GIZ-Haus, Cultural heritage building in Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany

The GIZ-Haus at Reichpietschufer 20 is a four-story block with a fully built-out steep hipped roof, its facade clad in dimension stone and the ground floor in heavy rustication. A projecting central risalit on the street front opens into an arcaded loggia on the third floor, and both risalits carry volute gables in early-17th-century North German Renaissance style. A two-story oriel with reliefs of an Asian, an American and an African head marks the chamfered corner.

The building was constructed in 1913 for the Transatlantic Goods Insurance Company. During World War II it served military intelligence operations.

The reliefs on the corner oriel show the heads of an Asian, an American and an African, referring to the overseas insurance business of the original owner. The entrance hall keeps its green-brown ceramic tiles and a wall fountain whose ceramic figure is lost; floral wall paintings were reconstructed after 1945.

The building is located on Reichpietschufer street in the Tiergarten district and is easily accessible by public transport. Visitors should note that the exterior facade is the most visible element when approaching from the street, while the interior spaces primarily serve business functions.

Since 2001, a WindSpiegelwand by Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has covered the northern and western firewalls. Its polished stainless steel plates hang on a metal frame and move with the wind, arranged to follow the building's floors and, at the rear, its stairways. The shifting reflections tie the isolated historicist building to its modern surroundings.