Zeiss Major Planetarium

It is located on the borders of the Ernst-Thälmann-Park housing estates in the Prenzlauer Berg locality of Berlin.

The anniversary gave an opportunity to the Communist government to create a new style of housing estate with decorative high-rise residential buildings, a cultural centre with restaurants, and a planetarium supposed to be larger than the old one in the Archenhold Observatory of Berlin.

The building was designed by architect Erhardt Gißke [de], and opened on schedule on 9 October 1987.

The dome of the main hall has a diameter of 23 metres (75 ft) and is equipped with a Universarium IX planetarium projector from Carl Zeiss AG.

The building is not only used for astronomy shows; the dome hall with 292 seats also allows for music concerts and audio drama, with a regularly-scheduled "audio theatre under a starry sky" (German: Hörspielkino unterm Sternenhimmel) running since 1995.