Altbau Age Reader: When Was Your Berlin Building Built?
Pick what your Berlin building's facade, stairwell, courtyard and flat show, and a timeline keeps only the years all your clues agree on, with the Mietspiegel age band that applies and where to confirm the year.
Read the facade, the stairs, the courtyard and your flat, then check the year in the records.
Start on the pavement, then walk into the courtyard.
What the tool shows
A Berlin listing that says Altbau can mean a front house from the 1880s or a plain block from the 1930s. This reader walks you through your own building in four stops, the facade, the entrance and stairs, the courtyard and your flat, and keeps only the years all your clues agree on. It also shows which build-year band of the Berlin rent index that falls into.
How to use it
Stop 1: stand across the street and pick what the facade shows, from heavy stucco to a smooth front on a tall old block.
Stops 2 and 3: open the front door, then walk through to the courtyard. The courtyard is the clue that is hardest to fake.
Stop 4: back in your flat, pick what it has, a Berliner Zimmer, tall ceilings or low ones, and read the verdict and the next move.
Where the facts come from
The year spans follow the Berlin building codes of 1853, 1887 and 1925, the end of tenement building in 1914 and the post-war stripping of stucco facades, checked on 14 November 2026. The age bands are those of the Berliner Mietspiegel 2026, in force since 28 May 2026, which counts flats up to 1918 and from 1919 to 1949 as Altbau. Single buildings break the pattern, so confirm the year in the Denkmaldatenbank, the city building-age map or the building file.