Haus Huth at Alte Potsdamer Strasse 5 has a special place among the 19 buildings in the area: it is the only historical building. It was built for wine merchant Willy Huth by the architects Conrad Heidenreich and Paul Michel in 1912, and became a part of the ensemble of buildings at Potsdamer Platz in the legendary nineteen-twenties. Various prominent members of Berlin’s high society were guests at Restaurant Huth over the decades, including Adolf Menzel, Ernst Sauerbruch and Konrad Adenauer. The building was only slightly damaged during the Second World War due to its steel skeleton structure, a feature that was still rare at that time.
Haus Huth and the remaining part of Alte Potsdamer Strasse that was still intact with mature trees were carefully protected during the construction work at the area. The foundations and underground of Haus Huth were encased with a 25-meter-deep drilled pile wall, and thus separated from the immediately adjacent construction pit. The pile wall surrounded the old foundations like a corset and extended them below the bottom of the construction pit. The piles only became visible after the construction pit was pumped empty of water. A similar method was used in 1998to extend Haus Huth downwards by two basement floors for the underground pedestrian tunnels between the railway station and the Potsdamer Platz Arcades. The 5000-ton building rested for months on the specially installed piles.
Today, Haus Huth is the headquarters of Daimler AG's Corporate Representative Office in Berlin. The exhibition rooms on the fourth floor accommodate the DaimlerChrysler Art Collection. The collection is open daily between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. and entrance is free of charge.
Further information is available at www.sammlung.daimler.com
