Großgarage Süd (South Carpark) – a Stop on the Grand Tour of Modernism

South Carpark, near the Luther Estate, is one of the oldest surviving multi-storey carparks in Germany. It was built in 1929 by architect and building contractor Walter Tutenberg in the ‘New Building’ style. 150 cars could be parked here on four storeys, in separate boxes with steel shutters. The upper decks were accessed in a lift or on a moving platform—a so-called ‘running cat’. The impressive courtyard receives daylight through its glass roof and through the glass front on the Pfännerhöhe side. Externally, the carpark blends in with the three-storey residential buildings of the neighbourhood. The building was far ahead of the architecture of its time. Since then it has been carefully restored, though the lift was replaced by a spiral ramp, so that only 88 of the original 150 boxes are now accessible.