Shortly after the official surrender of the
Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945, the Soviet military administration, headed by
Nikolai Berzarin, looked for capable anti-fascists to form a new public administration. On 19 May Berzarin appointed a new 19-member Magistrat under
Arthur Werner as acting
Governing Mayor. However, both the Rotes Rathaus and the Stadthaus were so damaged that the Fire Society Building adjacent to the Administration Building became the new seat of the Magistrat, and became known as "Neues Stadthaus". Since then, the former "new" building has been known as Altes Stadthaus, to distinguish it from that building. The Department of Construction was developing schemes for the building as early as 1948. The most urgent need was for a new roof. Two alternatives emerged: an accurate reconstruction of the mansard roof, or a flat
pitched roof. Timber was in short supply, so a pitched roof requiring of timber was chosen, instead of a mansard roof requiring . Issues of landmark preservation played featured little in the decision and starting from 1948 the roof was partially replaced with a pitched roof. By 1950, 45% of the necessary repairs had been made to Altes Stadthaus by a few simple expedients such as emergency roofing. In the immediate post-war years, neither manpower, supplies, nor financing was available to undertake repairs on a larger scale. The reconstruction took place between 1950 and 1955 in five phases; the first focused on building up the courtyard wing on the Stralauer Straße side while the second phase, completed in early 1952, focused on the Stralauer Straße/Judenstraße wing and included construction of additional offices on the fourth floor and a 300-person dining hall with kitchen. However, for a number of reasons most significant of which was that the building was not the seat of government, the remaining three phases were not carried out. In addition, the reconstruction of
Wilhelmine architecture was not a high priority, where as housing was and so funding for the restoration work was not included in the economic plan. In effect, the building had become the "third city hall"; it housed some government departments, such as planning and housing. Although the office space was fully occupied, the "Bear Hall" and the tower rooms remained unused except for some exhibits of plans by the City Construction Supervisor,
Hans Scharoun, and so were left unheated leading to damp and mould damage. The tower was eventually used by the
Stasi. In 1955, after five years of reconstruction, the Rotes Rathaus was fully operational and departments were able to move back into it from both administration buildings and from other more remote locations. Early in the same year, it was announced that Altes Stadthaus was to be transferred from the Magistrat (now of
East Berlin, West Berlin having established the separate Berlin Senate) to the
Council of Ministers of the GDR, which had been established in 1949, to house the significantly increased workforce. Altes Stadthaus was planned to be only an interim solution to this problem.
Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl moved his offices into the building later that year, after renovation work to create appropriate accommodations that included furnishings for various official rooms, the planned expansion onto the fourth floor, upgrading of the stairways, ventilation equipment, and electrical work had been completed. Red carpets were laid in hallways and stair landings, and eventually paper shredders were placed in all offices. Between 1958–61, the building was extensively altered. The inner courtyard was covered and the "Bear Hall" was converted into the chamber of the Council of Ministers. The hall capacity was reduced from 1,500 to 300 people, the windows and arcades on the long sides were closed off, wood wall moldings and a
suspended ceiling installed to create a modern room within the space. The candelabra, bronze door grilles, and marble flooring were removed. In 1959, the bear statue was also removed and installed in the newly opened
East Berlin zoo in
Friedrichsfelde. A security zone was created at the front of the building. The public entrance to what was now the "Building of the Council of Ministers" was now on Klosterstraße. The main entrance facing Jüdenstraße, over which the
GDR national emblem, the hammer and compass, was installed in place of the arms of the City of Berlin, was only opened on special occasions. The alterations demonstrated the negative opinion in the GDR of Wilhelmine architecture, and cost 2 million
marks. The statue of the goddess Fortuna on the dome was removed in the first phase of reconstruction in 1951 and replaced by a antenna for broadcast transmissions. After the
Television Tower came into service in 1969, this was in turn replaced by a flagpole flying the national flag. The statue was stored inside the dome until the 1960s but is last mentioned in the records in 1962 and is assumed to have been melted down. The remaining statues, urns, and other carvings on the exterior of the building remained in place until 1976/77, when they were also removed and placed in storage in Friedrichsfelde and other locations, as they had been seriously damaged by rain and frost. In 1974–75, the reception and meeting rooms were further upgraded with extensive use of imported goods from the West. However, over time, Altes Stadthaus became less important to the GDR government. Important events, celebrations and ceremonies took place in the Rotes Rathaus, the
Palace of the Republic or the
State Council Building. The historical high point in the use of the building under the GDR came in its final phase, when the only freely elected government of East Germany, under
Lothar de Maizière relocated there. The provisions of the agreement on
German reunification were therefore negotiated there. == Complete refurbishment in the 1990s ==