Designed by Hans Poelzig in 1929 after he won an architectural competition, the building contains three large centrally located broadcasting spaces, which are shielded from street noise by the surrounding office wings.

It is used today by local ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) to make programmes carried by its Inforadio, Kulturradio, and Radio Berlin 88,8 channels.

The building, the ground plan of which is a triangle with two curved sides and a 150-metre-long straight façade clad with ceramic tiles, was constructed between 1929 and 1930 and inaugurated on 22 January 1931 as the seat of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft.

Some radio programming continued during the war, notably the Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht ("Request Concert for the Armed Forces"), broadcast from the Haus des Rundfunks on Sunday afternoons from 1939 to 1941.

At the time, Hans Poelzig had almost no examples to emulate but he developed ideas which are still valid today: the office and editorial rooms are located in the outer areas of the building, thereby surrounding the three large studio complexes.