More Müller

I was in Berlin again last week, watching a fifteen minute film about Nazi architecture (by Walter Hege). The national film archive is the only place that seems to have a copy. Appropriately enough, the archive is located in one of the largest surviving National Socialist building complexes: Fehrbelliner Platz.


Fehrbelliner Platz in 1946

While I was in town I went to visit another electrical substation by Hans Heinrich Müller - this one on Kopehagener Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg, which is a sort of haven for trendy young families. A bit like a German version of Stoke Newington, there are children in three-wheeled prams everywhere.

The plan of the Umspannwerk on Kopenhagener Strasse is similar to Bramante's schema for the Tempietto in Rome: a circular (in this case, ovoid) building in a rectangular courtyard. Bramante of course had intended a circular courtyard, too: Müller, on the other hand, capitalizes on the strange spaces created in between the central building and the court. His use of the Gothic arch only adds to the menacing effect.