Kant-Garagen

The first parking garage in Berlin, the Kant Garage even today enjoys a certain status as one of the first technical structures specifically erected for the automobile. While badly neglected, the building still retains many original details and is used for its original purpose. The Jewish engineer and businessman Louis Serlin, who had recognized the automobile’s significance for the city, commissioned the structure. Five architects were responsible for the parking garage’s design, but Hermann Zweigenthal is cited as the lead architect – together with his student colleague Richard Paulick, who later became a renowned architect in the GDR.
The garage was designed for 300 cars; the alternating arrangement of the ramps between the six stories was a model for later garage buildings. The gas station, car dealer and other mechanics’ workshops currently within demonstrate that the usage concept still functions. The building is constructed around a reinforced concrete skeleton and its façade in the spirit of Neue Sachlichkeit [New Objectivity] created a sensation at the time, as did the south façade of horizontally structured glass elements (facing the S-Bahn). Louis Serlin was expropriated in 1938 and had to immigrate to the USA in 1939. He returned to Berlin after 1945 and again managed the garage.