BERLIN PLANT. STUNDE NULL Ausstellung im n.b.k. (5.6.-2.8.) + Filme in BABYLON

FILM Program at BABYLON: June 11 – August 2, 2026

With talks by and lectures with Michael Baute, Volker Heise, Edgar Reitz, and Margarethe von Trotta

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Exhibition  Opening: Friday, 5. Jun, 7 pm, n.bk. Ground Floor

An exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of the urban development plan “Kollektivplan”.

With contributions and documents by Willy Karl (Wils) Ebert, Peter Friedrich, Ludmilla Herzenstein, Reinhold Lingner, Hans Scharoun, Luise Seitz, Selman Selmanagić, Herbert Weinberger, a. o.

Curator: Hansjörg Schneider

Co-Curators: Thomas Flierl, Simone Hain

Project Management: Susanne Mierzwiak

Image processing and digital reconstruction: Daniel Lordick

The exhibition project Berlin plant. Stunde Null at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) reconstructs and contextualizes the historic exhibition Berlin plant – Erster Bericht (Berlin Plans. First Report).

Originally held in 1946 in the temporarily restored White Hall of the Berlin Palace, it introduced a broad public to the Kollektivplan (collective plan) for Berlin’s postwar reconstruction. Marking its 80th anniversary, the project highlights the contemporary relevance of this radical urban design. The plan was the work of a planning collective, whose core members included City Architect Hans Scharoun, Wils Ebert, Peter Friedrich, Ludmilla Herzenstein, Reinhold Lingner, and Herbert Weinberger.

With a walk-through reconstruction at 1:4 scale, n.b.k. revisits this historic exhibition, which anticipated groundbreaking ecological building principles and pursued participatory approaches. The exhibition includes previously unpublished original plans and materials while also examining the complex historical reception of the Kollektivplan, ranging from rejection and suppression to its enduring influence. It also engages with the discourse surrounding the concept of Stunde Null (Zero Hour). This controversial term implies both the unconditional surrender and the total economic and moral collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945, as well as the hope for a new beginning, unburdened by the past.

Alongside the exhibition, n.b.k. presents a program of films about postwar Germany (Trümmerfilme, literally “rubble films”) in cooperation with Babylon. A one-day symposium at silent green Kulturquartier on June 20 complements the project.