The Mäusebunker in Berlin has been saved from demolition

The Mäusebunker in Berlin was saved from demolition and has now been listed as a historic monument. There is also a procedure in place to find the best way to reuse it.

Designed by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska, the Mäusebunker – named after its mouse cage-like appearance – was built between 1971 and 1981 as the animal testing laboratories center at the Freie Universität Berlin in Steglitz-Zehlendorf district.

The building was used from 2003 to 2020 as a research institution for experimental medicine (FEM) by the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, which eventually decided to request its demolition. But both its shell (expression of great design freedom) and its interior (with a complex plan and a sophisticated ventilation system) were considered elements of particular historical value.

As Christoph Rauhut, head of the German Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, pointed out at the Tagespiel, in Germany “Brutalism had, after all, only gradually moved into the public consciousness after the 'SOSBrutalism' exhibition in 2017 at the Frankfurt Architecture Museum. The initial situation was then difficult: the Charité wanted to use the site for an expansion of the Benjamin Franklin Campus, while the monumental value of the Mäusebunker became increasingly clear”.