Tuesday 22 September 2009

Rundfunkhaus - the Former East German House of Broadcasting

Once a year, Berlin holds an Open Day for memorials and other historic sites which are normally closed to the public; which is normally a good time to discover new sites in (or new sides to) Berlin. This year, we visited the former East German House of Broadcasting ('Rundfunkhaus') where pretty much all of the GDR's radio broadcasts were produced.

Large parts of the house are still in use, not for broadcasting but for sound recording - although it does not seem to be as successful a venture as the new private investors are hoping for. While some of the outlying buildings have been left to fall to pieces, being open to the elements and having been vandalised, the main buildings are intact, in pretty much the state they were in when the Berlin wall came down. The house features vintage GDR design, which always harks back to the 1950s. The highlight is certainly the Great Broadcasting Hall, a grand studio where orchestral music could be recorded.

I took a series of digital snapshots (the Holgas stayed home that day) which I put up [here] on my 'other', more pedestrian site, Incidental Images. Enjoy.

1 comment:

  1. We have a similar 'open days' arrangement here in the UK and made a special trip to London last weekend for theirs. Thanks for sharing your photos!

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