Alsenviertel

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The Alsenviertel was a small quarter in Berlin's Spreebogen , which was also known as the historic embassy district.

Location and origin

Aerial photo from 1910: Lehrter Bahnhof (today: Hauptbahnhof ), the Alsenviertel on the Spree at the bottom left

The area is located on the south side of a loop of the Spree and was a floodplain owned by the city of Berlin, which is why it was also called "Kämmereiwiese". It is located in what is now the Tiergarten part of the Mitte district .

At the end of the 1830s, the Crown Prince (later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. ) Wanted the site to be upgraded in terms of urban development. He personally drew plans for a representative design, tied Karl Friedrich Schinkel and then Peter Joseph Lenné . In connection with the development of the powder mill area on the Moabiter Werder on the other bank of the Spree, they also designed development plans for the Spreebogen. However, the concepts for the southern bank were not implemented for a quarter of a century, because the swampy terrain did not allow permanent buildings.

Only the adjacent parade ground, the future king place and today's Republic Square created on the initiative of the now King has become Friedrich Wilhelm first building - the Kroll Opera and 1842-1844, the palace of Count Atanazy Raczyński , north thereafter on "Seegerhof" a first small block. The leading architect Friedrich Hitzig built his own house here in 1847 (No. 9) and also for other clients.

Up until the 1860s there were wood yards on the northern edge of the parade ground. The building material temporarily stored here was transported to and from the site by barge. The connecting railway between Hamburg and Potsdamer Bahnhof ran across the remote wasteland . On the later bank of the Reichstag were the remains of the stables of one of the oldest barracks in Berlin; now a small factory and craft workshops.

When the excise wall fell in 1867 , the previously isolated area was quickly integrated into the city, and the construction of the Victory Column made Königsplatz the center of attention. With the redesign of the parade ground, the shabby outskirts now also had to be restored to a worthy condition. From the end of the 1860s to the beginning of the 1870s, a building site was created, the streets were laid out and the houses were built. In 1880 the address book still lists numerous construction sites.

View over the Moltkebrücke to the General Staff building (right). In the background: the still on the king place standing Victory Column and the dome of the Reichstag building , 1900

The entire quarter is directly related to the wars against Denmark (1864), against Austria (1866) and against France (1870/1871) in terms of the time of its creation, use, decoration and street naming. The General Staff building was built on the western edge between 1867 and 1871 according to a design by August Ferdinand Fleischinger in neo-renaissance style and expanded from 1873 to 1882 towards Königsplatz. After the dissolution of the Great General Staff , enforced in the Peace Treaty of Versailles , the building was used by various authorities such as parts of the Reich Ministry of the Interior . By the Allied air raids and the Battle of Berlin , the building was severely damaged and was after the end of World War II demolished.

With the Cabinet Ordinance of December 15, 1866 and following a Royal Decree of January 10, 1867, the names for the streets were determined:

  • Alsenstrasse - see below
  • Bismarckstrasse   (1911–1998: Fürst-Bismarck-Strasse ) - Bismarck was significantly involved in the armed conflicts; only his name has been preserved here to this day, now as Otto-von-Bismarck-Allee.
  • Moltkestrasse   (today: Willy-Brandt-Strasse ) at the General Staff Building - Moltke was Chief of Staff in the wars of 1864–1871.
  • Roonstrasse (in the arch to Kronprinzenufer , today: Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse ) - Roon was Minister of War at the time and had made wars possible through the modernization of the army.
  • On the other side of the General Staff building, Herwarthstrasse   was named after General Herwarth , who led troops in all three wars and who was in direct command of the crossing over the Alsensund .

Map; Alsenplatz at the top of the picture

The Kronprinzenufer   (today: Ludwig-Erhard-Ufer ) also referred to the wars; What was meant was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm , who had commanded armies in 1866 and 1870.
After a prominent local resident, General Hindersin , shortly after his death in 1872, Hindersinstrasse was   named, previously Seegerhof .

Since Alsenviertel is not an official name, there are no official borders; What is meant, however, are the four and a half private civilian blocks between the General Staff building and the Reichstag . To the west, on the banks of the Spree, there were inns and entertainment “establishments”, the “ tents ”, which were later also built with villas.

Alsenstrasse

The central street in the new quarter got its name after a decisive event in the German-Danish War in 1864, the transition to the island of Alsen after storming the Düppeler Schanzen .

It was designed as a wide avenue and in the southern section (between the north side of Königplatz and Bismarckstraße, today Paul-Löbe-Straße and Otto-von-Bismarck-Allee), it was widened like a square, lined with four rows of trees on two green areas.

The War ensemble (four sandstone groups of figures ) was set up in the green area around 1875 . They show somewhat larger than life Prussian soldiers in the uniform from 1864–1871 fighting, wounding, death and victory and have been preserved (see below) :

This was probably also a stimulus to equip the southern continuation of Alsenstrasse - Siegesallee  - with figurines around 1900 . In the middle of Alsenstrasse, close to the transition to Königsplatz, a monument by Roon was erected in 1904, today on the Großer Stern .

Contemporaries often called the square-like widening on Königsplatz “Alsenplatz”, although this was not an official dedication. In any case, Moltkestrasse and Roonstrasse continued parallel along the green spaces, so that the houses here also had different postal addresses.

The quarter got its usual name after Alsenstrasse.

The Alsenviertel should not be confused with the " Villenkolonie Alsen " on the Großer Wannsee , which was founded a little later and in which there was also an Alsenstrasse and still exists today.

bridges

To the north, a somewhat idiosyncratic bridge construction - the Alsenbrücke (Berlin-Moabit)  - connected Alsenstrasse with the bridge over the Humboldthafen , which was now built and which was also intended to be a decorative basin for the Alsenviertel. This was the way to get to Lehrter Bahnhof ; later the Moltke bridge , which still exists today, was added.

The Kronprinzenbrücke established the connection with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt in continuation of Roonstrasse. It was badly damaged at the end of the Second World War , demolished in 1972 and could only be rebuilt after the fall of the Berlin Wall .

use

The quarter became particularly famous because many foreign representations settled here. This was mainly due to the fact that the Foreign Office was just a short walk away.

  • Argentina : Hindersinstrasse 4
  • Belgium : Roonstrasse 12
  • Brazil : from 1900 Roonstrasse 12
  • Chile : Hindersinstrasse 14
  • Danish Legation : Legation Alsenstrasse 3, Consulate General Alsenstrasse 3a; later only the legation at Alsenstrasse 4 - 1938 moved
  • Japanese embassy : around 1900 Kronprinzenufer 30, from around 1915 on Königsplatz 4 at the corner of Hindersinstrasse 10 - relocated in 1938, demolished in 1940
  • Norwegian Legation : Alsenstrasse 2 - relocated in 1938
  • Ottoman Empire (Turkey): Alsenstrasse 1 - 1897 moved from Vossstrasse
  • Austria-Hungary : until 1890 Moltkestrasse 3, 1890 own new building Kronprinzenufer 14
  • Romania : Moltkestrasse 2
  • Swiss Embassy : since 1919 at the corner of Moltke and Bismarckstrasse; receive
  • Siam : from 1890 Alsenstrasse 8
  • Uruguay : Kronprinzenufer 25
The only remaining building: the Swiss Embassy

The headquarters of the Red Cross were located in a prominent location in 1910 - with a crenellated watchtower on the corner of Roonstrasse and Königsplatz. At that time, however, the Red Cross was not the civil aid organization that it is associated with today; its foundation and its tasks at that time were directly related to the conduct of the war. It was involved in the military and provided paramedics ; The training of the sororities served to care for the warriors wounded in the field at home as well as directly behind the fronts . The sculpture “Care of the Wounded”, mentioned above, was in the immediate vicinity. The world’s first deployment of the newly founded Red Cross took place on the occasion of the attack on the Düppeler Schanzen, which was supposed to protect the island of Alsen.

The private residents included the military of the neighboring General Staff such as

and also some wealthy homeowners like

  • Robert Lucius von Ballhausen , from 1900 Königsplatz 5 at the corner of Hindersinstraße
  • Rudolph von Delbrück , 1880 Alsenstrasse 4, 1900 Roonstrasse 2
  • Theodor von Frerichs , professor at the Charité , on the corner of Moltke and Bismarckstrasse
  • Theodor Hildebrand (1791–1872), chocolate manufacturer, at Alsenstrasse 8
  • Erich Kunheim (1872–1921), chemical manufacturer, on the corner of Moltke and Bismarckstrasse
  • Louis Liebermann (1819–1894, father of Max Liebermann ) owned several houses, such as Alsenstrasse 12 and Kronprinzenufer 8.
  • Hugo Pringsheim (1845–1915), railway entrepreneur, coal mine owner, lived at Hindersinstrasse 10.

As far as houses were rented, ministers or their dependents also lived here, like

There were also other illustrious residents, like

In terms of their construction, the buildings were initially what one calls a city ​​villa : Although the houses stood individually, they formed a closed street front and their internal structure was mostly designed for a single resident group and not for a division into apartments. Typical were first two, later three stately upper floors; Servants lived above in attics , while the basement ( basement ) housed the kitchen, laundry room, bathroom and heating material. By the 20th century, many lavish, prestigious first-generation houses were already being replaced by more compact and economically better usable new buildings and conversions.

In the novel Der Stechlin , Theodor Fontane lets the noble diplomatic family Barby live in the bel étage of a house on Kronprinzenufer that belonged to the wealthy insurance secretary Schickedanz. At the beginning of the 11th chapter, a brief insight into the living conditions is given.

The Alsenviertel was part of the NW 40 postal delivery district , which also included the Moabit area around Lehrter and Hamburger Bahnhof on the northern bank of the Spree.

World capital Germania

In Hitler's plans for a " world capital Germania " it was envisaged to build the gigantic " Great Hall " in place of the Alsenviertel .

It was also planned to divert the Spree and shorten the Spreebogen so that the Spree would flow under the Great Hall. The caisson for the Spree cut was already under construction; When digging the construction pits for the new Bundestag buildings, there were a few surprises here when the sheet pile walls suddenly appeared.

For the embassies, replacement buildings were erected in a new embassy district from Tiergartenstrasse to Rauchstrasse from 1938 . The houses in the Alsenviertel were largely demolished in 1939–1942; at least one laid down considerably more buildings than were to be destroyed by the effects of the war by 1945. The area between Roonstrasse and the Reichstag was leveled in 1942 .

The four war memorials were moved in 1938 from Alsenstrasse to Rüsternallee in the Großer Tiergarten (southwest of the House of World Cultures ), where they still stand today on both sides of the small bridge over the stream. They suffered only moderate war damage. In 2011 a restoration is planned and subsequent relocation to a more prominent location; probably at the nearby Großfürstenplatz .

In 1942 the building work came to a standstill due to the war.

Current situation

The old building of the Swiss embassy stands like a memorial as the only remnant of the Alsenviertel. History is also remembered in the Spreebogenpark .

The Paul-Löbe-Haus is on Hindersinstraße . The property of the General Staff (the half-ruin was demolished in 1958) is being built over by the Federal Chancellery .

At the end of the 1990s, the designation "Alsen blocks" was common for the federal government's new building projects , which is no longer the case.

Web links

  • Bundestag to Alsenviertel, with an aerial photo 1930 - the captions are currently interchanged

literature

  • Kulturamt Tiergarten (ed.): Alsenviertel . Exhibition July 17 to September 15, 1997. 1997 (accompanying brochure).
  • Hans J. Reichhardt, Wolfgang Schächen : From Berlin to Germania. About the destruction of the imperial capital by Albert Speer's redesign plans . 5th edition. Transit, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88747-127-X .
  • Helmut Zschocke: Mysterious Alsenviertel at the Federal Chancellery . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-631-67499-4 (233 pages, 175 images, zschockeberlinbuch.jimdo.com ).

References and comments

  1. ↑ Manfred Becker: The planning of the powder mill terrain - on the conflict between Lenné and Schinkel . In: Berlin: From the residential city to the industrial metropolis . I. Volume. TU Berlin, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-7983-0773-3 , p. 453–463 (catalog for the autumn 1981 exhibition).
  2. ↑ Seegerhof . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  3. ↑ In 1890 the address book at Kronprinzenufer 9/10 at the corner of Alsenstrasse 1 reported a lumber yard - Kronprinzenufer . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1890, 2nd part, p. 247. Likewise at Hindersinstrasse 4 - Hindersinstrasse . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1890, Part 2, p. 179.
  4. ↑ Kronprinzenufer . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1880, part 2, p. 194.
  5. ↑ Alsenstrasse . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  6. ↑ Bismarckstrasse . In: Luise.
  7. ↑ Moltkestrasse . In: Luise.
  8. ^ Roonstrasse . In: Luise.
  9. ↑ Herwarthstrasse . In: Luise.
  10. ↑ Kronprinzenufer . In: Luise.
  11. ↑ Hindersinstrasse . In: Luise.
  12. ^ Conquest of the island of Alsen on June 29, 1864 . In: JC Glaser (Ed.): Yearbooks for social and political sciences . 1st year, 2nd volume. Self-published, Berlin 1864, p.  66-69, 536-539 ( GoogleBooks ).
  13. ↑ Happy homecoming at the new location  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Image on bildhauerei-in-berlin.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / bildhauerei-in-berlin.de  
  14. ↑ A somewhat defiant choice of location - that the Danes preferred Alsenstrasse and still celebrate “Düppel Day” today. The French embassy on Pariser Platz is similar - 1814 invasion of Paris.
  15. ↑ The address book shows only one resident party, or as in the III. Part: Directory of all the houses in Berlin with details of the owners and tenants, including the occupations of the residents. B. a widow of a Commerce Councilor, a porter, a coachman.
  16. ↑ Stechlin , Chapter 12: “House name, street name, that's the best thing. The street name lasts longer than a memorial. ”- as has been proven in the Alsenviertel.
  17. ↑ Speech by Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse , December 3, 2002

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '15 "  N , 13 ° 22' 19.7"  E