There is one building on Gottschedstraße that will stop architecture lovers in their tracks as they walk around Berlin-Wedding. On a street corner, there is a concrete volume that looks like a stack of interlocking cubes. Bold, expressive, and strikingly textured, it carries all the hallmark features of mid-century concrete brutalist architecture. This is the famous Rotaprint Eckturm.
This corner tower was designed by a young Berlin architect called Klaus Kirsten between 1957 and 1958. Though its aggressive and sculptural look hides a secret few people know about, the tower you see today is unique. Its celebrated aesthetic was never actually intended.
Looking at the pictures I took from the Rotaprint Eckturm, I believe it’s easy to see why this is such a fascinating case of accidental design history. A place where wartime shortages of materials led to the creation of one of Berlin’s most striking modernist landmarks.
From Printing Presses to Architectural Marvels
Since I only knew a brief aspect behind the architecture here, I can easily say that, to properly appreciate the building, you should learn a bit about the powerhouse that used to stand behind it. Founded in 1922 under a different name, not really relevant in this story, the company revolutionized office work by inventing a small-format offset printing machine. This innovation allowed businesses and government bodies to print document runs on demand. And it was so successful that the company officially renamed itself after its flagship press: Rotaprint.
During the Second World War, as in most places in Berlin, it took a while for them to recover. About 80% of the Wedding factory complex was destroyed, but Rotaprint recovered quickly, and by 1953, it had hundreds of employees and exported offset presses all over the world.
With this newfound success, company director Paul Glatz was looking for a new and forward-thinking location and office. In 1955, he took a bold gamble and hired the 26-year-old Klaus Kirsten, who had just graduated from the Technical University in Berlin. The idea was to redesign the expanding industrial complex, but, since this was Kirsten’s first major commission, you can understand how much of a bet this was.
The Story of Rotaprint: How an Unfinished Concrete Tower Defined Berlin’s Industrial Design
Klaus Kirsten and Heinz Nather designed a modern industrial campus in the area. Heinz Nather and Klaus Kirsten later started the architecture firm Kirsten & Nather together. Some of their plans included sleek spaces, but the jewel of the project would be the corner building at Gottschedstraße and Bornemannstraße.
Klaus Kirsten designed a block structure using diagonally offset concrete cubes with large closed wall surfaces and asymmetrical windows. This stacked, cantilevered geometry created a dramatic three-dimensional presence on the street corner. This presence persists to this day, nearly seven decades later.
However, Klaus Kirsten’s original vision was never fully realized. In drawings from 1958, there is a seven-story building with a huge illuminated company sign on top. But, due to budget issues and severe post-war material shortages in West Berlin, the construction stopped on the fifth floor. Besides that, the heavily marked structural concrete that is visible today was never supposed to be visible. A smooth, white plaster was supposed to cover the whole front of the building.
When time and money ran out by the end of 1958, a temporary roof was set on the fifth floor, and the entire plastering idea was scrapped. Nearly seven decades later, it seems like that short-term compromise is still in place.
But if you want to picture what Klaus Kirsten had in mind, you can take a walk to the back of the complex where another cubic-shaped building stands with the white plaster look. It is unfortunate that I was unaware of it during my visit to the building, as I would have taken photographs.
Why the Brutalism Label Doesn’t Entirely Fit
The Rotaprint Eckturm is commonly cited as a prime example of brutalist concrete architecture in architectural tour guides, books, and articles online due to its stark geometry and unadorned concrete surface covered in rough textures. And I don’t know for sure where I stand on the topic.
Technically, raw-concrete designs celebrate exposed structural material as a part of an intentional stylistic choice. As we all can see in Le Corbusier’s béton brut aesthetic. But that is not the case here since Klaus Kirsten’s tower was simply left incomplete. The rough concrete that is visible today was merely structural scaffolding that was awaiting the final layer.
Additionally, the Rotaprint Eckturm’s current caretakers do not believe that it can be merely classified as brutalism. The unfinished plaster job wasn’t a deliberate aesthetic choice, and calling it an example of brutalism in Berlin misses the historical context of West-Berlin’s post-war struggles.
Whether the structure was designed as a brutalist structure or not, the visual impact is evident and indisputable. The contrast between the raw corner tower and the refined plastered historical structures around it creates an unforgettable industrial ensemble. Be that brutalist or not.
The Legacy: ExRotaprint and Sustainable Preservation
The listed industrial complex fell into severe disrepair after Rotaprint went bankrupt in 1989 as a result of the rise of photocopiers and digital printing. For years, the threat of property speculation and eventual demolition loomed above the historic industrial site. In 2007, however, things took a different turn thanks to a new urban planning project called ExRotaprint.
Formed by local tenants and visual artists Daniela Brahm and Les Schliesser, ExRotaprint gGmbH acquired the site under a 99-year heritable building right. The land where the site is is held by a non-profit foundation that is committed to stopping real estate speculation. I can say that my love for this place has grown even more after learning about it, which surprised me when I was researching them.
With its space divided equally between three pillars—work, art, and community—ExRotaprint is now a model for the preservation of urban heritage. Because of them, the area is filled with small businesses, art studios, creative labs, and educational projects with great community outreach. Rent income is recycled directly back into maintenance and restoration. And this has been working so well that in 2019 ExRotaPrint received the Ferdinand von Quast Medal for its exemplary monument preservation work.
Getting there is as easy as you can see in the map below. The complex is accessible via U-Bahn (U8 Pankstraße or U9 Nauener Platz) and S-Bahn if you stop at Gesundbrunnen. From there, it’s a short walk down Gottschedstraße, and you will easily spot the corner tower.
Before you head there, know that the interior spaces aren’t open for casual walkthroughs. But the inner courtyards and the street-facing façades are fully accessible to all.
And if you go there around lunchtime, you can even pop into the Kantinenverein ExRotaprint. This welcoming community canteen, housed within the complex, offers reasonably priced, seasonal, and fresh lunch options in addition to locally sourced coffee. It seems to me like the perfect excuse for me to visit the area one more time.
Why Architecture Lovers Need to Visit Berlin’s Unfinished Marvel: The Rotaprint Eckturm
Gottschedstraße 4,
13357 Berlin
