Palace of the Republic ( German: Palast der Republik ) - a building located on Palace Square on the island of Spreeinsel in the center of Berlin ( GDR ), built on the site of the demolished Berlin City Palace in 1950 . In the Palace of the Republic, meetings of the People’s Chamber of the GDR were held , in addition, the palace served as a public palace of culture . After the unification of Germany , the fate of the Palace of the Republic became the subject of heated debate. February 6, 2006 began the gradual demolition of the Palace of the Republic, which was completed by the end of 2008 . The official reason for the demolition is the presence of harmful asbestos in the building mixture from which the palace is built , which, however, is being questioned - this decision also has a political motive . Currently, the City Palace is being built on the site of the Palace of the Republic.
| Monument | |
| Palace of the Republic | |
|---|---|
| A country | |
| Location | |
| Architectural style | |
| Architect | , and |
| Established | |
| Date of Abolition | |
| Height | |
Content
- 1 Construction
- 2 Location and dimensions
- 3 Gallery
- 4 notes
Construction
The grand opening of the Palace of the Republic took place on April 23, 1976 , and for the public access it opened for the first time on April 25 . Construction lasted 2 years 8 months. The architects Heinz Graffunder, Karl-Ernst Svora, Wolf-Rüdiger Eisentraut, Gunther Kunert, Manfred Prasser and Heinz Aust worked on the palace project.
During the construction of the building with a steel supporting structure, up to 5 thousand tons of atomized asbestos were used , which corresponds to almost 720 tons of raw asbestos. In those days, this method of thermal protection was widely used throughout the world (the threat of asbestos cancer was known even in the days of the GDR).
The palace was built on the part of the territory liberated after the demolition of the City Palace partially destroyed during World War II and damaged by the fire. Refusing to reconstruct it due to a shortage of funds in the post-war years, the GDR government decided to demolish the “symbol of Prussian militarism and the nobility ” . The liberated territory was used for demonstrations and public gatherings and as a parking lot.
Location and dimensions
In shape, the building was a parallelepiped with a length of 80 m, a width of 85 m and a height of 32 m.
The Palace of the Republic was located on Unter den Linden , approximately opposite Lustgarten and Berlin Cathedral, not far from Alexanderplatz square directly on the shore of the Spree. Nearby is the former building State Council of the GDR . Behind the territory occupied by the palace, there is a monument “Marx-Engels-Forum” and the Berlin TV tower . Not far, in the Red Town Hall , the Senate of Berlin sits.
Gallery
Palace of the Republic three weeks before opening. 1976
Panorama of the Palace of the Republic. August 2005
Palace of the Republic. 2003
Palace of the Republic. View from the TV tower
Dismantling works. 2008
Open space on the site of the Palace of the Republic. 2009
Palace of the Republic. 2003
Palace of the Republic. 2004
The remains of the Palace of the Republic. April 2008