Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie

Walk around the curved wing to see the board marks in the concrete.

Hermann Fehling, Daniel Gogel · 1974 · Berlin

In short

Fehling and Gogel's institute for the Freie Universität, designed from 1966 and finished in 1974: board-marked concrete wings that step up from old Lichterfelde to a five-storey lab block.

Quarantine and complex equipment pushed the cost to 33 million DM, about double a comparable institute.

A tunnel under Krahmerstraße links it to the Mäusebunker. Listed in 2021, it is being converted for the Berlin Centre for the Biology of Health.

Siana Pick

Stand on the forecourt off Krahmerstraße with the Mäusebunker behind you. Turn between the two: the Hänskas built a closed block of precast parts, Fehling and Gogel cast free sculpture in place. Then walk up to a curved wall and run your eye along the board marks; the joints stay straight and tight all the way round.

The building, measured

Architects: Hermann Fehling (1909–1996); Daniel Gogel (1927–1997); Jürgen Kümmel, Manfred Walz (office staff); Günter Ssymmank (auditorium seating)
Client: Land Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin
Original use: University teaching and research institute for hygiene and medical microbiology, with high-security labs, animal rooms and a culture-media kitchen
Current use: Charité: administration of the Institute for Allergy Research (since 2022); conversion for the Berlin Centre for the Biology of Health under way
Completion: 1974
Style: Brutalist
Heritage: Baudenkmal (listed monument), Gesamtanlage, Obj.-Dok.-Nr. 09070020
Condition: standing
Address: Hindenburgdamm 27 / Krahmerstraße, 12203 Berlin

Dates

1964: frame planning begins
1966: Fehling and Gogel start the design
1967: site plan of 29 Oct sketches the tunnel to the animal labs
1971: construction starts (DDB: 1969)
1974: completed
1975: Bauwelt 66/11 publishes the building; tunnel and transformer station accepted in part (30 Apr)
1982: tunnel in operation (8 Feb)
2012: Philippe Quesne stages the David Foster Wallace Center in the building
2021: listed as a monument (20 Jan)
2022: Institute for Allergy Research moves in; name Paul-Ehrlich-Haus
2024–2028: conversion for the Berlin Centre for the Biology of Health

Worth knowing

It cost 33 million DM, about twice as much as comparable institutes, because of the complex equipment and the strict quarantine, in parts at high-security level.
A tunnel under Krahmerstraße was meant to carry waste and animal carcasses to an incinerator shared with the Mäusebunker. The incinerator was dropped in 1978 in favour of containers.
The institute used the basement axes 0 to 18 of the Mäusebunker across the road, and a 2,400 m² meadow on that site, labelled "pasture for calves and sheep", belonged to it.
The auditorium seats are by Günter Ssymmank, a former collaborator of Hans Scharoun. It was his fourth and last job with Fehling and Gogel.
In 2012 the director Philippe Quesne turned the building into the fictional David Foster Wallace Center for the HAU's 24-hour Infinite Jest project.

Plan set

A-01 Overview
The Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie is the Freie Universität's former hygiene and microbiology institute in Lichterfelde, a teaching and research building with high-security labs. Hermann Fehling and Daniel Gogel designed it from 1966, and it went up from 1971 to 1974 in board-marked exposed concrete, in a sculptural Brutalism that follows Hans Scharoun. Its wings step up from the old village core to a five-storey lab block, and a tunnel runs from it under Krahmerstraße to the Mäusebunker.
Architects
Hermann Fehling & Daniel Gogel
Built
1971–1974
Style
Brutalism
Location
Berlin-Lichterfelde
Download the poster
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-02 Teaching west, research east
The institute combined university teaching with research on highly infectious material, and the plan keeps the two apart. Teaching sits in the west, research in the east. Fan-shaped lecture and course halls and a one-storey office wing hang off the west end, while the animal rooms and the culture-media kitchen swing out to the east.
Between them runs the lab row. Fehling and Gogel described it as the core that both separates and joins the two halves. The labs form a security zone, partly at high-security level, and the quarantine is the main reason the building cost twice as much as comparable institutes.
Read the full explanation
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-03 Stepping up from the village
The masses rise in steps from the Hindenburgdamm toward the Teltow Canal, up to a five-storey spine parallel to Krahmerstraße. The end wall of that spine faces the old village core of Lichterfelde, and at its east end the block swings toward the Klinikum Steglitz.
Fehling and Gogel kinked the lab wing to take its highest point away from the street. Sculpted access and ventilation towers rise above the roofs and break up the silhouette. Toward Krahmerstraße the building opens with a forecourt and a two-storey passage to the Lichterfelde Schlosspark. The heights of the individual wings are not published in the sources we found.
Read the full explanation
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-04 Shafts set the plan
The plan has no single basic shape. Wikipedia reads it as a double Y or a stretched X. The architects traced it back to the triangular service shafts, which they treated as the central element of the design: the wings grow out of them.
The result has a technical, industrial character, and Fehling and Gogel left out any large shared space. People arrive by a ramp from Krahmerstraße to an outdoor distribution level and enter from there. Wide-span steel roofs cover the lecture and course halls, and the course hall has a divider wall that sinks into the floor.
Read the full explanation
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-05 Board-marked, made clean
Every wall is board-formed exposed concrete, inside and out. Brutalism of the period loved concrete raw and rough. Here precise formwork and exact workmanship gave the material a "hygienic" look that suits a hygiene institute. The architects called the quality of the board formwork unique in Berlin.
The curves have a lineage. The listing places the organic, swinging forms in the line of Hans Scharoun, for whom Fehling had worked. The 2021 listing found the whole complex well preserved, outside and in.
Read the full explanation
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-06 The tunnel to the Mäusebunker
The institute was planned together with the central animal labs across Krahmerstraße. A site plan of 29 October 1967 already sketches a tunnel between them, and the plan of 27 November 1969 fixes its route through the transformer area, with Fehling and Gogel involved. The tunnel was to carry waste and carcasses to a shared incinerator.
The transformer station and tunnel were accepted in part on 30 April 1975, the incinerator was dropped in 1978 in favour of containers, and the tunnel went into operation on 8 February 1982. A ventilation unit on the Krahmerstraße slope marks it today. Wiese and Janik read the pair as the two variants of Brutalist concrete: free sculpture cast in place here, a closed body of precast parts across the road. Siana's Mäusebunker entry covers that building in full.
Read the full explanation
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.

Why it looks like this

Sources: Denkmaldatenbank Berlin 09070020; Fehling+Gogel work list; Wiese & Janik, Baugeschichte und Beschreibung (2020); Wikipedia.

Teaching west, research east

The institute combined university teaching with research on highly infectious material, and the plan keeps the two apart. Teaching sits in the west, research in the east. Fan-shaped lecture and course halls and a one-storey office wing hang off the west end, while the animal rooms and the culture-media kitchen swing out to the east.

Between them runs the lab row. Fehling and Gogel described it as the core that both separates and joins the two halves. The labs form a security zone, partly at high-security level, and the quarantine is the main reason the building cost twice as much as comparable institutes.

See sheet A-02

Stepping up from the village

The masses rise in steps from the Hindenburgdamm toward the Teltow Canal, up to a five-storey spine parallel to Krahmerstraße. The end wall of that spine faces the old village core of Lichterfelde, and at its east end the block swings toward the Klinikum Steglitz.

Fehling and Gogel kinked the lab wing to take its highest point away from the street. Sculpted access and ventilation towers rise above the roofs and break up the silhouette. Toward Krahmerstraße the building opens with a forecourt and a two-storey passage to the Lichterfelde Schlosspark. The heights of the individual wings are not published in the sources we found.

See sheet A-03

Shafts set the plan

The plan has no single basic shape. Wikipedia reads it as a double Y or a stretched X. The architects traced it back to the triangular service shafts, which they treated as the central element of the design: the wings grow out of them.

The result has a technical, industrial character, and Fehling and Gogel left out any large shared space. People arrive by a ramp from Krahmerstraße to an outdoor distribution level and enter from there. Wide-span steel roofs cover the lecture and course halls, and the course hall has a divider wall that sinks into the floor.

See sheet A-04

Board-marked, made clean

Every wall is board-formed exposed concrete, inside and out. Brutalism of the period loved concrete raw and rough. Here precise formwork and exact workmanship gave the material a "hygienic" look that suits a hygiene institute. The architects called the quality of the board formwork unique in Berlin.

The curves have a lineage. The listing places the organic, swinging forms in the line of Hans Scharoun, for whom Fehling had worked. The 2021 listing found the whole complex well preserved, outside and in.

See sheet A-05

The tunnel to the Mäusebunker

The institute was planned together with the central animal labs across Krahmerstraße. A site plan of 29 October 1967 already sketches a tunnel between them, and the plan of 27 November 1969 fixes its route through the transformer area, with Fehling and Gogel involved. The tunnel was to carry waste and carcasses to a shared incinerator.

The transformer station and tunnel were accepted in part on 30 April 1975, the incinerator was dropped in 1978 in favour of containers, and the tunnel went into operation on 8 February 1982. A ventilation unit on the Krahmerstraße slope marks it today. Wiese and Janik read the pair as the two variants of Brutalist concrete: free sculpture cast in place here, a closed body of precast parts across the road. Siana's Mäusebunker entry covers that building in full.

See sheet A-06

Story

Planning began in 1961, when the Freie Universität decided to put buildings outside its Dahlem campus. Frame planning for a hygiene institute started in 1964, and Fehling and Gogel took on the design in 1966. Jürgen Kümmel and Manfred Walz worked on it in their office. Its Charité users trace the Berlin hygiene institute back to its founding by Robert Koch in 1885.

Construction ran from 1971 to 1974 according to the architects; the monument database dates the building 1969 to 1974. It cost 33 million DM. It drew international attention while it was still being built and appeared in Bauwelt in 1975. Together with the Klinikum Steglitz and the Mäusebunker it forms a group of research and health buildings tied by function and by the tunnel under Krahmerstraße.

When the Charité planned a new research campus, a demolition notice for the institute lay at the district building office. The Charité then said it would keep the building and fold it into the plans, at the price of a full refurbishment. A petition to protect it and the Mäusebunker passed 4,000 signatures in four weeks, and on 20 January 2021 Berlin listed the institute as a monument. State conservator Christoph Rauhut called it "ein Gesamtkunstwerk, ein Bau von internationalem Rang", a total work of art of international rank.

Since early 2022 the building has housed the administration of the Charité's Institute for Allergy Research and carries the name Paul-Ehrlich-Haus. It is now being converted for the Berlin Centre for the Biology of Health (BC-BH). In 2023 the Freie Universität announced 3,169 m² of usable area for about 150 researchers and total costs of 54.4 million euros including equipment, to be carried out from 2024 to 2028. The general planners Henke+Partner give about 3,500 m² and construction costs of 78 million euros.

Analysis

The Hygiene Institute is the friendlier half of Lichterfelde's concrete pair, and it was the harder one to build. Fehling and Gogel came out of Scharoun's circle, and they made a lab building with the plan of a small town: wings that turn, towers that mark the shafts, a ramp to a raised square. The brief demanded separation, and they drew it as landscape.

The concrete is the argument. Brutalism usually advertises roughness. Here the boards are narrow, the joints are straight and the surfaces are even, so the material reads as clean, the one quality a hygiene institute has to show. The listing calls the look "hygienic", in quotation marks, and the word fits.

Across Krahmerstraße stands the Mäusebunker, and the two buildings answer each other. Both served the same campus plan and are joined underground. The Hänskas built a sealed, angled machine of precast parts; Fehling and Gogel cast curving forms in place. Seen together they show how wide West Berlin's concrete vocabulary was in one decade on one street.

The conversion for the BC-BH is the test. Listing protected a building the conservators found well preserved inside and out, and the new labs need modern services and safety. The published figures already differ, 54.4 million euros in the 2023 funding plan and 78 million euros of construction cost from the general planner. Success would mean the board-marked walls, the curved halls and Ssymmank's seats survive the retrofit.

Diagrams

Students stay in the west, infectious material in the east, and the lab row sits between.
The wings rise from one storey near the old village to five at the lab block.
The triangular service shafts came first; the Y-shaped wings grow out of them.
Precise board formwork left a clean, even grain on the walls inside and out.
A service tunnel under Krahmerstraße joins the institute to the Mäusebunker.

Poster

The building, its numbers and its history on one sheet.

Photographs

From Krahmerstraße, 2020, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Stepped wings, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
A triangular volume, Leonhard Lenz, CC0 source
Lab wing behind the trees, Leonhard Lenz, CC0 source
With the Pauluskirche, Leonhard Lenz, CC0 source
Winter panorama, 2010, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Stair tower, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
The access ramp, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Under the entrance level, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Curved soffit, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source