertical axis fixed at its top and bottom centre, so the outer face can be turned inward for cleaning. A 1976 shelter beneath the building held about 3,100 people, with 40 toilets, a soup kitchen and its own well 60 m deep.
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