Theater at the Schiffbauerdamm

Historical building report

Commissioned by the Ilse Holzapfel Foundation, D:4 has drawn up an expert report on the building history of the outer façade of the Berliner Ensemble building.

It covers the period from 1891, when the building project was taken over by Simon & Co., which entrusted the architect Heinrich Seeling with the design planning of the theatre, through the redesign as the "Berliner Ensemble" initiated by Helene Weigel in 1957, to the current version, which goes back to the renovation measures in 1987/88.

In order to provide the planning basis for a renovation and reconstruction concept for the facades, the main focus of our research was the search for all available documents (especially plans, views, photos) on the original facade design.

Although no original plans, views, detailed sketches or similar could be found for the further stages, the measures of the facade renovations carried out so far could be reconstructed for the most part on the basis of historical photographs.