Animal Magic!

I stumbled upon this amazing mural in the Gesamtkunstwerk that is Tierpark Zoo in Friedrichsfelde. The zoo has featured rather heavily in this blog, due to the abundance of fabulous East German design within its walls.

This mural decorates the wall of a small pavilion/shelter & easily overlooked if you’re not looking out for it. I’ve been unable to dig out any provenance info, but am going to check out a book about art in the Tierpark by its one time director Heinrich Dathe, which may provide some insight into its origins.
These pics, taken on a dingy day, without a flash and in a hurry, don’t really do the mural justice, so it’s worth going to check it out ‘in the flesh’. It’s especially worth visiting Tierpark now, as its magnificent wildcat house Alfred Brehm Haus (built 1956-1963) is set to undergo ‘environmentally-friendly’ renovation, which despite the fact that the Haus is protected, will invariably mean the loss of some of its original features.

Zoo chic!

Check out the tiles (late 50s, early 60s) in the Tierpark’s Alfred Brehm Haus! Don’t they make you wish you were a bird or a wildcat?  Being enclosed in a tiny space and stared at by humans all day is but a small price to pay for living in such visually pleasing surroundings, no?

Hear me roar!

Mosaic on the side of the fabulous Alfred Brehm Haus, an early 60s architectural marvel located in the Tierpark, East Berlin’s (better) answer to the Zoologischer Garten. Sadly, an old GDR building sitting untouched in the middle of a tourist attraction was too much for the city council to bear, and the Haus is set for renovation soon. Which will no doubt turn it from the architectural equivalent of a fine vintage into a horrid, cheap bottle of Liebfraumilch that no-one wants to drink. Except by people who don’t know any better. Prost!

Living on the ceiling

This is the ceiling in the Alfred Brehm Haus wildcat enclosure in the Tierpark. Groovy! I wonder if the lions and tigers appreciate it?