Like a spaceship, the building seems to have landed in the no man's land between the Brandenburg Gate and Leipziger Strasse, right on Wilhelmplatz, the former center of government of the German Reich.

The black and white photograph shows a swept empty place where ministries were located before the bombing in World War II.

The foundation on which the new Czech embassy was built in the 1970s is historically charged.

Kevin Hanschke

volunteer.

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To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the start of planning, an exhibition in the Czech Cultural Center is dedicated to the history of the embassy's construction.

Contemporary photo series by the photographers Simon Schnepp and Morgane Renou will be shown.

Reproductions of historical plans and design sketches from the National Gallery in Prague are also on display.

There is also an architectural model and original drafts of the furniture – including the delicately curved porcelain lamps, marbled flower boxes and the red leather armchairs distributed throughout the building.

The CSSR embassy building was a trendy novelty in East Berlin. The new building was constructed between 1974 and 1978 and opened in February 1979.

It was designed by Czech architect couple Věra and Vladimír Machonin, the stars of Prague's brutalism.

They worked with the architect Klaus Pätzmann, who was responsible for ensuring that the plans were in line with the GDR's urban planning agenda.

The house attracted attention in the neighborhood, especially because it was planned as a radically futuristic solitaire close to the wall strip.

Actually planned for Nairobi

Only the prefab building of the North Korean embassy and the remains of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda shaped the surrounding cityscape.

The isolated location at 44 Wilhelmstrasse posed a challenge to the design process, as the pair otherwise filled what would otherwise be significant gaps in Prague's historical center.

But it was also an opportunity to shape the square with a style-defining building.

The irony is that the house was initially planned as an embassy building for Nairobi, but was considered more suitable for Berlin because of its dimensions.

The technical design alone was spectacular for the time: the cube made of darkened glass, granite, steel and concrete rests on pillars on a base measuring 48 by 48 meters.

Five storeys with beveled corners are piled up above the entrance plinth and are clad in copper-tinted panes of glass that reflect the opposite prefabricated buildings.

The geometric outer skin with the glass capsules contributes to the overall sculptural effect.

This exterior appearance contrasts with the colorful design inside, which features glass and textile artwork and built-in furniture.

Added to this is the continuous walnut cladding, which is reminiscent of Bohemian castles.

There are circular bars, orange carpets, and toilet and phone stalls with sliding frosted glass doors.

The first floor, which also houses the main auditorium and a cinema room, juts out over the ground floor, and the elevation makes the building seem to float.

Main work of Czech brutalism

The building is considered one of the main works of Czech brutalism and is reminiscent of the Kotva department store on Náměstí Republiky, also designed by Věra Machoninová, or the Hotel Intercontinental on Pařížská in Prague.

Especially in Czechoslovakia, the architectural style was extremely popular in the 1970s, both for government buildings, but also for department stores, residential buildings and infrastructure.

The embassy earned the nickname "Spaceship Enterprise" from Berliners for its silhouette and pop art-colored, psychedelic interior.

But with the reconstruction of the city center after the fall of the wall, when the embassy area was suddenly back in the heart of the federal capital, the facade was a thorn in the side of many.

Since reunification, there has been a dispute in the city as to whether the quirky building should be demolished, left in its historic state, or renovated.

For a long time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic planned to build a new building on the same site, until resistance arose in Czech society, because brutalism, which is finding more and more fans all over the world, has also been considered a national cultural heritage in the Czech Republic for several years.

Czechoslovakian architects in particular had a decisive influence on this style.

The Prague National Gallery therefore dedicated a comprehensive exhibition to him in 2020.

The Berlin show also shows the special design will of the time and underlines how important the design language of the building is, which hopefully will again become a model for other new embassy buildings, which today are often determined by the Berlin block edge in terms of design.

Raumschiff Enterprise – 50 years Czech Embassy in Berlin

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At the Czech Cultural Center, Wilhelmstraße 44, Berlin, until October 3rd.

A brochure will be published.