Großsiedlung Siemensstadt

It is one of the six Modernist Housing Estates in Berlin recognized in July 2008 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of their outstanding modernist architecture and contribution to the progressive housing reform movement during the Weimar Republic.

Six prominent Weimar-era architects took part: Hans Scharoun, Fred Forbát, Otto Bartning, Walter Gropius, Paul Rudolph Henning, and Hugo Häring.

The nickname Ringsiedlung came from the association of some of these architects with Der Ring collective.

The open spaces were designed by the German modernist landscape architect Leberecht Migge.

The shape of the settlement marked a turning point in urban thinking, the point at which Berlin's city planner Martin Wagner abandoned a low-rise, garden city-style project with individual gardens, in favor of much denser multi-story apartment blocks.