Dispute over Berlin's main railway station

"Germany has bungled badly. It has turned itself into the laughing stock of the architectural community," comments Gerhard Matzig on the courtroom defeat of Deutsche Bahn AG versus the architect of the new main railway station in Berlin, Meinhard von Gerkan. During construction, Germany's main railway company replaced the architects' planned vaulted ceiling with a flat one. Now they have to rebuild the station again. "It is a scandal that the railway representative needs a court to remind him of the owner's responsibility in matters of building culture. The grotesque buffoonery over the Berlin station is not caused by a self-righteous architect. It's due to the owner's ignorance and refusal to take advice... Gerkan has won a victory not only for himself, but for the culture of architecture."

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