In Prenzlauer Berg, Ludwig Hoffmann designed a neo-Renaissance public bath in 1898 for a fast-growing working-class district. Closed in 1986 and defended by its neighbours, it reopened as a hotel in 2016, and its pool is still open to Berliners as well as guests.
“
Cracks in the pool floor closed the baths in 1986. A citizens’ initiative started by Bernd Holtfreter fought to keep the building, and artists used it for exhibitions. The GLS language school, founded in 1983 by Barbara Jaeschke, bought the listed building and began restoring it in 2012. Since October 2016 people swim here again, thirty years on.
Seventy rooms, five stacked studios in the old water tower and two apartments. The pool hall can be hired for a plenary or a dinner: its hydraulic floor rises to the level of the pool edge. The library, once the men’s waiting room, takes 50 people for a workshop, and seminar rooms sit on the floor above the hall. Tram M10 reaches Berlin Hauptbahnhof in fifteen minutes.
Photo credits : A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; Spreetunnel (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; Ludwig Hoffmann, 1903 (Wikimedia Commons, domaine public) ; Christian Thiele (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5) ; Oberlausitzerin64 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; Matt Biddulph (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Agent A\lex designs the offsite with you, or we design and lead it for your team.
Agent A\lex
