Plattenbau - The typical East German homes

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Plattenbau, or in English, large panel system building, uses pre-fabricated concrete slabs.
East Germany is well-known for its Plattenbau homes, but it certainly is not only place where you can find them. This video explains the background and more interesting details of the Plattenbau homes.
Links to the recommended books:
Vom seriellen Plattenbau zur komplexen Großsiedlung. Industrieller Wohnungsbau in der DDR 1953 -1990: Teil 1: Historischer Kontext, Serientypen und bezirkliche Anpassungen (Grundlagen/Basics) - amzn.to/41RTdgB
Vom seriellen Plattenbau zur komplexen Großsiedlung. Industrieller Wohnungsbau in der DDR 1953 -1990: Teil 2: Neue Städte, Großsiedlungen und Ersatzneubauten (Grundlagen/Basics) - amzn.to/41yyQ7T
Sources:
• First pre-fabricated home in England - britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/...
• Forest Hills - By Complicated from ATHENS, GEORGIA, USA - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Betondorp - By Vincent Steenberg - Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Splanemann Siedlung - By Marsupium - Eigenes Werk, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Splanemann Siedlung - Von Michael G. Schroeder - Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Le Corbusier - By Joop van Bilsen for Anefo - proxy.handle.net/10648/aa7b03b..., CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Corbusier Haus Stuttgart - By Jaimrsilva - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Plan Voisin - By SiefkinDR - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Raymond Camus - Archives Raymond Camus
• Transport of concrete slabs - By Deutsche Fotothek‎, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Hoyerswerda - Q6 - By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-58152-0002 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Splanemann Siedlung - Von Michael G. Schroeder - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• Hoyerswerda - P1/8 - By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-78464-0001 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• P1 - Bauen in der DDR - Informationszentrum Plattenbau im Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung
• P1 - Wohnkomplex III Hoyerswerda - www.hoyerswerda.de
• P2 - floorplan - By Martin Püschel - own sketch, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• P2 - Ilmenau - By user:Michael Sander - Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• P2 - Kitchen hatch - By Martin Püschel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• P2 - Kitchen hatch view into the living room - By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-D0518-0001-003 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• P2 - Hoyerswerda - By Stefan Kühn - Own Work, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• WBS70 - By RonnyKrüger - Own Work, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• WBS70 - Berlin Mitte - By Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
• WBS70 - Berlin Rochstrasse - By Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
• WBS70 Rostock, Cottbus, Chemnitz & Dresden - By Jörg Blobelt, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
• Bernau, old and new - By de:Benutzer:Lewa - Photo taken, edited and originally uploaded to de:Bild:Nebenstraße Bernau bei Berlin.jpg by de:Benutzer:Lewa:, 12. Jul 2005 . . Lewa . . 1984x1488, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
• ZDF History - Wohnräume aus Beton - Mythos Plattenbau der DDR - • Wohnträume aus Beton -...
• Preserving the Plattenbau: • DDR-Wohnkomplex als De...

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14 май 2024

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Комментарии : 472

@CZpersi 4 месяца назад

In Czechia, we call them "Panelák". Most were nicely renovated and currently are a highly-sought housing option due to their low maintenance needs, fair energy costs, good public transport, public amenities and lots of greenery around.

@serebii666 4 месяца назад

They're sought after because there is basically no new housing being built, so there is a severe deficit making anything demanded, even basements ateliers are becoming sought after. The reality is paneláks were built when private ownership was not a considered concept, so their mass live-in privatizations resulted in gigantic homeowners associations, with high potential for infighting. The confirmation bias of homeowners associations of paneláks that were able to work together do not hide the many paneláks that are in awful condition, especially in places near Ústí due to litigation and intransigence. Large housing estates, no matter whether in the former Socialist bloc or Western bloc require a lot of coordination from many stakeholders which is not always attainable. The experimental nature of some panel estates also resulted in poor design, like the skyways to nowhere of the Jížní město in Prague and the massive scale of the projects meant many core parts were never finished as the economy downturned in the 1980s - like the never built commercial and public plaza around the Opatov metro station, or the public anemities of Velká Ohrada or Ládví, that were later built to a wholly different - Neo-liberal design that fundamentally ignored the original masterplan. These projects also did not count with any car ownership, which even when they were designed in the 1970s did not reflect reality - car ownership exploded in the 1960s, but there was very little parking implemented - it is one of the major complaints of these neighborhoods today. But it is true that these estates are valued for the abundant greenspace they offer, and especially for young families, amenities like kindergardens. Public transit is hit or miss depending on the estate and city it is in - Socialist planners liked to throw buses at every problem, especially in the 1980s as they required the least amount of infrastructure, resulting in long and circuitous transit routes. Some estates are seeing better integration though, with new tramlines or edge city development, especially with recent logistics centers.

@colombianguy8194 4 месяца назад

Are those affordable to let's say, a skilled worker immigrant?

@EdgyNumber1 4 месяца назад

My friend has one of these he quietly rents out as air bnb to trusted guests in Prague. They are reasonably well specified and do keep the heat in reasonably well.

@oscarfiala2104 4 месяца назад

Mezitím Černý Most…

@ludekosicka6540 4 месяца назад

In the Czech Republic we don't use the word "Czechia" and we call people like you "hňup". 😄

@Hasselroeder 4 месяца назад

I lived in a "Plattenbau" in East Germany (Sachsen Anhalt) until I was 26. I only have good memories about it. The sounds of surrounding renters was sometimes annoying, but also something "normal". It mostly was quiet, because the people knew about that and had respect for each other. And if you were too loud as a kid they would make you notice! ;-) Also it gave a feeling of "liveliness", that you were aware of other people. Also we had much green around and playgrounds for kids. My kindergarten and elementary school was a part of that prefabricated construction area as well as a supermarket right in front of my elementary school! After the turn-around, it evolved even more with a bigger supermarket with surrounding shops and a big parkin lot just next to my school. I had literally everything there! Even a hardware store exists until this day, even tho there were different ones, but that building was always a hardware store! I had nearly all my friends and classmates there and also some relatives! Not far away from that prefabricated construction area also were and still are "allotment gardens", so people were not living in a "grey socialist nightmare" even prior the turn-around! All in all I would move back in such a Plattenbau everytime. Cheaper and bigger than every comparable housing! It mostly depends on your neighbours if it's a good place to live!

@eastgermanyinvestigated 4 месяца назад

Great to hear some details from someone who actually lived in a Plattenbau apartment. Thanks for sharing your experience and memories!

@klaus-udokloppstedt6257 4 месяца назад

I remember how the house became 'alive' every morning around 6:40, the apartment doors noises and people walking down the stairs on the way to work and especially all the kids starting off to school.

@Hasselroeder 4 месяца назад

@@klaus-udokloppstedt6257 Me too! :) My friends used to wait in front of my Plattenbau so we could go together to school! The mood was very neighborly, everyone greetet each other.

@Hasselroeder 4 месяца назад

@@eastgermanyinvestigated You're welcome. 😀

@mythicalmeanderings 3 месяца назад

I hate hearing my neighbors so I would lose my mind.

@gregorhi2 4 месяца назад

We moved into a WBS70 building in a new city quarter in 1983 and yes, it was a big difference to our previous apartment that was still on coal heating. It should perhaps also be noted that new areas were build as an overall solution with supermarkets, schools, doctor and post offices and so on, rather than just putting up living spaces and nothing else. They even had often youth clubs and the ground level walls were covered with a paint that allowed kids to draw on it with chalk. Our external colour scheme were shades of grey which were supposed to be reminiscent of mist and fog layers over the fields that were previously at the location.

@antikoerper256 4 месяца назад

I'm bulgarian and to this day I continue living in a similar panel-built block. A large majority of the buildings built until the end of te 80s here are just like that. Such buildings have some good sides but also a lot of drawbacks - depending on many preferences, ways of categorizing and comparing. They're not for everyone's taste. Especially valid to this day remain the thermal isolation and especially - the sound and accoustic isolation not only in panel blocks but also in newly designed and built buildings... This is however another topic... As for the Plattenbau - once you've lived enough years in such, you develop nostalgia (good or bad) for them. And the nostalgia itself is unavoidable. One could say I'm still living in a DDR-like environment, minus the balkan mentality and geographical location. Even the technical high school near me before the 1990s was named after a german socialist pre-1989, namely Wilhelm Pieck. Such is the connection between Germany and Bulgaria that it transcended even the 2nd World War. A very welcome and interesting episode, thanks for which! Merry Christmas and a more prosperous 2024 to everyone!

@classicallpvault8251 4 месяца назад

The exact same building techniques are now used to build largely pre-fabricated modern buildings which look much better and have excellent thermal insulation. You just use hollow concrete plates that are then filled with expanding foam. One can even build traditionalist architecture with them: look at cities like Dresden and Vienna, most of the classicist buildings there are also entirely based on square shapes and storeys that are identical in layout. These can be made using panel construction as well. Even mock masonry façades are easy to incorporate in the design and can be entirely machine-made. This is how a lot of new construction in the Netherlands is done.

@vangestelwijnen 4 месяца назад

I once stayed in such an apartment in Bulgaria and I found it to be very cozy and convenient. Indeed, you could almost hear the neighbours breathe, but there were many good points overall.

@j-medsystems7142 4 месяца назад

In Finland this type of construction became the norm in the 1970s, and many pics from East Germany look pretty familiar. In our cold temperatures however the prefabricated elements were of sandwich type, with a mineral wool insulation between two concrete slabs. A robust structure mostly had good sound insulation too. These buildings are still around in a modernized form: New windows, added thermal insulation, new piping and bathrooms etc. and in many cases they provide the most economical form of housing. Apartment blocks from the 1970s are nice and roomy, with large green areas, yards and small parks between buildings. They might miss the feeling of prestige, but they are by no means a bad option. Affordable, straightforward living for everyone.

@KRAFTWERK2K6 2 месяца назад

I wish they would have build them like this here in East Germany too. But it was apparently too expensive :( Yeah they added new windows here too. The 4 room apartments are also quite spacious and comfy.

@PetiBence93 Месяц назад

It's the same construction method used in Hungary, but with polyethylene foam insulation instead of the mineral wool. I'm pretty sure, the germans are also built like this.

@kovacsadam9801 4 месяца назад

in Hungary, the urbanism surrounding these Plattenbau houses (Hungarian: Panel) kept getting better and better over the years. I went to a Plattenbau high school for example and loved the fact that the whole neighborhood was very walkable, had plenty of shops and amenities, and had extraordinary public transport. One day I'm planning to move to a Plattenbau estate because they have a very high value for their cost.

@Gerrie_de_B. 4 месяца назад

Totally true. Only problem with those areas now is the parking. We see this for example in Chodov "Paneláky" in Prague, they are all renovated to high standard and bought by youngsters (DINK, DIH, DIH, etc) who all own at least one car. Parking is a hell as these areas were never planned for car users. If you count the houses and compare that to the parking spots it is almost 4 houses to 1 parking spot which makes parking your car into a nightmare. :)

@kovacsadam9801 4 месяца назад

@@Gerrie_de_B. I did some calculations and it turns out that since we don't really need a car every day, it would be a little bit cheaper to rent when we do, and we don't have to worry about parking and deterioration. It is really a win-win situation.

@manwiththeredface7821 4 месяца назад

I don't understand you. I had the "fortune" to spend weekends in one of these and it's like living in a hole in the wall, also hearing traffic all day and hearing everything your neighbours do. That's when I swore to someday own a full fledged house with a backyard somewhere in the outskirts or in the countryside.

@manwiththeredface7821 4 месяца назад

De végülis te tudod...

@kovacsadam9801 4 месяца назад

@@manwiththeredface7821 I grew up in suburbia and the countryside but everything tied me to the city. Please, I beg you for the sake of everything holy, don't do that to your children. Unless you want to raise them up as overly attached, dependent antisocial people.

@wertywerrtyson5529 4 месяца назад

Sweden built many of these too. I’ve lived in several. They helped eliminate the housing shortage. The plan was to eliminate the shortage in 10 years but it went so well that in the last years they stopped making apartments buildings and made single family homes instead because it would have been too many apartments that were empty. Crazy to think about these days when we have severe shortages of apartments in most cities and in Stockholm you can have to wait for decades in queue for an apartment if you can’t afford the increasingly high prices for buying. Reforms for market prices are very unpopular so rent control is still implemented although allowed to increase each year based on increased costs.

@TinLeadHammer 4 месяца назад

Regarding Soviet khruschevkas, a book "Belyayevo Forever" by Kuba Snopek talks about a Soviet residential block on its way to the UNESCO list. The book acknowledges not only the cultural importance of large panel system building as a technology, but the impact of living in those buildings on the social life. As it has been acknowledged in the video, doctors lived next to workers.

@Tom-Lahaye 4 месяца назад

The concept was very sound, and from the floor plan you can see that these apartments offered enough space for a family. Fire safety in these buildings was also very good provided that the points where slabs connected were properly sealed with mortar. Downsides were indeed often the looks and the single thickness panels between apartments which could make them noisy, and energy efficiency wasn't really a concern when these were built, distant heating was provided at a fixed rate. But some of the designs had a nice look even as built, but renovated many of these blocks definitively do look and feel modern and can serve more years. After all do we still build houses in a similar manner now, just with these modern things like better thermal and sound insulation plus energy efficient heating and ventilation added. A housing project in my village in the Netherlands which replaced old poorly insulated, drafty and damp worker housing from the 1920s was done in prefab concrete slabs, insulation on the outside and then covered with brick slips to retain the traditional brick look of the old houses these replaced.

@andrei19238 4 месяца назад

These apt were small

@ArnoWalter 4 месяца назад

In Potsdam Waldstadt you can see a more appealing versions of Plattenbau. The blocks surround little parks with playgrounds in the inside, so parents could watch their kids from the balcony. Schools, groceries and doctors where all in walking distance. Each block was marked with an animals, so kids who couldn't read yet, could find their way back home. Whoever designed actually tried to build a city for people, not just a factory farm for workers like Corbusier.

@Siijiska 3 месяца назад

I grew up in a block like that and have very fond memories of it. All the mums shouting down from the balconies when it was time for their kids to come home and eat.

@stretch9952 4 месяца назад

I visited both East and West Berlin in the summer of 1972. I had the opportunity to meet with a West Berlin city planner who described the status of planning in West Berlin and what he perceived to be happening in the east. He told me that the West Berlin planners strove to maintain the streets blocked by the Berlin wall for future reconnection to their counterparts in the east when the city might be reunited again. He said that the East Berlin planners did not appear to share this goal. These Plattenbau developments were constructed deliberately blocking many of the old streets in the west from connecting to their counterparts in the east. He strongly felt continuous pedestrian connection was essential to creating a united city. Even if one does not use walking as the only form of connection, the perception that you can adds to your sense of the whole, and encourages new development to interact with existing development. When I visited East Berlin I could see what he was talking about. These developments, though located in close, were not particularly connected to their surroundings. The vastness of the development caused a certain perception of monotony and disconnection. The responses below suggest the planning of these estates in other countries may not have been this stark.

@golyj000 4 месяца назад

In Lviv (Ukraine) there are 2 plattenbau-homes built by workers from East German city Gera. Those are best plattenbau-homes in whole city. Germans delivered quality even under soviet occupation

@johnblack3693 4 месяца назад

А де саме вони є? Бо не чув про такі

@pandus47z 4 месяца назад

Какой " совьет окупейшн?" Ваша страна появилась в 1991

@boink800 4 месяца назад

In the district of Friedichshain in Berlin they wanted to tear down most of the older buildings and replace them with the four-storey panel blocks. This big project was slated to happen totally in the 1990's. Luckily, it did not happen.

@TheRobiRobson 4 месяца назад

You seem to feel more confident in front of the camera. In the first videos you hardly moved and hardly blinked which you do now. I like it!

@dougtheviking6503 4 месяца назад

In America, these would be called the projects. Full or disparity & crime. Most all torn down . Good video, as always, and very interesting .

@kackagamingTRASH 3 месяца назад

Yeah because they were used as Ghettos for the mainly black citizens that can't afford single family homes, instead of seeing it as normal housing

@dougtheviking6503 3 месяца назад

@@kackagamingTRASH and it was for free

@Nun195 3 месяца назад

Right, but that’s because of policy not construction method.

@Nun195 3 месяца назад

Right, but that’s because of policy not construction method.

@jvarela965 4 месяца назад

Prefab homes were popular in America before WWII. Retailers Like Sears and Montgomery Ward were also selling " Pre-cut " houses. Another famous maker was the Aladdin Home Co and an interesting concept was the LUSTRON HOME CO. Homes made of metal parts that was years ahead of it's time.

@coldindustries 4 месяца назад

I love the channel and the content is great. In terms of future episodes, I would love to learn about food and drinks from the DDR. Information on delicacies and alcoholic beverages would be great. I don't want to sound like I'm telling you what to do, it's merely a suggestion. Herzliche und Sozialismus Grüsse aus Australien!

@eastgermanyinvestigated 4 месяца назад

Thanks! Also for your ideas. Always open for constructive suggestions. 🙂

@markmower1746 4 месяца назад

@@eastgermanyinvestigatedVrolijk Kerstfeest

@robfriedrich2822 4 месяца назад

West Germany did similar things. In Laatzen I noticed some buildings I could pass as Berlin Lichtenberg.

@maksim_p. 4 месяца назад

In Russia it's called Panelka.

@MariaEngstrom 4 месяца назад

I currently live in a Swedish "plattenbau" house built in 1969, they are called "Panelhus" (Panel housing) here. Like the USSR and DDR, Sweden also had a program for creating millions of homes, 1.000.000 homes being built between 1965 and 1975 ("1.000.000 homes in ten years" was the slogan). The Swedish building program was called "Miljonprogrammet" (Million Programme").

@ledeyabaklykova 4 месяца назад

My grandparents on my father’s side lived in one near Leipzig from 1981 to 1988. Grandpa was a mechanical engineer-consultant from Leningrad until he fulfilled his projects around 1987. He had a ‘feeling’ things would change soon in E.Germany back in ‘87-88.

@wanderschlosser1857 4 месяца назад

In East Germany they also got the nickname "Arbeiterschließfach" = workers locker. But honestly for most East Germans, these apartments were quite desired. The living quality in them was better than average, most had central heating, permanent warm water supply, better windows and often also more space. Also, old buildings were often neglected and living in them was living in the 30s becoming worse and worse every year. That only started to change in the 80's when more and old buildings were re-constructed and upgraded. Also building your own house wasn't easy because of shortage of building materials for the private market.

@luise4092 3 месяца назад

Thank you for this informative video! I live in a P2-Plattenbau in Leipzig (near the one you showed a picture of in the video :D) on the 11th floor and I think it is a good way to live - especially if you are a student or on a tight budget. My partner and I live in a flat with three rooms (so called Dreiraumwohnung in German, it means we have three rooms plus a kitchen and a bathroom) and we both attend university. But the rent is really affordable, so for us it is a really good standard of living. The noise insulation is not the greatest, right now I can hear our downstairs neighbors watching TV, but as other comments said, it's "normal" and you get used to it. As of now I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

@lornarettig3215 4 месяца назад

I love this channel! I’m from 1980s Western Europe but always been fascinated by East. There was plenty to applaud - over 100 million people housed in 10 years in Soviet Union, by a leader more concerned with the interiors than the facade. There are plenty of people in the west living in old, badly-maintained, sub-standard housing who would surely be delighted to live in such an apartment. Well done!

@MikeJones-hc1gw 4 месяца назад

And you're cuuuute!

@mardiffv.8775 4 месяца назад

Well, not always was massive flat buildings a succes. Amsterdam built the Bijlmer neighborhood during the 60's. Housing 100,000 people in big concrete appartements with 1,000 inhabitants. Designed for the middle class, but only lower class people moved in. Especially since 1975 many people from Suriname start living in the Bijlmer. Also crime became wide spread. Two solutions were implemented: 1. a new name for the Bijlmer: Amsterdam Zuid Oost (South East) and the high rise appartements buildings were torn down and largely replaced by low rise housing. Here is documentary about the Bijlmer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sJsu7Tv-fRY.html&ab_channel=Hoog

@zico739 4 месяца назад

Except for the fact that Soviet housing was sub-standard and badly maintained.

@cv990a4 4 месяца назад

Krushchev succeeded in housing far more Soviets in far more comfort than they had ever enjoyed before - but that didn't mean it was good. Stalin-era Soviet housing was truly abysmal, with many living in converted barracks, or several families crammed into a single apartment. Stalin treated Soviet citizens with a disregard that most people today cannot even begin to imagine - remember, this is the same guy who killed 3mm people in the 1930s Ukraine to divert food to world markets so he could industrialize the Soviet Union. It's fair to say post-Krushchev standard was still far below what anyone would tolerate in Western Europe or North America - but to long-suffering Soviet citizens, it did represent a large improvement.

@GilbMLRS 4 месяца назад

Better than living in a tent on the street (if you have a tent) like in the USA today.@@zico739

@mardiffv.8775 4 месяца назад

During the summer of 2023 I cycled through the countryside of Vorpommern Mecklenburg, the Baltic Coast State in East Germany. When I cycled into a village I saw a Plattenbau 3 story appartement building. The first time I saw a Plattenbau appartement building was in East Berlin, next to the Stasi museum.

@blueguitar4419 4 месяца назад

In Japan they are called Danchi, run by the semi-state run Urban Renaissance, and they are often the best deal for middle class apartments. Also the government regulations prevent the estate managers from ripping you off, unlike private landlords.

@mph20000 4 месяца назад

I lived in a few East German Plattenbaus when I lived in Thuringia 10 years ago. As a Canadian, I found that the the quality/comfort was highly dependent on how old the original build as well as if the place was renovated and to what extent. Either way it was a very economical place to live in-- as long as you liked doing stairs exercises. What really perplexed me was the sheer number of Plattenbaus that were abandoned.

@IvanTre 3 месяца назад

East. Germany kept emptying out after unification. The currency conversion basically killed the economy there..

@manius1222 4 месяца назад

The biggest Plattenbau settlement in my city is currently being renovated, brought up to modern standards (isolation and elevators mostly) and even slightly expanded (!). The apartments, which are owned by the city itself, will them be rented off at relatively low prices to low-income families. The might also get some nice colourful paintings at the side like their neighbour buildings before.

@arthurswart4436 4 месяца назад

I lived in the Dutch Bijlmermeer for a while, probably the ultimate Plattenbau spot in The Netherlands. I recall the slabs were delivered including glazing, plumbing and wiring. Very efficient, until you need to add new services later... Most of it's gone now, it never became the upper middle class garden city it was intended to be.

@sekarmaltum1695 4 месяца назад

This is the most nerdy and niche thing, yet you made it approachable and not boring -thanks.

@douglasschaden3475 4 месяца назад

This is easily one of the finest channels on this platform. Danke.

@TheGregstar92 2 месяца назад

I have been living in such building since I was born. You are absolutely right that insulation isn't very good. My hometown is an example of having such flats. It is a designed industrial town.

@rainiskarro2460 4 месяца назад

Thanks for interesting video. This method had huge impact in Eastern Europe not just East Germany. In fact I'm writing this post from Tallinn, Estonia and biggest district of capital of Estonia (Lasnamäe) is constructed in similar fashion. Not to mention another district Õismäe which reminds an absolute dystopy - with massive curved "Panelkas" built around round-shaped pond in the middle, with kindergartens and schools between housing and pond. Crazy and fun ideology-driven planning and construction.

@SickRabbit 3 месяца назад

Im living in Marzahn. I like the Plattenbau Flavour. But I also love historical apartments

@prieten49 4 месяца назад

I thought it was a mistake when post-unification many eastern German cities began to demolish or thin out their Plattenbausiedlungen. Today, apartment rents are going through the roof, so to speak, even in the East. Many of the Plattenbausiedlungen became so-called Wohnungsbaugesellschaften or housing associations which attempted to modernize the Plattenbaus inside and out. They raised the rents after adding insulation, balconies, and elevators. Many of the occupants weren't that happy about the rent increases. Then the latest trend of hedge fund investors buying up the housing associations began. They have raised the rents even higher, causing many cities to enact "Mietbremsen" or "rent brakes," basically rent controls. But these controls are quite liberal, allowing landlords to raise rents for newly vacated apartments by 10% and allowing them to raise other rents consistent with market increases, which have been quite high. An effort by Berlin to introduce a "Mietdeckel" or "rent freeze" was struck down by the German Constitutional Court. Pretty soon there will be American conditions in the German housing market.

@willnill7946 4 месяца назад

Because the East Germans are stupid and let themselves be annexed by west Germany. They regret it now

@user-Wojciech 4 месяца назад

"We are live in America" Housing has become a money making scheme in most of Europe. Shortages and lack of affordable apartments probably affect most countries now. I grew up in communist Poland. We always thought the West was so much better in every way. But I was in shock for example when I first came to the UK and saw the housing (quite often it is not fit for purpose, old, cheap, badly built, from thin materials, on top of it - high rents), a lot of it worse than the prefabricated concrete apartment blocks in Poland. I couldn't believe people live like this in one of the richest countries in the world. There's a serious housing shortage. The fact the British didn't want to build mass concrete apartment buildings is one of the reasons (only small houses). Some of their concrete urban developments were badly thought out, badly designed and/or built. They had failed and got demolished in the end. The good times are definitely over now in the West, the current capitalistic model only works for the rich. People struggle to afford somewhere to live. The standards of accommodation in the UK now are worse for many people than they were in the 80's communist Poland, although similarly, British youth currently is forced to live with their parents until their late 20`s Capitalism has failed.

@pawl23 4 месяца назад

A lot of the demolished housing is in the middle of nowhere

@boink800 4 месяца назад

@@user-Wojciech There's no shortage of housing in the East of Germany -- there's still a massive surplus. Rents are far, far cheaper in the East of Germany than in the West.

@user-Wojciech 4 месяца назад

@@boink800 because people don't want to live in East Germany

@burgitech8643 4 месяца назад

It should be mentioned that in GDR Plattenbau also existed in villages, typically 4 floor buildings, 24 appartments each, which had lower standard than in the cities. I guess many hundreds have been built thoughout GDR - about a dozen of them in our small town. As a child I have lived in such a building from around 1980 with no central heating - 1 tiled stove in the living room, one small stove in my room, and one in the bathroom to get hot water, no heating in the bedroom at all. We had to carry coal from the basement into the 4th floor. This was a 58 m² appartment inteded for a family of 3 or 4, tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom, about 8m² room for the children (the space for the stoves was lost additionally). In the morning, when the stoves were cold, we had not even 10°C room temperature in the winter and there was no point in putting on a stove since we had to disappear for work/kindergarten. When I was 5 years old, I came home from kindergarten by myself, having a key. The stove in my room was already prepared then and I only had to put on a firewood and after 30 minutes add two pieces of coal. The walls were thin from reinfoced concrete, with all leads for light and the few power points visible and the neighbors were noisy. Its not compareable to modern standards today.

@Clistes 4 месяца назад

Buildings of this kind, specially after modernisation, are really good places to live. In my opinion what makes it way better then modern development is the way housing complex was designed. In poland thay planned and buided entire neighborhoods from scratch. And those where not small in city i live smallest one could accommodate 65000!! And its not a concrete wasteland. No no. Parks and squers all around, a lot of schools kindergardens, shopping points plus great public transport. Today there is a lot of hype around 15 min cities. At the same time Plattenbau neighborhood buid in the 70 meet all criteria for 15 min city. It only shows that not everything from behind iron curtain was bad, in fact when it comes to social life and and still is better they any western idea.

@Nostalg1a 3 месяца назад

The urban planning was good, the thing that lacked was beauty, that’s why those are the parts of town people sleep in, but don’t truly spend time in, they go to the desirable beautiful parts, normally the Old Town.

@Clistes 3 месяца назад

@@Nostalg1a in most cases that can be true. In my case I preferred my neighborhood as we had a lot of green area - parks and squares. Buildings are renovated - new facade etc.

@oNeGiAnTLiE 4 месяца назад

Never seen one before now. Looks like a sound and smart build with unlimited potential.

@flemmingsorensen5470 4 месяца назад

GREAT video - as always👍

@Transterra55 4 месяца назад

A very informative and entertaining video… I’ve visited a friend in Chemnitz in the Late 90s and took many photographs of the Plattenbau because I found them to be fascinating architecture.

@partiellementecreme 4 месяца назад

Thank you for the this interesting GDR content in English.

@sankan1299 4 месяца назад

This is the channel I've been waiting for all my life

@sfarrell71138 3 месяца назад

Nice intro! Thats the way to do it. Its professional and quick

@AidanEyewitness 3 месяца назад

In the west of Leipzig the district of Grünau is 'Plattenbau paradise'. I would love to live in a Plattenbau apartment! Many thanks for a well-researched and informative video. I learned a lot.

@ulin4226 3 месяца назад

That brought back memories! When visiting my relatives in Halle as a kid in the late 60s to early 70s, my uncle took us to ‘HaNeu’ - Halle-Neustadt. The first few Plattenbau complexes were finished and occupied but there was hardly anything around to make it a livable space like permanent streets, walkways or parks. That came much later, so for the first couple of years, the people there were living inside a huge construction site. My uncle had a Trabant and I remember how we almost got stuck in the mud there.😅

@gregorypaulbox3035 4 месяца назад

Thank you for your very entertaining and educational videos.

@whitlamsberlintours 20 дней назад

Great video. Thank you for making it!

@rylandplassmann9095 4 месяца назад

I'm definitely excited for the English version of the book to be released.

@Videoproizvodstvennaya_kamorka 4 месяца назад

Thank you for such a wonderful video, I was looking for something like this for a long time and then you appeared, thanks again

@Silahtar357 4 месяца назад

A very important topic, thanks.

@McIntyreBible 4 месяца назад

This is a helpful video on the subject of pre-fabricated buildings.

@Auxodium 4 месяца назад

Another cracking video. Great job.

@wolfNov1942 3 месяца назад

This is a fantastic channel! After watching this fascinating video, it would be interesting to see a video on the DDR elite’s secure neighborhood known as the Waldseidlung of Wandlitz.

@holgerandersengrn3457 4 месяца назад

Again a good and informative video - thank you

@CyberpunkV2077 3 месяца назад

Hi, many many thanks for this interesting and informative video about East German building styles.

@jamesfield8023 3 месяца назад

Just stumbled upon your channel with this video… absolutely fascinating stuff and really well presented. Thanks for the book recommendation too, the English version will make an excellent birthday presents to myself. Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to explore the other videos on your channel.

@niallocuilleanain81 4 месяца назад

Great video! I would recommend a walk around Halle where the Plattenbau have impressive murals celebrating 'scientific communism'.The apartments of Eisenhuttenstadt featured here are definitely more in the style of 'Stalinist Classicism' than the Plattenbau. You see a similar type of 'classical' construction in parts of Karl Marx Allee too in Berlin sitting alongside the Plattenbau.

@mrpeel3239 4 месяца назад

Terrific overview!

@rbrouns9569 4 месяца назад

Fascinerend onderwerp. Tegenwoordig met de immense huizenprijzen is de Plattenbau weer populair geworden. Recent in Berlijn geweest en Marzahn bezocht. De flats liggen veelal in een parkachtige omgeving en scholen en supermarkten zijn kortbij. Het concept dat vaak verguisd is blijkt toch wonderwel te werken. De nieuwe bewoners kunnen de opzet waarderen. Als je met de bus door Marzahn rijdt is het vooral opvallend hoeveel supermarkten er zijn. Bij ieder groter woonblok is er wel eentje te vinden. Een wandeling door het groen tussen de hoge flats geeft een aangenaam parkgevoel. Heel interessant dat er nu boeken in omloop zijn, zal er naar op zoek gaan. Bedankt voor de mooie content. Groeten van een DDR- interessent, Ralf

@McIntyreBible 4 месяца назад

Thankfully his unsightly plan (2:22) never took off!

@ConwayT91 4 месяца назад

Really cool video about a very interesting topic indeed. 108 million houses in such a short time.. wow they must have been busy

@KRAFTWERK2K6 2 месяца назад

The Bathrooms in the majority of these WBS Plattenbau buildings were even a single piece concrete cell, with door opening and a hole for the ventilation shaft and the pipe shaft. They were inserted during the construction of each floor, just like the metal slabs for the Walls. The Buildings have huge ventilators sitting on the roof, which spin and sucking out the air moisture from inside through the air shafts all the way up and keeping the insides well ventilated. So you never had to fear mold growing inside your Plattenbau aparment. A major drawback however was that if the Roof Ventilator fans didn't have any rubber gaskets to dampen the vibrations coming from the rotations, the resonance spreading nature of the Concrete slabs would let you hear that hum in the rooms. And sadly many of these modernized Plattenbau complexes also STILL have the ancient old electric wiring and TV & Phone cables from the GDR times that were not replaced during the modernization, which causes problems when you plug in electronic devices that suck a lot of energy. The walls are also ridicously thin. Half as thick as a normal brick house wall. The even HIGHER "skyscraper" towers had laundry drying rooms as well as garbage shutes. And also often had pubs and restaurants at the bottom, to have a socializing spot right in the house.

@TecSanento 4 месяца назад

One great advantage of standardiesd Apartments is, that you can create different versions of standardised furniture as well

@KG5RK 3 месяца назад

Great story. Very educational. Danke !

@Duncan_Campbell 4 месяца назад

thank you for such a lovely video, and for information about the books. I will have to remember in 6 months about looking for a copy. prefabricated buildings do seem to be in vogue around the world for price and speed.

@cevizagac5725 2 месяца назад

Wow. This is the youtube channel i was searching for!!

@valkyrgoddess 3 месяца назад

Such a great Video. A lot of stuff i didnt knew. Greetings from a resident of a Plattenbau

@RsOnTheStreetS 4 месяца назад

I must say some newer Plattenbau constructions like in Berlin Hohenschönhausen are pretty good. 11floors, nice backyard park, good insulated against noise/weather and they look more friendly. They should build more of them across the country.

@sabflash 4 месяца назад

Great video ! Super interesting thanks a lot

@tomlebomb Месяц назад

Interesting and well delivered vid 👍

@Jackalope20999 4 месяца назад

I built houses like this in a factory in Utah. You could frame enough wall and floor panels to build a house in a day.

@spidyman8853 4 месяца назад

Thank you. Danke. When I lived in East Berlin, we lived in one of those new built Apartments and as a kid, they seemed normal apartments. No one knew about Prefab situation back then.

@romansvehla7352 4 месяца назад

, today many people have no place to live under the capitalism of thieves. Glory to thieving capitalism. Glory. Today, these prefabs are in high demand and very expensive. People have no chance to buy them. Only for a 35-year mortgage.

@AndreaPick 4 месяца назад

I hope you have had a great Christmas and I wish you a happy New Year. Thank you for your hard work.

@eastgermanyinvestigated 4 месяца назад

Thanks! Same to you!

@ylynov 4 месяца назад

In West Berlin there is also quite a lot of them, build in the 60s-early 70s.

@speeds7387 3 месяца назад

I live in a modernized P2 Plattenbau from 1968 and it is sufficient for me. The P2 type has a interieur staircase with a light well in the middle, where a small evevator was installed last year.

@Liisa3139 4 месяца назад

The art of the Plattenbau houses to be demolished should be collected and displayed in a nice park somewhere. Or recycled for use as an element in a new build. The for story plattenbaus look quite nice.

@mauricebeguin7646 4 месяца назад

Great Video, thanks a lot for your work. By the way, your French pronunciation is impeccable.

@al1384 4 месяца назад

Really enjoyed that thank you

@RadostinVelchev 3 месяца назад

In Bulgaria we have a lot of those appartment buildings, I currently own an apartment in one. After we replaced the windows with double glased aluminium framed ones and installed insulation on the external walls it is OK. But you can still hear your neighbor snoring :D Also in the late 70's and early 80's the quality control was simply non existent and most panels are warped. This was a challenge when we tried to install the perfectly square window frames.

@annehersey9895 Месяц назад

In Russia, these old 5 story pre-fab apartments are called Kruschevkas because they were built during his time as leader. They are all 5 stories because the planners said that was how tall they could be without needing to put in elevators which would be too expensive.

@ashleyupshall7641 4 месяца назад

There is a very good book published by DOM titled ‘Towards a Typology of Soviet Mass Housing’. It’s a very interesting read for those interested in East European Soviet architecture.

@kristerlund8845 4 месяца назад

We have the same thing in Sweden. The government decided to build one million apartments within 1965-1975, due to shortage of homes. They achieved it too, but the areas with this kind of buildings became soulless and anonymous. Rich people bought their own houses, so it was (and still is) mainly people with low income who were living in these areas.

@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts 4 месяца назад

Very informative.

@ausaskar 4 месяца назад

I got to see whole streets of these when I visited the Stasi Museum in Berlin last year, many still had the original "bare" exteriors.

@Djafffarov 4 месяца назад

In Baku, we have 2 versions of Panel houses, 5 storey or 9 storey (very rare 16 storey. Within 90 kv/m you could get 5 rooms + plus kitchen, but nowadays 2 rooms apartments start from 70 - 80 kv/m.

@jonasj8725 4 месяца назад

Also very interesting: In some cities from which many people moved away after reunification and consequently many flats where empty they reduced the number of floors of the panel blocks. In smaller cities they reduced 6- or 5-storey to 3-storey. In other cities they reduced from 10- or 8-storey to 4-storey. It looks quite funny because you do not recognise those places in the first few seconds

@LeifDjurfeldt 4 месяца назад

Loved your chanel! Subscribed!

@SteveFBS 4 месяца назад

Very interesting! Danke.

@Siijiska 3 месяца назад

In Sweden we also had a programme to build a million homes in ten years, between the mid 60s and the mid 70s. Thus, we have a lot of these Plattenbau houses. I grew up in those, and get really happy and feel at home when I visit East Berlin and see similar ones. They also generally have really good layouts, compared to many more modern apartments. For the last ten years unfortunately, there's been a strong political trend to hate on these, and many of them haven't been renovated properly. But they're nice homes. I like them!

@kidmohair8151 4 месяца назад

I bet there are people all over the world who would be more than happy to move into a Plattenbau unit. and I'd be one of them.

@MDEUSX 3 месяца назад

Pretty sure the WBS70 @ 8:28 is in Cottbus, as this was my hometown and right next tonic was my favourite Döner.

@mabbrey 4 месяца назад

great stuff

@JohnnyHooverTravels 4 месяца назад

thank you for your highly informative and entertaining videos. As a railway youtuber, I'd really appreciate a video about the types of standard (if there was one) railway station designs that can be found across the former DDR, with some pointers to some of the best examples that are still standing. I have travelled in the Czech Republic a lot and enjoy the Soviet-era designs to be found there.

@ricktownend9144 4 месяца назад

@JohnnyHooverTravels - I was just about to post a very similar comment! I subscribed to your channel a few months ago, and now will go back to check out your videos about travel in Czechia!

@geotropa1043 3 месяца назад

The gernan railway network was beasically complete by the beginning of the 20th century already. I doubt it that there was any demand to build new stations during GDR-time at all. Maybe with the exception of a few that were totally destroyed during WW2.

@BK-qp8zp 4 месяца назад

I could listen to you talk all day. 😊 I visited East Germany 4 months before the Wall fell and was saddened by how gray and forlorn everything looked. I thought about how difficult it must be for those who lived close enough to the border to be able to see what they were missing. Perhaps most striking was the DDR side of the Brandenburg Gate. Of course, no one could get anywhere near it, so the Wall was completely devoid of any graffiti or messages; quite a stark contrast of the Wall's West side!

@oliversteward2011 4 месяца назад

Very interesting!

@sloytar2 4 месяца назад

This was in fact the best way in the world to deal with housing issues. Very cheap housing that could be widely used for developing countries. Wonder why this isn’t used more in countries where housing is a definite struggle? In areas where people live in dirt huts; the government could help them by building a cheap apartment for the people, instead of building houses individually which is much more expensive

@user-kp5nj6oj7m 4 месяца назад

I remember ´Plattenbau´ houses in Sweden (lots of them) from 1959. Check out ´Lorensborg in Malmö´. I beleive it was built for about 10000 people. There were other such areas in Sweden as well.

@DanielMasmanian 4 месяца назад

Bravo. Subscribed.

@heylolp9 3 месяца назад

Slab Building with Modern Technical and Ecological Knowledge might be a part of a solution for the current housing crisis But the issue is that just adding housing isn't a full solve as well as cutting corners can lead to unsave living conditions as the are reported on mass from China Great Video