Survivorship bias is less of a factor than commonly assumed. If you check, for example, this map showing the age of buildings in Berlin (https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/so-alt-wohnt-berlin/), you will note that it is neighborhoods rather than individual buildings that survived (or didn't). Large parts of Berlin were built in the early 1900s, and the differences between individual buildings is rather small. Survival depended on the war and, to a lesser degree, the east/west split, with policy in the east being more inclined to tear down intact city blocks and replace them with architecture better representing the ideology of the times.
distances|3 years ago
I thought this was the other way around in the divided Germany? Many beautiful buildings were torn down in the West to be replaced with modern ones (like in so many other European countries), while East was poorer and couldn't afford the same so ending up with keeping the historical buildings. I've learned that this is the reason for places like Regensburg having an intact historical centre.