These are important architectural monuments of the "modern movement", projects of which belong to Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut, Hans Scharun. They date back to the time of the Weimar Republic, when the head of the Berlin building complex, Martin Wagner, who leaned towards left-wing political ideals, built 150,000 new apartments in a few years that corresponded to modern living standards. They were in stark contrast to the cheap housing that Berliners had to be content with before. Fresh air, running hot water, central heating, and a well-developed public transport system were truly revolutionary innovations.
But not only this has made the six residential complexes in the German capital a unique phenomenon. They combined the demands of the socio-political situation with an innovative approach to formal solutions. As a result, a material expression of social utopia has appeared - these houses surrounded by greenery, spacious and light, reflecting the belief in the irresistible good force of scientific and technological progress. Representatives of the Berlin Bauhaus Archives, who support the UNESCO application, compare these six ensembles with Gothic cathedrals, since both are an architectural expression of the dominant worldview of their historical eras.
The earliest of the complexes presented for consideration is the garden city of Falkenberg Bruno Tauta, the project of which dates back to 1912. All other buildings, including the horseshoe-shaped housing estate in Britz, Schillerpark and Karl Legin's quarter (all three are also Taut projects) date back to the 1920s.
The ensembles of Taut of both the war and the post-war period are distinguished from their modern buildings by the active use of color, more - in Falkenberg, to a lesser extent - in Britz, a feature of which is an artificial lake, on which all the apartments of the complex look out.
Siemensstadt and Weisse Stadt also entered the top six. Both are examples of restrained early modernism, with Walter Gropius, Hugo Hering and Hans Scharoun participating in the design of the former, and Bruno Arends, Wilhelm Büning and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg in the latter.
The UNESCO decision on the status of these ensembles will not be taken until the middle of next year, and if it is positive, they will become the first World Heritage Sites in Berlin of the 20th century (now only two objects in this city belong to this category - the Museum Island complex and royal palaces and parks of Berlin and Potsdam, buildings of the 18th - 19th centuries).
