A new institution of higher education came into being in Berlin on 9 April 1946: Technische Universität Berlin. The re-establishment of a university of technology in Berlin under a new name and ethos at the end of the Second World War represented a new democratic start. This year, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of this event.“Campus of Opposites” explores how the new beginning in 1946 manifested itself in the University’s architecture as well as its research and teaching. What should the University look like? How could old and new be brought together? Many of the motives and goals of the reconstruction process have been lost over the course of time and require explanation.

Dr. Hans-Dieter Nägelke, Head of TU Berlin’s Architecture Museum, and Julia Meyer-Brehm, student of art history at TU Berlin, know all about the many special features, oddities and even outright eccentricities of the architecture of the campus: Steps that do not lead straight up, buildings that straddle visual axes or rise up into the sky like exclamation marks. In the course of a twenty-minute tour of the campus accompanied by a drone flight, Nägelke and Meyer-Brehm provide a knowledgeable, entertaining and fascinating commentary on why the campus looks the way it does and how this relates to the founding of Technische Universität Berlin on 9 April 1946. Enjoy watching and: Happy Birthday, TU Berlin!

Quick entry:
00:00 Intro with introduction Dieter Nägelke and Julia Meyer-Brehm
01:20 What does Werner von Siemens have to do with the architectural history of TU Berlin? Start of the campus tour
03:16 Campus opening on April 9, 1946: Not a reopening, but a deliberate re-establishment to distance itself from the past
03:56 Predecessor institution of Technische Universität Berlin: Technische Hochschule Berlin (opened 1884)
04:48 Destruction after World War 2
05:44 Architecture of the main building
06:13 Main building as backdrop of National Socialism
06:27 Demarcation and new beginning in 1945
07:02 Reorientation of content, including introduction of humanities and social sciences
07:29 What did enrollment look like after the war?
08:18 Access to the campus after the war, example of the building for mining and metallurgy
09:27 The former Telefunken high-rise: an architectural exclamation mark on Ernst-Reuter-Platz
10:13 Garden design behind the main building
11:02 TU professors as designers of the new main building: of double levels and the old university library
12:05 The geodesic stand as a modern crown of the new main building
13:12 The Technical University on royal grounds
13:51 The heart of the main building: the atrium
16:27 What is behind the grotesque routing in the main building?
17:27 The foyer in the main building
17:46 The realignment of the Audimax
18:59 The Audimax as the scene of the student movement in 1968
19:27 Washed and exposed concrete and works of visual art: typical motifs of the 196o's
19:59 Epilogue and outlook

More information: https://www.tu.berlin/go25792/

Please note: The film was shot under the pandemic conditions which applied at the time of production. Windows were opened in the rooms where the interviews were filmed and the crew were wearing masks and observing distancing regulations. In addition, all participants had daily negative tests for coronavirus. You can find out about current measures on the following website: https://www.tu.berlin/themen/coronavi...