A Gründerzeit Facade Across the Street in Berlin Mitte

Gründerzeit buildings like this one take their name from Germany's "founders' era," the rapid industrial and urban expansion that followed unification in 1871. Berlin saw entire districts built in this style through the 1880s and 1890s, with stucco facades, bay windows, and brick detailing marking apartment blocks for the city's growing middle class. Many of these buildings in Mitte survived Allied bombing in World War II only to fall into disrepair under East German administration, when maintenance budgets for private housing stock were scarce. Since reunification in 1990, large-scale restoration projects have returned facades across Mitte to something close to their original color schemes and ornamentation, a process that has made the neighborhood one of the most sought-after residential areas in the city.

Taken September 2017