Last month, July 2008, the ADGB Trade Union School in Berlin, salvaged and updated by Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten, was awarded the very first World Monument Fund “Modernism at Risk” award. Knoll, the design firm that is synonymous with Modern design and its greatest names, is a co-sponsor of the prize. It’s a great choice, a great building and a very deserving recipient.

The ADGB has a long history, part of it storied and part of it just sad. It’s a classic Bauhaus building, as you can see by the pictures here. The box design, the flowing lines, the great color and the seamless blending of spaces; all of it speaks of the legendary designers. And the building originally sprang from the minds of Hannes Meyer—who, from 1928 to 1930, served a controversial stint as the director of Bauhaus—and his colleague Hans Wittwer.

It only lasted a few years as a school for ADGB before it was commandeered by the Nazis and used to train the SS. After the war, the East German Trade Union took it over as a place to train its members. Along the way, the original building, and its intention, were literally buried, and for all intents and purposes lost to history. Lost, that is, until Brenne Gesellschaft came along and won the open bid to restore the building, which cost the equivalent of $28 million. The firm had worked on buildings by Gropius, van der Rohe and Mendelsohn, among many, and was a perfect choice to bring the building back to its original glory.