NEST – Ivan Brambilla

Italian architecture in Berlin: the centrality of polytechnic knowledge in the cultural confrontation between Italy and Germany.

Beginning in the 1950s, the cultural and professional exchange between modern Italian and German architects, already established in the interwar period, intensified.

In this exchange, a particularly prominent position is taken by the contribution to Berlin of some influential figures from the Milanese context and/or linked in various ways to the Milan Polytechnic.

This fact, confirmed by the numerous and growing opportunities for discussion, is inferred first and foremost from the important contribution they made to the transformation of the German city, both in terms of design proposals that remained on paper and, above all, in terms of works that were actually realized. The severe damage induced by World War II and the particular history of Berlin – at the center of international geopolitical interests that led to the construction of a wall that divided the city into two parts between 1961 and 1989 – made it a real place of architectural and urban experimentation, which from time to time reflected the most current trends of the time. Indeed, Berlin represents a true laboratory city as a context in which to test the most up-to-date theories on architecture and urban form. These included reflections on the historic city and its building tradition, strongly inspired by the contribution of the Italian school, especially in the charismatic figure of Aldo Rossi, which led to the IBA experience (1979-84/87) and continued with the important urban transformations promoted in the post-unification phase under the leadership of Senatsbaudirektor Hans Stimmann.

Within the framework of the research work presented here, particular emphasis is given to those “pioneering” works that concretely sealed Milan’s contribution to the city of Berlin (West), such as Luciano Baldessari’s residential building in the Hansaviertel (1954-58) and Melchiorre Bega’s headquarters for the Axel-Springer publishing house (with Gino Franzi, Gustav Müller and Franz Heinrich Sobotka – 1959-65). Two chronologically close tower buildings, concrete witnesses to the city’s desire for profound renewal and international vocation.

Having as their thematic background the reception of the American skyscraper in the European sphere – already taking place in the first decades of the 20th century – these works are among the actors animating the heated confrontation between the “capitalist city” and the “socialist city” strongly felt in those years and an inescapable fact in the Berlin of the time.

Methodology and tools

The research work pursues two different lines of inquiry.

The first is “horizontal,” carried out almost exclusively in terms of bibliographical research, which transversally observes two themes: cultural exchanges between Italy and Germany-focusing more particularly on the contribution of Italian architects to the city of Berlin-and the emergence of the skyscraper theme in Europe.

The second is “vertical” and focuses on the two main case studies: the tower in the Hansaviertel by Luciano Baldessari and the Axel-Springer-Hochhaus by Melchiorre Bega. Central themes of this second line of investigation are the collection of archival material, its internal cataloging, and the typological analysis of the two projects.

The reference archives for the Axel-Springer-Hochhaus are: the Bauaktenarchiv Bezirksamt Friedrichshain Kreuzberg, Berlin; the Unternehmensarchiv Axel-Springer, Berlin; and the Melchiorre Bega Archive at the IUAV University of Venice.

The reference archives for the residential tower in the Hansaviertel are: the Bauaktenarchiv Bezirksamt Mitte, Berlin; the CASVA Foundation at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan; the Baldessari Archive at the Politecnico di Milano; and the Luciano Baldessari Fund at the Mart in Rovereto.

The Goals

• summary reconstruction of the relationship between Italy and Germany within the architectural debate from the postwar period to the present;
• the registry of works created by Italian architects in Berlin;
• the documentary survey, historical contextualization and architectural-typological analysis of skyscrapers for Luciano Baldessari’s Hansaviertel and Melchiorre Bega’s Axel-Springer publishing house