Venue: Funkhaus Berlin
Town: Treptow-Köpenick, DE

Funkhaus Berlin is a cultural center located in the Oberschöneweide locality of the Treptow-Köpenick borough of Berlin. Established in 1951 for Rundfunk der DDR (GDR Broadcasting) to facilitate radio broadcasting organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the German Democratic Republic, it was expanded over the next five years into a multi-building complex, including one of the largest structures in the world purpose-built for music production. Shortly after German reunification in 1990, Funkhaus Berlin's broadcasting activities ceased, and the complex was sold. It has since been developed to include multiple recording studios, music venues, event halls, coworking spaces, and a creative arts and technology university. After the End of World War II in Europe in May 1945, the Allies of World War II (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) utilized Berlin's existing radio broadcasting facilities in the Haus des Rundfunks, so in 1951 GDR Broadcasting repurposed the concrete skeleton of a former plywood factory on the bank of the Spree river in the former borough of Köpenick to build its own radio broadcasting site. In 1956, Block B, designed by Bauhaus architect Franz Ehrlich was added, with the complex eventually comprising four buildings, or 'blocks,' the largest radio broadcasting site in the world. Beginning in the 1950s, all of the GDR's national radio stations, including Deutschlandsender, Radio Berlin International, Radio DDR 1, Radio DDR 2, Berliner Rundfunk, and later Stimme der DDR, and DT64 now produced and broadcast from the Funkhaus Berlin facility. Over 2,500 people were employed at Funkhaus Berlin. Because staff were working in the building 24 hours a day, it included a supermarket, an outpatient clinic, a sauna, and other amenities. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Funkhaus Berlin's broadcasting activities were phased out, and the studio complex was shut down in 1989 and fell into disrepair. In 1995 the complex was put on