Baerwaldbad

Baerwaldbad
Small swimming pool
Data
place	Berlin-Kreuzberg
architect	Ludwig Hoffmann
Construction year	1898-1901
Coordinates	52 ° 29 '40.3 "  N , 13 ° 24' 15.6"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 29 '40.3 "  N , 13 ° 24' 15.6"  E

The Baerwaldbad , formerly Stadtbad Kreuzberg , is an indoor swimming pool in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg , Baerwaldstrasse – 64–67. It was built from 1898 to 1901 as a public bath according to designs by Ludwig Hoffmann , at the same time as the construction of the community school Wilmsstrasse – 10 (today Mayor's Heart School ) and the Catholic Apostolic Church designed by Paul Schröder . The entire ensemble is a listed building .

Due to necessary renovation work, the bathroom has been closed since 2017, the future is unclear.

Building history

When it opened, the bath housed a U-shaped small swimming pool 21.10 m long and 9.15 m wide as well as 69 tubs and 42 shower baths, a medical department, the necessary check-out rooms to the left and right of the entrance and apartments for the upstairs Servants. In the rear part of the building there is an additional staircase that gives the students of the school behind it direct access to the bathrooms (e).

In the years 1913 to 1917 an extension was built on the corner of Baerwaldstrasse and Wilmsstrasse, for which Ludwig Hoffmann also provided the plans. It contained the large swimming pool (length 25 m, width 9.55 m), 35 shower baths and a healing and health department. In World War II, this extension was completely destroyed. In 1951, the district decided to build the second swimming pool with the help of planning documents that were still available. After three years of construction, it was opened to the public on August 28, 1955.

Due to a lack of demand, individual departments gradually had to be shut down in the 1990s, until the public baths were also closed in 1998. Only school and club swimming took place and in July 2002 the final end followed. Kreuzberg swimming clubs then founded the Baerwaldbad project and the diving swimming pool club (TSB eV), which now run the pool as a tenant. It was able to reopen in October 2002. Zukunftsbau GmbH (a qualification company founded in 1986) has been involved in the Baerwaldbad project since 2007 . With her and the TSB eV initiative, partial renovations were carried out in accordance with historical monuments. Initially, a group of 14  ABM employees worked in various trades such as painters, carpenters and locksmiths. The concept was continued in May 2008, and again young people from Kreuzberg could get involved in the preservation of the monument. The renovation work was then continued in smaller steps with ongoing operations, and apprentices are also being trained in construction trades. The tub and shower departments were gutted and given new uses. The renovation costs were put at around 5 million euros, a large part of which came from European funding.

In 2010 the bath received the European Union's cultural heritage prize, the Europa Nostra Award , which honors projects for the preservation of cultural heritage. The Baerwaldbad was next to the Neues Museum one of two award winners in Berlin and one of five in Germany.

Between March 27, 2015 (small indoor swimming pool) or May 22, 2015 (large indoor swimming pool) and November 14, 2016, the pool was closed due to an order from the health department.

The Baerwaldbad has been completely closed since April 27, 2017 and the sponsoring association is insolvent. The basins have been emptied and may not be put back into operation in their current state.

Exterior architecture

Facade (1906)

The three-storey building, erected between 1898 and 1901, at first glance looks like a Roman or Florentine Renaissance palace. The atypical structure of the mezzanine floor with small windows (hatches) can only be seen on second inspection. The cells of the bath tubs are hidden behind it. The facade is divided into a rustic ground floor made of Wünschelburg sandstone with large arched windows , a frieze with hatches on the second floor completes the rusticated part of the facade. The upper floor, which houses the former service apartments of the bath staff, is smoothly plastered. The impressive main portal was designed by the sculptor Otto Lessing .

Interior design

On the first floor there were two checkout rooms to the left and right of the central entrance (now only left), the vestibule and two stairwells. Behind it, in the main axis of the building, is the small swimming pool with a high barrel vault . On the long sides of the swimming pool there are arcades with five round arches each, on which a gallery runs. The decoration of the round arches consisted of ten allegorical wooden figures and also came from Otto Lessing. The figures had names such as Neptune with fish , guardian spirit against reeds , turtle with baton and two eels or whistling frog on water lilies and were intended to warn bathers of the dangers of the water. They disappeared after the war and were reworked as true to the original as possible by the sculptor Jörg Wenning during the first renovation based on historical photos.

In a round arch there were two changing rooms, the central posts of which were decorated with sculptures by the sculptor Ernst Westphal . The bath tubs were located on the mezzanine; these rooms were gutted in 2006, and 21 valuable old mirrors were recovered. One of the two bath tub departments has now been renovated and reopened in September 2010 as an exercise and gymnastics room.

The historic staircase was also completely renovated from 2007, the railings refreshed, and above all, the entire interior got its original color scheme of green, eggshell and old-white. The former official residence has been converted into an exhibition space in which the history of the building can be seen.

Web links

Commons : Baerwaldbad  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
• Operating association TSB eV
• TSB Wasserratten ( Memento from January 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
• Training and building in the Baerwaldbad ( Memento from January 14, 2019 in the Internet Archive )

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Frey: "Heimfall" for the Baerwaldbad on September 19, 2018 at www.berliner-woche.de
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Karin Schmidl: The whistling frog returns. The Baerwaldbad is being renovated and young people from Kreuzberg can learn a lot from it. In: Berliner Zeitung , 10./11. May 2008
3. ↑ Reason for the price ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Europa Nostra website  
4. ^ Der Tagesspiegel: Berlin Monuments Awarded , June 14, 2010
5. ↑ NEWS. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 21, 2018 ; accessed on March 20, 2018 (German). 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.  
6. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Frey: Rescue with many unknowns: The Baerwaldbad insolvency and its effects on the district on May 8, 2017 on www.berliner-woche.de
7. ↑ Notice from January 17, 2018