Old crematorium (Hamburg-Alsterdorf)
The old crematorium is a former cremation facility in the Hamburg district of Alsterdorf . After the operation as a crematorium was given up, it served temporarily as a restaurant from 1998 and as a school since 2009.
location
The building is located at Alsterdorfer Straße 523 in the immediate vicinity of the Ohlsdorfer Friedhof between the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf train station and the Alster .
history
Plans for the construction of a crematorium in Hamburg had been in place within the framework of the "Association for the Promotion of Cremation" since 1874. This association was looking for a suitable plot of land as well as a useful architectural design. Ernst Paul Dorn won the architectural competition held in 1888 with the design of an octagonal central building, which he designed based on Romanesque models. With its brickwork and light-colored plastered surfaces, it shows sacred echoes, but is only reminiscent of typical church buildings. One location that the Hamburg Senate also approved was found in 1890 near the Ohlsdorf cemetery.
The foundation stone was laid on October 18, 1890, the topping-out ceremony was on February 27, 1891 and the building was inaugurated on August 22, 1891. The construction phase was almost at the same time as a corresponding facility in Heidelberg . However, the commissioning was delayed due to unresolved legal and organizational issues, which the Hamburg Senate was only able to clarify after the cholera epidemic of 1892 . The crematorium was then able to start operating on November 19, 1892, with the first cremation as the third of its kind in Germany. Soon afterwards it experienced one of the most elaborate ceremonies that has ever been carried out here, the funeral service for Hans von Bülow organized by Bernhard Pollini .
From 1901 to 1904 the facility was expanded to include an urn grove designed by Wilhelm Cordes for the burial of the ashes from the crematorium. The design was based heavily on the old part of the Ohlsdorf cemetery and, like this, consisted of an artificial landscape with small hills, bodies of water, rocks and winding paths. The grave of the artist Anita Rée was originally located here . The red sandstone terrace was subsequently laid out in 1911 under the direction of Ricardo Bahre .
Soon after the inauguration, the crematorium developed into a small tourist attraction that could be reached by Alster ship , visited for a fee and whose striking location and architecture depicted numerous postcards.
The number of cremations developed only slowly from 41 in 1892 to 678 in 1910, but only rose significantly in the 1920s due to a changed fee policy. From 1932, the crematorium at the main cemetery in Ohlsdorf replaced the Alsterdorf facility for the cremation of corpses. However, burials took place in the urn grove until the beginning of the 1950s.
Technology and buildings
The building was originally entered via a flight of stairs and a vestibule. The interior essentially consisted of a 14 m high celebration hall, which was illuminated through windows in the upper area and in the roof lantern . At the rear end of the hall there was an elevation for the coffin, from which it could be transported discreetly and directly into the basement to the incineration plant via a hydraulic device. Other functional rooms , in which the ashes were collected and the urn filled, are also located in the basement.
On the sides of the celebration hall there were two small rooms in which urns were housed. When the building was expanded in the 1910s, the terrace also received larger waiting rooms for mourners and preparation rooms for clergy.
The free-standing and noticeably high chimney with a height of 25 m primarily met the building regulations applicable at the time of construction. It is double-walled and also serves to ventilate the building. When designing the facade of the chimney, the architect oriented himself towards towers in the style of the Italian Renaissance (which can be found, for example, in palazzo buildings in Tuscany or at the old post office in downtown Hamburg, which was completed in 1847 ).
Conversions for subsequent use
In 1954, the Hamburg authorities initially ordered the complete abolition of the cemetery by the end of 1979 and then approved the demolition of the crematorium in 1962. From 1975, authorities such as the garden and cemetery office began to work to maintain the complex. The monument protection office had Hermann Hipp prepare a comprehensive report that attested the building a "high historical and art-historical importance" and saw it as an expression of an "exemplary innovation process". The old crematorium and the remains of the urn cemetery were placed under monument protection in 1981 . In the years up to 1996 there were various concepts for subsequent uses and renovations, all of which could not be implemented and did not stop the increasing deterioration of the building fabric.
The situation only changed when the site was sold to the Vereinigte Hamburger Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft , together with an adjacent plot of land . The cooperative built a residential complex for the elderly and converted the crematorium into a restaurant. Various catering facilities alternated with rather moderate success, in 2007 the cooperative sold the building to real estate agent Klausmartin Kretschmer , who sold it on to an association that ran a private school and day-care center. Until 2009, the school redesigned the former terrace area again extensively and built a semicircular new building for additional rooms on the Alster side of the property. The former cemetery complex can hardly be guessed after the reconstruction.
Photographs and map
Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 6.7 ″ N , 10 ° 1 ′ 39.5 ″ E
Terrace system
Building with an extension for the school
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Norbert Fischer: 125 years of cremation in Hamburg: The first Hamburg crematorium from 1892 . In: Förderkreis Ohlsdorfer Friedhof eV (Hrsg.): OHLSDORF - magazine for mourning culture . No. 139 , 2017 ( online [accessed December 27, 2017]).
- ^ According to Leisner, Fischer: Der Friedhofsführer until 1954, after Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 22 until 1949.
- ↑ Quotations from Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 22 , p. 23.
- ↑ Concept of the “Flachsland Future Schools”; accessed on December 27, 2017.
literature
- Ralf Lange : Architecture in Hamburg . Junius Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88506-586-9 , p. 235 .
- Jörg Schilling: Hamburg construction booklet 22, The Ohlsdorf crematoria . 1st edition. Schaff-Verlag, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-944405-34-6 , pp. 4-6, 12-26 .
- Barbara Leisner, Norbert Fischer : The cemetery guide . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-7672-1215-3 , p. 58-60 .
Web links
- Directory of the protected monuments of the city of Hamburg