Federal Ribbon without a Forum?
While the “hard” elements of the ribbon, that is, the Chancellery and the parliamentary buildings, are practically finished, the core piece of the Schultes-Frank design, the Forum of the Federal Government has remained an idea to this day. Neither the old nor the new federal government, nor the Bundestag, could warm to Schultes and Frank’s idea (which has not been provided for in any program but is nonetheless obvious) of conceiving a forum for exchange there between society’s public and parliamentary-political life. [ . . . ] Now, after the excavation work around the Spreebogen has been concluded, there is every reason to eagerly await the completion of the large landscaped spaces. Platz der Republik, which stretches from the Reichstag building to the House of World Cultures, offers an interplay between open areas of grass or hedges and generous arbor landscapes. The expanse of the forum between the Chancellery and the Paul Löbe House is accentuated by waterworks and fields of natural stone, while the border areas, formed by trees, preserve the footprint of the Ribbon of the Federation.
[ . . . ]
With its completion in May 2001, the Chancellery became the subject of a controversial architectural debate, which unfolded in a series of arguments and is actually targeted at the urban planning dilemma that has now become apparent.* The Chancellery and the recently occupied Paul Löbe Haus, both large-scale structures, are separated by a distance that is not easily bridgeable, and they fragment the idea of the ribbon. Moreover, they ended up a little out of balance. With its square, thirty-six-meter-high executive building, the Chancellery (which Schultes and Frank had already set apart in terms of height in the first revision to their design), now rises five stories above the administrative wings that flank it on both sides and mark the ribbon. Its counterpart on the eastern side, the Bundestag building by Stephan Braunfels, remains consistent in its height effect and carries out the leap to the eastern bank of the Spree in the same architectural dimensions. The continuation of the ribbon toward the west, on the other hand, is carried out by Chancellery Park, which is edged by pedestal walls, and which one reaches via a two-story bridge. Toward the east, however, the shape of the ribbon is blurred by the newly-built day-care center that Gustav Peichl erected north of the Braunfels building for the children of federal government employees.
The Urban Planning of the Spreebogen
One grievous shortcoming is the lack of integration, in terms of urban planning, of parts of the ribbon on the northern side. In their designs, Schultes and Frank had always assumed that a compact urban neighborhood centered around a new, large-scale train station [Lehrter Fernbahnhof] would spring up on the north bank of the Spree in the Moabit neighborhood. This was the declared intention of the German National Railway [Deutsche Bahn] as early as 1992, a plan that was supported by the city despite some concerns. This plan will not be realized in the near future. Since 1994, the National Railway has been working on the subterranean tunnel structure of the north-south rail line, which will not only cross under the Spree, but also the Zoo, Potsdamer Platz, and the Landwehr Canal. The completion of the major train station at the point of intersection with the city railway’s above-ground east-west line will be delayed until at least 2006, assuming it is to be realized in keeping with the planned concept for two “office arches” spanning the tracks. [ . . . ]
* See Hanno Rauterberg, “Pathos für die Republik” [“Pathos for the Republic”], Die Zeit, no. 18 (April 26, 2001), p. 41f.; Sebastian Redecke, “Auf der Bühne der Politik” [“On the Stage of the Republic”], Bauwelt, no. 22 (June 8, 2001); Heinrich Wefing, “Das Ende der Bescheidenheit” [“The End of Modesty”] Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (April 26, 2001), p. 52f.
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