Higher, faster, more visionary

Music of the future of the sixties: In the exhibition "Radikal Modern" the Berlinische Galerie shows architectural utopias for the capital.

Heinrich Kuhn, residential development by Chen Kuen Lee, Märkisches Viertel, Senftenberger Ring 80-86, photograph, circa 1970.

Georg Kohlmaier, Barna von Sartory, highway planning Oranienplatz, photomontage, 1969.

Heinz Lieber, Panorama Alexanderplatz, photograph, 1972.

Dieter Urbach, draft residential development Leninplatz, design: Manfred Jäkel, Lothar Kwasnitza, repronegative photo montage, 1967.

A rather absurd idea today, but a big hit in the 1960s: a round of coffee or an after-work beer with a view of the autobahn. The euphoria over technological progress also influenced architecture and urban planning, which manifested itself in futuristic-looking designs such as Berlin's "Bierpinsel," the tower restaurant in Steglitz. It is one of the examples presented by the Berlinische Galerie within the exhibition "Radikal Modern. Planning and Building in 1960s Berlin." Prominent places and buildings such as the Berlin TV Tower, the New National Gallery by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church by Egon Eiermann are encountered in the form of photographs, models, plans and collages. Thus, the visions of a wide variety of architects, from Walter Gropius to Manfred Zumpe (who, by the way, were also connected by an eager correspondence), unite a divided city and make clear that the development in East and West was driven by similar desires and problems. First and foremost: How can the growth of cities and the increasing demand for housing be met architecturally?

Georg Kohlmaier, Barna von Sartory, Rolling sidewalks on Kurfürstendamm, repro image collage, 1969.

Collages such as Georg Kohlmaier's "Rucksack-WC" show that modernism sometimes overshot the mark and that the new way of thinking also gave rise to radical ideas that may sound a little abstruse at first glance: the mobile wet room was intended to solve the problem of the lack of sanitary facilities in unrenovated old buildings. In the end, the implementation of the (quite seriously intended) thought experiment failed due to the requirements of the Berlin authorities. Kohlmaier's rolling sidewalks suffered a similar fate - his ideas for a tube system running above the streets with regular stops remained thoughts on paper.