Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf Designated UNESCO World Heritage Site
UNESCO: Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf (BERLIN) added to the World Heritage List
Waldsiedlung as an outstanding example of the "New Building" movement – light, air, and sun: Pioneering housing estate joins the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (DEUTSCH, ENGLISH)
UNESCO World Heritage – July 26, 2026. The Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf has just been added to the World Heritage List as part of the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee made this decision at its current session in Busan, South Korea. This brings the total number of estates included in the World Heritage site in Berlin to seven. The expansion recognizes the Waldsiedlung as an outstanding example of the "New Building" movement. The Berlin Modernism Housing Estates have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008 and exemplify a shift in early 20th-century housing design that prioritized human health and well-being under the guiding principle of "light, air, and sun."
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| Cycling through the estate grounds on a PAKKA bike (please observe cycle paths) – Photo: Summer image – Photo archive: Helga Waess (Art & Culture Blog) |
German UNESCO Ambassador Kerstin Pürschel welcomes the inclusion:
“With its unique blend of architecture, woodland landscape, and urban infrastructure, the Zehlendorf Forest Estate adds a distinctive new facet to the existing World Heritage site. This recognition by the World Heritage Committee in Busan underscores the international significance of Berlin Modernism and explicitly acknowledges the contribution of the Zehlendorf Forest Estate.”
Maria Böhmer, President of the German Commission for UNESCO, emphasizes:
“The Berlin Modernism housing estates are far more than outstanding architecture. To this day, they demonstrate the essentials of good, affordable, and healthy living. The addition of the Zehlendorf Forest Estate highlights just how visionary these housing concepts were a century ago—and how relevant they remain today.”
Built between 1926 and 1932, the Zehlendorf Forest Estate
... is considered one of the most important works by architect Bruno Taut, who designed it in collaboration with Hugo Häring and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg. Its defining features include colorful facades, a close connection between living space and nature, and spacious green areas situated between the terraced houses and apartment buildings. Every apartment includes a balcony, loggia, or garden—reflecting Taut’s concept of “outdoor living space.” The estate impressively illustrates the *Neues Bauen* (New Building) movement’s commitment to placing health, community, and quality of life at the heart of architecture.
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
... now comprise the Falkenberg Garden City, the Schillerpark Estate, the Horseshoe Estate (Hufeisensiedlung), the Carl Legien Residential Estate, the White City (Weiße Stadt), the Siemensstadt Large-Scale Estate, and the Zehlendorf Forest Estate (Waldsiedlung). The complex in the southwest of the capital is the largest of the seven World Heritage estates. They were built between 1913 and 1934 as an innovative response to the housing shortage, social challenges, and inadequate sanitary conditions in the rapidly growing city of that era. By combining architecture, urban planning, and open-space design, they set global standards for 20th-century social housing.
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| Sommerbild - Fotoarchiv: Helga Waess (Kunst-Kultur-Blog) |
Background
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is meeting from July 19 to 29 in Busan, South Korea. It consists of 21 elected States Parties to the World Heritage Convention. It decides on the inscription of new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List and addresses the state of conservation of sites already inscribed. The UNESCO World Heritage List currently includes more than 1,250 cultural and natural sites. Approximately 60 of these are considered endangered. Germany currently has 55 World Heritage sites.
Information and statements:
UNESCO press release dated July 26, 2026
