Alte Kommandantur
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The Alte Kommandantur is a building in the historic center of Berlin, which had been heavily damaged during World War II and destroyed in order to make room for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of East Germany.
The original building was in the baroque style, built by architect Johann Gregor Memhardt, and enlarged in 1795, and modified again in 1873 in a neo-Renaissance style.
In 1995, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of East Germany itself was demolished in order to recreate the Werderscher Markt area.
The Alte Kommandantur has been rebuilt by Bertelsmann to become its Berlin headquarters with the prestigious address Unter den Linden 1. Since no plan was available it has been designed based on historic pre-war photographies and testimonies. The building was completed in November 2003.
Critics of this reconstruction see it as an example of the Disneyfication of the center of Berlin.[1]
