Kulturgeschichte der Moderne in Berlin-Wilmersdorf – von der Carstenn-Figur bis in die Gegenwart

In 2023, the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) moved into the ACHTUNDEINS office building in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, designed by architect Eike Becker. The surrounding neighborhood is of great cultural and historical importance. Numerous renowned authors, artists, and scientists have lived here since the end of the 19th century. Around 1870, the merchant and urban developer Johann Anton Wilhelm Carstenn designed a net-like figure that connects four squares (Prager, Nikolsburger, Nürnberger, and Fasanenplatz) that are symmetrically arranged around a central axis (today’s Bundesallee). Although the figure has survived, the city has constantly changed both above and below ground.

The architecture critic Michael Mönninger has told the history of the neighborhood from an urban planning perspective on the ZfL Blog. In an article for the FAZ, Detlev Schöttker was the first to outline the ways in which, starting from this comparatively small area, architecture (Johann Heinrich Strack, Fritz Bornemann, Gottfried Böhm), literature (Gerhard Hauptmann, Heinrich Mann, Mascha Kaléko), and art (Galerie Bremer, Georg Baselitz) have gained significance in the unfolding of modernism.

Questioning how urban buildings and spaces, neighborhoods and networks interact with the production of art and culture, this workshop aims to expand and deepen these approaches. Eike Becker, the architect of ACHTUNDEINS, will give the keynote lecture.

Admission is free, and no registration is required.

Fig. above: © Dirk Naguschewski