Karl-Marx-Allee

Address: Karl-marx-allee 1

Postal code: 10243

City: Berlin

Website: https://www.kma-portal.de

Information

In contrast to »Kurfürstendamm or »Friedrichstraße, Europe's only boulevard designed after World War II is a splendid, cool street of monumental dimensions.
On 17 June 1953 a riot broke out on "Stalinallee" (which was the street's name until 1961), threatening the young state of the GDR and suppressed by Soviet tanks. Karl-Marx-Allee is a unique open-air museum of Socialist Realist architecture in Germany. The architects Hartmann, Henselmann, Hopp, Leucht, Paulick and Souradny between 1952 and 1960 built the boulevard, named "Stalinallee" until 1961. After its destruction during the Second World War the street was widened to 90 meters. The seven to nine-storied buildings were erected after requirements of the GDR party in a "Stalin"-neoclassic style of the 50s also known as "confectioner's style" in the Soviet Union. Equally, traditional Berlin motives by Schinkel and Gontard were applied. The buildings differ in their number of stories and revetments of the facades. Along with the apartment buildings numerous stores and shops were built. Landmark of the alley are the two towers on Frankfurter Tor, which resemble to the towers on »Gendarmenmarkt. After the German reunification the tower blocks on Karl-Marx-Allee have been renovated.

Karl-Marx-Allee on the map of Berlin