Anatomisches Theater der Tierarzneischule

The Anatomisches Theater der Tierarzneischule stands on the grounds of the former Royal Veterinary School in Berlin. It is the oldest academic teaching building still standing in the city. Carl Gotthard Langhans designed it, and the work ran from 1789 to 1790. King Friedrich Wilhelm II had called the school into being because he saw the need for skilled veterinary professionals.

Langhans took his cue from Palladio's Rotonda and crowned the building with a Bohlenbinder dome. The technique was groundbreaking: it gave structural stability while daylight flooded a bright, open interior, and David Gilly published the design. Teaching centred on the dissection table, and a special mechanism carried animal cadavers to it. The institution became the Veterinary College in 1887 and later joined Humboldt University.

Renovations from 2005 to 2012 brought the building back into service, and the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum for Cultural Techniques runs it. The hall serves as a laboratory for experimental exhibition practice. Projects there explore new ways of presenting knowledge and draw science and art together. Langhans' dome, built to light the anatomy lessons below, gives its daylight to the exhibitions instead.