Alexander House (Potsdam)

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The Alexander House (also summerhouse Alexander ) is a listed building on the banks of the Great Glienicker lake in Potsdam district Groß Glienicke . It was created in 1927 on behalf of the Jewish doctor and then President of the Berlin Medical Association, Dr. Alfred Alexander built as a weekend and summer house for the family.

The Alexander House in Groß Glienicke in 2016, before renovation

history

Starting in 1926, the Groß Glienicke landowner Otto von Wollank leased large parts of his estate to wealthy Berliners who built weekend houses on the parcels. The Berlin doctor Alfred Alexander leased the approximately 30 by 300 meter property with the address Am Park 2, which is on the northwest bank of the Groß Glienicker See on the edge of the estate park, on March 30, 1927 for an initial 15 years with a right of first refusal on the property. In the same year he had the Alexander House built as one of the first weekend houses in Groß Glienicke. The Alexander family spent numerous weekends here, some of which also lived here for the summer. She received numerous celebrities here, such as Albert Einstein , Max Reinhardt and Lotte Jacobi , of whom photos of the house have been preserved. In 1936 the Alexander family emigrated to Great Britain. The house and property were initially sub- leased to the music publisher Will Meisel , who took over the house after the family's property had been expropriated. Meisel then also acquired the property after the property was confiscated by the tax office due to tax debts.

After the Second World War, Meisel, who continued to run his music publishing company in the western part of Berlin , could no longer use the property, as it was now in the Soviet occupation zone, right on the border with the British sector of Berlin . The GDR transferred the property to public ownership , it served two families as living space. The property, which was separated from the lake behind the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989 , remained in municipal ownership even after reunification. The house was inhabited until 2003, when it stood empty and fell into disrepair due to vandalism. In 2013, the association Alexander-Haus eV was founded to save the house, which also includes members of the Alexander family and others. a. the great-grandson of Alfred Alexander Thomas Harding . In 2014 the Alexander House was included in the list of monuments of the state of Brandenburg and the property was handed over to the association.

With donations and monuments from the federal government and the state of Brandenburg, the Alexander-Haus eV succeeded in restoring the Alexander-Haus and making it accessible to the public as a location for exhibitions and workshops. In addition, to be built by the on the property a seminar wing University of Potsdam and the promotion of young talent Avicenna study work and Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship want to use for academic conferences, education and interfaith dialogue.

architecture

The Alexander House in Groß Glienicke from the lake side (with terrace), 2016

The house is a single-storey type house made of pine wood that was presented at the building exhibition The Weekend at the Berlin Exhibition Center . The design probably comes from Paul Baumgarten . The base is ten by nine meters. In its original state it had nine rooms: five bedrooms, including the so-called blue room for the daughters of the family, a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen and a room for the chauffeur with a separate entrance and another toilet. Only the living room (next to the kitchen) could be heated, Delft tiles were selected for the fireplace , which have been preserved to this day.

Delft tiles in the Alexander House in Groß Glienicke, 2016

Movie

  • Anne Wigger: The house on the Glienicker See. Germany, documentation with many contemporary witnesses, Gabriele Conrad editorial staff, 2017. 45 min. First broadcast on December 12, 2017, 9:00 pm - 9:45 pm on RBB television

Web links

Commons : Alexander-Haus (Groß Glienicke)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg v. December 31, 2015 ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bldam-brandenburg.de
  2. ↑ Alexander-Haus eV: Photos of the Alexander-Haus from the 1930s ( Memento from August 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c Kevin Neuroth, Zeit online: Alexander-Haus - "When I came to Germany, I was afraid" , interview with Thomas Harding , accessed on June 17, 2019
  4. ↑ State capital Potsdam: Press release no. 503 from August 15, 2016 "Lord Mayor signs Memorandum of Understanding for the Restoration of the Alexander House"
  5. ↑ Alexander-Haus eV: Significance of the Alexander-Haus ( Memento from August 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Lothar Krone: Secrets of the House of Alexander In: Märkische Allgemeine , April 12, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2016.
  7. ↑ The house on the Glienicker See. Sender information about the film. In: rbb-online.de. December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2017 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 28 ′ 18.9 ″  N , 13 ° 6 ′ 46.5 ″  E