Aerial view of the imposing facade of the Prussian mansion of the Bundesrat in Berlin, with classical columns and the inscription “BUNDESRAT” at the top.

Federal Council Prussian Mansion

Berlin, Germany

The Bundesrat building in Leipziger Straße in Berlin can look back on a history of more than a hundred years: it was completed in 1904 under the direction of architect Friedrich Schulze-Kolbitz for use by the Prussian Mansion.

From a war ruin to a place of parliament

The three-winged complex was partially destroyed during the Second World War. In the post-war period until reunification, the building was used by various GDR institutions. in 1997, under the direction of the architectural firm Schweger & Partner, renovation work began for the Federal Council, which has been meeting here since September 2000.
Today, the building presents itself as a modern parliamentary seat and architectural landmark.

The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning in Berlin was the client for these complex conversion measures. B4Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH from Berlin was responsible for the general planning. One structural challenge was to run supply and disposal pipes through existing walls with wall thicknesses of 300 to 1650 mm and pipe diameters of 50 to 400 mm. The masonry was provided with a PMBC surface seal. The pipes were to be routed both in the existing area and at close intervals, with the pipe position close to the base of the structure. The project planner required careful separation between the structural waterproofing and the pipe waterproofing. Usually, in such renovation cases, the surface waterproofing is connected by a fixed/loose flange construction or the pipe waterproofing is ensured by a sleeve pipe protruding from the wall. However, as the planner wanted the pipes to be routed completely through the wall structure in a sleeve pipe, a special sleeve pipe construction was required. This was made from Curaflex^® 7006 (material 1.4301) and sanded. In addition, top and bottom lengths for the casing pipe were taken into account (outside: 100 mm protrusion, inside: wall thickness + 20 mm protrusion) as well as pipe diameters from DN 100 to DN 500. Various media feed-throughs and sealing inserts were also installed in accordance with the requirements of the pipes. For this purpose, DOYMA supplied various Curaflex^®and Curaflex Nova^® sealing systems via HTI Bär & Ollenroth from Berlin, which were installed by the executing company Otto Wöltinger GmbH & Co KG from Berlin.