Well, I know "slab-built" does mean "built of slabs" if we're talking about pottery, versus "thrown" or "pinch". But architecture? Maybe it was built on a slab? Surely it does not reference morgues?

I think this is a question best answered by any urban design/planning thinkers who might happen to be reading you.
 

Slab built only means that it was built on a concrete slab for a foundation as opposed to having a basement. Which, as I remember, you have. (P.S. Lock the door.)

35% of the housing in Mitte was destroyed in WWII, with another 35% seriously damaged. Residents should consider themselves lucky that Berlin urban planners, despite the severe housing shortage, had the good sense to keep massing in scale with surrounding buildings and repeat some of their nicer exterior elements (eg- quasi-mansard roofs, fenestration patterns) even though the pebble-tech facades are not so purdy. Which probably won't change any time soon as the historical preservationist faction in Berlin is pretty vocal and getting permission to change even the ugliest facades takes permitting up the ying yang.
 

Oh, and to address the question, I would say no, despite the fact that it is built post-1960, and with a lot of prefabricated elements, the building typology more closely resembles Gropius' die Wohnung fur das Existenzminimum, which is really how it feels, especially after being cooped up in one all winter long. Lucky you though, spring has sprung and Existenz has taken to the streets...
 

Yeah, Existenzminimum is pretty much the idea. But now we're getting somewhere. Plattenbau = built on a slab?
 

Y'know, the 'Stalin Boxes' I saw in Beijing were much, much uglier than this. Of course, they were also filthy; I don't know if Beijing still runs on charcoal, but it did then, and you could tell.

I take Desyl's point about the architect of this particular building trying to make it nice. Ish.
 

I always thought the Plattenbauten were distinguished by being modular, with interior and exterior walls just hoisted into place. Is there a different term for prefab or modular in German?
 

...which is to say that Plattenbauten can have lots of different looks.
 

That's right; my dictionary calls Plattenbau "a building made from prefabricated slabs," and the building pictured above is.
 

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I always thought Plattenbauten were buildings made of premodulated, factory-made concrete sections, assembled on site like a puzzle - a method to reduce cost and increase construction efficiency (to address the housing crisis more quickly).
The building pictured doesn't have the exterior wall-slab thing going on. Not quite "aussenwandpaltte" enough to be Plattenbauten.
 

A guy from Dresden tells me this building (and others like it in Berlin) were built on-site -- a bit nicer than Marzahn, but still pre-fab. "Ja," he said, "das ist Plattenbau."