Berlin, Germany

WaPo Berlin is a German TV show broadcast by Das Erste.

IMDB describes the show as being about

«Jasmin Sayed, a commissioner who has lived in Germany for almost 30 years, is launching a new elite unit dedicated to the protection of Berlin’s waters.»

so given the location of this Futuro on a river barge it seems only fitting that it makes and appearance in the show and it does just that in S03E08, an episode titled «Gegen den Wind-Blues» or, per Google Translate «Against the Wind Blues».

Ther

For the most part when we see photos of Futuros that is all we see, «photos of Futuros» (which of course we do love to see), but every now and again we come across a photo that is not only «a photo of a Futuro» but a really great or unusual or interesting photo in its own right. Here we have a photo of the Berlin Futuro from owner Cora that fits the bill of being «more». The photo has an almost surreal and mysterious feel to it; just a great photo!

This video footage posted to Instagram by owner Cora 012122 gives us a great look at the interior of this Futuro; Cora thanks for sharing !

This Futuro has been «on the road» (or more accurately «on the water») for quite some time but recent Facebook posts by owner Cora tell us that the last leg of the journey is underway; we can’t wait to see the unit at its final destination.

The first post was accompanied by a couple of photos. Though our primary interest is of course the Futuro the rather odd small structure in the foreground of the first is interesting, it looks rather like a scale model of some kind of structure to us. The se

The two photos below are from owner Cora’s @futuro13berlin Instagram feed; the first illustrates an interesting and unusual way to relax in a Futuro kitchen and the second shows us just how «shiny» this Futuro is! As always our thanks to Cora for continuing to share photos of her Futuro.

Owner Cora regularly posts content related to her Futuro to her Instagram account @futuro13berlin and we particularly enjoyed these two recent posts. The first is a great night time shot of the Futuro and the second a rather engaging drawing.

Based on these photos recently posted to Instagram by owner Cora (@futuro13berlin) and a comment attached to the first of them («preparing another journey») it looks like this Futuro is embarking on the next stage of its journey; looking forward to seeing where she will eventually land. Thanks for sharing the photos Cora and good luck with this next part of the journey!

We were sad to see this photo posted to Instagram by owner Cora; the photo shows one of the windows of her Futuro after a vandalism incident.

Of course in the great scheme of things this is by no means a major disaster, a quick look at the news any day will reveal many far far greater problems in our world today but that does not mean things like this are OK, acceptable or even understandable. We struggle to imagine what possible pleasure anyone can derive from actions such as these and obvious

We came across these two photos recently; the first is a very cool drone shot by Klas Roggenkamp (the original can be found on Instagram here) and the second is a beautiful black and white shot by Renate (the original can be found on Flickr here).

This awesome February 2021 photo featuring the Berlin Futuro in a «winter wonderland» setting on the completely frozen Spree river comes to us from owner Cora Geißler; the original photo can be found on Instagram here.

On 071220 owner Cora posted this video to her Facebook page; the video shows the Futuro on the next stage of its journey.

It seems that this Futuro is on the move though its final destination is not yet 100% certain. In an article titled «Auf dem Weg in den Plänterwald: Ufo landet wieder im Spreepark» or, according to Google Translate «On the way to the Plänterwald: Ufo lands again in the Spreepark» the website Berliner Kurier reports that the Futuro is currently loaded onto a barge awaiting its move to a new location; the barge is moored on the Spree at the Insel der Jugend (or Island of Youth).

The hope is that

This rather nice «moody» pair of photos of this Futuro were sent to us recently by captain.lost.

Futuros have featured as the setting for several music videoes over the years. The latest is this video for the track «When I Die» from American band Beirut’s 2019 album Gallipoli.

We recently added a copy of the book Rummel im Plänterwald to our collection of «Things Futuro». The book documents the history of Spreepark from its beginnings in 1969 as «Kulturpark Plänterwald» through the change to Spreepark and eventual closure to the modern day.

The book includes four pages about the Futuro and, while we cannot read the German text, the inclusion of park maps for many different years does add one interesting piece of information relating to this Futuro’s history.

Through

We came across this photo a few days ago; it was presumably taken using some kind of filter (though we suppose it could also have been edited «after the fact») and the resulting photo has a very surreal look. The photo is by Fix-Fokus and the original can be found on Flickr here.

We recently added this postcard to our collection of «Things Futuro». The postcard, which features the Berlin Futuro, is undated and unused.

Our original information on this Futuro reads in part:

«After a brief stop at the Hanover Trade Fair of 1968 Futuro #13 was located at Spreepark in Berlin. Originally opened in 1969 and then known as «Kulturpark Plänterwald» the park was the first cultural park in the then German Democratic Republic or, as it was better known to most, East Germany. The intention for the Futuro was that it would serve as the park’s radio station — we cannot find anything that indicates whether it did or not.»

B

This photo, by gotam, appeared on Instagram 110616. The interesting thing about the photo for us was that though (with hindsight) we should have recognized it as this Futuro (in particular the height of the support legs, the entrance steps structure and the color and apparent condition should have given it away) for a little while we were thinking this was a «new» location. However gotam did subsequently confirm this as being a photo of the Berlin Futuro taken from the «back».

Yves Buysse has made many contributions to these pages. This time around Yves shared the photos below which were taken 051416 during a visit to Berlin along with a few links to other items. Thanks Yves!

As with other photos these illustrate the exceptional condition of this Futuro; owner Cora continues to do a superb job of maintaining her Futuro. These two videos shot at Spreepark both include brief glimpses of the Futuro during its time at the park. In the first video the Futuro appears at ar

The photo below was taken by Elke Hanisch on 092715 (Elke’s original post can be found here). The photo is particularly interesting in that it clearly shows a modified window that can be (and is) opened. We do not recall noticing this feature in previous photos (though our memory is not the most reliable so there are probably such photos that we simply do not recall).

ABC Australia’s Radio National program Sounds Like Radio is broadcast Sunday’s at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM. The 040614 edition of the program featured an extended segment on Spreepark.

While the program was largely about the park in general, the owner’s family and their troubles with drugs and the law and the demise of the park Cora Geißler, current owner of the Berlin Futuro, was interviewed for the program and there is a two minute section of audio featuring Cora staring at 8:36. Cora talks in gen

This week we added a copy of the 051203 issue (46/03) of German architecture publication Bauwelt to our collection. The magazine contains a four page article on the Futuro House and in particular the Berlin Futuro. The magazine is in German so we cannot read it (one more on the list of things to get translated at some point) but among other photos and diagrams it contains the two photographs below (by Torsten Seidel) which capture the awesome interior of this Futuro as it was at the time. Also t

Sarah Beddington is a British artist and filmmaker; her film «Futuro 13» is an «art film» which features Futuro 13. An excerpt from the file is embedded below; it can also be accessed on Vimeo here.

While we have to confess we are not particularly «arty» individuals we did enjoy this excerpt which, given the accompanying sound track, is strangely haunting; in particular we find the section showing a barge passing by on the Spree as seen from inside the Futuro interesting. Footage starting aroun

Achim Breiling who has made many a contribution to these pages recently visited Berlin and this Futuro (around 111313); a series of photographs he took during his visit are displayed below.

Achim tells us that the Futuro is situated on the grounds of the ex-GDR Funkhaus Berlin (German — Google translation to English here) and not at Siedlung Wilhelmstrand which is right next the Funkhaus. He goes on to recount how he did in fact first go to Siedlung Wilhelmstrand:

«which is a collection of lit

Achim Breiling recently sent us a link to one of the four photos below that show the Berlin Futuro during its time at Spreepark. That prompted us to look for more old photos. You would think that with the Futuro being at a family entertainment park there would be lots of photos on the web — «family day trips» usually generate a lot of photos — the photos here are among the surprisingly few we were able to find.

The photo top right is from bestuff.com — the page is annotated as «created by» nem

The Berlin Futuro has been used as a set in a German TV show. The TV show is «Terra Max», an educational show for children. A little information about the show can be found on the website nalepastrasse.de (German | English translation by Google Translate here). A couple of photos from the web page are shown below along with a pair of videos; all of these show the Futuro as seen in the TV show.

Google Translate is a great tool but even with that it is not always easy to accurately interpret webs

manuela.martin posted a really awesome set of four black and whites of the Berlin Futuro on Flickr. The images were taken 062412 (which becomes the confirmed date for this Futuro). These images are displayed here with Manuela’s permission. Thank you Manuela.

Futuro 013 has been relocated to a position around 1000 feet south of the location we had previously reported. At the time we originally added this page to the site the latest satellite imagery available in Google Earth was dated 050406. Imagery now available in Google Earth dated 123108 places the Futuro at the new location. The latest imagery in Google Earth places the Futuro still on site at the new location as of 082010. Based on the same Google Earth imagery we can place the move somewhere

After a brief stop at the Hanover Trade Fair of 1968 Futuro #13 was located at Spreepark in Berlin. Originally opened in 1969 and then known as «Kulturpark Plänterwald» the park was the first cultural park in the then German Democratic Republic or, as it was better known to most, East Germany. The intention for the Futuro was that it would serve as the park’s radio station — we cannot find anything that indicates whether it did or not. In 1989 the park was updated and a new operating contract wa