Designed by Ludwig Hoffmann, chief of construction for the city, it was built in 1902–11 at a cost of 7 million marks (US$1,750,000) to supplement the Rotes Rathaus.

The building has five courtyards and features many sculptures, including 29 allegorical representations of civic virtues and of Greek deities which are mounted on the tower.

Originally called the "Neues Stadthaus" (New City House), it became the seat of the Council of Ministers of the GDR after World War II.

It was completely refurbished in the 1990s and exterior restoration required replacement of some 180 sculptural elements, including the allegorical figures of the virtues, giant vases, window embrasures and one of the columns.

[7] Hoffmann created a monumental building with five courtyards to "once and for all incorporate the offices of the municipal administration which have no place in the city hall; however, it should in addition include the hall for large-scale public events which the city lacks, and also in its exterior be representative of the Berlin of today and thus be [a] magnificent building distinguished in its monumentality," according to the author of a 1914 monograph to him.

[8] An imposing external feature of the building is the tower, approximately 80 metres (260 ft) tall,[9] which rises from a square base over the central bay facing Judenstraße.

Inspired by those designed by Carl von Gontard for the French and German Cathedrals on the Gendarmenmarkt,[9][10] it consists of a double set of cylinders with encircling columns,.

[3] This structure is surmounted by a dome on which a 3.25 metres (10.7 ft) copper sculpture of the goddess Fortuna, by Ignatius Taschner, stands on a gilded globe.

[2] The tower is also adorned with many sculptures, including vases and 29 representations of the civic virtues and Greek deities[10][12] by Taschner, Josef Rauch, Georg Wrba and William Widemann.

[3] The walls over the doorways are inscribed with moral sayings,[13] and the room originally had a floor of red Verona marble, six ceremonial candelabra, and three bronze gates, all by Georg Wrba.

[14][15] Wrba placed the bear in a symbolic setting signifying the bases of European culture; the height of the plinth on which it stands places the viewer at belly level creating a respectful distance, it stands in a triangle signifying the Trinity and in association with a Solomonic saying and depictions of Greco-Roman deities.

[3] The facades, executed in grey muschelkalk, are articulated with reference to the principles of Palladian architecture and based on the Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza.

The main entrances are in the centre of projecting bays on the Jüdenstraße (front) and Klosterstraße (rear) facades, with the "Bear Hall" on the axis between them.

[3] Cross wings and an opening in the main axis between the vestibule on the rear, Klosterstraße side and the "Bear Hall" create five courtyards within the building.

It would have been part of a wideranging plan to redevelop the area of the Molkenmarkt, including replacement of the old and substandard housing along Am Krögel, an alley leading to the Spree.

In addition, the reconstruction of Wilhelmine architecture was not a high priority, where as housing was and so funding for the restoration work was not included in the economic plan.

Although the office space was fully occupied, the "Bear Hall" and the tower rooms remained unused except for some exhibits of plans by the City Construction Supervisor, Hans Scharoun, and so were left unheated leading to damp and mould damage.

[2] In 1955, after five years of reconstruction, the Rotes Rathaus was fully operational and departments were able to move back into it from both administration buildings and from other more remote locations.

The hall capacity was reduced from 1,500 to 300 people, the windows and arcades on the long sides were closed off, wood wall moldings and a suspended ceiling installed to create a modern room within the space.

The main entrance facing Jüdenstraße, over which the GDR national emblem, the hammer and compass, was installed in place of the arms of the City of Berlin, was only opened on special occasions.

[26][d] The statue of the goddess Fortuna on the dome was removed in the first phase of reconstruction in 1951[2] and replaced by a 13 metres (43 ft) antenna for broadcast transmissions.

The historical high point in the use of the building under the GDR came in its final phase, when the only freely elected government of East Germany, under Lothar de Maizière relocated there.

[9] Renovation began in 1994 under the direction of architect Gerhard Spangenberg,[22] with the objective of returning the building so far as possible to its original condition while not ignoring the events of the more recent past.

[18] Four bronze bear sculptures by Ignatius Taschner were returned from the Märkisches Museum and reinstalled on replacement stone columns in the Judenstraße vestibule.

[30] A replacement 300 kilograms (660 lb) statue of Fortuna was created by restoration expert Bernd-Michael Helmich based on a model made by Joost van der Velden from a miniature.

[29] After the zoo in Friedrichsfelde had requested and received a copy at a cost of 30,000 marks, the bronze bear was transported back to the building in June 2001.

Some financing was contributed by British mobile phone company Vodafone, which paid 100,000 marks for a giant red advertising banner that concealed the scaffolding around the tower for a year.