Funkhaus Berlin

Three Sundays ago, Rafael and I went to an open air event hosted by Bite Club at Funkhaus, as you can see here. We went of course, for the food, and also for the Funkhaus tour. Before that, I had never heard about this place, so I looked it up and found out that is was East Germany’s central radio station, we got pretty curious after that, and couldn’t wait to see it!

To tell you the truth, before going there, I thought the place was abandoned, like other places we visited from the GDR time, but I was totally wrong! hahaha The initial building complex was much bigger than today, about 135.000 m², designed by Bauhaus architect, Franz Ehrlich, and built between the years of 1951 – 1956. But since the beginning of the 90’s, the complex suffered a lot of alterations.

The tour was short and simple, but enough to see the beautiful architecture and the two main recording studios.

We entered by the cafeteria, the tour guide said that when it was running way back when, it served 300 hundred people per day that worked at the radio station.

Curious fact: the complex was like a little village, the workers used to live there with their families, they received everything there, even medical attention. This kind of thing reminds of Vogelsang.

Back to the 50’s!

The theater!

I think we were in a group of 30 people, Rafael would wait all of them go to next room with the tour guide, so he could take the pictures with no one in the previous room. What can I say….my guy! ❤

Door to the old parking lot. Below is the inside, they’re renovating it today to transform it into something else, honestly, the tour guide said what it will become, but I totally forgot…memory isn’t my strongest quality….ha!

The pictures below are from the building that houses the two main recording studios, I was really, really amazed by it!

You know, just a typical entrance… 😮

The “little”recording studio. I was already amazed by this one, it was totally legen-wait for it-…

dary! LEGENDARY! (sorry if your not a How I Met Your Mother’s crazy fan like me..ha!) The largest studio complex in the world! Yes, it beats Abbey Road! It can host a symphony orchestra! Cannot find words to describe my amazement! (they are replacing the floors in the back part, that’s why the chairs are pilled up).

Sadly, the organ doesn’t work anymore. They host many events in this room, even a fashion show was held here once. If you are interested, you can rent it for 6,000 € per day. Not that expensive if you stop to think….