Berlin asylum association for the homeless

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Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 43.6 "  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 30.1"  E

Listed residential building on Wiesenstrasse: "Wiesenburg"

The Berlin Asylum Association for the Homeless was founded in Berlin - Wedding in 1868 and existed until 1976. It built and maintained accommodation for homeless women and men.

The most important home that the association ran was the Wiesenburg in Gesundbrunnen, built in 1897 . Here more emphasis was placed on hygiene than on missionary work and the home was considered progressive and revolutionary for its time. After 1914 it was requisitioned by the military, used again as a shelter for the homeless, leased to the Berlin Jewish Community , and used for armaments production during the Nazi era . After the Second World War , the site was largely left to its own devices, small businesses, bombed-out families and later artists settled here. Since April 2015, the housing company degewo has been taking care of the property that it wants to restore. The current residents and commercial tenants joined the association “Die Wiesenburg e. V. “merged. The entire site is under monument protection .

Foundation and association

The realization that homelessness did not have to be personal fault, which is why police custody is probably not the right place to stay for the homeless, led to committed representatives of the Berlin bourgeoisie to found the asylum association on November 30, 1868. The founders included personalities from the Berlin bourgeoisie such as the industrialist August Albert Borsig , the head of the city council Friedrich Kochhann , the preacher Friedrich Gustav Lisco , the doctor Rudolf Virchow , the ladies' coat manufacturer and socialist Paul Singer and others.

The special feature of the association was the high proportion of high-ranking and exposed representatives of Berlin society. Among other things, the statutes provided for the association members to be present in their daily work. How often this happened to the named people is unclear, but this example characterizes the characteristics of the liberal bourgeoisie of the time. This location of the association in the richer classes of society was an important reason why the association was able to exist for a long time both economically and in its function.

The association was mainly supported by liberal Berlin Jews. When an appeal for donations appeared in the Vossische Zeitung in 1893 , numerous anti-Semitic postcards were also received.

The association's accommodations differed significantly from other existing options for the homeless, such as the urban homeless asylum “Palme” in Prenzlauer Berg , which opened in 1866 . At the Berlin Asylum Association there was neither a compulsory work nor an obligation to participate in prayers. The principle of anonymity applied to asylum seekers. Until 1910, the police had no right of access to the asylum. Until 1914 there was a warm meal every day in addition to accommodation.

First accommodations

The most important task was the establishment of a women's asylum. As early as December 7, 1868, the association signed a lease for rooms in a former artillery workshop building on the corner of Dorotheen Neue Wilhelmstrasse. On December 12th, a call was issued to the people of Berlin asking them to join the association or to enrich it with contributions. As early as the end of 1868, the women's asylum was largely usable. At that time it already had the capacity to accommodate 60 people, who could spend the night here on bed frames with spiral mattresses, which were supposed to counteract the uncleanness of wooden beds that is common in other similar establishments.

The asylum for homeless men followed in 1873. It was first located at Büschingstrasse 4 in what was then Königstadt , near the women's prison . Today an information board reminds of this.

The meadow castle

In December 1897, a new building was completed on Wiesenstrasse in Gesundbrunnen between Panke and the Berlin Ringbahn , which could provide shelter for 700 men on an area of ​​12,000 m². This was made possible, among other things, by a large donation from the doctor Moritz Gerson.

"Wiesenburg" memorial plaque

The asylum called “Die Wiesenburg” was designed by the architects Georg Toebelmann and Otto Schnock . In addition to the dormitories and the dining room, the buildings that still exist today also offered living and conference rooms for the supervisors and the association. There was the possibility of showering and bathing, washing clothes and a library. As before, the Social Democrat Paul Singer remained the curator of the men's asylum. Rudolf Virchow campaigned for hygiene in the accommodations, for example the Wiesenburg had its own heater that heated the bath water. Almost all the rooms had electric light and running water and were fitted with easy-to-clean terrazzo floors .

In 1906 another 400 beds for women were added. In addition to the homeless, migrant workers , harvest workers and maids also used the asylum. During this time the Wiesenburg counted around 300,000 overnight stays a year.

It was not until the beginning of World War I that the building was partially used for military purposes. The donation-financed Berlin Asylum Association ran into financial problems. The asylum continued with financial support from the city of Berlin. From 1924, parts of the site were rented to private users. From 1924 the SUM-Vergaser-Gesellschaft manufactured carburetors for motorcycles and airplanes here. Other industrial tenants followed. In 1926 the entire site was leased to the Berlin Jewish Community , which continued to operate it until 1933. The National Socialists closed the home in 1933 and used the building for the production of party flags and later for the production of armaments. Forced laborers were locked in the basement . In 1944/1945 the Wiesenburg was largely destroyed in Allied air raids. The official residence and parts of the women's asylum have been preserved.

In the 1950s, various small businesses settled on the site and the ruins. Bombed out families used the preserved buildings as living space.

The legal succession of the Asylum Association as the owner of the site was unclear between the descendants of the association's founders and the State of Berlin.

At the beginning of the 1980s, attempts to build high-rise buildings on the site failed due to resistance from residents. Parts of the buildings fell into disrepair, and artists and creative people rented rooms and used the site for their own purposes. Spiegel online described the Wiesenburg in spring 2015: “A dreamy place ... an insider tip. Crumbling walls, wild wine falls over empty window openings, a birch tree is rooted in stairs, mysterious doors. ... A Swedish painter from Stockholm has his studio here, dancers practice for their performances, an artist builds his wooden sculptures. There is a music studio, a concert room and a huge wild garden. The capital has only a few places that enchant in this way. "

Planned renovation and redesign

After a lack of clarity about the ownership structure, courts finally decided that the land and buildings belong to the State of Berlin. On April 1, 2014, the State of Berlin transferred the property to the Berlin housing company degewo . At the end of March, they sent requests to the residents that larger parts of the site would soon be blocked and on April 2, 2015, parts of the site were blocked because, according to degewo, they were no longer safe and in danger of collapsing. The residents themselves protested against the closure of the parts of the area, which had developed into a place of art, culture, but also as an extracurricular learning location for students from the neighborhood over the past decades. A nationwide press coverage was the result. At the beginning of April 2015, degewo announced that it was not planning to drive out the previous residents and artists and that any development of the site would only be planned together with them.

In October, the “Socially Integrative City” committee of BVV Berlin Mitte met on the Wiesenburg and unanimously decided that the association - the Wiesenburg e. V. - and the Pankstrasse district management should be included in the upcoming development and planning phase. The association “die Wiesenburg e. V. ”developed a future concept for the location, which was selected at the“ Players of Change ”conference for innovative urban development ideas and which was broadly endorsed by the district council.

At the end of November / beginning of December 2015 degewo closed all studios and workshops - again because of the alleged danger of collapse. According to degewo, a so-called "domino effect of the collapsing cap ceiling in the basement" could lead to large parts collapsing - even in parts where there are no basements. The association of residents and commercial tenants - the Wiesenburg e. V. - who is designing a socio-cultural center on the Wiesenburg in cooperation with QM Pankstraße, believes that degewo aims to demolish most of the buildings and can plan this more freely without the commercial tenants. By the beginning of January 2016, degewo had taken further traffic safety measures so that the existing use can be continued without endangering life and limb.

reception

In the Weimar Republic, many writers and politicians visited the Wiesenburg to find out more about the Asylum Association and to get to know the milieu. The visitors included Rosa Luxemburg , Hans Fallada , Carl von Ossietzky , Erich Kästner and Heinrich Zille , who also used the impressions from there in their work.

The Wiesenburg has been used several times as a backdrop for films. Fritz Lang shot scenes from the film M - A city seeks a murderer here . In November 1978, the Wiesenburg building served as the backdrop for the fire in the Danzig synagogue during the shooting of Volker Schlöndorff's film The Tin Drum . Also in 1978 the book adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel Ein Mann wants nach oben was made in the Wiesenburg . In 1981 Rainer Werner Fassbinder shot parts of his film Lili Marleen here .

Web links

Commons : Asylum for the homeless (Berlin-Gesundbrunnen)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Andre Glasmacher: Collapsing old buildings . In: Jüdische Allgemeine , May 1, 2008
  2. ^ A b c d e f g h i Peter Wensierski: Gentrification: Berlin is doing away with bit by bit . Spiegel Online , March 31, 2015
  3. ↑ a b c Sean Bellenbaum: Wiesenburg . ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (PDF) Industrie Kultur Berlin, September 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.industrie-kultur-berlin.de
  4. ^ Daniel Gollasch: Wiesenburg: The displacement from paradise . Weddingweiser, March 28, 2015
  5. ↑ a b Annette Kögel: Derelict Wiesenburg is now being renovated . In: Der Tagesspiegel , April 4, 2015
  6. ↑ Ulf Teichert: The peculiar rescue of the meadow castle . In: Berliner Abendblatt , April 16, 2015
  7. ↑ berlin.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berlin.de  
  8. ↑ diewiesenburg.de .
  9. ↑ Dorit Knieling: ardmediathek.de ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. RBB Aktuell, December 3, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ardmediathek.de
  10. ^ Andrei Schnell: Wiesenburgers have to leave the premises . Weddingweiser, December 4, 2015