Trend towards Prussian Baroque: Kulturkampf over GDR architecture

More and more buildings are being erected in Potsdam in the historical style. Many buildings from GDR times, however, have to give way. Not everyone likes that.

When Barbara Kuster from the “Mitteschön” association enters Potsdam’s Alter Markt, she is in a great mood: how beautiful the square has become, at the foot of the Nikolaikirche with the obelisk in the middle, and above all the city palace. It was completed in 2013, after a short construction period and long discussions. The state parliament moved in there, which pacified the fronts. At least it will now be used sensibly, it said.

Until 2018, the building of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, a prefabricated building from the GDR era, stood next to the Nikolaikirche on the Alter Markt. No one assumed the house was beautiful. But it was a lively place, for everyone, a public place, praises town planner Steffen Pfrogner. In the end, the building had to give way – decided by a majority of the Potsdam city councillors. Instead, a building complex with apartments and shops is being built behind a historic façade. The technical college moved to a university campus on the outskirts of Potsdam.

Prussian baroque trend

Steffen Pfrogner is one of those who take a critical view of the Prussian Baroque trend. He was involved with like-minded people in the association “Potsdamer Mitte re-thinking”. And he very much regrets the loss of the University of Applied Sciences, just as he finds that far too much post-war architecture was simply torn down after the end of the GDR. “Tabula Rasa” is how Pfrogner sees it.

He lists a number of buildings in Potsdam’s city center that have already had to give way: the House of Travel, a shoe store, the bus station, the telecommunications office – all gone. Pfrogner believes that part of Potsdam’s identity has disappeared as a result.

“stop demolition”

This also applies to the Staudenhof, a prefabricated building complex from 1972 that is to be demolished. Although there is a shortage of housing and for the refugees who are currently living there, alternative accommodation must be found, according to the city planner. He thinks that’s a mistake. Above all, unsuspecting viewers see a run-down facade.

“Let’s save the Staudenhof – shape the construction turnaround together,” says the website of supporters of this prefabricated building complex. “Potsdam’s city council has decided to replace the building with a new, baroque-style development, the so-called Block V. We reject that,” it says.

A banner “Stop demolition” also hangs on the building of the former computer center, also a prefabricated building built between 1969 and 1971 for the VEB machine computing. Artists have found their place in the rooms and transformed the house into a creative meeting place.

future is uncertain

Its future is uncertain. One reason: it stands on the former site of the garrison church, whose tower is currently being rebuilt. This reconstruction also divided the city. For the opponents, the Garrison Church is a symbol of Prussian-German militarism, for the Foundation for Reconstruction a place of reconciliation and encounters is to be created here.

There is an ongoing dispute about the type and scope of the new church building, and ideas about what should happen next on the site collide again and again. The construction of a new creative center, possibly also the reconstruction of the old nave for secular use? Or will it stay the way it is.

Fundamental conflicts

When it comes to urban planning and architectural changes in Potsdam, the conflicts quickly take on a very fundamental character. Barbara Kuster from the “Mitteschön” association describes the atmosphere as representative of the conflict between left and right and the question of who owns the city.

She herself is a native of Potsdam, an artist, cabaret artist and an absolute supporter of Potsdam becoming as beautiful as she once thought it was. She does not reject all post-war buildings, but those that disturb the line of sight or the historical floor plan.

Financially strong comrades-in-arms

And she has prominent and financially strong allies she can refer to, such as billionaire patron Hasso Plattner, co-founder of the software company SAP. Among many other things, he donated the Museum Barberini, including an impressive collection of Impressionists.

The house on the “Alten Markt” is also a reconstruction of a palace from the time of Frederick the Great. The TV presenter Günther Jauch, who lives in Potsdam, discovered his heart for the city a long time ago. Among other things, he supported the reconstruction of the Fortuna portal at the city palace with a generous donation. At the time, Jauch was very surprised about the protests against the reconstruction of Potsdam’s historic center.

“I don’t know that many people who come to Potsdam because of the University of Applied Sciences or the Staudenhof, I think that’s rather limited,” he said somewhat sarcastically in 2017, when the discussion was particularly heated. In other words: Tourists like to come to Brandenburg’s state capital precisely because of its baroque beauty.

The fact that such financially strong financiers were found for the reconstruction of buildings with the character of the past probably spurred resistance from some. Do those who have money now determine what the city looks like? Possibly “Wessis” over “Ossis”?

Will everything that looks like DDR be eliminated?

Will everything be eliminated that even looks like GDR? Doll’s house, ghost town was the unflattering description of the old market. It’s a gift that Potsdam has such committed patrons, but many people say so.

The discussions make you cautious: “Potsdamers: inside build for Potsdam” is written on banderoles on the construction site where the new building with a new and old facade is being built in place of the university of applied sciences, probably so that nobody thinks that private investors are the only ones in charge here. And the new apartments should be comparatively cheap.

Not much remains of the GDR era

Pfrogner has to admit that those who have campaigned for the preservation of post-reunification architecture have so far come up short. Apart from the former “Interhotel”, now the “Mercure”, not much remains of the larger public buildings from the GDR era.

The hotel towers over the historic ensemble like an oversized spike. There were also demolition plans for an art gallery, also initiated by Plattner, but the protests were so vehement that the plans were dropped. The hotel stopped.

Potsdam is booming, many people are drawn to the city on the outskirts of Berlin, and these guests, unencumbered by all the discussions from the past, probably see above all: a city that is becoming more and more beautiful.