Bierpinsel

Rising forty-seven meters above the commercial asphalt of Schloßstraße, the tower designed by architects Ralf Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte stands as a monument to West Berlin’s space-age optimism. Built between 1972 and 1976, the structure fuses concrete Brutalism with Pop Art imagination, shaped to mimic the outline of a stylized tree. Its polygonal superstructure rests upon a central reinforced concrete trunk, anchored directly into the steel frame of the Joachim Tiburtius highway bridge.

Passersby coined the name "Bierpinsel"—or beer brush—during construction, amused by the vertical steel girders sprouting like bristles and the promised tavern inside. Construction was fraught with financial trouble. The original contractor declared bankruptcy in 1974, forcing the city-owned housing company Bewoge to assume control and complete the build at a cost of 10.7 million Deutsche Mark.

When the tower opened on October 13, 1976, as the Turmrestaurant Steglitz, free beer flowed to celebrate the neighborhood’s new architectural anchor. Decades of operational shifts followed. The Wienerwald restaurant chain acquired the lease in 1980, but maintenance backlogs mounted. Following a severe pipe burst that flooded the interior during the winter of 2010, public access ended permanently.

Yet the structure retains a striking presence. In April 2010, international street artists painted over the faded orange-red Eternit panels with sweeping graffiti murals for the Turmkunst exhibition. Designated a protected historic monument in 2017, the Bierpinsel remains vacant today, caught between heritage restrictions, water damage, and stalled refurbishment plans. It stands silent over the roaring highway, a relic of West Berlin pop architecture waiting for its next revival.