Gropiusstadt

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  Gropiusstadt Swimming Pool

• The suburb of Gropiusstadt with its prefabricated buildings, taken from a research zeppelin of the Helmholtz Centre.

The large housing estate Gropiusstadt was built in the 1960s with a focus on social housing. Much has changed since then.

Gropiusstadt was built in the 1960s and 1970s as a satellite housing estate on the state border with Brandenburg. The high-rise buildings with around 18,500 apartments were planned by the architect Walter Gropius. Originally, the large housing estate was to be lower and more extensive, but the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 thwarted this plan. Consequently, denser and higher buildings had to be constructed. The highest building of the housing estate - the Ideal building on Fritz-Erler-Allee - has 30 floors. At 89 meters, it is one of the tallest residential buildings in Germany.

A Troubled Area Is Being Upgraded

Many tenants have been living in Gropiusstadt for a long time and appreciate their apartments with lots of natural light and spectacular views of the city. Since the 1980s, however, the district has also been considered a socially disadvantaged area. A lot has been done to counteract this. Public green spaces have been upgraded, squares have been redesigned, and neighborhood management has been created.

Life in Gropiusstadt Becomes More Attractive

Although they were originally built as social housing, today the apartments in Gropiusstadt no longer require proof of entitlement to residence. The housing shortage in the capital also contributes to the fact that Gropiusstadt is becoming more attractive as a residential area again. Consequently, the social mix of the neighborhood is changing. Rents are still comparatively low and there are hardly any vacancies. New buildings have been constructed to fill the open spaces, and more are in the planning stage.

Shopping in the Gropius Passagen

Besides the affordable rents, the neighborhood's main shopping mall "Gropius Passagen" offers very good shopping opportunities. At around 90,000 square meters of sales area, it is the largest shopping mall in Berlin and one of the largest in Germany. It is also well connected to public transport, and the state of Brandenburg as well as the the Britzer Garten are not far away.