Columbushaus

Bezirk Mitte, Germany

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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ReferencearchINFORM↗

Columbushaus was a nine-storey modernist office and shopping building completed in 1932 on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, designed by Erich Mendelsohn. An icon of progressive architecture, it survived World War II relatively intact but was gutted by fire during the June 1953 uprising in East Germany. The damaged ruin was subsequently razed in 1957 because it stood in the border strip between East and West Berlin. The site later became a gathering place for activists in the years preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall.