Built in 1789/90, the “Tieranatomisches Theater” (Lecture theatre of veterinary anatomy) is today the oldest surviving academic teaching building in Berlin. But this is not the only reason why the building, also known as the “Old Anatomy”, has extraordinary monumental value. Its early classicist design had a decisive influence on Prussian architecture at the turn of the 19th century. However, the construction of the wooden dome above the central anatomy hall proved to be just as groundbreaking.

This ribbed dome was the first time in Berlin that a large roof structure was erected as a “plank roof”. The architect Carl Gotthard Langhans thus introduced a construction method that was to be used many times in the following decades in Berlin and Prussia for very different building projects. It forms the beginning of a line of development that extends from the Zollinger lamella roofs of the early 20th century to today’s network shells made of wood and steel.