Opened in 1964, Cafe Moskau soon became one of the most prominent and popular restaurants in East Berlin. The two storey steel construction building was designed by Josef Kaiser and Horst Bauer in accordance to a design concept that strived for openness and transparency, lack of ornamentation and clear interconnection of the outside and the interior. Located among infamous house-towers made of prefabricated blocks, the cafe also demonstrates a tendency of that time to strictly divide components of citizens' everyday life- housing (so-called 'sleeping quarters'), labour and leisure.
The building is a two-storey atrium open to the south to form an enclosed architectural garden.
The continuous ribbon of windows is only interrupted by an open, "floating" lattice structure made of reinforced concrete above the corner at the main entrance. The lightness of the upper floor is enhanced by the surrounding neon sign with the name based on a design by the graphic artist Klaus Wittkugel.
There a small forecourt is cut into the building's cubature, which is determined by a wall mosaic "From the Lives of the Peoples of the Soviet Union", designed by Bert Heller in 1960.