The red townhall from Berlin- Thats my World

The Rotes Rathaus (German: Red Town Hall) is the town hall of Berlin, located in the Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the governing mayor and the government (officially Senate of Berlin) of the Federal state of Berlin. The name of the landmark building dates from the facade design with red clinker bricks.


View from the FernsehturmThe Rathaus was built between 1861 and 1869 in the style of the north Italian High Renaissance by Hermann Friedrich Waesemann. It was modelled on the Old Town Hall of Toruń, today Poland, while the architecture of the tower is reminiscent of the cathedral's tower of Notre-Dame de Laon in France. It replaced more, partial buildings dating from the Middle Ages by a whole street block.

The building was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in World War II and rebuilt to the original plans between 1951 and 1956. Undestroyed Neues Stadthaus, the former head office of Berlin's municipal fire insurance Feuersozietät, in Parochialstraße served as the intermittent city hall for the post-war city government for all the sectors of Berlin until September 1948 and after that solely for the Soviet sector. Reconstructed Rotes Rathaus, then located in the Soviet sector, served as the town hall of East Berlin, while the Rathaus Schöneberg was domicile of the West Berlin Senate. After German reunification the administration of unified Berlin officially moved in on 1 October 1991.