The Charlottenburg campus

The Charlottenburg campus is the heart of PTB’s Berlin Institute. It consists of two squares bordered by the following streets: Marchstraße, Fraunhoferstraße, Kohlrauschstraße and Guerickestraße. It was possible to avoid splitting the site by integrating a part of Abbestraße into the Institute’s campus. Today, the historical buildings accommodate − just like the newly erected ones − modern measurement rooms with the highest-quality equipment for the tasks of the departments.

The Charlottenburg campus consists of the original site of the historical Imperial Physical Technical Institute (PTR) near Marchstraße and its four extensions which were added to the original site at different times in the past. The ensemble of buildings is designated as a historic site. The oldest building on the Charlottenburg campus is the Observatory, the world’s first laboratory building erected especially for physics. This building, designed by Paul Emmanuel Spieker and Theodor Astfalck, was dedicated in 1895 and extensively restored in 2012. To the west, the campus is rounded off by the Hermann von Helmholtz Building. Just like the restored hall of the former Arbeitsschutzmuseum (Industrial Safety Museum) built in 1903, the Observatory is a historic monument on its own. Today it accommodates modern measurement laboratories and a representative lecture hall.

Whereas on the one hand, we endeavour to uphold the tradition of our historical site, we aim to develop, on the other hand, a modern, highly functional scientific campus that has a specific identity of its own.

Current development scheme of PTB. The original site of the PTR (the predecessor of PTB) can be seen in the square to the right of Abbestraße. It consists of the site donated by Werner von Siemens and the first extension. To the left of Abbestraße, the second extension (the Wilhelm Foerster Building), the third extension (the Hermann von Helmholtz Building and the Walther Meissner Building) and the fourth extension (the area around the Konrad Zuse Building, the Robert Fuess Building and the Technikum [Technical Center]) can be found. The Northern Gatehouse and the Southern Gatehouse (Torhaus Nord and Torhaus Süd) are currently under construction. — Current development scheme of PTB. The original site of the PTR (the predecessor of PTB) can be seen in the square to the right of Abbestraße. It consists of the site donated by Werner von Siemens and the first extension. To the left of Abbestraße, the second extension (the Wilhelm Foerster Building), the third extension (the Hermann von Helmholtz Building and the Walther Meissner Building) and the fourth extension (the area around the Konrad Zuse Building, the Robert Fuess Building and the *Technikum* [Technical Center]) can be found.
The Northern Gatehouse and the Southern Gatehouse (*Torhaus Nord and Torhaus Süd*) are currently under construction.

Imperial Physical Technical InstituteImperial Physical Technical Institute

In 1887, Werner von Siemens donated a 19,800 m² sized plot in the city of Charlottenburg to build Division I (the Physical Division) of the PTR. From 1887 to 1891, the Observatory, the president’s residential home, the administrative building and the machine house were erected here as main buildings.

The Observatory’s construction is structurally elaborate. To avoid tremors, it stands on an approx. 1,000 m² large, 2 m thick concrete slab. An ingenious exhaust system ensures a constant inside temperature, in connection with outer walls in a double wall design. The heating system is said to have reached, according to period descriptions, the amazing temperature constancy of a few hundredths of a degree in the inner rooms.

The first extension

The original site of the PTR (Imperial Physical Technical Institute)

For Division II (the Technical Division) of the PTR, the German Empire bought additional bordering plots 14,389 m² in size from Werner von Siemens in 1892 in order to complete the site with a chemical laboratory, a residential building for officials, a second laboratory building (henceforth called the “Main Building”, today the Werner von Siemens Building), as well as smaller auxiliary buildings. In this way, a kind of “Prussian campus” was created: modern, lavish, and unique in its function worldwide.

In 1912, situated where the machine and boiler house of Division I had first stood, a new electricity laboratory was erected, today’s Emil Warburg Building.

The second extension

The former gate to the Imperial Institute for Weights and Measures, now the Wilhelm Foerster Building of PTB

In 1923, the Reichsanstalt für Maß und Gewicht (Imperial Institute for Weights and Measures – RMG) was merged with the PTR. The office building of this institute, today’s Wilhelm Foerster Building, is opposite the main building in today’s Abbestraße. Design-wise, the building, which was erected at the turn of the century, with its facade laid out in an axial symmetrical fashion is situated right on the extension of the axis defined by the Observatory and the main building. The facade of this also elaborately constructed house is faced with red brick and lavishly decorated.

World War II caused very severe damage to the basic structure of the buildings. The administrative building and the president’s residential home were unsavable. The heavily damaged Emil Warburg Building and the Wilhelm Foerster Building were restored.

The third extension

The former Industrial Safety Museum, now the Hermann von Helmholtz Building of PTB

In 1978, PTB adopted the former Arbeitsschutzmuseum (Industrial Safety Museum) on the southwestern part of the block between Fraunhoferstraße and Kohlrauschstraße and incorporated it as the Hermann von Helmholtz Building into its campus. The building concerned is an exhibition building, whose construction was begun in 1900. It is made up of three parts: the administrative wing, the lecture hall wing with a ground floor foyer and a connecting exhibition hall. The hall and the lecture hall are purely steel structures, the brick outer walls only have an infilling function. The roofs of the multi-nave hall are largely constructed of glass.

The fourth extension

The incorporation of the Amt für Standardisierung, Messwesen und Warenprüfung (Office for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control) of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the course of the reunification of both German states led to an extension of PTB’s Charlottenburg site, in which with the buildings of the Landesamt für das Mess- und Eichwesen (State Office for Weights and Measures) also the northern third of a block of the extended site was incorporated into the campus of PTB’s Berlin Institute. This resulted in new buildings and/or building reconstructions for infrastructural use — the computing center (Konrad Zuse Building), the scientific instrumentation department (Rudolf Fuess Building) and the Technikum (Technical Center).

Modern but with tradition

The building complex of PTB’s Berlin Institute is listed in the historic and art monuments of Charlottenburg and is protected as a whole architectural ensemble. The Hermann von Helmholtz Building as well as the Observatory, as the oldest laboratory building of the PTR/PTB, have been individually designated as historical monuments. The Berlin Institute is firmly entrenched in the tradition of the PTR through its historic buildings, however its buildings house laboratory rooms equipped with the most modern technology.

At present, the Berlin Institute campus is still entered via the gate located in the Technikum (Technical Center). The further development of the Charlottenburg campus aims at a harmonization of the buildings and structures, resulting in a self-contained, modern campus with visible historical roots. For this purpose, a development scheme was drawn up which forms the basis for further expansion in the coming decades and which complies not only with the requirements of urban development and monument protection, but also with the specific demands of the users.

The urban development scheme for the Charlottenburg campus opens up the site from the Marchstraße side. Abbestraße will no longer divide the campus into two parts. Instead, two development axes, which are parallel to Guerickestraße and Fraunhoferstraße, will connect the original site with the extensions.

The new streetside look of the Berlin Institute is currently emerging in the form of two gatehouses being built at the north and south entrances (Torhaus Nord and Torhaus Süd). Upon completion of their construction, access to the Berlin Institute’s campus will be via the Northern Gatehouse. From then on, the historical address under which the PTR used to be known in previous times, Marchstraße 25, will also become the address of the Berlin Institute.

The Technikum (Technical Center) and the Walther Meissner Building have already been completed. The gatehouses are still under construction. The Emil Warburg Building will be replaced by a smaller-scale successor. Additions will be made to the north and south sides of the Wilhelm Foerster Building, resulting in it mirroring the Werner von Siemens Building. At the same time, the Hermann von Helmholtz Building will be restored as an architectural monument by removing the connecting wing that was later added to the Wilhelm Foerster Building.

Urban development scheme of the Charlottenburg campus. Source: Kleyer-Koblitz-Architekten