Café Moskau (actually: Restaurant Moskau, proper spelling: Cafe Moskau without accent aigu) is a listed building at Karl-Marx-Allee 34 on the corner of Schillingstraße in Berlin's Mitte district opposite the Kino International cinema.
In GDR times, it housed a nationality restaurant with selected dishes from some of the peoples of the Soviet Union and was a popular meeting place. The building was listed as a historical monument after 1990.
The building is a two-storey atrium building in steel construction. The lightness of the building, which was achieved through an open atrium design, is striking. The entrance area facing Karl-Marx-Allee is adorned with the 9 m × 15 m mosaic From the Life of the Peoples of the Soviet Union by the painter Bert Heller.
For the opening, a full-size model of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was installed on the roof. It was a gift from the ambassador of the USSR. The name of Restaurant Moskau (in German and Cyrillic letters) on the roof was designed by graphic artist Klaus Wittkugel.
Large concrete grids, which rest on steel profiles, form both space-defining and decorative elements on the façade. They appear light and airy. They are said to symbolise foreign folklore embroidery (Wyschywanka).
"For me, photography feels like really capturing the moment - like a kind of alchemy where time is physically captured."
Silva Wischeropp was born in the Hanseatic city of Wismar in the former GDR. Today she lives and works in Berlin. As a passionate travel..
Read more…