Barberini Palace

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Barberini Palace , more recently also called Palais Barberini , was a classicist-Baroque town house in Humboldtstrasse 5/6 in Potsdam, built under the Prussian King Friedrich II according to plans by Carl von Gontard from 1771 to 1772 . Its main facade faces the Alter Markt with the Potsdam City Palace and the Nikolaikirche .

The building was named after the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, which the king designed as a model . The Potsdam re-creation of the Italian model formed the monumental south-eastern end of the Old Market and, together with the neighboring Noack House at Humboldtstrasse 4, also designed by Gontard, was one of the last buildings built around the square under Friedrich II. In the middle of the 19th century, the palace building was extended by two rear side wings facing the Havel , based on designs by Ludwig Persius and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse , and used as a place of cultural and club life in Potsdam.

The Barberini Palace was largely destroyed in the air raid on April 14, 1945 and the ruins were torn down during the Soviet occupation zone. After that, the property was used as a green space and parking lot for a long time. As part of the redesign of the Potsdamer center with the reconstruction of the City Palace as a new parliament building and other buildings in the neighborhood took place after donations by the entrepreneur Hasso Plattner from 2013 to the end of 2016 an externally largely oriented to the original restoration of the palace Barberini for use as Kunsthaus Museum Barberini .

The Barberini Palace on a photograph by Ernst Eichgrün, 1907

location

Detail of a plan of Potsdam by Heinrich Berghaus (around 1850): The Barberini palace is marked in red

The property of the Barberini Palace belonged to the medieval settlement core of the city of Potsdam in the vicinity of the Havel crossing and the castle complex that will later be the site of the palace. The cityscapes of the 17th and early 18th centuries show the dense development of this area. Further details on the predecessor buildings that are certain to exist are not known.

The building stood on the south side of the Alter Markt within the closed street of Humboldtstrasse, which continued east of the square with Brauerstrasse. Old maps show the street layout running from the city-side end of the Long Bridge in a north-easterly direction to the Alter Markt, which disappeared after the ruins of the city palace in 1960 and the development on the south side. The so-called Knobelsdorffhaus, now incorporated into the complex of the Old Town Hall , with the former address Brauerstraße 10, today indicates the corner of this otherwise also lost street and the Old Market.

The north-western boundary of the street, called Schloss-Straße or Schloss-Gasse on plans from the 18th century, formed a side wing of the city ​​palace , while the development with town houses in the southeast with their economically used side wings took up the area up to the Havel. In Manger's building history of Potsdam, the location is described with the words "on the old market not far from the palace" . In the course of the introduction of house numbers in Potsdam after 1806, the houses were given the address "Am Schloss 5/6", and from 1874 Humboldtstrasse 5/6.

designation

The Barberini Palace was the only building built in Potsdam based on a foreign model that was not only known to art-historical circles, but also to the general public under the name of its model. While a copy of the Palazzo Valmarana in Vicenza designed by Andrea Palladio , built in 1754 on the corner of Schlossstrasse and Hohewegstrasse, was known to the general public as the Plögerscher Gasthof or Kommandantur , and the reproduction of a design by Inigo Jones for Whitehall Palace after the first owners Hiller- Brandtsche houses was called, the name Barberini Palace remained alive with the Potsdam residents and was also entered on various city maps. A role played by a mixture with the name of the famous dancer Barberina, who was adored by Friedrich II and was engaged at the Royal Opera in Berlin from 1744 to 1749 . However, there was no connection to the Potsdam building. The name Palais Barberini can only be found in press products and recent publications, but not in the city and art history literature about Potsdam.

Palace as a royal urban development

Photo of the old market in southern direction around 1930: on the left in the background the Barberini Palace, on the right the Potsdam City Palace with the Fortunaportal

Under King Friedrich Wilhelm I , large parts of the old town were renewed and provided with simple half-timbered or solid buildings. From 1748 on, his son Friedrich II had these buildings gradually replaced by more splendid houses. This was done based on the city palace and exclusively according to specifications developed from the perspective of the king and often according to foreign models selected by Friedrich II. It was of secondary importance whether the templates selected by the king from the literature had also been implemented at the original location.

Buildings of the Italian Renaissance and Mannerism were a focal point , but English and French buildings were also adapted for Potsdam's conditions. Since these role models were originally planned for completely different purposes and classes of residents, there were repeatedly glaring contradictions between the needs and financial possibilities of the bourgeois users and the royal will to represent, especially since the king also urged the greatest possible thrift: "If only great gentlemen, especially those who, besides their pleasure, also build for the good of their subjects, and did not want to look so much at poor savings! how great the advantage would be for them in consequence! especially in Potsdam, where palaces are being built for poor citizens, the maintenance of which is often more than the full benefit of renting and buying. "

When the Barberini Palace was built from 1771 to 1772, the remodeling of the other fronts of the old market square had long been completed and the renovation of more distant districts was already underway. Only the building at Humboldtstrasse 4 to the southwest was only rebuilt in 1777. Building on the model of the Palazzo Pompei in Verona designed by Michele Sanmicheli around 1530, the house at Humboldtstrasse 3 was built as early as 1754, as was the row of houses at Brauerstrasse 1–6 that adjoins it in the northeast.

Friedrich Mielke suspects that the king did not have an adequate template that would have corresponded to the exposed urban location. In addition, the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) largely brought construction to a standstill. In addition, it may have played a role that the above-mentioned neighboring buildings could be overlooked from the castle: The house at Humboldtstrasse 3 was opposite a passage to the castle courtyard, while the row of houses at Brauerstrasse 1-6 was more visible from the Fortunaportal than the actual south side of the market.

After the war damage and breaks in the subsequent period only the Old Town Hall from 1753, as well as the neighboring house Brauerstraße 10 and 1769 after plans have in Potsdam Georg Christian Unger built Hiller Brandt houses get in Broad Street as examples of imitation of foreign models. The Barberini Palace stood at the end of the era of copied palace facades. In the 1770s and 1780s, the works of Ungers, Andreas Ludwig Krügers , Johann Gottlob Schulzes and others led to an independent development of late Baroque town houses in Potsdam that corresponded to the requirements of the users in appearance and function.

draft

“Presentation of the west side of Brauer Strasse in Potsdam”, etching by Andreas Ludwig Krüger , 1779. On the left the Barberini palace, on the right the house at Humboldtstrasse 4, built in 1777

The design of the house where the carpenter Naumann and the innkeeper Berkholz lived is attributed to Carl von Gontard , and Georg Christian Unger is also being considered. The architects used the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, built from 1625 onwards, as a model , which was designed by Carlo Maderno , Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini and which Gontard most likely knew from his own eyes. Mielke continues to draw parallels to an illustration in Paul Decker's master work Princely Builder ... from the beginning of the 18th century, which was created under the influence of Roman construction and which Friedrich II was known from his library.

Building description

The Barberini Palace consisted of two three-storey town houses combined behind a uniform facade, which were built at royal expense instead of simpler predecessor buildings in order to give the old market the prestigious appearance desired by the king. The facade had thirteen window axes , of which the middle five formed a protruding risalit , which was clearly differentiated by its architecture from the four-axis side wings in the street.

The central projection was accentuated by a floor-to-floor arrangement of Tuscan , Ionic and Corinthian column orders. On the ground floor and the first floor, these were designed as three-quarter columns . The second floor, on the other hand, was structured by pilasters , each of which was accompanied by two half pilasters that appeared to be pushed behind. Large arched windows appeared in the back of the upper floors, while the first floor of the risalit was open in arched positions . The middle window of the first floor received an arbor with baluster parapet on two full columns in front of the facade.

The four-axis side wings took up the structure of the risalit in a simplified form. Here, this was done on the ground and first floors by flat pilaster strips , while the smooth wall surface dominated on the second floor. In addition to the three main floors, the two lower floors in the side wings each had a low mezzanine floor , which opened up to the street in framed rectangular windows. The windows on the main floors had straight roofs on the ground floor, and triangular and segmental arch roofs alternating on the upper floors . The upper end was formed by an attic , which was provided with balusters in the risalit and crowned with vases. The flat gable roof of the house was largely covered by the parapet.

Photo of the banks of the Havel in a northerly direction around 1930: The side wings on the back of the Barberini Palace, behind them the Church of St. Nikolai and the Old Town Hall

The back of the town houses facing the Havel was simply designed at the time of their construction and was not emphasized by a special architectural language, as there were only farm buildings serving subordinate purposes here. The two long side wings, each with twelve to three axes, which were added to the rear of the building in the course of the conversion of use in the 19th century, followed the wings on the street in terms of their floor plan and design language. However, an attic was not used here. A cornice zone with small openings to the attic was arranged under the flat, hipped roof . Only the three axes of the long sides at the ends on the havel side as well as the front sides of the wings had window roofs, so that the impression of end structures was created. The back of the central building received a representative facade structure corresponding to the street-side central projection.

Due to a lack of documents, nothing is known about the division of the interior rooms when the main building was built from 1771 to 1772. During the renovation and expansion between 1845 and 1849, the apartments previously housed in the main building were relocated to the new side wings, a passage with pillars was created on the ground floor of the central building, and several richly decorated halls were built into the upper floors. The courtyard on the Havel side between the side wings was landscaped. A wide flight of steps led from here to the river bank. The L-shaped outbuildings recognizable on the floor plan from the 19th century, which were arranged symmetrically in the extension of the side wings and contained stables and toilets, were later replaced by pergolas .

execution

At the time the Barberini Palace was built, it was common in Potsdam for residents affected by the royal redesign to leave their old houses in spring and move into the new building in autumn. The construction started in 1771, however, dragged on until 1772 due to the size of the project. In addition, Manger reports that the two houses behind the monumental facade were built by different foremen, with one part collapsing due to negligent work during the construction period, in which "a number of [workers] remained dead". The king reacted ungraciously to the case, "and yet his leniency went so far that he did not return to this area until everything was in place so that he could then testify to his satisfaction with the execution".

Model Palazzo Barberini (Rome)

Rome, Palazzo Barberini, etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi , around 1748

The model chosen by the king is a monumental baroque palace , which, in contrast to other examples of Roman palace architecture, stands free on a large property and is not integrated into a street or a square structure. Therefore, the central building was surrounded by two protruding side wings, which form a courtyard . In Potsdam, the side wings were instead set back in order to allow the five-axis instead of seven-axis central projection in the street space of Humboldt and Brauerstrasse to act as a focal point. In addition, the formation of a courtyard situation would have further confused the already irregular square shape of the Old Market and would not have complied with Potsdam's building practices.

The Palazzo Barberini in Rome has no mezzanine floors . These were added in Potsdam in order to be able to use the oversized building volume for town houses, but also to reduce the heating costs of the generously dimensioned rooms. However, the low mezzanine floors of the Potsdam town houses, which were built according to foreign designs, often resulted in very inadequate living conditions.

In Potsdam, the roof was covered by an attic, while in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome it is directly above the main cornice and still has superstructures. Finally, in the Potsdam replica, an architectural design of the back was dispensed with, which is designed as a picturesque asymmetrical garden front in the model.

The naming of the Roman model was not always correct. In 1786 Friedrich Nicolai describes the " Schulzische and Dieckowsche Haus, an imitation of the Palazzo Borghese in Rome", whereby he documents an early change of ownership with the mention of the residents by name. Manger repeats Nicolai's statements when describing the building. It was only when the neighboring house at Humboldtstrasse 4 was discussed that the name “Palast Barberini” appeared in Manger's building history . The side wings on the street side have since been repeatedly associated with Palazzo Borghese. However, as early as 1779, Andreas Ludwig Krüger wrote that Unger had drawn after the model of the Palazzo Barberini and that the side wings were "composed for this" so that the eponymous palazzo appears as the only model. The architecture of the side wings and in particular the arrangement of the mezzanine floors, however, are strongly based on the Palazzo Borghese, so that a compilation of both Roman buildings could be available.

In its design, the Barberini Palace was based closely on a Roman model created almost 150 years earlier, but it still blended into the Potsdam town house architecture and the ensemble of the Old Market, which was designed according to Italian models. This can be explained, on the one hand, by the more classicistic attitude of the Roman palazzo, which dispenses with spectacular curves and dramatic contrasts, and on the other hand, with the almost exclusively tectonic rather than decorative structure of the building.

use

19th and 20th centuries

Rudolf Hesse (?): Floor plan of the first floor, around 1850
Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse: Decoration of the two halls, 1850

From 1845 the Barberini Palace was extensively rebuilt on behalf of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . The king had been pursuing plans since 1843 to include the banks of the Havel in his beautification plans for Potsdam by redesigning the unsightly rear of the building. For this purpose he did not buy the house himself, but supported the Potsdam master mason Christian Heinrich Zech (1798–1858) and Adolph Wilhelm Hecker (1805–1870) with 80,000 thalers, who were also interested in the acquisition. They bought the building for 27,300 thalers and used the remaining money to carry out the extensive renovations. The owners undertook to let the "Art and Science Association" use rooms in the redesigned front building free of charge for "eternal times". The plans drawn up by Ludwig Persius in 1844, which were changed several times by the king, were approved by Friedrich Wilhelm IV on January 1, 1845 for implementation.

The formerly divided buildings behind the palace facade were merged, a representative passage to the courtyard flanked by stairs was created, a hall with ancillary rooms was created on the second and third floor and the two rear side wings were added for residential use. After Persius' sudden death in 1845, Friedrich August Stüler took over the supervision of the building. From 1847 Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse, who was appointed court building officer, was responsible for the design of the richly decorated interiors. In 1851 the premises were handed over to the Potsdam associations for use. The construction of a promenade on the banks of the Havel, requested by the king, did not materialize because the owners of the neighboring properties were demanding high prices. An arcade hall designed by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. To close the courtyard open to the river with an arcade hall was also omitted for financial reasons, even if the king guaranteed the assumption of costs for the construction at a later date.

For the owners, however, the investment in the expansion and renovation of the Barberini Palace turned out to be a loss-making business, because they repeatedly applied for subsidies from the king "to cover the more-related capital" . In 1877, 1880 and 1891 there were changes of ownership. In 1912 the city of Potsdam bought the building and in 1916 set up office space for the city administration in it. In the 1930s the right wing was used as a youth hostel; from 1938 the left wing also served this purpose.

Destruction and demolition

Ruins of the Barberini Palace, after 1945

During the Western Allied air raid on Potsdam on April 14, 1945 and the subsequent artillery battles with the Red Army, the Barberini Palace was badly damaged and burned down. A reconstruction called for by various sides did not take place due to the severe damage; the ruins were blown up on March 24, 1948 together with the palace hotel. A reconstruction plan for Potsdam, drawn up around 1952, shows a “sculpture grove” on the cleared land of the Barberini Palace and the neighboring houses that were also destroyed, which was probably intended to display the sculptures from the war-destroyed houses. This plan was not carried out, the area served as a green area and parking lot during the GDR period, despite various plans to build cultural facilities such as a theater or town hall. A promenade was built on the Havel.

From 1994 to 2006, the interim venue of the Hans Otto Theater was located on the property of the Barberini Palace . In connection with the redesign of the old Potsdam city center and the reconstruction of the city palace as the seat of the Brandenburg state parliament, the former Humboldtstrasse was also rebuilt and the old market closed to the south. The Barberini Palace was intended as a “lead building” for restoration based on the original, even if scale-forming original substance has been preserved in the immediate vicinity of the town hall, Knobelsdorffhaus and St. Nikolai Church .

reconstruction

Reconstructed Barberini Palace, 2017
Building rear view, 2016

With the resolution of the Brandenburg State Parliament in 2005, which followed a referendum, the rebuilding of the Potsdam City Palace on the Alter Markt was decided and at the same time the public debate about the "recovery" of the historic center of Potsdam was initiated. In workshops with the participation of experts and citizens' initiatives, the integrated master building concept Potsdamer Mitte was developed and decided on September 1, 2010 by the city council as a specification for the bidding competition for the sale of urban land on the banks of the Havel and Alter Fahrt. The contract for the Barberini Palace was awarded to the Berlin entrepreneur Abris Lelbach, who is building a museum for the Hasso Plattner art collection with the Hasso Plattner Foundation as a partner with the master building on the property at Humboldtstrasse 5/6 . Thomas Albrecht from the Hilmer & Sattler und Albrecht office was responsible as the architect of the museum building in the form of the reconstructed Barberini Palace .

The main building concept stipulated the reconstruction of the square façades and the courtyard façade of the central building as well as compliance with the original cubature of the building. The facades to be restored were made using traditional craft techniques. , The Elbe Sandstone Rocks for columns and facade decorations come like with the original building from Saxony (Posta) and Bohemia (Hradec Kralove). Another special technical feature is the production of the columns and ceilings in the entrance hall from Rabitz plaster , in which the gypsum plaster is drawn out over a supporting mesh to form surfaces and ornaments using form gauges.

The topping-out ceremony for the new building was held on April 17, 2015. In November 2015 the shell including the facade was finished; the completion of the interior work was completed in 2016.

21st century (Museum Barberini)

The house has housed the Barberini Museum since 2017 . In addition to changing special exhibitions with a focus on impressionism , this permanently exhibits a collection of art from the German Democratic Republic and art after 1989 .

The non-profit organization Stadtbild Deutschland awarded the reconstruction of the Barberini Palace as an art gallery the title “Building of the Year 2016”.

literature

  • Astrid Fick: Potsdam - Berlin - Bayreuth. Carl Philipp Christian von Gontard (1731–1791) and his bourgeois houses, immediate buildings and city palaces. Imhof, Petersberg 2000, ISBN 3-932526-42-2 .
  • Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Heinrich Ludewig Manger's building history of Potsdam, especially under the government of King Frederick the Second. Second volume, Berlin and Stettin 1789, reprint Leipzig 1987.
  • Friedrich Mielke: The community center in Potsdam. Tübingen 1972, ISBN 3-8030-0017-3 and ISBN 3-8030-0016-5 .
  • Friedrich Mielke: Potsdam architecture. Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-549-05668-0 .
  • Ludwig Persius - architect of the king, architecture under Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Ed. By the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, ISBN 978-3-7954-1586-0 .
  • Andreas Kitschke (ed.): Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse (1795–1876). Court architect under three Prussian kings. 1st edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-422-06611-X and ISBN 978-3-422-06611-3 .
  • Karin Carmen Jung: Potsdam. At the new market. Event history, town planning, architecture. Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-7861-2307-1 .

Web links

Commons : Barberini Palace  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jung 1999, p. 61.
  2. ↑ Mielke 1972, pp. 154f.
  3. ↑ Jung 1999, pp. 68f.
  4. ↑ Manger 1789, p. 363.
  5. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 92.
  6. ↑ a b Mielke 1972, p. 102ff.
  7. ↑ Manger 1789, p. 318.
  8. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 44.
  9. ↑ Manger 1789, pp. 423f.
  10. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 24.
  11. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 45.
  12. ↑ cf. Mielke 1998, p. 50.
  13. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 324ff.
  14. ↑ a b c d Fick 2000, pp. 202f.
  15. ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 325.
  16. ↑ cf. Mielke 1998, p. 46ff.
  17. ↑ Fick, 2000, p. 203.
  18. ↑ Kitschke, 2007, pp. 206f.
  19. ↑ Manger 1789, p. 363ff.
  20. ↑ cf. Mielke 1998, p. 49.
  21. ^ Friedrich Nicolai: Description of the royal residence cities Berlin and Potsdam. Berlin 1786, Leipzig 1993, p. 36, ISBN 3-379-01465-6 .
  22. ↑ a b Kitschke 2007, p. 206f.
  23. ↑ Mielke 1998, p. 157.
  24. ↑ Persius 2003, p. 236.
  25. ↑ Jung 1999, p. 87.
  26. ↑ POTSDAMER CENTER. In: potsdamer-mitte.de. Retrieved February 13, 2011 .
  27. ↑ Integrated control building concept Potsdamer Mitte, March 20, 2010. Accessed on November 9, 2015 .
  28. ^ Märkische Allgemeine, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany: The redesign of Potsdam's center is making progress - Topping-out ceremony for the new Barberini Museum / Culture / News - MAZ - Märkische Allgemeine. In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved April 1, 2016 .
  29. ↑ Peer Straube: A visit to the Barberini palace: Beethoven made of stone . In: Potsdam's latest news . November 11, 2015 ( pnn.de [accessed April 1, 2016]).
  30. ^ Palais Barberini in Potsdam is "Building of the Year" , Der Tagesspiegel , January 10, 2016
  31. ↑ Press releases from Stadtbild Deutschland e. V.

Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '42.6 "  N , 13 ° 3' 44.2"  E

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 5, 2011 in this version .