In the wake of Stalin's failed blockade of West Berlin, the Soviet-backed East German government set about building a socialist utopia amid the ruins of the city. In the early 1950s, West Berliners looked on aghast as new socialist-style apartment blocks (dubbed worker palaces) and retail buildings appropriated Prussian aesthetics along the grand boulevard of communist invention, Stalin Allee.

Meanwhile in the midst of bombed-out West Berlin, modernist masters like Le Corbusier, Egon Eiermann, Walter Gropius, Arne Jacobsen and Oscar Niemeyer were invited to pitch designs for "the city of tomorrow." The resulting Hansaviertel, or Hansa quarter, was shown off at the International Building Exhibition, the Interbau 1957, as reaction to the classical pomp of East Berlin's Stalin Allee.

Kino International — and the iconic Cafe Moskau next door — was not completed until the early 1960s. The buildings were part of the GDR's response to the Interbau exhibition held in West Berlin and the Hansaviertel in 1957. Today, Kino International is an iconic example of postwar modernism and is among the cinemas hosting the Berlin International Film Festival.

Located a few kilometers away from Hansaviertel in the Tiergarten park, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of the Cultures of the World), or the "pregnant oyster," was built to showcase and debate international contemporary art. Designed in 1957 by architect Hugh Stubbins as a part of the Interbau exhibition, this gift from the US could importantly be seen from the other side of the Wall.

Another counterpoint to the pseudo Prussian classicism of Stalin Allee, iconic Swiss-French architect and designer Le Corbusier created this color-coded residential block as a "machine for living in." The light, airy living spaces and surrounding green space created the ultimate urban living experience, while it was built near the Olympic Stadium as an outpost of the Interbau due to its size.

By the early 1970s, the reconstruction of Karl Marx Allee would finally end at the vast Berlin Alexanderplatz. Embodying the shift back to Soviet-style international modernism, huge prefabricated residential skyscrapers dubbed "Plattenbau" rose up in every direction, while the Fernsehturm, or TV Tower, still dominates the scene.

The Berlin government also wants to add an existing social housing estate deep in the west to existing UNESCO-listed social housing estates in the city. Bruno Taut, utopian socialist and Bauhaus architect, was given an undeveloped area at the edge of Berlin to create a non-profit housing complex modeled on the garden city movement, and which would be an upgrade to his famed "Horseshoe" estate.

Bruno Taut conceived the airy, sun-filled "Horseshoe" housing estate (Hufeisensiedlung) in Berlin in the mid-1920s at the height of the Weimar Republic's social housing boom. He used modernist design to conflate the barrier between the chaotic, industrial city and a rural arcadia. It was designated UNESCO World Heritage in 2008; now Berlin aims to add more such utopian buildings to the list.

"Ready to work and to defend peace," says the sign hanging from wooden scaffolding along Berlin's Stalinallee in 1953. The construction of socialist Germany was also reflected in its buildings. Politics and architecture were inseparable in the GDR. Stalinallee (Stalin Boulevard) was a showcase project.

In the 1950s, under utmost secrecy, the GDR built a development complex for aircraft engines in Pirna near Dresden. A canteen building was added for the employees, crafted in post-war modernist style and equipped with a bright, sweeping staircase. Today, the building houses exclusive loft apartments.

Due to its proximity to West Berlin, planners in the young GDR wanted to reorganize rail links from Potsdam to the GDR. The solution was a railway ring around Berlin. Potsdam was given a tiered train station that included a functional reception hall and opened in 1958. It became Potsdam's main station before the Wall was built in 1961, but lost that function after political changes in the GDR.

The Lichtspieltheater der Jugend (youth movie theater) in Frankfurt an der Oder grew out of a UFA cinema in the mid-1950s and was expanded into a cultural center. Facade murals depict a "Trümmerfrau" (woman who helped reconstruct after the war) and a steelworker. The building was in operation until 1998. Since the construction of a modern multiplex cinema, it has clearly deteriorated.

The GDR built its new capital in the East of divided Berlin. By 1957, GDR architecture had returned to international modernism. Huge skyscrapers, often erected as prefabricated buildings, shot into the sky in the center. The television tower at Alexanderplatz, visible from afar, also announced the much-touted "victory of socialism."

The Haus der Elektronikindustrie (House of the Electronics Industry Building) and the Haus des Reisens (House of Travel) displayed the traditional forms of modernism in the East and were part of the larger GDR cityscape near Alexanderplatz in the eastern part of Berlin. Both buildings still stand today.

Up until German reunification, the House of Travel was the main headquarters of the GDR state travel organization and home to the Interflug train and flight offices. The building still captivates with beautiful details, such as the copper relief "Man Overcomes Time and Space" by Walter Womacka and the wave-like shapes above the pedestal. Today, it is protected as an historical monument.

The round cinema in Dresden, designed by the architects Manfred Fasold and Winfried Sziegoleit, was intended to add variety to Prager Strasse. Along the boulevard, destroyed during the war, angular block buildings dominated the scene after reconstruction. Housing two cinemas, the cylindrical building is considered one of the city's most important post-war modernist buildings.

The elegant, playful, shell-like shape of this music pavilion on Sassnitz's beach on the Baltic island of Rügen lends it a maritime feel. Architect Ulrich Müther (1934-2007) from Binz designed an outstanding example of East German beach and spa architecture. It is now a protected as an historical monument.

North of Rostock's Lange Straße, construction of a new development began in 1983 with the "Urban Concrete Slab, 83 Series," in which the architects reverted to historical building forms. With a little imagination, one is reminded of northern German brick buildings that include gables and eaves. Hans Engels captured this image and others for his book "GDR Architecture."