The heritage listed part of the student village was built between 1959 and 1964, and financed by a donation from the Government of the United States of America.

[1] The Studentendorf Schlachtensee is one of the most important architectural contributions of the Americans to the re-education of the Germans after losing World War II.

It was envisaged that the future academic elite of the Federal Republic of Germany would find a home as well as political and democratic education in Schlachtensee.

The Studentendorf of the Freie Universität Berlin, which was its original name, is an ensemble of 28 loosely arranged houses composed as an urban landscape across 5 hectares.

The second phase, 1962-1964, included the semi-detached house, the community centre and the no longer existing residence of the Academic Director.

Between 1976 and 1978, four five-storey residential community houses were added by the architects Krämer, Pfennig, Sieverts & Partner in a third section.

The Studentendorf is designed for community living: the rooms are rather small, but the light halls and stairways and large kitchens in the residential buildings offer space for encounters and meetings.

At the southern end, the architects placed the community house, whose expressive design makes it standing out from the other buildings.

Each Bude (student room) is about ten square meters and is always equipped with a built-in wardrobe, a bed, a wall-mounted desk and a wall shelf which is connected to the outer Eternit panel.

In addition to the narrow steel window profiles and anthracite Eternit panels, the two-toned plaster structure is striking.

In addition to the residential buildings of the first phase and the mayor's office, two small one-storey pavilions were built for communal facilities on the central village square.

The students` initiative converted both buildings: the shop was turned into a kindergarten, and the library was transformed into a gym[4] The community center on the village square was realised in the second phase.

In seemingly no particular order, the houses are grouped around the low-lying village square, which is the Agora of the Studentendorf, following the Greek model.

Mattern’s design concept for Studentendorf Schlachtensee is no doubt based on Scharoun's model of the urban landscape.

[6] According to Butter, in Schlachtensee the naturalistic and non-axial interior design developed by Scharoun has been implemented in an exemplary manner in line with the landscaping of the Enlightenment.

In February 2006, the Federal Republic of Germany classified the Studentendorf Schlachtensee a "cultural monument of national importance" and promoted its structural renewal.

In June 2010, the cooperative sold the property to the Swiss pension fund CoOpera Sammelstiftung PUK and signed a rental agreement for a period of 99 years.

Also, plans to refurbish the community houses have been started in 2017, the construction works regarding these four buildings will be completed in 2020. Financing partner in the ongoing renovations is the Umweltbank.

Some scenes of the movie "The Reader" by Stephen Daldry based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink were filmed in House 2 in the Student Village.