Dohnagestell meeting place

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Dohnagestell meeting place (2010)

The Dohnagestell meeting place is a meeting and leisure facility in the Berlin district of Wedding . The house is located near the Rehberge park and the Plötzensee lake . It was built in 1937 in the style of homeland security architecture as a model home for the Hitler Youth , in the 20th century it served as a house for young people and is now a meeting place run by the Lebenshilfe .

History of construction and use

In December 1936 the entire youth of Germany became members of the Hitler Youth by law. Homes were now to be built throughout the Reich to serve as the home of the respective Hitler Youth. The construction of these homes was intended as a compulsory municipal task. 149 of these homes were planned in Berlin alone.

The then "Reichsarchitekt der Hitlerjugend" Hanns Dustmann was decisive for the construction and design . On the one hand, this laid down general principles for the construction of the Hitler Youth homes. On the other hand, he designed a model home, today's meeting place Dohnagestell. The house was built as part of the exhibition “ Give me four years of time ”, which took place in 1937 on the exhibition grounds in Charlottenburg . It was to serve as a model for future homes of the Hitler Youth. It moved to its present location after the exhibition in 1938–1939.

After the Second World War, the house soon served as a youth home again. In 1983 it was converted into a family leisure center. Since 2004, Lebenshilfe has been planning to use the building as a leisure and meeting place. In 2007/2008 the house was rebuilt and an extension was added. This should ensure the accessibility of the building and provide a second escape route.

building

True to the requirements of the time, the building should be made of "down-to-earth materials" and designed with "traditional motifs", but also recognizable as a new building. In general, the homes should show a “simple, objective attitude”. Goethe's garden house in Weimar served as a model .

The building is plastered in white, there are small windows on the ground floor that can be closed with shutters . There are former group rooms for the Hitler Youth and rooms for the former local leaders of the Hitler Youth, both of which are accessed through a wide roll call hall. Half-timbered houses exist on the upper floor. It is covered by a hipped roof. The entire upper floor is occupied by a large hall, the so-called former celebration room. This is designed by visible half-timbering, large ceiling beams and infills made of red brick. The propagation of the framework should not only reference historical buildings and create a general feeling of warmth, but also help to save steel and metal for purposes important to the war effort. The windows on the upper floor are room-high. It has remained largely unchanged to this day.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Wildt, Christoph Kreutzmüller: Berlin 1933–1945: City and Society in National Socialism . Siedler Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 3-641-08903-4 .
  2. ↑ a b c Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (ed.): Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Monuments in Berlin. District middle districts Wedding and Gesundbrunnen . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-26-X , p. 247.
  3. ↑ Leisure and meeting place of Lebenshilfe Berlin , Competition Online. Retrieved February 7, 2016
  4. ^ A b c Matthias Donath: Bunker, Banks, Reich Chancellery: Architectural Guide Berlin 1933–1945 . Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-936872-51-1 , p. 44.

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 40 ″  N , 13 ° 20 ′ 3.1 ″  E