Behrensbau (Berlin)

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Behrensbau, 1958

The Behrensbau or Peter-Behrens-Bau at Ostendstrasse 1-4 at the corner of Wilhelminenhofstrasse in the Oberschöneweide district of Berlin is a listed industrial building that was inaugurated in 1917. After its completion, the tower structure (later named after its architect Peter Behrens ) replaced the town hall in Augsburg as the tallest building in Germany at the time, but retained this title for only one year and was then replaced by the Siemensturm , also in Berlin .

Emergence

The large industrialist Emil Rathenau , who already operated the AEG - Kabelwerk Oberspree (KWO) in the then rural community of Oberschöneweide, had founded a new company for the production of automobiles together with his son Walther Rathenau in 1901 , the Neue Automobil-Gesellschaft (NAG) 1915 traded as the National Automobile Company . The factory was initially located on the premises of the KWO, but needed its own premises due to increasing demand. The town hall commissioned the architect Peter Behrens with a design. In 1914, construction began on a purchased site near the banks of the Spree . First, according to Behrens' plans, one- and two-storey workshops were built for the mechanical workshop and the repair shop. During the main construction period 1916/1917, the wing structures were erected at the fork in the road and at right angles to it, which formed an irregularly shaped work yard.

use

In the multi-section structure designed by Peter Behrens and erected between 1915 and 1917, no trucks were produced after 1931 , only cars . After closing its automotive division in 1934, AEG set up the Oberspree tube factory (RFO) in the former NAG plant in 1938 . a. special electron tubes for the GEMA in Koepenick developed radars of the Armed Forces created. In addition, the telecommunications cable and apparatus factory (FAO), which also belongs to the AEG, was housed at the end of the 1930s .

After the Second World War , the Soviet occupying forces first set up the laboratory, design office and testing facility Oberspree (LKVO) in the former production facility of the RFO, which was renamed Oberspreewerk (OSW) in May 1946 . From 1950, after other companies had also been integrated, it became the plant for telecommunications (HF) and from 1960 the plant for television electronics (WF) of the RFT . In the tower, which was planned as a water tower , the administrative units of the WF were located until the end of the GDR or the end of production. Between 1992 and 1994 there was a factory museum in the tower.

After Samsung had taken over the entire WF company in 1992, the newly founded subsidiary Samsung SDI Germany produced picture tubes for television sets in the factory halls on the courtyard side until the end of 2005 . In 2010, the Galway- born Comer Brothers bought the building and offered work space to some small businesses. A business and shopping center was also built in the tower complex. The Peter-Behrens-Bau is largely rented out. a. to the HTW department 4 ( IT , communication and economics) and to small and medium-sized companies that produce in the building, e.g. B. successful spin-offs of the former television electronics plant. The area behind the Peter-Behrens-Bau, in need of renovation, houses a number of small companies from transport companies to boat manufacturers. Some of the newer buildings on the site are used by small businesses, most of them are empty.

In May 2019 the site was sold to Deutsche Immobilien Entwicklungs AG (DIE AG). The new owner wants to develop the site further and build several high-rise buildings (as of June 2020).

architecture

The building on Ostendstrasse in Berlin-Oberschöneweide, designed by AEG architect Peter Behrens , is a listed building

All parts of the building dating from the first construction period form an approximately U-shaped floor plan. The buildings around the factory courtyard are uniformly plastered and have gable roofs . The 70 m high square tower is the eye-catcher. It was equipped by the architect with a cornice stepped several times . Strong pillar templates structure the facade vertically. The main portal of the tower building is clad with travertine and forms a round arch . Inside the tower, a light-flooded staircase dominates the appearance. On the four floors, the hall has circumferential galleries, all of which differ in terms of design - sometimes they are closed off with round arches towards the stairwell, sometimes they are open rectangles, on the fourth floor they form smaller round arches close together. Overall, the ambience of a church hall is created.

Viewed from the street, to the left of the tower, the actual administration building is located, with high three-part windows extending over the lower four floors. The fifth floor completes the administration building and runs continuously around the facade with a parapet. In the final roof there are a number of smaller windows like dormers . To the right of the tower and in the street line, there is a head building with a high triangular gable. In 1957, the building was given a wing along Ostendstrasse, which was completed with flat roofs. In 1984 this wing was extended significantly.

Web links

Commons : Behrensbau (Berlin)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  2. ↑ Berlin address book 1940, using official sources . Scherl-Verlag, Berlin 1940, p. 26, 2176 .
  3. ^ Winfried Müller: From the past of the factory for television electronics, Striking events 1945.1960 . Ed .: Industrial Salon Schöneweide. Berlin.
  4. ↑ Big plans for the "Behrens-Ufer": New owner DIE AG wants to develop the site with a promising future. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Behrens-Ufer project development. In: DIE.AG. Retrieved on July 2, 2020 (German).
  6. ^ A b Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Capital Berlin-II . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 314 f .

Coordinates: 52 ° 27 '22.5 "  N , 13 ° 31' 50.3"  E