Gartenstrasse (Berlin-Mitte)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
gardenstreet
coat of arms
Street in Berlin
gardenstreet
Architectural monument, Gartenstrasse 6
Basic data
place Berlin
District Middle of
Gesundbrunnen
Created in the 18th century
Hist. Names Hamburg Landwehr
Connecting roads
Richtstrasse (north) ,
Kleine Hamburger Strasse (south)
Cross streets Liesenstrasse –Scheringstrasse, Max-Ulrich-Strasse, Feldstrasse, Theodor-Heuss-Weg, Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse– Bernauer Strasse , Invalidenstrasse , Tieckstrasse, Schröderstrasse, Torstrasse
Places Garden place
Buildings see #Buildings and Notable Places
use
User groups Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic , car traffic
Technical specifications
Street length 1600 meters

The approximately 1600 m long Gartenstrasse in the Mitte district of Berlin was one of the northern arteries of the city and began at the former Hamburger Tor . It particularly reflects Berlin history from the 18th century to the 21st century. It is closely linked to the construction of the S-Bahn and the Berlin Wall . Numerous public facilities and a remarkable amount of green are located on it or in the immediate vicinity. Several buildings are listed . In other parts of Berlin there are another seven garden streets.

location

Gartenstrasse begins at Torstrasse in Berlin-Mitte and leads almost dead straight in a north-westerly direction to Grenzstrasse in the Gesundbrunnen district , where the northern city limits of Berlin ran until the incorporation of Wedding and Gesundbrunnen in 1861. As with most of Berlin's historic streets, house numbers are counted according to the horseshoe numbering that was customary until 1929 and begins with house no.1 on Torstrasse on the east side and then continues on this side to Grenzstrasse (last house no.73) and from there back on the west side (from no. 87) back to Torstrasse, where it ends with number 115. What is remarkable is the large proportion of green areas that has steadily increased over the centuries. The last section north of the Scheringstrasse / Liesenstrasse street is not built on at all, and the park at the Nordbahnhof is now located between Liesenstrasse and Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse . Here was the spacious area of ​​the former Szczecin train station with its track systems. Instead, there is only the S-Bahn here . Twelve streets start from or flow into Gartenstraße. The most important links are Torstrasse, from which it starts, Invalidenstrasse , from which it is cut at right angles, and since 2006 Bernauer Strasse and Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse as part of the inner city ring . Bernauer Strasse, which until then ended in the area of ​​today's North Station , was extended to the west by the newly created Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse.

history

18th century

Gartenstrasse 1951, with the Stadtbad

Gartenstrasse was created under Frederick the Great when he expanded the city of Berlin to the north in the years 1752–1754. He came up with the plan during the construction of the invalids' house for war veterans , to which this area then belonged. In order to keep the money in the country and to eliminate the frequent shortage of labor, he wanted to create a new home for the bricklayers and carpenters working in Berlin. Most of them came from the Vogtland and were hired out in Berlin during the summer months. Because of these residents, the district of New Voigtland was later called Voigtland or Vogtland . Another reason for settlement was the recultivation of the area, which was covered with sterile quicksand as a result of excessive deforestation , which created increasing problems. When the area was settled, in addition to Brunnenstrasse , Ackerstrasse and Bergstrasse, Gartenstrasse was also laid out, at that time just a dirt road, which was initially called the Hamburger Landwehr . In 1772 the king had ten gardening families from Saxony settle in the area of ​​Gartenstrasse, who received a house, yard and four acres of land free of charge , but with the obligation to green the sandy desert and plant fruit crops. The street was given its name on February 18, 1801, referring to the gardening families now living here.

19th century

In the period that followed, especially at the beginning of the 19th century, more and more poor and poor people moved to Voigtland because of the cheap rents, so that the area fell into disrepute among Berliners as a poor and criminal quarter. This was intensified when at the beginning of the 1820s the much discussed von Wülcknitz family houses were built on Gartenstrasse in front of the Hamburger Tor , a mass of small rental apartments for poor people. Instead of Voigtland, the neutral name Rosenthaler Vorstadt was officially introduced. The area on both sides of the southern Gartenstrasse and west of it up to Chausseestrasse became the Oranienburger suburb . In the vernacular is far from the term Voigtland held. In a narrower sense, this meant the area whose borders are formed by Torstrasse in the south, Gartenstrasse in the west, Brunnenstrasse in the east and Invalidenstrasse in the north. According to other opinions, it went up to the area of ​​the Scheringstrasse or even further to the Grenzstrasse. As early as 1830, the entire quarter between Torstrasse and Invalidenstrasse was continuously built on, as was the area of ​​what would later become the North Station. In 1833, the name Gartenstraße was extended to include its extension beyond Invalidenstraße to Grenzstraße in Wedding.

The inhabitants of Voigtland were also involved in the March Revolution in Berlin in 1848. The people occupied the area right from the start and successfully defended it against attacks by infantry and cavalry. In the southern part of Gartenstrasse, the fighting had erected three barricades: On Torstrasse, on Invalidenstrasse and in between at the von Wülcknitz family houses at the height of the later Stadtbad Mitte . Two residents of Gartenstrasse were also among those who died on the March days: the journeyman locksmith Johann Rudolph from house number 2 and the “boy” Carl Wilhelm Johann Eben from number 51.

Around 1860 there were houses on the east side of Gartenstrasse north of Invalidenstrasse, and around 1890 it was along the entire street. The only exceptions were the areas that were used by the railway systems of the Szczecin train station and the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof II . There were also two small green areas, namely the municipal park at the former public baths (now Stadtbad Mitte) and the garden square.

Late 19th century until the Second World War

A mixed residential area developed south of the Szczecin train station in which workers, craftsmen, clerks, merchants, civil servants and pensioners lived. Because of the low rents, many students lived here in the following years and had their bars here, so that some travel guides reported on a Berlin Latin Quarter . Especially at the time of the Weimar Republic , there was a lot of life here with many restaurants and entertainment venues. The neighborhood was (again) known for prostitution and crime.

The Greater Berlin Act of 1920 assigned the newly formed Wedding district to the areas facing south as far as Liesenstrasse and Bernauer Strasse, while the northern part of Gartenstrasse was now in the Wedding district. The southern part now belonged to the Mitte district and the middle part formed the border between the two districts.

In the 1930s, there was dense tram and bus traffic on Gartenstrasse, especially in the area where it intersected with Invalidenstrasse. Ten tram lines alone crossed this section of the street. 1934–1936, the underground north-south S-Bahn was built to the west parallel to Gartenstrasse .

From the end of the Second World War

The buildings in Gartenstrasse, which were damaged or destroyed towards the end of the Second World War , were soon cleared and large fallow areas were created, which were subsequently mostly converted into green spaces.

After the war, Gartenstrasse was divided by the district boundaries according to the four-power status . The part that was in the Wedding district belonged to the French sector, the part that belonged to the Mitte district to the Soviet sector.

This division had a particular effect during the time of the Berlin Wall : Gartenstrasse was divided into three parts. The southern part from Torstrasse to Bernauer Strasse was on GDR territory , the northern part from Liesenstrasse / Scheringstrasse belonged to West Berlin . The middle part formed the border between east and west, with the existing wall of the railway embankment on the western side of the street functioning as a border wall, while the street itself and the area east of it was West Berlin area. After the administrative reform carried out on January 1, 2001, the Berlin districts were reduced to twelve and the Wedding district was opened up in the Mitte district, Gartenstrasse has since run entirely in the Mitte district, but continues through various districts.

From 2000, street trees were planted on both sides in the southern area, as well as linden trees in the northern part , so that Gartenstraße forms a long, continuous avenue of linden trees , with the exception of the section between Invalidenstraße and Bernauer Straße / Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße.

Buildings and places of note

From Torstraße to Schröder- / Tieckstraße (No. 1–8, 104–115)

The area is in the Oranienburger Vorstadt part of the Mitte district . The starting point of Gartenstrasse used to be the Hamburger Tor in the Berlin customs wall , which stood at the intersection of Kleine Hamburger Strasse and Torstrasse.

East side of the street (No. 1–8)

Number 1 : The corner building on Torstrasse, renovated in 2001, dates from the end of the 19th century and is used commercially on the ground floor: currently the Spaghetti Western restaurant , the Brot & mehr store , the gallery for illustration and the Emerson Gallery Berlin .

Number 2 : In the building from the end of the 19th century, which was renovated in 2001, the doctor and writer Peter Bamm lived for many years from 1938 ; he had his practice on Bernauer Strasse . Today with a large roof garden. On the ground floor the brot.undspiele gallery , replaced by the Madam Lili boutique in autumn 2012 - hand-made nostalgic jewelry , still a service company for burglar alarms and control panel - agency for binary media that operates the planning and implementation of web projects.

Numbers 3a – d : New building from 1997, the only one on this side of the street section, with a large courtyard. In the front building there was a branch of the Schlecker grocery chain . From mid-March 2013 to March 2014, replaced by Tempo Berlin - Interior for our Generation with the sale of “new branded furniture for the post-Ikea generation”, followed by mail order business since May 2016. Next to it is the cheer’s smoking bar , previously reopened at the beginning of 1999, and Angie’s beer bar with the opportunity to play darts . In the side wing, the center for outpatient rehabilitation (ZAR) as an extension to Gartenstrasse 5.

Number 4 : The facade of the narrow old building from the 19th century was overgrown with wild vines up to the roof. The restaurant Le Mustache - Pension & Bar on the ground floor closed at the end of 2012. The house now consists of condominiums, renovated in 2013.

Number 5 :

The first public bathing establishment in Berlin, founded by Henri James Simon , was opened here in 1888 . Next to the entrance is a Berlin plaque in his honor . In memory of him, the bathroom was given the addition of James Simon on September 12, 2012; for this purpose, a stele was set up in the vestibule with his picture and an appreciation of his services. In 1929/1930 the renovation was carried out in the Bauhaus style according to plans by the city councilor Carlo Jelkmann and Heinrich Tessenow . The building attracted a lot of attention at the time, among other things because it had the largest covered swimming pool in Europe (60 m × 23 m, 12 m high; pool 50 m × 15 m). In addition, around 80 baths and 46 shower baths gave the residents of the district the opportunity to take a bath, as many apartments at that time were not equipped with bathtubs or showers.

At the end of the Second World War , the bath was damaged, but was able to be put back into operation at the end of May 1945. The Berlin monument database states: “The Stadtbad Mitte was one of the last large social buildings in Berlin during the Weimar Republic and remained the most modern indoor swimming pool in the city for several decades. Restored between 1986 and 1994, it is still a marvel of light, tiles, water, steel and reinforced concrete. ”Since the 21st century, the building has been home to the various facilities of the Berliner Bäder-Betriebe (BBB) ​​as well as the center for outpatient rehabilitation (ZAR).

The bronze sculpture of a bathing girl in the vestibule was created in 1939 by Ernst Hermann Grämer , the bronze figures in the stairwell are by August Kraus . The glass paintings in the Russian-Roman bath were based on models by Max Pechstein .

Behind the Stadtbad lies the Heinrich-Zille-Park , an adventure playground with old trees since the beginning of the 21st century, with an entrance from Bergstrasse. From around 1716 the gallows of Berlin stood in this area on a small sand hill , which King Friedrich Wilhelm I had moved in front of the projected city wall when the city was expanded. When Vogtland builders began to settle in this area in 1752, Frederick the Great had the gallows placed about a kilometer further north on a sand hill, the so-called Galgenberg , where it remained until the end of the 18th century. Then the gallows was given a new place, around 500 m to the northwest to the later garden square further north on Gartenstrasse.

In 1799, the Sophienfriedhof of the Sophiengemeinde, which stretched from Gartenstrasse to Bergstrasse, was laid out on the present-day grounds of Stadtbad and Zille-Park, which at the time was still undeveloped in front of the Hamburger Tor . In 1827 it was moved a little further between Bergstrasse and Ackerstrasse. The last burials took place here around 1830. In 1875 it was completely abandoned. The area then became a park, which bore the name Gartenplatz, but in 1888 the area was considerably reduced due to the construction of the public bathing establishment. The facility was later called Sophienpark. On January 10, 1948, a memorial for the draftsman Heinrich Zille was erected in the park , whereupon the facility was named Zille-Park several decades later. The Zille monument was later removed.

Number 6 : The building, renovated in 2002, with a richly structured red clinker facade, was erected in 1902. The courtyard building was built in 1904/1905 according to plans and under the direction of the Berlin builder and entrepreneur Oscar Garbe (1861–1926). Both buildings are under monument protection. The front building served and is mainly used as a rental building. The ground floor was for a long time a senior citizen's leisure center of the district office in Mitte of Berlin. Since around 2010, the shop windows of Supergrau , a woodworking studio, have been in front . BAGO DIWA GmbH, agency for interdisciplinary communication, is also located in the front building .

The rear building was one of Berlin's well-known entertainment venues for almost three decades. At first it was a dance hall with the name Fritz Schmidt's Restaurant und Festsäle . After a renovation until 1919, it became the Kolibri festival halls and cabaret , a variety theater with a large auditorium on the second floor.

From 1934 there are no more indications of a gastronomic use. Parquet, seating and banisters were later burned. In 1955, during the GDR era, the Gerhard Kniebusch building locksmith moved into the basement, the ground floor and first floor. The building fell into disrepair in the years that followed. In 2008, the project developer Dirk Moritz took over the courtyard building. In close cooperation with the preservationists, we want to restore and in parts make it an event location again. The forgotten theater hall should be preserved. Work began at the end of 2012, around 30  tons of rubble and rubbish were removed, and stucco and historic parts of the stairwells were initially stored. In September / October 2012, the Neugerriemschneider gallery showed a site-specific installation by the British artist Mike Nelson .

Moritz markets the property under the name Secret Garden . The six-meter-high windows of the large hall, which have been bricked up since the 1970s, will be reopened from spring 2016. The restorer Carsten Hüttig is currently (late autumn 2015) exposing the layers of paint in the large rooms, which should then be preserved.

The project developer, who is investing around 2.8 million euros in the renovation work himself, intends to use a sports studio for personal training , event rooms and high-priced living space. The first floor is to be rented together with the theater hall above, for example to an artist or fashion designer who also lives here. The house is then raised by two floors, which are also made available for living and working.

Number 7 : In the old building on the corner of Schröderstrasse / Gartenstrasse, which was renovated in 2012, the Schuster & Scheuermann gallery for contemporary art was set up in 2001 . In 2015, the Hornvanbö studio for contemporary clothes is located there . On the corner there was the restaurant Halifax - Pizzeria & Musik Café in the 1990s . At the beginning of 1999 it was replaced by the Cheer’s restaurant , which has since moved to Gartenstraße 3. In the 2010s, the Interiør rooms are home to a studio for home needs.

The Schröderstraße going off to the east was laid out late in comparison to the surrounding streets, namely in 1904.

West side of the street (No. 104–115)

The westward branching Tieckstraße was laid out in 1854 and named after the poet Johann Ludwig Tieck . Other streets in the neighborhood to the west of this part of Garden Street were also given names by romantic poets . Behind this row of houses, on its west side, runs underground in the north-south tunnel, the S-Bahn line that went into operation in 1936 , the North-South S-Bahn, currently referred to as lines S1, S2 and S25 (as of 2015). In the apartments in this area of ​​the street, the dull sound of the passing trains can still easily be heard. Before it was relocated to Tegel in 1897, the Borsig Maschinenfabrik , which already delivered the thousandth locomotive in 1858 , expanded further west . The Borsigstraße to the west of this part of the street is a reminder of this.

Number 104 : corner of Tieckstrasse and Gartenstrasse. Before the construction of the corner house, which was completed at the end of 2009, there was a small park marked as a "protected green area" with benches and two table tennis tables instead of the building that was destroyed in World War II. Immediately behind it (Tieckstrasse 17) is the three-storey, listed parish and parish house of the Golgotha ​​community, built in 1870 and extended by two five-storey transverse structures in 1905.

Number 105/106 : The house with a gate was built at the end of the 19th century and renovated in 1998.

Number 107 : In the elongated three-story building from the early 1950s, renovated in 2010, there is a daycare center with a park-like playground behind it. It belongs to Kindergartens City - owned by Berlin . The large complex (formerly Gartenstrasse 120–124) has a long tradition as an educational facility for children. The Municipal School I opened here as early as 1881, and according to a city map from 1900 the 36th Municipal School .

Numbers 108, 110–111 : The ensemble Gartenstrasse 108, 110–111 is a listed building. The front part of house no.109 was destroyed during the Second World War and has not yet been rebuilt (as of 2015). According to the Berlin Monument List, these former tenement houses are “hardly changed” and “still show all the characteristics of the typical petty-bourgeois or proletarian tenement architecture of the 1870s”. The building files for the ensemble were burned in the Second World War. House no. 110 was built according to land records in 1882/1883. The rental apartments in house no. 110 were converted into condominiums after the fall of the Wall . The engineering office for interdisciplinary communication GmbH Quadriga is located on the ground floor . From 1820 to 1882 the v. Wülcknitz family houses with 400 apartments for around 2000 people. They were a focal point in the impoverishment of certain sections of the population and the subject of numerous publications. They became best known in 1843 through Bettina von Arnim's book of kings .

Numbers 112–114 : The three five-story apartment buildings were built in the mid-1990s. At the time of the GDR there was a large vacant lot here. On the ground floor of No. 112 there is a physiotherapy practice and a driving school, in No. 113 a framing salon for picture framing and an advice center of the income tax association for employees. V. , in No. 114 Loris - Gallery for Contemporary Art (as of 2013).

Number 115 : The corner house on Torstrasse from the end of the 19th century was restored in 2007. The façade paintings carried out in the Art Nouveau style and the planting with old varieties of roses are remarkable . Since June 2009 there has been an office against smoking a small cigarette brand from Lausanne on the ground floor and the L. Schubert office machine service on the corner .

From Tieckstrasse / Schröderstrasse to Invalidenstrasse (no. 9–19, 95–103)

East side of the street (No. 9-19)

Numbers 9–11 : The C. Hoppe machine factory, founded by Carl Hoppe in 1844, has been located here and on the adjacent site to the rear . At that time it was one of the most important companies in Berlin. Aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal worked there as a construction engineer from 1872 to 1880 . After a major fire on December 29, 1899, the factory moved to Reinickendorf . Schröderstrasse has been running over the former factory site since the beginning of the 20th century.

Number 9 / corner of Schröderstrasse : The yellow, five and a half-story corner house from the time before the First World War was renovated in 1998. Two doctors have their practice here as well as a dental laboratory. The Alpenstueck gourmet restaurant is on the ground floor (as of 2013).

Number 10 : The set-back five-storey school building in prefabricated construction from the GDR era, renovated in 2009 and plastered in yellow, housed the Albert Gutzmann School for the Deaf (elementary / high school) Mitte for a long time , named after the deaf and dumb teacher Albert Gutzmann (1837 –1910), on whose instigation a public speech healing system was introduced in Berlin , as well as the special educational counseling center for the speech-impaired center . In the 2010s, the Hemingway School (Realschule) Berlin-Mitte is located in the building .

Numbers 12/13 (no longer shown): Two houses of the Hoppe machine factory used to stand here. The hall of the house on the left, built around 1860, housed the Voigtland Opera House for a time and the Thalia Theater from 1872–1874 .

Number 16/17 : This renovated four-storey building, latticed on the ground floor and clad with natural stone blocks from the time before the First World War, is now the seat of the Foundation of the Social Pedagogical Institute Walter May (SPI) of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt, a leisure facility for young people from 11 to 18 years of age.

Number 18/19 : The five- to nine-storey block of flats built at the intersection with Invalidenstrasse during GDR times was repaired at the end of 1998 / beginning of 1999.

The Invalidenstrasse that intersects the street garden here is one of the historic and well-known streets of Berlin. For a long time it formed the northern boundary of the New Voigtland .

West side of the street (No. 95-103)

The development on the corner of Gartenstrasse / Invalidenstrasse was destroyed in the Second World War and has been occupied by a park-like green area since the 1950s, signposted as a public children's playground and protected green area . It stretches far west to Eichendorffstrasse, where there is a large paddling pool for children.

Number 99 : Until 2010, several single-storey buildings with sheds belonging to the Nature Conservation and Green Spaces Office of Berlin Mitte stood on the large area, which was partly covered with bushes. The Residence Garden (s) , a six-story residential building with over 40 condominiums and four townhouses, was built at this point by the beginning of 2013 .

Number 103 : In the place of the building destroyed in World War II, a single-storey low-rise department store has stood here since the beginning of the 1980s , and after the political change it was called TIP Discount for several years , last operated by the discounter Plus or Netto . At the end of the 1990s, the Dicount Club took up residence here and invited people to a “well-groomed Techno-Schwoof”. From 2010, a building complex of four six- to seven-storey residential buildings was built there under the name Quartier 100 , named "Novalis", "Eichendorff", "Tieck" and "Schlegel" after the neighboring streets with the names of romantic poets. Because of these street names, the term "romantic quarter" or "poet quarter" was coined. The new building complex was advertised in newspaper advertisements with the slogan: “In the middle of the scene - at home in the countryside!” At the beginning of 2013, the apartments were ready for occupancy.

From Invalidenstraße to the Bernauer / Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße intersection (No. 22–32, 86–93)

East side of the street (No. 22–32)

Number 22 : The eight-storey corner building was built in the 1990s and is one of the administration buildings of S-Bahn Berlin GmbH , which has its headquarters here and in the opposite corner building. The company belonging to the Deutsche Bahn is responsible for the operational management of the S-Bahn Berlin .

Number 23/24 : The two new seven-story residential buildings with roof gardens were occupied at the end of 2012. They comprise 22 apartments. There are also four townhouses in the courtyard.

Former teachers' residence from the 19th century

Number 25 : The former teacher's house of the Humboldt Gymnasium, a red, three-story building with the richly structured clinker brick facade, the terracotta decoration in the neo-renaissance style and the wrought-iron entrance door is one of the most remarkable old buildings on Gartenstrasse and is a listed building. It was built in 1874 as the main building of a community double school according to plans by the architect Johann Eduard Jacobsthal and was for many years the teacher's residence for the grammar school in Berlin. The actual school buildings at the rear were largely destroyed during the Second World War. During the time of the GDR it served as a district culture center in the middle for a few years . Since the beginning of the 21st century it has housed the music-focused Papageno elementary school and a day care center for the Mitte district.

Number 26 : The four-storey residential building with a gate entrance and decorative gable on the front, renovated in 1998, dates from the end of the 19th century. In connection with the Berlin Wall Memorial, a large picture of the earlier border installations with the words Gartenstrasse 1989/90 was painted on the white side wall, which can be seen from afar . This is where the development ends today.

From 1961 to 1990 Gartenstrasse was closed to the southeast by a high wall about 50 meters further at the height of the original interior wall. In what was then the Wedding district on Bernauer Strasse, it continued on to Grenzstrasse. The interior wall going east is still in place. After reunification , a “wagon castle” (made up of mobile homes) and an extensive flea market had established themselves in this area .

West side of the street (No. 87-93)

South-west corner of the garden / Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse

Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse, which was created as a new connection between Bernauer Strasse and Zinnowitzer Strasse, was named on November 18, 2006 after a Jewish painter (born as Julie Wolf in Thorn , West Prussia, in 1864 ), who was one of the leading female artists at the beginning of the 20th century Belonged to Germany and lived in Berlin. She died on December 26, 1944 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp .

Number 92, former home of the "WikiBär" , the office of the Berlin Wikipedians

Between 2013 and 2015, high-quality seven-storey new buildings with a total of 25 apartments were built on the fallow land of the earlier houses No. 88 and 89/90, which had a few stalls.

Numbers 91 and 92 : residential and commercial buildings from the 1990s. At the end of 2012, Wanvaree - Traditional Thai Health Massage - moved into the ground floor of house number 91 . In the 1990s and 2000s there were several bakery shops one after the other on the ground floor of house no. The Berlin community of Wikipedia has been operating an office there since spring 2017 . The adjoining corner building (Invalidenstrasse No. 19) is also a new building from the 1990s and, like the corner building opposite, houses the administration of the S-Bahn Berlin.

From Bernauer to Schering- / Liesenstraße (No. 33–73)

Only the east side of this almost 900 meter long section of Gartenstrasse is built on. On the undeveloped west side, which used to be occupied by railway systems, the park now extends to the north station .

East side of the street (No. 33–73)

Since the administrative reform in 2001, this part has belonged to the Gesundbrunnen district of the Mitte district. The rust-colored two-storey building of the visitor center of the Berlin Wall Memorial (Bernauer Strasse 119) has stood on the northeast corner of Gartenstrasse and Bernauer Strasse since 2010.

An introductory film on the history of the Berlin Wall is shown on the upper floor . On the first floor there is a specialist bookshop on the history of the Berlin Wall and the division of Germany. Before that, a green area had spread out here on the triangle that was once formed by three streets (Bernauer Strasse, Gartenstrasse and Bergstrasse).

The Berlin Wall Trail also runs along this path , a cycle and footpath along the 160-kilometer route of the former border fortifications, which was built between 2002 and 2006.

A little further back are the buildings of the Diakoniestiftung Lazarus , which was built in 1864 on the initiative of Pastor Wilhelm Boegehold . The main building was built between 1867 and 1870 and, like several later additional buildings, is a listed building. The MauerCafé is located in the corner building with a small exhibition on the garden terrace facing the Berlin Wall.

The large area of ​​the Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung extends northwards at the confluence of the Bergstrasse . It was inaugurated on July 18, 1954 by the then Federal President Theodor Heuss . A road going off at Gartenstrasse 39 is named after him, the Theodor-Heuss-Weg. The estate was the first major showcase project in West Berlin. As part of social housing, apartments were to be built for refugees from the GDR and for West Berlin workers who were still living in the eastern sector. It was supposed to be a kind of counterpart to East Berlin's Stalinallee . According to plans by the architect Felix Hinssen, 422 small apartments were built in row buildings with five, seven and nine storeys as well as in a 15-storey high-rise building with 58 apartments alone. They formed a strong contrast to Berlin's largest apartment building in the immediate vicinity, the notorious Meyers Hof on Ackerstrasse with around 300 small apartments. The settlement, which is now a listed building, was named after the Governing Mayor Ernst Reuter, who died on September 29, 1953 . The premises of the Keyling & Thomas iron foundry, which has been based there since 1874, and formerly the largest of its kind in Berlin, used to be in the area of ​​the Ernst Reuter settlement. It went bankrupt in the 1920s. The mixed area of ​​residential buildings and industrial companies, usually called Thomashof , was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War. The houses at Gartenstrasse 37, 38, 39, 47, 48–51 are located here. This is followed by the five-storey residential buildings 52–54, also from the post-war period .

Then the short field road (No. 1–7) branches off to the east. House No. 4, built between 1912 and 1913, is a listed building. On its facade a Berlin memorial plaque for Pastor Eduard Cortain (1866–1936), who had been particularly committed to the expansion of the Catholic parishes in Berlin and the construction of their churches. This is also where the tree-lined, park-like garden space opens up, dominated by the listed St. Sebastian Church in its center, which was consecrated in 1893. It was the first Catholic church in the north of Berlin and is still the largest Catholic church in Berlin today. It was built in the early Gothic style from sandstone according to a design by building and government councilor Max Hasak.

The massive red brick building in the background of the garden square, which is formed by Ackerstraße, is the former AEG -Apparatewerk built in 1888 , today part of the Technical University of Berlin . It was the first large complex with which the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft established its location in Wedding . The building was built according to designs by AEG's in-house architect Franz Schwechten . Today the listed building also houses the international private educational institution PHORMS with kindergarten, elementary school and grammar school, each bilingual German-English and all-day.

The garden square was still called Galgenplatz until 1861 . From 1752 to 1842 there was the place of execution for Berlin: a three-post gallows on a two-meter-high stone platform with built-in stairs and iron railing. The executions each drew large crowds of onlookers. When the three-time murderer and mail robber Christian Lenz was executed by wheels in 1790, over 50,000 people are said to have gathered there. The last public execution of the death penalty took place on March 2, 1837 against Charlotte Sophie Henriette Meyer, who had slit her husband's throat in her sleep by wheels. As a deterrent, her body was displayed on the bike for two weeks. The St. Sebastian Church now stands where the gallows used to stand. The current name of the square refers to the garden street that leads past it and the fact that here, as in Gartenstrasse, at the time, on the orders of Friedrich II, gardener families who had immigrated to the area had received land. From 1874 the square was used as a grain market. The square, later with children's playgrounds, has been redesigned several times, most recently in 2010/2011. A kindergarten and a community center were built by the parish towards Gartenstrasse in the 1960s and 1970s.

After Gartenplatz, there are four-story residential buildings from the post-war period (No. 55–65, 73) as far as Scheringstrasse. A white, eleven-story high-rise from the second half of the 1960s forms the end of the building. The “Kinderparadies” daycare center is located on the ground floor. However, the house belongs to Ackerstraße (no. 104), which ends here at an acute angle as a dead end.

The Liesenbrücken seen from Gartenstraße

This section of Gartenstrasse ends at a large, lowered roundabout where five streets meet in a star shape and over which the steel structure of an impressive railway overpass arches. Here Ackerstraße (today at the confluence only as a footpath), Scheringstraße and, to the west, Liesenstraße meet with Gartenstraße. The eastward Scheringstrasse was named in 1894 after the pharmacist and entrepreneur Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering (1824–1898), the founder of what later became Schering AG .

The listed bridge structure, usually called Liesenbrücke , also known as the "Schwindsuchtbrücke", was built between 1890 and 1886 and is considered to be one of "the outstanding engineering structures of the 19th century".

The bridges served the long-distance trains from the former Szczecin railway station and, since 1936, the S-Bahn. The long-distance lines have been shut down since 1952. In 1956/1957 the two western bridges that are used by the S-Bahn were renovated.

The mighty steel skeleton inspired the painter Gustav Wunderwald (1882–1945) as early as 1927 for one of his main works, Brücke über Gartenstrasse and Ackerstrasse . This building also fascinated later filmmakers. Various scenes from the award-winning film Run Lola Run are set here. Despite the changes in the post-war years, the remaining bridge structure, as it is called in the Berlin monument database, “still has a monumental appearance. The towering lattice girders that work into the surrounding streets are an expression of the highly developed engineering art in Wilhelmine Germany .

West side of the street

During the GDR era, the border bent at the roundabout and ran on the south side of Liesenstrasse, which ran west and formed the border between the districts of Mitte and Wedding. This Verekrhsweg was laid out in 1826 and named in 1833 after the innkeeper Carl Adolf Friedrich Liesen, who owned land here. Right on the corner of Gartenstraße there is another 15 meter long piece of the border wall. South of Liesenstrasse on the west side of the tracks are three historical cemeteries, one behind the other, which are protected as garden monuments, the old cathedral cemetery St. Hedwig with a remarkable cemetery chapel, consecrated in 1867 and restored in 1987, the French cemetery and the churchyard of the cathedral parish of Berlin , all with graves of well-known personalities. The grave sites were leveled on a 40 m wide strip along Liesenstrasse, where the border installations ran during the GDR era.

The nearly 900 meter long piece of Gartenstrasse between Liesenstrasse and Invalidenstrasse is not built on and is given its special aspect by a three meter high wall made of yellowish clinker bricks, which was renovated in 2010/2011. It supports the embankment for the former tracks of the Szczecin Railway , which ran here. Today the S-Bahn still runs here. With the construction of the wall in 1961, the brick wall was given the function of a border wall and is today its longest structural testimony. To secure the border, the existing passages were walled up and the top of the wall was upgraded with barbed wire girders. In the mid-1960s, a new border wall was built behind the brick wall; their course is marked in the ground.

Access to the Szczecin Tunnel on Gartenstrasse

Opposite the garden square at the level of Feldstrasse, the brick wall of Gartenstrasse is interrupted by two entrances. One, closed by a grille, is the entrance portal of the Szczecin Tunnel . The 150 m long pedestrian tunnel, opened in 1896, went under the long-distance railway tracks and established the connection between Gartenstrasse and Schwartzkopffstrasse in the Oranienburger suburb . It was the first pedestrian tunnel in Berlin and became necessary because the construction of the Szczecin Railway at the time meant that Schwartzkopffstrasse no longer ran through to Gartenstrasse. In 1952 the tunnel was walled up by the GDR authorities and has not been open to the public since then.

The other entrance is right next to one of the entrances to the 5.5  hectare large park on the North Station , which opened on 14 May, 2009.

Together with the nearby Berlin Wall Memorial , the park is part of the Berlin Wall memorial concept. Parts of the interior wall are still preserved. The park is designed in such a way that it is reminiscent of its past, of the former railway facilities, the death strip at the time of the Berlin Wall and the wasteland that developed here from birch trees and other Berlin-typical plants after the fall of the Wall in 1989. In addition to children's playgrounds, sports facilities have been created in the southern part of the park on Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse, especially beach volleyball fields and the high ropes course "Mount Mitte".

The northern area is currently still cordoned off. The aim is to continue the park over the Liesenbrücken to Volkspark Humboldthain about 400 meters away .

From Liesenstrasse / Scheringstrasse to Grenzstrasse (No. 75-80)

The last section of Gartenstrasse, about 250 meters long, is completely green and has no buildings, apart from the residential building Grenzstrasse 5 at the north-western end. This area had been part of the Wedding district since the formation of Greater Berlin in 1920. At that time the border of Wedding, which until then was formed by the Grenzstraße laid out in 1827, was moved south to Bernauer Straße.

The green area on the east side, which extends to the route of the S-Bahn between the Humboldthain and Nordbahnhof stations, has a natural children's playground with remarkable wild vegetation. In the past, the area was further east of the Berliner Maschinenbau AG vorm. Louis Schwartzkopff , which once had world renown and mainly manufactured locomotives. In 1980 most of the old buildings were demolished. A “Berlin memorial plaque” is attached to the only building that has been preserved from earlier times, directly at the roundabout on Scheringstrasse, in honor of Louis Schwartzkopff .

The west side of the last section of Gartenstraße is occupied by the tree-lined Dorotheenstädtischer Kirchhof II , the entrance of which is on Liesenstraße 9. Like the three historic cemeteries on the south side of Liesenstrasse, the cemetery, established in 1842, has several graves of important personalities.

The street in the media and personalities associated with this street

A kind of literary monument was set on Gartenstrasse in 1952 by the novel "Gartenstrasse 64" by Thea von Harbou (1888–1954). It was the last work of the screenwriter and writer, who was one of the most important - but also controversial - women in German film. She put the words in front of the novel: “This book is dedicated to Berlin and the people of Berlin.” Apparently she wanted to use it to present a typical Berlin rental house with its people. The fact that she had the Gartenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte in mind, among other things, results from the fact that at one point it says: “He went to Gartenstrasse 64 - the beloved house was with a few others in the French sector; if, like the rest of Gartenstrasse, it had been in Russian, how would he have got home? ”This house, the main setting of the novel, was north of Gartenstrasse, behind the Gartenplatz, and has since been replaced by a new building. There is the thesis that in the novel the author processed her thoughts and topics from the script for the last but incomplete propaganda film of the Third Reich “ Life goes on ”, director Wolfgang Liebeneiner .

How well-known Gartenstraße was or is in other ways is shown by a hit by the King-Kols , music and text by Fred Kinglee (actually Fred Preusser, 1923–1975), from the period 1948/1949:

“You, if you ever need a dog,
come to me.
Just around the corner, Gartenstrasse 4.
As soon as you come in, the first door on the right.

Here you will find dogs of both sexes. "

Another example: The actress and director Angelica Domröse was described in the Berliner Kurier on May 18, 1997 as follows: “She is a real porter nobility from the Ackerhallen neighborhood, front building in the east, rear building in the west. A Berlin plant from Gartenstrasse, doused with chlorinated water from the Stadtbad. "

At the edge of the pool at the Stadtbad Berlin Mitte, “immersed in water that smells slightly Latin,” plays one of the decisive scenes for the first-person narrator in the autobiographical novel Ocarina , published in 2002, by Hermann Kant , among other things the former chairman of the GDR writers' association .

In what was then the Humboldt Gymnasium (Gartenstrasse No. 25), courses from MASCH, the Marxist Workers 'School , the “Workers' College” took place in the 1920s . It also took Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) part and deepened his knowledge of Marxism there and led discussions about his theater.

Gartenstrasse was best known in the 19th century, when the von Wülcknitz family houses were located there in the area north of Torstrasse . Because of the social misery in the around 400 apartments, they were repeatedly discussed in the media. They have even been the setting for several novels. Often, however, the Gartenstrasse is not mentioned by name; rather, it is often used as the location “in front of the Hamburg gate”.

See also

literature

  • Michael Braun: North-South S-Bahn Berlin - 75 years of underground railways . Published by the Berliner S-Bahn-Museum, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89218-112-5 .
  • Peter Neumann: Berlin's train stations - yesterday, today, tomorrow . Jaron, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89773-079-0 .
  • Regina Stürickow: Murderous Metropolis Berlin - Authentic Criminal Cases . Leipzig 2004, paperback edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-86189-652-4 .
  • City center Berlin e. V. (Ed.): Searching for traces in the Rosenthaler Vorstadt - history and stories of a neighborhood . Berlin 2003.
  • Hermann Kant: Ocarina . Novel. Construction Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-351-02936-5 .
  • Andreas Robert Kuhrt: A journey through Ackerstrasse . Berlin 2001.
  • Michael Cramer: Berlin Wall Cycle Route . Esterbauer, Rodingsdorf 2001, ISBN 3-85000-074-5 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Mende , Kurt Wernicke (Ed.): Berlin Mitte - Das Lexikon . Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-87776-111-9 .
  • Michael Bienert: With Brecht through Berlin . Insel-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-458-33869-1 .
  • Jan Gympel, Ingolf Wernicke: The Berlin Wall - origin, course, traces in today's cityscape . 1st edition. Jaron, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932202-41-4 .
  • Horst Regling, Dieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok: The Berlin-Stettiner Railway . Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71046-X .
  • Jürgen Handrich: Planning and administration of the Weddinger town squares in their historical development . In: City squares in Wedding . Publisher: Wedding District Office of Berlin. Berlin 1991.
  • Karl Schwarz (Ed.) On behalf of the President of the Technical University of Berlin: Berlin: From the royal seat to the industrial metropolis . Volume II, 1981.
  • Johann Friedrich Geist , Klaus Kürvers : The Berlin apartment building . Volume 1, 1740-1862. Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7913-0524-7 ; Volume 2, 1862-1984. Munich 1984.
  • Berlin archive . Volume 1-22, Braunschweig 1979-1997.
  • Thea von Harbou: Gartenstrasse 64 . Berlin 1952, Ullstein publishing house. New edition 1991: Paperback published 1997, ISBN 3-548-40125-2 .
  • Eduard Kuntze: The Voigtlande jubilee or history of the foundation and development of the Rosenthaler Vorstadt near Berlin 1755–1855. (PDF) Berlin 1855.

Web links

Commons : Gartenstrasse  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gartenstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  2. ↑ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 1, pp. 170–188.
  3. ^ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 1, pp. 354–359.
  4. ^ Straub's overview plan of Berlin from 1910.
  5. ^ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 1, pp. 464–496; Berlin Archive , Volume 11, B 05130: Imperial Capital and World City ; City center Berlin e. V .: Search for traces , pp. 15, 41 ff., 45, 50; Stürickow: Murderous Metropolis Berlin , p. 24/25: Stettiner Bahnhof and Poetenviertel .
  6. ↑ Berlin Archive , Vol. 3, B 03007: City of the Prussian Kings
  7. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel from September 10, 2012.
  8. ^ Bauwelt 1932, issue 22, pp. 706/707; City center Berlin e. V .: Searching for traces , p. 43 ff., 47.
  9. ↑ BD Stadtbad Mitte
  10. ↑ Stadtbad Mitte . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein .
  11. ^ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, p. 207; City center Berlin e. V .: Search for traces , p. 46/47
  12. ↑ BD Gartenstrasse 6
  13. ↑ a b c Uwe Aulich: New Life for an Old Variété . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 17, 2015, p. 13.
  14. ↑ Reinhart Bünger: Hidden Variety Theater in Berlin Mitte . In: Tagesspiegel . 22nd September 2012.
  15. ↑ Laura Diaz: Theatervariété in the middle. Tavern behind walled-up windows . In: Berliner Zeitung . September 25, 2012.
  16. ↑ Christine Eichelmann: Derelict vaudeville rediscovered . In: The world . 20th September 2012.
  17. ^ Berliner Kurier , October 11, 1997.
  18. ↑ Sheet 915 Volume 31 of the Oranienburgertorbezirks
  19. ↑ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 1, pp. 76-102, 506-516; City center Berlin e. V .: Searching for traces , pp. 12-14.
  20. ^ Gerhard Arnold:  Hoppe, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 614 ( digitized version ) .; and Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, pp. 302/303.
  21. ↑ Short biography Lilienthal ( Memento from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ^ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 1, p. 179; Berliner Tageblatt of December 29, 1899.
  23. ↑ Invalidenstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  24. ↑ Berliner Kurier , January 16 and December 11, 1998.
  25. ↑ New building no. 100 ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved June 29, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.q-100.de
  26. ↑ Information on new townhouses ; Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  27. ^ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, p. 207. Teachers' residence , Gartenstr. 25 In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  28. ↑ Homepage of the Berlin Wall Memorial
  29. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , April 20, 1996.
  30. ^ Julie-Wolfthorn-Strasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  31. ↑ Cramer: Berliner Mauer-Radweg , p. 3 ff., 64–68
  32. ↑ Berlin monument database object number 09030286; Schwarz: Berlin: Von der Residenzstadt ... , p. 152
  33. ↑ Berlin monument database, object number 09030326, T; Berlin Archive , Vol. 15, B 07041: Destruction and Reconstruction . Kuhrt: A journey through Ackerstraße , p. 46 f. Ernst Reuter settlement . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  34. ↑ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, pp. 392–395
  35. ↑ Monument database, object number 09030369; Memorial plaque Feldstrasse 4 (Gesu) Eduard Cortain
  36. ^ Schwarz: Berlin: Von der Residenzstadt ... , pp. 149–151. Kuhrt: A journey through Ackerstrasse , p. 34
  37. ↑ Berlin monument database, object number 09030340
  38. ^ Homepage of the Phorms School ; Retrieved June 29, 2011
  39. ↑ Berlin Archive , Vol. 4, B 03084: City of the Prussian Kings ; Handrich: Planning and administration of the Weddinger Stadtplatz , pp. 37–41; The North Berliner on February 8, 1957; The Telegraph of April 28, 1957; Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, pp. 195, 204–206. Garden place . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  40. ↑ Schwarz: Berlin: Von der Residenzstadt… , pp. 145–148.
  41. ↑ a b Liesenbrücken monument
  42. ^ Braun: Nordsüd-S-Bahn Berlin , p. 221
  43. ↑ Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, p. 201.
  44. ↑ Liesenstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  45. ↑ Information signs at the entrance
  46. ^ Schwarz: Berlin: Von der Residenzstadt ... , p. 149; Geist, Kürvers: Das Berliner Mietshaus , Vol. 2, pp. 207/208
  47. ↑ Von Harbou: Gartenstrasse 64 , p. 221
  48. ↑ Dr. Reinhold Keiner from the Association of German Film Critics. V. (VDFK): Life goes on. Thea von Harbou and the last film of the Third Reich
  49. ↑ King-Kols on m.spot ( memento of the original from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mspot.com
  50. ^ Elisabeth Elling: Immersed in anecdotes . Review in: Hellweger Anzeiger from June 5, 2002
  51. ^ Bienert: With Brecht through Berlin , p. 74

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '3.4 "  N , 13 ° 23" 11 "  E