© Martina Baltkalne
Protest and the City: Berlin and the History of Resistance
This guided tour illuminates Berlin's protest culture and shows important places of resistance all over the city center. more
The Hansaviertel neighbourhood in the west of Berlin is considered a jewel of modernist architecture. It was inaugurated in 1957 as the city of tomorrow and, since its creation during the Cold War, saw itself as a counter-design to the socialist boulevards in East Berlin. Renowned architects and representatives of Neues Bauen such as Walter Gropius, Oscar Niemeyer and Max Taut helped the Hansaviertel to become a pioneering architecture.
The significance of the Hansaviertel also stems from its history. Before the Second World War, many well-known personalities lived here, including Rosa Luxemburg, Käthe Kollwitz and Nelly Sachs. The neighbourhood was home to a lively Jewish community. The neighbourhood was completely destroyed during the war. After the war, the Hansaviertel was rebuilt with new, pioneering architecture and has since symbolised the city's will for the future.
The two-hour guided tour through the Hansaviertel neighbourhood focuses not only on the buildings, but also on the eventful history of the last 150 years. Special attention is paid to the idea of freedom, which both the people of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and the West Berliners during the Cold War carried with them.