The former main telegraph office at Oranienburger Straße 73–76 in the BerlinMitte neighborhood in the district of the same name is a listed architectural monument. From its opening in 1916 until 1992, it served as the headquarters of Berlin’s telegraph facilities. The monumental building complex has been owned by an investor since 2001. After several years of renovation, a hotel opened in the building in 2022.
The four-wing building extends along Oranienburger Straße 73–76 (north), Monbijoustraße 1 (east), Ziegelstraße 20/21 (south). The loge house is located to the northeast on Oranienburger Strasse, and the former telephone exchange at Tucholskystrasse 16/20 borders the area to the east.
The building complex in the neo-baroque style has been adapted to the existing street network, which is why the four building wings are not exactly at right angles to each other. The north wing on Oranienburger Strasse is around 65 meters long, and the south wing on Ziegelstrasse is about the same length. The east wing on Monbijoustraße is set back by around 13 meters compared to the two parts of the building mentioned above and is around 30 meters long. The interior west wing, which runs parallel to it, is around 33 meters long. A central building connects these two wings. The resulting inner courtyards, each 20 meters wide and around 30 meters long, were originally provided with a glass roof that was not reinstalled after the Second World War. On both courtyards there is a stair tower with a semicircular floor plan attached to the facade. After its completion, the north wing had a roof turret with an open lantern.
The building complex is four floors high, has expanded roof spaces with dormers in some places and is closed off by a tiledmansard roof. Trachyte served as the building material for the base. The facades are plastered gray, the base floor and the two stair towers on Monbijoustrasse with a rectangular floor plan are structured using bosswork, their window niches and entrances form round arches. A symmetrical arched gable closes three axes of the part of the building on Monbijoustraße.
The 14-axis main facade on Oranienburger Straße is dominated by colossalpilasters and a row of four three-quarter columns axially above the ground-level portal. Above its double-leaf bronze door there is a segmental arch with the inscription “Main Telegraph Office” in metal letters and capital letters. A cartouche above the symbolic keystone of the archway contains the slightly ornate inscription in an ornamented oval: “Telegram acceptance”. The high halls inside the building housed the equipment for the telegraph service as well as a telegram acceptance facility, a public telephone station, a pneumatic tube office, packing rooms for the parcel post office and the central post and telecommunications office.
[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Politics of the European Union are different from other organisations and states due to the unique nature of the European Union (EU). The EU is similar to a confederation, where many policy areas are federalised i...
