Osthafenspeicher (Spreespeicher)

Story

In Friedrichshain in Berlin stands a brick granary with a restored roof. It is called Spreespeicher, and its gable faces the Spree.

Nineteen thirteen. The architect Friedrich Krause designed it as part of the Osthafen,

the largest industrial port Berlin had seen until then.

Six years of construction. On September 28, nineteen thirteen, Berlin's largest industrial port was inaugurated. Seventeen million marks invested.

Workers unloaded tons of grain from the ships. The conveyor belts lifted it nonstop, feeding every corner of the granary.

In nineteen thirty, the port handled two million three hundred thousand tons a year. Then came nineteen thirty-nine: World War II.

The Nazi army used it as a transshipment center to mobilize war supplies until the Red Army occupied it in April nineteen forty-five.

After reunification in nineteen ninety, the port lost all its relevance. The granary was left with a destroyed roof.

In the mid-nineties, the conversion began. They used Bunzlau clinker brick, granite, shell limestone. Finished in two thousand one.

Today it is a protected heritage site. Inside are lofts, offices, event spaces. The south terrace faces the Spree and the Oberbaum Bridge.

This granary survived progress, war, occupation, division, reunification. Listen to the full guide and let's explore it together.