Axel-Springer-Haus

When I first came to West-Berlin in the 1980s, the Axel-Springer-Haus, which is an interesting modernist building which opened in 1966, was notable as it stood in the middle of a street which otherwise led north, but was by then blocked off by the Wall. I guess it was some sort of statement by Axel Springer, the conservative newspaper publisher (and as an aside, it's odd that Germany has spawned two publishers called Springer, which are not related to each other...the other Springer mainly publishes academic books and papers, and also owns Nature). As I recall, it was hardly uncontroversial then, but that probably had a lot to do with disputes between Axel Springer and various student activists at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. I suspect it is an act of defiance by the City of Berlin to have renamed the street in front of the building, which I was cycling on when I took this (almost a drive by shooting - I literally didn't get off the bike...), Rudi-Dutschke-Str.(formerly Koch Str.) (that's a very interesting wiki entry about Dutschke).

What I do remember is that the building stood alone, with literally nothing substantial or high rise alongside. Now the building has an addition on the side, (visible here) and there is a new building, about to open, which we walked by on Tuesday, which is behind this one. And of course, the Wall is long gone. Here are some pictures of the Axel-Springer-Building in times gone by. There was a recent before and after in the FT (apologies if it's behind a paywall). I have some pictures of my own. I need to get them properly digitized and curated.

It's taken me a long time to complete this entry because I've been thinking so much about my many visits to Berlin since 1986 - about how much I've seen the city change. I somehow feel that the changes to the city have accompanied my own adult life. It's a strange feeling, but one which leaves me feeling more connected to this city than almost any other.

So now I'm going to go off and have a look through some flickr groups that are going to trigger some serious memories. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned that I cycled across the Tempelhofer Feld today on my way into the city centre to meet AK...I used to land there quite often in the 1990s. So much stuff going on in my head.