The home built for factory owner Fritz Schminke is a prime example of Neues Bauen. The movement, which can also be assigned to the Bauhaus, relies on simple shapes and sober interior decoration. The house in Löbau, Saxony, designed by architect Hans Scharoun, was finished in 1933. You can visit it, and spend the night for 250 euros - although at present it's undergoing renovation.

Schulenburg House in Gera, Thuringia, was also conceived as a residence. Henry van de Velde, a prominent exponent of early modernism, designed it. He was also responsible for the interior decoration, even down to the tableware. The Bauhaus centenary year will be commemorated with three special exhibitions here in 2019.

The architect Bruno Taut, also an exponent of Neues Bauen, designed entire housing estates. After World War I, poverty and housing shortages held sway in Germany. The horseshoe-shaped Hufeisensiedlung in Britz, a locality in Berlin, provided 2,000 units of public housing. The architecture is simple and functional, while lush greenery and varying colors on the facades keep it free from monotony.

This, too, is modernist architecture: in Bremen's old town, a wealthy coffee merchant bought an entire street and had six of the seven buildings on it renovated or rebuilt. Between 1922 and 1931 along 100 meters, a modern architectural ensemble that was a mixture of brick Gothic, expressionism and Art Déco came into being.

Production halls for industry: the former hat factory in Luckenwalde in what is now the state of Brandenburg was a pioneering modern architectural work. It was designed by the architect Erich Mendelsohn, a famous exponent of expressionist architecture. The shaft-shaped roof of the dyeing hall resembles a hat and contained an innovative ventilation system.

Erich Mendelsohn also designed this tower in the expressionist style. The observatory in Potsdam was built between 1920 and 1922. The Nobel laureate Albert Einstein wanted astronomers to test his theory of relativity experimentally here. The famous scientist found the tower "organic." A guided tour takes place on the first Saturday of every month.

The Grassi Museum in Leipzig is considered a modernist total artwork, in which the New Objectivity, Art Déco, the tradition of palatial architecture and the Bauhaus all combine. The overall impression is that of a palace. The building complex houses three Leipzig museums: the museums of applied arts, ethnology and musical instruments.

The Stadthalle, Magdeburg's civic hall, was built especially for the German Theatre Exhibition in1927. The city fathers wanted to present the city as a cultural and trade fair hub. The mayor wanted a "dignified, monumental building." This multi-purpose hall, elegant yet functional, with an innovative mechanical system that allowed its auditorium to be used in many diverse ways, was the result.

In1968 this round building was erected on the seaside promenade in Warnemünde. Architect Ulrich Müther designed more than 70 of these concrete shell structures, which became an East German export hit. The Teapot's roof consists of three hyperbolic paraboloid shells - doubly curved surfaces that give the building great structural stability. Nowadays it houses restaurants and souvenir shops.

The Leipzig Exhibition Center harks back to the 19th century tradition of glass architecture. The new exhibition center, designed by the architectural firm Gerkan, Marg & Partner, was completed in 1996. The entrance hall is the largest fully glazed hall in Europe and is meant to symbolize a bridge to German reunification.