Symposium "100 years of the Horseshoe Estate"

As part of the program, it will become clear what makes the Horseshoe Estate, designed by Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner and the garden architect Leberecht Migge in a virtuoso, colourful, green and varied manner, as part of the large Britz housing estate and the UNESCO World Heritage "Estates of Berlin Modernism", so relevant and instructive from today's perspective.

These include, for example, the transformation of the ideals of the garden city movement into serial row construction, the virtuoso variation and combination of different types of apartments and houses, the high quality of living with a close neighborhood - already stimulated by the urban planning design -, the deliberately staged model character of the estate and the politically far-sighted and broadly secured implementation by the GEHAG housing association, which was founded in 1924 specifically to combat the rampant housing shortage.

In addition, it has an eventful history that is exemplary of Germany's development from the 1930s onwards. The privatization of GEHAG in 1998 gave rise - with a slight time lag - to special challenges and exemplary model projects. These relate to the homogeneous preservation of the Britz ensemble, which has now been largely transferred to individual ownership, and the concrete and tangible communication of Taut's legacy. All of this will be presented, explained, discussed and viewed during the event ...

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Program 17 - 19.10.2025

still in planning, details to follow

Friday, 17.10.2025:
Vernissage and Opening

• 18.00 - 18:15: Greetings and brief introduction to the topic
• Opening of the special exhibition in the Infostation: "From design training to Nazi propaganda - the tenant magazines of EINFA and GEHAG 1930-1939": The exhibition is dedicated to the monthly tenant magazines published by EINFA from 1930-1939. This was part of the GEHAG housing association and reflects the upheavals in the politics of the company, which emerged from the left-wing and pro-union political spectrum. Until mid-1933, the magazines primarily focused on house and garden, functional furnishings and healthy living. After GEHAG was brought into line, the layout changed first, and later the content as well, so that more and more Nazi propaganda found its way in.
• 19:30 / Evening program: Film screening(s) on the World Estates Estates
• Venue: Infostation Hufeisensiedlung, Fritz-Reuter-Allee 44, 12359 Berlin

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Saturday, 18.10.2025:
Guided tours, book presentation, keynote event

• 11.00 - 13.00: Architecture tours with different focuses and guides:
  Starting point: Hufeisensiedlung information station, Fritz-Reuter-Allee 44, 12359 Berlin. The tours last around one and a half to two hours and are dedicated to the topics of "Life in the World Heritage Site" as well as aspects of building, contemporary, social, cultural, urban and architectural history. If there is greater demand, thematically focused, target group-specific or English-language tours are also possible.
• 13.15 - 14.00: Curator-guided tours; at the end of the tours visit to the rentable museum TAUTES HEIM, with explanation by the private operators Katrin Lesser and Ben Buschfeld
• 14.00 - 15.30: Book presentation TAUTES HEIM - Story & Details. with reading and discussions, details and participants for this part of the event will be announced. Registration is required. (The address will then be announced individually.) - Alternatively: Opportunity for self-organized snacks and/or a visit to the permanent and special exhibition in the Hufeisensiedlung information station.
• 16:00: Keynote lecture or talk on "100 years of Neues Bauen in Berlin" (local venue: possibly Hufeisensiedlung information station, Gutshof Britz or nearby - details, speakers and/or participants to be announced)
• Afterwards: get together
• Venues: TAUTES HEIM (address upon registration) and Hufeisensiedlung information station, additional lecture venue if necessary

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Sunday, 19.10.2025:
Public symposium

• 9.30 - 10.00 a.m.: Arrival at the conference venue:
  Kulturstall Britz - Schloß und Gutshof Britz, Alt-Britz 81-89, 12359 Berlin,
  Directions by public transport: Bus M46 / M44 to "Fulhamer Allee"
  or U7 to "Parchimer Allee" + 700 meters on foot.
• 10.00 - approx. 18.30: Symposium "100 years of the Hufeisensiedlung"
  The symposium will be divided into different thematic sections lasting a good 1 hour, each with around 4 image and specialist presentations. All titles are working titles. Details and participants will follow:
  • Section I: Context and urban history
    (650 years of Britz, Greater Berlin, housing shortage, new construction, etc.)
  • Section II: Players during the construction period
    (GEHAG, Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner, Nazi era, etc.)
  • Section III: Rediscovery
    (expert opinions, monument registrations, restoration, etc.)
  • Section IV: Situation today
    (privatization, attitude to life, initiatives and projects)
• There will be breaks and space for discussion during the program. The event is aimed at residents and the general public. Residents of similar ensembles are also very welcome. The conference venue is the Kulturstall on the grounds of the neighboring Britz estate
• A temporary exhibition on the six "Estates of Berlin Modernism" World Heritage sites will be shown in the foyer.

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On the subject

100 years of the Horseshoe Estate

Six Estates of Berlin Modernism were jointly declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. This title means that they are considered to have "outstanding universal value for the history of mankind". Wow, but is it just simple housing?

To answer this question, it helps to look back in history and compare the situation with our own needs today. The six World Heritage Estates were created in response to the housing shortage that was rampant in many European cities and industrial conurbations at the beginning of the 20th century. They established higher hygienic standards and new forms of relaxed urban development. Even today, these Estates are popular residential areas - and are rightly regarded as Berlin's most important contribution to architectural history. Many questions were not only asked here at the time, but also answered in an exemplary manner - questions that still concern us today, such as: "How do we want to live?", "What constitutes good living?", "What can architecture and urban planning contribute to this?", "How can better hygienic conditions be created?", "How can good neighbourliness be stimulated?", "How do I counter the constant threat of monotony in serial construction?" or "How can new, convincing concepts be implemented financially, organizationally and politically?"

Of these six UNESCO World Heritage-listed ensembles, the Horseshoe Estate, comprising almost 2,000 residential units, is not only the largest, but also the most famous and the most challenging in terms of monument preservation. Even at the time of its construction, the large housing estate in Neukölln-Britz functioned as a divided "showplace". Two political camps and their respective sponsored housing associations, GEHAG and DEGEWO, competed here. Under the direction of Bruno Taut, the chief architect appointed by the politically astute housing association GEHAG, new forms of urban planning were tested and components developed in the Hufeisensiedlung, which were later used again, slightly varied, in all kinds of parts of the newly created "unified municipality of Greater Berlin". The urban development in Britz scaled the qualities of the garden city concept originating in England with cooperative sponsorship, simple terraced houses and plenty of usable green space and merged these ideals with urban multi-storey housing that could be built in large numbers and in a time- and cost-saving serial construction method. 

The estate, grouped around the iconic 350-metre-long horseshoe row that gives it its name, is also an instructive mirror of the controversies and upheavals of later decades. Not only the discourse on urban development in the early 20th century can be traced here, but also the policy of conformity practiced by the Nazi state and the typical liberal economic spirit of the late 1990s and its consequences.

Following the sale of GEHAG in a bidding process in 1998 and several subsequent transactions on the financial market, the terraced houses with gardens that dominate the streetscape of the Hufeisensiedlung were successively converted into individual properties. This massive challenge for the homogeneous preservation of the iconic and historic ensemble led to numerous initiatives, projects and publications that were initiated and developed by the residents. They have endured ever since and can thus also serve as examples for comparable complexes in terms of civic participation, practical monument preservation and active mediation. They will also be reported on at the conference and during the tours.

Further points of reference

100 years of Neues Bauen - Due to the significance of the Hufeisensiedlung, the anniversary in Britz is also representative of the momentum and housing construction at the time of classical Modernism - an anniversary that can best be seen in the particularly prominent buildings of the era and which is also celebrated in a similar way in Frankfurt, Dessau and Magdeburg as well as several other European metropolises.

50 years of the European Year of Monument Conservation - this is the title of another anniversary related to the topic, which will also play a role in the program of the Triennial of Modernism 2025. The year 1975 is regarded by experts as the beginning of modern heritage conservation. The developments and activities in Britz are a prototype of the catalytic role that civic engagement can play, particularly in inhabited monuments.

650 years of Britz - The Hufeisensiedlung is part of the Britz district, which was first mentioned in a document in 1375. In addition to the Hufeisensiedlung, the three main sights of the district, which is now part of Neukölln, include the former BUGA grounds of the Britzer Garten and the idyllic ensemble of Britz Castle and Britz Manor(used here as a conference venue).

Further information on world heritage and settlement

• Estates.de
• Estates.de/hufeisensiedlung
• Rentable museum TAUTES HEIM
• Café and exhibition at the Hufeisensiedlung information station

Organizer

Association of Friends and Sponsors of
Hufeisensiedlung Berlin-Britz (FFHBB e.V.)
c/o Infostation Hufeisensiedlung
Fritz-Reuter-Allee 44, 12359 Berlin

Curation and organization

Ben Buschfeld, buschfeld.com - graphic and interface design / Tautes Heim / Triennial der Modernism / FFHBB e.V. / IconicHouses / KulturerbeNetz.Berlin / Docomomo Germany / Deutscher Werkbund Berlin
buschfeld.com | tautes-heim.de | LinkedIn
Office +49 (0)30-25922963

Promoted by

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Further events

• 650-years-britz.info/
• World Heritage Festival Horseshoe Settlement

Aerial photo, 2014 (Photo: Ben Buschfeld)

Settlement life, around 1940 (private archive)

2000-2025: Individual sales (Photo: Ben Buschfeld)

2011: Café + exhibition (Photo: Katrin Lesser)

Bruno Taut's early work, 1914 (public domain)

Tenant magazines 1930/33 (private archive)

2007: Foundation of the association (Photo: FFHBB)

2012: Rentable museum (Photo: Tautes Heim)

Construction phase I, end of 1925 (public domain)

Postcard, 1960s (private archive)

2008: Unesco World Heritage Site (Photos: Ben Buschfeld)

Since 2002: Guided tours of monuments (Photo: Katrin Lesser)