Old Post Office (Hamburg)
The Alte Post in Hamburg is a building completed in 1847 on Poststrasse in Hamburg's Neustadt district, which was named after it . It was built after the great fire of 1842 according to plans by Alexis de Chateauneuf, out of the need to combine several of the post offices represented in the city in one house. The largest administrative building in the city at the time is an outstanding example of what is known as Hamburg's after-fire architecture and is one of the oldest post buildings before the unified Reichspost was founded in Germany.
The listed building between the street Große Bleichen and the Bleichenfleet contained a shopping mall after a complete renovation in 1971 , which initiated the conversion of this part of the Hamburg city center into a passage district .
architecture
The construction took place from 1845 to 1847 according to designs by the architect Alexis de Chateauneuf, who played a key role in the reconstruction of the city ( Alster arcades ) and also favored down-to-earth brick as a building material . The facade was built with exposed brick surfaces using gothic sandstone elements in the contemporary round arch style. The Italian Renaissance style is also used as a model for the Italian-style building (depending on the source, palazzo buildings in the regions of Florence , Venice or Tuscany are cited as models).
Characteristic is the high clock tower , on the top of which an optical telegraph (also wing telegraph or semaphore ) formed the end point for a communication link to the mouth of the Elbe, which was then part of Hamburg's Cuxhaven . However, the tower only acquired its current appearance after it was found to be too low for this purpose. A further segment was then added to the tower with an octagon- shaped structure. The model of the elegant, but regionally atypical 40 meter high tower is the Belfry of Bruges . On July 23, 1848, the new terminus of the Hamburg optical telegraph line went into operation. The telegraph line was discontinued the following year, however, when an electric telegraph ( Morse code ) was used on the connection to Cuxhaven, which is important for Hamburg (notification of incoming ships), from October 15, 1848 .
Alexis de Chateauneuf published detailed drawings of the post office in his publication Architectura publica , published posthumously in 1860.
history
On January 2, 1848, the Hamburgische Stadtpost (Free City Post Office of the Hamburg State Post) was opened in the building . It also housed the Fürstlich Thurn und Taxis ' sche Oberpostamt, the Königlich Hannoversche Oberpostamt and the Royal Swedish Post Office with their offices. Their coats of arms and emblems can still be found today on the portals of the respective entrances. Other post offices represented in Hamburg had their headquarters in other buildings.
With the establishment of the North German postal district in 1868 the Hamburg post was transferred to the North German Confederation upper post office, which was located in the building of the city post office and in which, after introduction of the single imperial post and the imperial Oberpostdirektion was housed. In 1887 this moved with the telegraph headquarters to the new Oberpostdirektion on Stephansplatz . The old post office was then taken over by the Free and Hanseatic City and used by the Hamburg administration and as an archive.
In 1924, the Hamburg World Economic Archive (HWWA), which was previously spread over several locations, moved into the building. In the same year, the Alte Post was one of the first state-owned buildings in the city to be listed as a historical monument .
From 1924 to 1937 the building was also the seat of the Institute for Foreign Policy , one of the first research institutes for friendship research.
The building survived the Second World War without major damage. During the storm surge in 1962 , the storage rooms of the HWWA were flooded up to 1.60 meters, which destroyed part of the archive. In 1965 the HWWA finally moved out. At the same time, the structural condition had deteriorated. In order not to have to demolish the building, the city agreed on a complete renovation.
Between 1968 and 1971, the renovation was carried out for 8 million marks with gutting of the interior and keeping the old facade according to plans by building director HD Gropp and Ursula Kresse. The original four storeys were expanded to six storeys. It now contained a shopping mall, an underground car park and 3,000 square meters of office space on the upper floors, which was also used by the Senate and the citizens . The shopping arcade was redesigned several times (as in 1988) and in 1998 a basic repair for 2 million marks, during which the old masonry was also renovated.
The last shops in Passage Alte Post closed at the end of 2008 . The building was gutted again in 2010 and rebuilt by the Hamburg architecture firm Alk Arwed Friedrichsen until the beginning of 2012. Some historical details such as cast iron candelabra, windows and doors were reconstructed according to the original drawings of Chateauaneuf. The most noticeable change was the re-erection of a balustrade in front of the building. This was glazed on the sides and at the top so that it could be used as a showcase. This substitute for a window made it possible to prevent the window openings on the ground floor from having to be opened to floor level. The original floor heights were restored when the building was rebuilt. In order to still get the required usable space, the building was given two additional storeys.
In March 2012, a jury at the international real estate fair MIPIM in Cannes presented the Special Jury Award 2012 for the renovation of the old post office. The shops on the ground floor and the first floor are used by branches of various clothing brands, the floors above are rented out as offices.
Poststrasse
The Poststraße connects the Rathausmarkt with the Hohen Bleichen / ABC-Straße or via the branching Gerhofstraße with the Gänsemarkt . Between the streets Hohe Bleichen and the crossing Große Bleichen it was originally called Königsstraße. Its narrow extension, the Kleine Königsstrasse, ended at the Bleichenfleet.
After the great fire in the city , Poststrasse was rebuilt parallel to Jungfernstieg and now led over the Bleichenfleet with the Postbrücke to Neuer Wall . The Schleusenbrücke (sluice bridge) leads from the junction there to the Rathausmarkt, which was also created as a connection after the fire. The name "Poststrasse" was later transferred to the entire Königsstrasse.
literature
- David Klemm, Hartmut Frank (Ed.): Alexis de Chateauneuf. 1799 - 1853. Architect in Hamburg, London and Oslo . Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg, Munich 2000. (Series of publications by the Hamburg Architecture Archive ), ISBN 3-933374-75-8 . Bibliography pp. 324-330. Exhibition catalog.
- Lars Quadejacob: child of his time (s). The renovation of the old post office. In: Architektur in Hamburg, yearbook 2012; Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.hamburg.de/pressearchiv-fhh/4610374/2015-10-02-pr-gediktafel-friedensinstitut/ ; When great democrats worked in the Alte Post: memorial plaque commemorates the peace research institute. (No longer available online.) Hamburger Wochenblatt, October 13, 2015, archived from the original on January 24, 2016 ; accessed on January 24, 2016 . 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.
- ↑ Lars Quadejacob: Child of his time (s). The renovation of the old post office. In: Architektur in Hamburg, 2012 yearbook.
- ↑ https://www.mp-gruppe.de/en/blog/special-jury-award-fuer-die-alte-post-in-hamburg/
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 9.1 ″ N , 9 ° 59 ′ 25.4 ″ E