Berolinahaus

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Berolinahaus from the southeast

Berolinahaus is the name of a high-rise building built from 1929 to 1932 on Berlin's Alexanderplatz . The building designed by the architect Peter Behrens is considered an outstanding example of classical modernism in the New Objectivity style and has been a listed building since 1975 . It is used as a mixed office and commercial building.

history

background

Alexanderplatz was already a very popular square at the end of the 1920s. At that time, public transport crossed on five different levels and three new underground lines were supposed to complement mobility in the near future. Since overcrowding was becoming an ever greater problem at the same time, City Councilor Martin Wagner announced an architecture competition for the redesign of Alexanderplatz. At the same time, the city bought additional plots for expansion. The winners of the competition were the brothers Hans and Wassili Luckhardt . However, since the investor did not agree with their plans, he commissioned Peter Behrens, whose competition design was awarded 2nd prize. The emergence of National Socialism and the global economic crisis stopped further implementation of the project. Only the Alexander- and Berolinahaus, which were also the last fully completed projects of the architect, were realized .

construction

The Berolinahaus, 1953

The construction, which began in September 1929, had to be erected under the difficult conditions of a densely populated square in a large city. Since the underground lines E (today: U5 ) and GN (today: U8 ) were built in addition to the major construction site, the building material either had to be stored in the basement or delivered in such a way that it could be installed immediately for reasons of space. Berolinahaus was among the first buildings in Germany, where already in the building shell , the building services has been scheduled. For the establishment of the house, the groundwater had to be pumped out over a large area up to the Red City Hall for three years . The building itself was placed on a 1.20 meter thick concrete tub in the sand underground. After two years of construction, the Berolinahaus was opened in January 1932.

Since opening

The textile retail chain C&A , which opened its first branch in Germany on Alexanderplatz in 1911, is one of the hotel's first tenants . The first floor housed the legendary Swing -Etablissement Café Braun (later: Berolina ), which was already accessible via escalators and paternosters . The roof terrace offered a garden that was used as a dance floor and lawn. C&A occupied the first and second floors. The damage during the Second World War was not serious, so that the Soviet headquarters soon moved into the building. In 1952 the Berlin magistrate and later other administrative authorities moved in. At the beginning of the 1950s the house was renovated and the shelled facade was repaired. However, the work was carried out without taking the original design into account, so that little more than the grid of the concrete skeleton remained. The first fast food in the GDR was opened in 1955 in a room on the ground floor with bar tables and ten food and drink machines (only lemonade and four types of beer were offered). The visitor to the “machine snack” first had to purchase special machine coins at the cash register.

The last authority in the Berolinahaus, the district office in Mitte, left the building in 1998. For the next seven years the house was empty until the owner - Landesbank Berlin - managed to sell the property to a real estate company in 2004, who had a listed renovation and Restoration initiated to restore the original condition. The renovation, which lasted from 2005 to September 7, 2006, under the leadership of the architect Sergei Tchoban, cost around 25.5 million euros. The old pillar spacing of 5.30 meters was doubled on the first two upper floors, as they no longer met today's requirements for sales outlets. This doubling of the grid required a complete static realignment. In order to redistribute the forces, appropriate load collectors were built on the third floor - two 80 centimeter thick and more than 80 meter long concrete walls.

description

View from the television tower on Alexanderplatz The Alexanderplatz station at the bottom as well as the Galeria Kaufhof on the left side and the front situated People's Friendship Fountain frame the Berolinahaus. To the right of it are the Urania world clock and the Alexanderhaus .

Location, surroundings and name

The Berolinahaus is located on the southwestern edge of Alexanderplatz and has the address Alexanderplatz 1. Together with the "twin building" Alexanderhaus opposite the southeast facade and also designed by Behrens, the ensemble conceptually forms a gate-like access to Alexanderplatz and served as a model for the renovation of Alexanderplatz, which was planned by the architect Hans Kollhoff . To the northwest of the Berolinahaus is the building of the Galeria Kaufhof Berlin-Alexanderplatz - formerly the Centrum Warenhaus . Alexanderplatz train station is adjacent to the west .

Berolina is the Latinized form of the name Berlin. The building was named after the colossal statue of the same name, not far from the current location of the Urania world clock . The 7.50 meter high and around five tons heavy copper statue showed a woman with an oak wreath. After the end of the Second World War, it was melted down due to a shortage of materials.

architecture

The cuboid Berolinahaus stands on a rectangular plot of land 74 meters long and 22 meters wide. The eight upper floors measure 30.3 meters to the edge of the flat roof. The two basement floors protrude up to eight meters below street level. The building has access to the Berlin underground network in the basement . The facade is dominated by grid-like square windows, which are grouped twice on the long sides and triply on the south-east transverse side. By dividing the box windows into four squares, the entire facade appears as a symmetrically grid pattern of holes. The north-west facing transverse side of the house was originally windowless and served as a fire wall , but was given a triangular protruding glazed bay window during the last renovation , which extends over two floors. The house has a gross floor area of ​​16,500 square meters, of which 5,200 m² are not used as retail space and around 7,000 m² are available for office space.

The light-colored cladding consists of foam lime ( lower shell limestone ), which comes from Freyburg in Saxony-Anhalt . On the transverse side, a vertical light box made of frosted glass protrudes over the roof, protruding from the facade and flush with the also cantilevered first floor. This glass gallery on the first floor extends around the entire building. The lobby of the house is clad with the same dark serpentine as the exterior facade of the ground floor. The wall cladding in the entrance hall is laid out with polished brass and the banisters are modeled on the original state with extensive locksmith work. The floor is made of black granite. The basement is designed with glazed ceramic stones in a green-turquoise color.

literature

  • Bernd Hettlage: Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin. Stadtwandel Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86711-000-6 .
  • Markus Sebastian Braun (eds.), Haubrich, Hoffmann, Meuser, van Uffelen: Berlin. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-03768-051-3 , p. 135.

Web links

Commons : Berolinahaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The Alexander and Berolinahaus
  2. a b Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , p. 4
  3. a b Gernot Jochheim : The Berlin Alexanderplatz . Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-391-7 , p. 124 .
  4. Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , p. 6
  5. a b Berlin. The Architectural Guide , p. 135
  6. Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , p. 8
  7. ^ Salzmann: Fast food at the Alex . In: Youth and Technology . Junge Welt, Berlin 1955, p. 46-47 .
  8. Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , pp. 10, 15
  9. Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , p. 16
  10. Berolinahaus Alexanderplatz Berlin , pp. 6, 7

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '17.5 "  N , 13 ° 24' 44.9"  E