ABSTRACT
New tenement construction during the 1980s (in West Berlin) and 1990s (in the reunified city) was a continuum, dominated by West Berlin welfare state institutions that retained their influence beyond reunification. The federal Land of Berlin, which through its city-owned non-profit housing associations had been the client of the International Building Exhibit (IBA) buildings in 1980s West Berlin, became the developer of the most prestigious projects of the post-reunification era: the Potsdamer Platz area and the Friedrichstadt neighbourhood. Both projects were designed in the spirit of "Critical Reconstruction" and took the plan and dimensions of the pre-war city as a model. Berlin features many aspects of the "condition of postmodernity". The political situation enhanced the city's demographic decline. The city also experienced substantial changes with regard to interventionist policies. East Berlin's economy, centrally planned between 1945 and 1990, was an extreme example of interventionism.
