Alfred Messel

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Portrait of Messel (around 1900)
Memorial plaque for Alfred Messel by Hermann Hahn

Alfred Messel (born July 22, 1853 in Darmstadt ; † March 24, 1909 in Berlin ) was a German architect who was equally well known for his upper-class villas and small apartment buildings ; His department store buildings were considered particularly exemplary and style- defining. The graphic office estate is kept in the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin .

life and work

Alfred Messel was born as the third son of the banker Simon Messel on July 22, 1853 in Darmstadt. The family owned a prestigious banking house there, which was continued by Alfred's older brother Ludwig Messel (1847-1915), initially in Darmstadt and from Great Britain from the end of the 1870s ; a descendant of the British family branch was Lord Snowdon (1930-2017). Alfred Messel had been friends with Ludwig Hoffmann, who later became the Berlin City Planning Director, since he was a child . In 1872 he passed his Abitur at the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt; then he did military service as a one-year volunteer with the 1st Grand Ducal Hessian Life Guard Infantry Regiment.

In 1873 he studied together with Ludwig Hoffmann at the art academy in Kassel ; From 1874 to 1878 he studied architecture at the Berlin Bauakademie , especially under Heinrich Strack . Afterwards he was employed by Carl Schwatlo as a government building supervisor ( trainee lawyer ) in the new construction of the Oberpostdirektion on Spandauer Strasse in Berlin , before successfully passing the second state examination to become a government building master ( assessor ). In 1879 Messel became a member of the Berlin Architects' Association and in 1881 he won the Schinkel Prize with his designs for an exhibition site on Tempelhofer Feld .

In the following two years he made major trips to France , Spain, Italy and Great Britain and worked as an assistant at the newly founded Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg . In 1886 he took a leave of absence from civil service and from then on worked primarily as a private architect. For his first building to be realized - the Werder houses on Werder's market in Berlin - the Gentz ​​coin and the “ Princely House ” were demolished beforehand . After all, he had some structural details drawn beforehand and published them in the Bauwesen magazine in 1888 .

On February 1, 1893, he married Elsa Altmann and in November of the same year their first child, Ena, was born.

In February 1894 he was appointed professor at the teaching institute of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin , but he gave up this teaching post in 1896. From 1894 he worked as a freelancer in an architecture office operated jointly with Martin Altgelt .

From 1893 he worked with the Wertheim department store group , and in 1894 the first French-style department store on German soil was opened on Oranienstrasse in Berlin. In 1896 his son Ludwig Leonhard was born, who died in the First World War . Also in 1896 he received a small gold medal at the International Art Exhibition in Berlin . With the opening of the first construction phase of the Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse on November 15, 1897, Messel's rise to one of the most prominent German architects of his time began. He left the strict lines of historicist architecture and found a front corresponding to the interior use with the vertically structured pillar facade. Mainly because of this, the Wertheimhaus became an incunable of modern architecture.

In 1899 Messel converted from Judaism to Protestantism and on May 17 of the same year he received the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, fourth class, which led him to remark that from now on he should really feel “fourth class”. In the same year his youngest daughter Irene was born, who died in London in 1992. In 1900 he broke up the collaboration with Martin Altgelt. From 1902 a weak heart became noticeable in him, which forced him to take longer stays in the spa in the following years.

From 1903 to 1906 he was busy with the second expansion of the Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse and Leipziger Platz . Above all, the corner pavilion astonished the architecture critics, because in contrast to the first construction phase, Messel tried to emphasize the entrance to Leipziger Straße by structuring the facade more historically at this dominant location in urban planning. Of course, no historical models were to be assigned to his Gothic conception . Above all, the rich figurative jewelry was criticized, which however alienated Messel himself. One of the greatest critics of the corner pavilion was the Prussian Ministry of Public Works , which filed an objection against the - in its opinion - oversized roof area. For this reason, Messel added smaller, provisional gables, which could ultimately be removed. In 1904 Messel became a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin. In 1906 he received an honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E. h.) From the Technical University of Darmstadt .

When Julius Carl Raschdorff's Berlin Cathedral was opened in February 1906 , the Wertheim corner pavilion was cited as a positive example. Allegedly, Kaiser Wilhelm II also interfered in this debate with a negative comment on Wertheim. On the same day, she turned out to be the press officer for the Münchner Allgemeine Nachrichten newspaper , but Messel seriously doubted the continued existence of his architecture studio in Berlin and was considering moving to his old home in Darmstadt. After that, events rolled over, because at the beginning of 1907 he was officially appointed architect of the Royal Prussian Museums and mainly occupied himself with planning a new building for the German Museum , the Pergamon Museum and the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin until his death . The emperor relied completely on Messel's judgment, which the latter could only rarely take advantage of due to his frequent absence due to illness.

Family grave Altmann / Messel in the old St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin-Schöneberg

Alfred Messel died in Berlin in 1909 at the age of 55 and was buried in the St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Schöneberg . The preserved, noteworthy three-axis wall grave made of shell limestone shows Doric style elements, but nevertheless takes up modern architectural principles, to which Messel himself was committed. The design probably came from one of his students, namely Paul Baumgarten or Eugen Schmohl . Baumgarten was responsible for the construction; the figurative jewelry created Ignatius Taschner . Messel's widow Elsa b. Altmann (1871–1945) and other members of the Messel and Altmann families were buried here. Messel's grave has been dedicated as a Berlin honorary grave since 1958 .

Since Messel was of Jewish descent, streets named after him were renamed during the National Socialist era (example: Praunheim settlement in Frankfurt am Main , Messelstrasse in Berlin-Dahlem ).

buildings

The central sales hall

Wertheim department store, Leipziger Strasse

architecture

Messel's main work is the Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse (or Leipziger Platz ) in Berlin, which he carried out between 1896 and 1906 in several differently designed construction phases for A. Wertheim GmbH . In 1893 there was a fruitful collaboration between Messel and the Wertheim family. While Messel still leaned their first store on Oranienstrasse in Berlin firmly on the French department store building type, he followed different design principles for the second on Leipziger Strasse 132/133. Instead of a horizontally structured house front, Messel spanned wide sheets of glass between narrow, Gothic-style, vertical pillars that ran through uninterruptedly from the base to the roof and visibly expressed the iron interior structure of the house. A mighty mansard roof covered with green glazed tiles rose above it .

Even the construction site caused quite a stir with its nightly electric lighting and steel scaffolding, and when the house opened on November 15, 1897, there was traffic chaos on Leipziger Strasse. After going through the two-storey vestibule , one stood in a 22 meter high and 450 m² square atrium. On the opposite narrow wall, a representative staircase led to the upper sales floors. On her heel was a 6 meter high sculpture of Ludwig Manzel's “work”. The upper wall surfaces of the narrow sides were decorated with monumental frescoes of an ancient port by Max Koch and a modern port by Fritz Gehrke. The enormous effect that the new department store had on the population and architecture connoisseurs alike can be demonstrated by numerous newspaper articles, magazine articles and statements by well-known architects and their critics ( Peter Behrens , Henry van de Velde , August Endell , Bruno Taut , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , Hermann Muthesius , Karl Scheffler, Walter Curt Behrendt , Fritz Stahl , Alfred Lichtwark , Wiener, Heinrich Schliepmann and many others). They all praised the vertical, sober and functional structure of the facade, which also shows the purpose of the internal use in the exterior.

In 1899/1900 the first expansion took place at Leipziger Strasse 134/135 and at Vossstrasse 31/32. While Messel strictly adhered to the specifications of his previously built department store facade on Leipziger Strasse and copied the entrance plan again, on Vossstrasse he had to adhere to the specifications of the building police. Vossstrasse was a more representative residential street with late classicist or neo-baroque palaces. As a result, Messel hid his sales floors here behind a gothic facade with a Flemish character. In 1903/1905 another expansion took place, culminating in the famous corner pavilion on Leipziger Platz. The astonishment among the architecture connoisseurs was perfect: Instead of the strict pillar glass facade, a strongly gothic, small-scale facade structure adorned with sculptures was used, which also clearly stood out from the yellowish granite of the original house in the building material. Messel used the spotty Franconian shell limestone for the first time in Berlin . Despite the historicizing appearance of this component, with its even stronger reference to Gothic architecture, Messel completed the pavilion with an abruptly black mansard roof.

Inside, the main room was another atrium with a floor area of ​​750 m² (marble atrium ). This was covered with different colored marble incrustations and spanned by two monumental bridges. Two mirror-image staircases with gilded chandeliers and open lifts with latticework led to the first floor.

In the years 1911 to 1912, an extension was built on the property at Leipziger Strasse 126–130 by Heinrich Schweitzer . The extension buildings at Leipziger Platz 13, Vossstraße 24/25 and Leipziger Straße 131 followed from 1926 to 1927 based on designs by Eugen Schmohl and Paul Kolb . With these extensions, the entire department store had a usable area of ​​106,000 m² with a facade length on Leipziger Strasse of 243 m. On October 13, 1930, the day of the constituent session of the Reichstag , the building was the target of anti-Semitic riots on Leipziger Strasse. After 1933 the company was gradually "Aryanized" and finally renamed AWAG (Allgemeine Warenhaus-AG) in 1938.

The entire complex was badly damaged in World War II . In March 1943, three high-explosive bombs exploded , the final end being a fire set off by phosphorus bombs in January 1945 . The ruins were only cleared around 1955/1956 to create a free border strip at the sector border .

More buildings

Received in whole or in part

Not received

  • 1886–1888: “ Werderhaus ” commercial building , Berlin-Mitte , Werderscher Markt 10
  • 1891–1893: Berlin-Tiergarten residential buildings , Lessingstrasse
  • 1892–1893: Paul Meyerheim residence , Berlin-Tiergarten
  • 1892–1893: Valentin Weisbach house , Berlin-Tiergarten
  • 1892–1895 (?): Ludwig Messel country house, in Nymans, Haywards Heath , England
  • 1892–1893: residential and studio house, Berlin-Schöneberg , Kurfürstenstrasse
  • 1893–1894: residential and commercial building, Berlin-Mitte, Krausenstraße
  • 1894: Wertheim department store, Berlin-Kreuzberg , Oranienstrasse
  • 1894–1895: House, Tauentzienstrasse 14 (demolished in 2005)
  • 1894–1899: Throne room of the German Embassy in Rome, Palazzo Caffarelli
  • 1895–1897: Housing complex, Berlin-Charlottenburg , Eschenallee (demolished in 1967)
  • 1896–1897: Department store, Berlin-Mitte, Wertheim Leipziger Strasse, 1st extension 1899–1900, 2nd extension 1903–1906 (3rd extension by Heinrich Schweitzer 1911–1912, 4th extension by Eugen Schmohl and Paul Kolb 1926–1927 , see article text)
  • 1898–1899: Landhaus Braun (Harden) , Berlin-Grunewald
  • 1898–1899: Landhaus Dotti, Berlin-Grunewald
  • 1898–1899: Arons house, Berlin-Mitte, Behrenstrasse 6
  • 1900: Felix Simon house, Berlin-Tiergarten, Matthäikirchstraße 31 (destroyed)
  • 1901–1902: Palais Cohn-Oppenheim, Dessau (from 1910 State Museum, destroyed)
  • 1902–1904: House for Eduard Simon , Berlin-Tiergarten, Victoriastraße 7 (destroyed)
  • 1904–1905: Landhaus Hasenheide, Bernau
  • 1905–1906: AEG headquarters , Berlin-Mitte, Friedrich-Karl-Ufer 2/4 - today Kapelle-Ufer (destroyed)
  • 1905–1906: Kunsthaus Schulte, Berlin-Mitte, Unter den Linden
  • 1906–1907: Kretzer house, Berlin-Tiergarten, Bendlerstrasse
  • 1906–1907: Main building of the National Bank for Germany AG, Berlin-Mitte, Behrenstrasse 68/69 (destroyed)
  • 1907–1908: Villa Schöne, Berlin-Grunewald, Wangenheimstrasse (demolished in 1971)
  • 1907–1909: Brommybrücke in Berlin

Honors

When the Moltkviertel in Essen was laid out in 1908, a street was named after him. An Alfred-Messel-Platz has existed in Brandenburg an der Havel since 1945. In addition, the Messelpark, which is located in Berlin-Schmargendorf and Berlin-Dahlem , was named after him.

The sculptor Georg Wrba created a high relief bronze medal from Messel. This was carried out by the foundry Carl Poellath Münz- und Mintewerk Schrobenhausen .

literature

  • Maximilian rapeseed silver: Alfred Messel. Berlin 1905.
  • Fritz Stahl: Alfred Messel. Berlin 1911.
  • Walter Curt Behrendt : Alfred Messel. Berlin 1911. (Reprint 1998)
  • Günther Kühne:  Messel, Alfred. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 211-213 ( digitized version ).
  • Engelmann: The Wertheim department store on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin . In: Journal of Construction . Volume 56 (1906), Col. 65–78,. 441-458, plates. 7-9, 42-45. Digitized in the holdings of the Central and State Library Berlin .
  • Robert Habel: Alfred Messel's Wertheim buildings in Berlin. The beginning of modern architecture in Germany. Gebrüder Mann Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-7861-2571-6 .
  • Elke Blauert, Robert Habel, Hans-Dieter Nägelke, in collaboration with Christiane Schmidt (eds.): Alfred Messel (1853–1909). City visionary. Exhibition catalog of the art library Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Architekturmuseum der Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin 2009.
  • Artur Gärtner, Robert Habel, Hans-Dieter Nägelke (eds.): Alfred Messel (1853–1909). A guide to his buildings. Kiel 2010, ISBN 978-3-86935-021-9 . (= Writings of the Architekturmuseum der Technische Universität Berlin, Volume 1.)

Web links

Commons : Alfred Messel  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Like some of his significant peers, Messel was also active in the teaching profession for a long time, first from 1885–1893 as an assistant in the construction department of the Technical University in Charlottenburg, then from 1893–1896 as professor and head of an architecture class at the educational establishment of the royal arts and crafts museum in Berlin . In 1896 he left the apprenticeship to devote himself to the activity as a private architect. ” Quotation from: Albert Hofmann : Alfred Messel †. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 43, 1909, No. 26 (from March 31, 1909), pp. 170–172.
  2. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Alter St. Matthäus-Kirchhof Berlin. A cemetery guide . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-936242-16-4 , p. 21.
  3. ↑ Edgard Haider: Lost Splendor. Stories of destroyed buildings. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim, 2006, p. 128f.
  4. ↑ Lost splendor, pp. 134f.
  5. ↑ Lost Splendor, p. 137
  6. ↑ https://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/ueber-den- Bezirk/freiflaechen/parks/ artikel.196444.php . Retrieved April 3, 2018
  7. ↑ Grafficserver.de - Wag - Catalog ( Memento from January 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 5.6 MB; accessed on January 3, 2017)
  8. ↑ Catalog number: 77.2 - Günter Kloss: Georg Wrba (1872 - 1939). A sculptor between historicism and modernity . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 1998, ISBN 3-932526-20-1 . - Illustration on page 113
personal data
SURNAME Messel, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1909
Place of death Berlin