Door handles in the Blown Away exhibition in Palast Der Republic, Berlin, December 2024
The Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic) was built in 1973-1976 and knocked down in 2006-2008. It was home to the Volkskammer, the parliament of East Germany, and also hosted many social and cultural events open to the public. It had art galleries, theatre, cinema, restaurants, billiard hall, bowling alley, ice rink, casino, a post office, and more.
It fell out of use after reunification and was closed for health and safety reasons. After years of argument and debate it was demolished and replaced. Views on its demolition were mixed, some wanting to remove reminders of life in East Germany, but many wanting to keep this major element of history, and place of happy memories for many. The main driver in the end, it seems, was that the building held 5,000 tonnes of asbestos.
There is currently an exhibition showing plans and models of the Palast and elements of the architecture and contents. These doors were beautiful examples of the architecture of the day. In the top image, the writing that you can see are invited comments written by visitors to the exhibition expressing there views on whether the building should have been destroyed.
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 30 January 2025
Posted as part of Becky’s Geometric January
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Travel with Intent 
They are quite lovely handles Debbie
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Beautiful doors with just a hint of what the building once was. We’ve been watching a couple of dramas recently set in East Berlin just before the fall of the Wall (‘The Palace’ and ‘Berlin Wall’ – both in German with subtitles, both on Walter Presents if you’re interested) so this is topical for me. I can imagine the variety of emotions the building would have stirred up in people there.
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Oh yes, I’ve watched them both. I’m a big Water Presents fan. I went to see a show at the palace theatre on my last trip over (because of seeing the series). It is a stunning building though I didn’t think so highly of the show!
If you haven’t seen it, try Deutschland 83. I watched the following 2 series, 86 and 89, as well and they’re good but 83 is the best. Highly recommended.
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Oh yes, we’ve seen the Deutschland series too and I agree, 83 was the best
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W e have very similar taste 🙂
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Oh, interesting…..perhaps it was this one https://suejudd.com/2014/01/29/a-schloss-is-to-be-rebuilt-in-berlin/ I didn’t find much out about it in 1993
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Yes that’s it Sue. It was a long build. Hasn’t been open long.
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Wow, was a long time
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Brilliant photos of an exhibition I’d love to have seen. Asbestos eh? Such a disaster waiting to happen.
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The DDR was always in a hurry to build its capital city and clearly rules were broken to get their Palace up and working. And money saved too, no doubt. It was a great exhibition. Sad that so little was saved from it. But it was interesting to see where some things have ended up – like office furniture and crockery. There’s another good museum that has some of the remnants in their permanent exhibition – the small DDR Museum. So that can be on your list for a Berlin visit.
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oh it must have been incredible building if the doors are anything to go by – such a shame that the asbestos in the end decided its future
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PS did you leave a thought on the doors?!
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I think many were pleased to have the asbestos as an excuse to remove the building.
Politics, health and safety, personal memories of Cold War, history and cost were all merged in the decision to remove. To renovate and make safe would undoubtedly have cost more than destruction and new build. But bad feelings lay there too. The older building on this site, the Berlin Palace, was damaged during the war and demolished by the DDR, replacing it with the modern Palace of the People. The post-reunification building is in part a copy of the old Berlin palace, almost wiping out the DDR days. I didn’t leave a comment but I wish they had included some of the DDR building in the new version – more of a “reunification” style to it.
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challenging to include all of history when so much evokes pain. I am with you though including all can only help in long run
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Extraordinary photos, Debs! I would love to see this exhibition.
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It was very interesting. I think it’s on for a little while yet if you get a chance to get to Berlin
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