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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kate Connolly Berlin correspondent

Why the legacy of East Germany’s prefab housing blocks is more relevant than ever

A painting of some balconies.
A detail from a painting by Wolfram Ebersbach. Photograph: InGestalt/InGestalt/Michael Ehritt

Communist East Germany’s high-rise prefab residential blocks and their political and cultural impact in what was one of the biggest social housing experiments in history is the focus of a new art exhibition, in which the unspoken challenges of today’s housing crisis loom large.

Wohnkomplex (living complex) Art and Life in Prefabs explores the legacy of the collective experience of millions of East Germans, as well as serving as a poignant reminder that the “housing question”, whether under dictatorship or democracy, is far from being solved.

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