I still have some memories of the old Narva tower near Warschauer Straße, but I never really explored that area as a child. It was interesting to walk around and see how much the area has changed.

The VEB Narva Kombinat Berlin bulb factory was the central manufacturer of light sources—especially light bulbs—in the GDR. In 1992, production stopped, and HypoVereinsbank converted the buildings into office spaces. During the renovation of Building IV in 1998, four ‘tuff’¹ fountains, designed by Prof. Gustav Lange² and sent over from Slovenia,³ were placed in the inner courtyards. The idea was to connect elements of nature with the urban environment.

The former Narva-Turm, is a striking glass tower located on Warschauer Straße in Berlin-Friedrichshain. The colorful, illuminated glass cube was designed by the architects Schweger und Partner and completed in 2000. The cube itself is 21 meters high, while the entire Narva-Turm rises 63 meters above the city. Originally, this site was home to the Narva factory, which produced light bulbs for the DDR and much of the former Eastern Bloc. The factory closed in 1992, resulting in the loss of 5,000 jobs -a significant moment in Berlin’s post-reunification economic history.