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Former Reichsbank building

Berlin building and structure stubsBuildings and structures in MitteCommercial buildings completed in 1938Nazi architecture
Foreign Office Berlin 2007 003
Foreign Office Berlin 2007 003

The former Reichsbank building (in German the Haus am Werderschen Markt) is a building in Berlin, Germany, originally built in 1934–38 to house the Reichsbank, and today housing part of the Foreign Office. One of the remaining examples of Nazi architecture, the building was commissioned in 1933. The design competition attracted a number of entrants, including two Bauhaus architects who would later have to flee the Nazis, Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The jury selected Mies van der Rohe's design, but Hitler stepped in and awarded the commission to Heinrich Wolff. Wolff's design called for a stone-faced structure over a reinforced concrete core.After World War II, the building, now in East Berlin, first housed East Germany's Finance Ministry, and from 1959 the ruling Socialist Unity Party. Following reunification, a new headquarters for the Foreign Office was built next door, and the former Reichsbank building became part of its office complex, undergoing modifications for that purpose overseen by Hans Kollhoff.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Former Reichsbank building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Former Reichsbank building
Unterwasserstraße, Berlin Mitte

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N 52.514 ° E 13.3997 °
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Haus am Werderschen Markt (Auswärtiges Amt - Altbau)

Unterwasserstraße
10117 Berlin, Mitte
Germany
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Foreign Office Berlin 2007 003
Foreign Office Berlin 2007 003
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Bauakademie
Bauakademie

The Bauakademie (Building Academy) in Berlin, Germany, was a higher education school for the art of building to train master builders. It originated from the construction department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Mechanical Sciences (from 1704), which emphasized the aesthetic elements of art of building while ignoring the technical. Thus, the governmental Upper Building Department ("UBD") decided to establish an entirely new building educational institution named "Bauakademie". It was founded on 18 March 1799 by King Frederick William III and, in 1801, incorporated into the UBD, as its section. The building of the Building Academy (Bauakademie), built between 1832 and 1836 (later known as Schinkel's Bauakademie), is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its hithertofore uncommon use of red brick and the relatively streamlined facade of the building. Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it was built near the Berlin City Palace and accommodated two royal Prussian institutions: the State Construction Commission (Oberbaudeputation), of which Schinkel was the director, and - first of all - the Building Academy (institution), which in 1879 gave birth to the Royal Technical Higher School (Königlich Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg) - the forerunner of the Technical University of Berlin. For nearly 50 years (1885-1933), the Bauakademie became the home of the "Königlich Preussische Messbild-Anstalt" renamed to "Staatliche Bildstelle" in 1921. This institution, under its director Albrecht Meydenbauer, became the first world-wide office professionally working with photogrammetry and establishing an archive of historical buildings based on photography. By 1920, approximately 20.000 glass-negatives of the format 30x30 cm and 40x40 cm had been collected in Germany and abroad. During the Weimar period, the Bauakademie was the home of the famous Deutsche Hochschule für Politik as well as other institutions supported by the State of Prussia. Damaged during World War II, the Bauakademie was then partially restored, but in 1962 the building was demolished to make room for the future Ministry of Foreign Affairs of East Germany. In 1995, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of East Germany was demolished in order to recreate the Werderscher Markt area. Since then, proposals to rebuild Schinkel's Bauakademie have been discussed with city and Federal authorities. The Werderscher Markt area has already been partially recreated by the Bertelsmann-funded reconstruction of the Alte Kommandantur. As for the Bauakademie, between 2000 and 2001 students erected a temporary structure to give an impression of the volume and form of the building. On November 11, 2016, the German Bundestag decided to rebuild the building academy according to the motto "As much Schinkel as possible". The cost of the project is estimated at 51 million euros.

Brandenburg-Prussia
Brandenburg-Prussia

Brandenburg-Prussia (German: Brandenburg-Preußen; Low German: Brannenborg-Preußen) is the historiographic denomination for the Early Modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenzollern intermarried with the branch ruling the Duchy of Prussia, and secured succession upon the latter's extinction in the male line in 1618. Another consequence of the intermarriage was the incorporation of the lower Rhenish principalities of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg after the Treaty of Xanten in 1614. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) was especially devastating. The Elector changed sides three times, and as a result Protestant and Catholic armies swept the land back and forth, killing, burning, seizing men and taking the food supplies. Upwards of half the population was killed or dislocated. Berlin and the other major cities were in ruins, and recovery took decades. By the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Brandenburg gained Minden and Halberstadt, also the succession in Farther Pomerania (incorporated in 1653) and the Duchy of Magdeburg (incorporated in 1680). With the Treaty of Bromberg (1657), concluded during the Second Northern War, the electors were freed of Polish vassalage for the Duchy of Prussia and gained Lauenburg–Bütow and Draheim. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679) expanded Brandenburgian Pomerania to the lower Oder. The second half of the 17th century laid the basis for Prussia to become one of the great players in European politics. The emerging Brandenburg-Prussian military potential, based on the introduction of a standing army in 1653, was symbolized by the widely noted victories in Warsaw (1656) and Fehrbellin (1675) and by the Great Sleigh Drive (1678). Brandenburg-Prussia also established a navy and German colonies in the Brandenburger Gold Coast and Arguin. Frederick William, known as "The Great Elector", opened Brandenburg-Prussia to large-scale immigration ("Peuplierung") of mostly Protestant refugees from all across Europe ("Exulanten"), most notably Huguenot immigration following the Edict of Potsdam. Frederick William also started to centralize Brandenburg-Prussia's administration and reduce the influence of the estates. In 1701, Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, succeeded in elevating his status to King in Prussia. This was made possible by the Duchy of Prussia's sovereign status outside the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and approval by the Habsburg emperor and other European royals in the course of forming alliances for the War of the Spanish succession and the Great Northern War. From 1701 onward, the Hohenzollern domains were referred to as the Kingdom of Prussia, or simply Prussia. Legally, the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia continued until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. However, by this time the emperor's overlordship over the empire had become a legal fiction. Hence, after 1701, Brandenburg was de facto treated as part of the Prussian kingdom. Frederick and his successors continued to centralize and expand the state, transforming the personal union of politically diverse principalities typical for the Brandenburg-Prussian era into a system of provinces subordinate to Berlin.

German colonial empire
German colonial empire

The German colonial empire (German: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies and territories of Imperial Germany. Unified in the early 1870s, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but crucial colonial efforts only began in 1884 with the Scramble for Africa. Claiming much of the left-over uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French. The German Colonial Empire encompassed parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, New Guinea and numerous other West Pacific / Micronesian islands. Germany lost control of its colonial empire when the First World War began in 1914, in which all of its colonies were invaded by Allied forces during the first weeks of the war. However, a number of colonial military forces held out longer, with German troops in South West Africa and Kamerun surrendering in 1915 and in 1916, respectively, while forces under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck fighting a guerilla campaign in East Africa tied down allied troops until 1918, only surrendering after the end of the war. Germany's colonial empire was officially confiscated with the Treaty of Versailles after Germany's defeat in the war and where each colony became a League of Nations mandate under the supervision (but not ownership) of one of the victorious powers. The German colonial empire ceased to exist in 1919. Plans to regain their lost colonial possessions persisted through the Second World War, with many at the time suspecting that this was a goal of the Third Reich all along.

North German Confederation
North German Confederation

The North German Confederation (German: Norddeutscher Bund) was a German federation that existed from July 1867 to December 1870. It is the first period of the German nation state, which is known today as the Federal Republic of Germany.The Confederation came into existence after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 over the lordship of two small Danish duchies (Schleswig-Holstein) claimed by Prussia in 1866. After its victory, Prussia made Austria and its allies to accept the dissolution of the German Confederation (an association of states). The peace treaty allowed Prussia to create a federal state in Northern Germany. On July 1st, 1867, the North German Confederation had a federal constitution.The constitution established a constitutional monarchy with the Prussian king as the holder of the Bundespräsidium. This was the position of a head of state. Laws could only be enabled with the consent of the Reichstag (a parliament based on universal male suffrage) and the Federal Council (Bundesrath, a representation of the states). During the three and a half years of the Confederation, a conservative-liberal cooperation undertook important steps to unify (Northern) Germany with regard to law and infrastructure. The political system (and the political parties) remained essentially the same in the years after 1870. During its existence, there were tensions between the North German Confederation and the Second French Empire, which was ruled by the French Emperor Napoleon III. In summer 1870, a dispute over a new king for Spain escalated into the Franco-Prussian war. In this situation, the south German states of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg and Bavaria joined the North German Confederation. On 1 January 1871, the country adopted a new constitution, which was written under the title of a new "German Confederation" but already gave it the name "German Empire" in the preamble and article 11.The Confederation had nearly 30 million inhabitants, of whom 80% lived in Prussia. This is ca. 75% of the population of the German Empire (1871).

Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic (German: Weimarer Republik [ˈvaɪmaʁɐ ʁepuˈbliːk] (listen)), officially known as the German Reich (Deutsches Reich), describes Germany in the period of 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to as the German Republic (Deutsche Republik). The country's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the country was usually simply called "Germany", with term "Weimar Republic" not becoming common until the 1930s. Following the devastation of the First World War (1914–1918), Germany was exhausted and sued for peace under desperate circumstances. Awareness of imminent defeat sparked a revolution, the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, formal surrender to the Allies, and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic on 9 November 1918.In its initial years, the republic was beset by grave problems, such as hyperinflation and political extremism, including political murders and two attempted seizures of power by contending paramilitaries; internationally, it suffered isolation, reduced diplomatic standing, and contentious relationships with the great powers. By 1924, a great deal of monetary and political stability was restored, and the republic enjoyed relative prosperity for the next five years; this period, sometimes known as the Golden Twenties, was characterised by significant cultural flourishing, social progress, and gradual improvement in foreign relations. Under the Locarno Treaties of 1925, Germany moved toward normalising relations with its neighbours, recognising most territorial changes under the Treaty of Versailles and committing to never go to war. The following year, it joined the League of Nations, which marked its reintegration into the international community. Nevetheless, there remained strong and widespread resentment against the treaty and those who had signed and supported it, especially on the political right. The Great Depression of October 1929 severely impacted Germany's tenuous progress; high unemployment and subsequent social and political unrest led to the collapse of the coalition government. From March 1930 onwards, President Paul von Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher. The Great Depression, exacerbated by Brüning's policy of deflation, led to a greater surge in unemployment. On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to head a coalition government; Hitler's far right Nazi Party held two out of ten cabinet seats. Von Papen, as Vice-Chancellor and Hindenburg's confidant, was to serve as the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control; these intentions badly underestimated Hitler's political abilities. By the end of March 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had used the perceived state of emergency to effectively grant the new Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control. Hitler promptly used these powers to thwart constitutional governance and suspend civil liberties, which brought about the swift collapse of democracy at the federal and state level, and the creation of a single-party dictatorship under his leadership. Until the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, the Nazis governed Germany under the pretense that all the extraordinary measures and laws they implemented were constitutional; notably, there was never an attempt to replace or substantially amend the Weimar constitution. Nevertheless, Hitler's seizure of power (Machtergreifung) had effectively ended the republic, replacing its constitutional framework with Führerprinzip, the principle that "the Führer's word is above all written law".