Solivagant:
Germany in its nomination file (naturally?) tries to downplay the value of the English Garden City representatives
"However in the end these estates"(viz Letchworth, Hampstead and Welwyn)... "were not real garden cities according to Howard's definition since they got caught up in the maelstorm of big city life in London and rather got turned into satellite or dormitory suburbs"
Solivagant:
closest to the English Garden City movement and the differences/similarities are something I would quite like to see and feel
There is no Utopian ideas attached to the Berlin modernist housing estates. These are districts needed due to battle the urgent housing crisis after WW1: Berlin Mietskasernen were gruesome and terribly overcrowded. They were also pretty modern for their time with many fancy things, e.g., private toilets in an apartment. They are also the result of WW1 ending the German Empire with all its conservative restrictions. I think these are distinct from Garden cities and the closer association is with Bauhaus. But the focus on poor people/social houing is very distinct from the fancy Bauhaus villas.
meltwaterfalls:
Tautes Heim (Bruno Taut's house)
Stayed there and yes, it's pricey. It's also not centrally located. On the other hand no other way to actually get the basic idea of a housing estate than housing in them.
meltwaterfalls:
Yep same for me, I thought that they were onto a winner with them as they were widely influential and from what I can tell are fairly coherent. I thought there was even scope to tie in the Arts and Crafts movement and some of it's major artworks etc.
Yes. Weird omission by the UK, seeing how influential these places are. By the way, there are German garden cities (Hellerau), the housing estates are just not one of them.
https://www.erih.net/i-want-to-go-there/site/hellerau-garden-cityhubert:
If your time is limited I would suggest to visit Weiße Stadt and Siemensstadt, and maybe to have a short stop at the nearby Schillerpark estate.
Note: The area around Weiße Stadt and Schillerpark also holds the Friedrich Ebert Siedlung (another less well preserved housing estate) and some brick expressionism and Nazi Heimatschutzarchitektur. So, if you want to stay at a single location, this is probably it.
For the tick Carl Legien is the easiest, being centrally located. I also enjoyed the colours.
Siemensstadt is a huge factory town on the Western outskirts. Britz is on the Southern outskirts. And Falkenberg even further. In the near future, they also plan to add Zehlendorf.
Most memorable structures... Hufeisen in Britz. The buildings in Siemensstadt.
Personally, I am still missing Falkenberg and Zehlendorf and then I will write the all conclusive review.