The towers at the Frankfurter Tor in Berlin were built as part of a monumental socialist boulevard, the Stalinallee (renamed to Karl-Marx-Allee after Stalin's death). The Stalinallee was a flagship project of East Germany's reconstruction programme after the second World War. The towers which mark the end of the boulevard were designed by Hans Henselmann, the head architect for the city of Berlin at the time.

Designed at the height of Socialist Realism, the two towers with their domes are in fact a citation of two other landmark buildings in Berlin, the "Franzosische Dom" and the "Deutsche Dom", which were built in 17th century Prussia. They stand in another quarter of Berlin on the "Gendarmenmarkt".

Although the architecture was heavily critisized and Henselmann later distanced himself from the buildings , they found appraisal by the postmodernist movement. Today the whole ensemble with the two towers are listed as historic monuments.