Telefunken skyscraper

The Telefunken skyscraper of the Technical University of Berlin (2004, still without the Telekom logo)

The Telefunken house , Ernst-Reuter-Platz no. 7, in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is a office building , under monument stands.

The skyscraper was built from 1958 to 1960 and has 22 floors (ground floor, 20 upper floors and a technical floor at the top). The total floor area is around 15,000 m². With an eaves height of 80 meters , it was Berlin's tallest skyscraper until the Europa Center was completed in 1965 .

use

The building was built as the company headquarters of the AEG subsidiary Telefunken . After the merger of the two companies to AEG-Telefunken AG, it continued to be used by the first and the finally in 1975 the Berlin Senate sold. Today the Technical University of Berlin occupies the building. In addition to the departments and central facilities of the TU Berlin, there are other sub-tenants such as the affiliated institute Telekom Innovation Laboratories of the TU Berlin and industrial partners such as Daimler AG . The European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT ICT) as well as the Institute Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS) of the TU Berlin and the Center for Research on Antisemitism are also located in the building. The Studierendenwerk Berlin operates a publicly accessible cafeteria on the 20th floor , while the Café Telquel, run by TU students, is on the ground floor .

architecture

The city planner Bernhard Hermkes won a competition in 1955 for the design of Ernst-Reuter-Platz. The dimensions and number of storeys of the buildings around the square were predetermined by his urban design. The architects Paul Schwebes and Hans Schoszberger then planned the high-rise building on the corner of Bismarckstrasse and Otto-Suhr-Allee for around ten million marks .

The building in March 1970 with the old AEG Telefunken neon signs

The reinforced concrete skeleton has a facade of exposed concrete . The elevator system with a total of five elevators is located in the middle of the building, whereby the freight elevator was converted into a fire brigade elevator in the course of 2007 . The two stairwells are attached to the outside of the high-rise as narrow towers and are mainly used as escape stairs . On the front and back there are four vertical, upwardly tapering supports made of reinforced concrete. Towards Ernst-Reuter-Platz, on the windowless left sidebar, the words “TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT” run from top to bottom; Also on the left is the Deutsche Telekom logo on the roof currently (2015) as a neon advertisement . In the past, "TELEFUNKEN" was written vertically and the abbreviation for the parent company AEG could be seen on the right.

The main entrance faces the square, where the ground floor and first floor are provided with large, shop-window-like glazing. The rows of windows are emphasized by horizontal protruding cornices . The parapets are covered with mosaics made of green and black glass. On the west side there is a small parking lot belonging to the house with another entrance area.

Several floors were completely redesigned in two renovation phases between 2005 and 2007. The existing cell structure of the offices was converted into an open office landscape with desk sharing workstations for the then user Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (today: Telekom Innovation Laboratories ) . The concept is determined by very individually designed meeting rooms, thinking cells and an internal cafeteria for informal communication. In the second conversion phase, a new laboratory floor was also created on the 15th floor and a conference area on the 20th floor. The innovative concept for lighting control was awarded the international DALI prize in February 2007 . Furthermore, fire protection measures were implemented throughout the building , including the introduction of a water mist extinguishing system . The west facade was renovated from June 2009 to mid-2010.