Embassy district (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Today's embassy district as an area in the Berlin-Tiergarten district (colored orange)

The embassy quarter (also: diplomatic quarter ) is a quarter in the Berlin district of Tiergarten . The embassy district forms the western (and larger) part of the Tiergarten district , so the name is sometimes used synonymously with the Tiergarten district. The name-forming use of the area by embassies began in 1878 through the embassy of Imperial China . Today there are almost 30 embassies there.

Demarcation and location

The embassy district forms the western part of the Tiergarten district. In the north, the area is bounded by the Großer Tiergarten or Tiergartenstrasse . Tiergartenstrasse is only built on on the south side. In the south, the quarter is bounded by the Landwehr Canal and the Reichpietschufer that follows it . To the east, Stauffenbergstrasse borders the quarter, which is followed by the Kulturforum and Potsdamer Platz . The embassy district tapers to the west, where the extension of the zoological garden forms the border of the quarter.

The following larger streets are located next to the streets already mentioned in the embassy district or limit it: Stülerstraße is the extension of Tiergartenstraße in a westerly direction, it branches off to the south and becomes Budapester Straße after crossing the Landwehr Canal . The Klingelhöferstraße crosses the embassy district from north to south and south of the Landwehr Canal to the Budapest court. The Von-der-Heydt-Straße forms the extension of Reichpietsch bank to Klingelhöferstraße.

The following smaller streets run in an east-west direction: Corneliusstraße and then to the west Drakestraße follow the course of the Landwehr Canal and form its banks. The Köbisstraße branches off from the Reichpietschufer and becomes Rauchstraße after crossing the Klingelhöferstraße . The Thomas-Dehler-Straße forms the western end of the embassy district, the border of the Tiergarten.

The following smaller streets run in north-south direction, enumerated from west to east: Lichtensteinallee is only preserved as a dead end, the southern part is now the site of the Berlin Zoo. The Drakestrasse angles from the Landwehr Canal to the north and must therefore also be listed under the north-south streets. Thomas-Dehler-Straße also angles south from the Tiergarten. The Clara Wieck road is a newly created connection between Tiergartenstraße and Köbi road. Hiroshimastraße and Hildebrandstraße run parallel and connect Tiergartenstraße and Reichpietschufer. The distance between Hiroshimastraße and Hildebrandstraße is about 65 m compared to the rest of the parceling out of the district, so that the plots in between are not divided and only have access from one side.

history

From Albrechtshof to villa district (1861–1933)

Villa Hainauer, one of the representative residential buildings on the former Albrechthof

The area of ​​the embassy quarter lay outside the Berlin customs wall and was not incorporated into Berlin until 1861. The new city district has been called the Tiergarten since 1884.

The western part of the embassy district - on the north side of the Landwehrgraben (from the opening of the canal in 1850, today's Landwehr Canal) between today's Klingelhöferstrasse and Lichtensteinallee was named Albrechtshof from 1835 after the landowner, a widow Albrecht. The northern Uferstraße on the Landwehr Canal was called Albrechtshof-Ufer from 1849, before it was given the name Corneliusstraße, which is still valid today, in 1867. The Albrechtshof was parceled out before 1865, and Friedrich Hitzig presented the development plan in 1863 .

By the end of the 19th century, a number of magnificent villas were built in the area, all of which, with the exception of Villa von der Heydt, were destroyed in the Second World War or previously fell victim to renovation plans. These representative residential buildings included, for example:

  • 1855: Single house at Stülerstrasse 1, designed by Friedrich Hitzig 
  • 1860–1863: Villa von der Heydt in today's Von-der-Heydt-Straße 16–18, designed by Hermann Ende
  • 1865–1867: Villa August Kabrun in Rauchstrasse 17/18 at the corner of Drakestrasse, design by the architects Ende & Böckmann   (see also there .)
  • 1874: Home of the master builder Hennicke at Rauchstrasse 19, design by Hude & Hennicke 
  • 1877: Villa for the banker Oscar Hainauer at Rauchstrasse 23, designed by Hude & Hennicke 
  • 1885: Villa of the Secret Commerce Councilor Stephan at Rauchstrasse 16 at the corner of Corneliusstrasse, design by Ludwig Heim 
  • 1892–1893: Paul Meyerheim's house at Hildebrandstrasse 22, designed by Alfred Messel

The embassy district of Berlin at the end of the 19th century was the Alsenviertel , near the government district. The first embassy located between the Landwehr Canal and the Tiergarten was the embassy of Imperial China in 1878 . By 1933 a good dozen other diplomatic embassies had settled there. The missions of the Netherlands (No. 10, destroyed in the war, today the open area of ​​the zoo ), the Holy See (No. 21, destroyed in the war, today the Rauchstraße eco-house is located on the property), Romania (No. 26, destroyed in the war, today the auditor's house) and Czechoslovakia (No. 27, destroyed in the war, on the property today the new building of the Mexican embassy). In 1933 the embassies of Egypt resided in Tiergartenstrasse (No. 18b, destroyed in the war, on the property today the new building of the South African embassy), Turkey (No. 19, destroyed in the war, today the same embassy), Persia (No. 33, destroyed in the war, today the new building of the Saudi Arabian embassy) and Sweden (No. 36, destroyed in 1943, there today the new building of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung ). Further missions in the district were in 1933 at Corneliusstrasse 8 ( Hungary , destroyed in the war, the eco-houses Corneliusstrasse are located there today), at Hildebrandstrasse 5 ( Estonia , undestroyed, embassy again since 2001), at Hiroshimastrasse 22, at that time Hohenzollernstrasse ( Greece , Building still exists, currently in ruins) and in Stülerstrasse No. 9, then Hitzigstrasse ( Peru , destroyed in the war, there is now a new residential building).

Conversion as a result of the "Germania" plans (1933–1941)

Map of the twelve planned buildings in the Berlin Tiergarten embassy district

The embassy district was planned as part of the development plan for the “ World Capital Germania ” by the National Socialist chief architect Albert Speer and his authority General Building Inspection (GBI) on the southern edge of the Berlin zoo .

The area known today as the embassy quarter in the Tiergarten district has been declared a new diplomatic quarter. Twelve embassy buildings were to be erected there in order to create space for the execution of Speer's plans in the government district near the Brandenburg Gate as the embassies moved away, which would go beyond all previously known urban planning standards.

According to these plans, new buildings were built for the following agencies:

  • Danish embassy on the west side of Drake Street ( ⊙ ), now a hotel
  • Italian embassy on the south side of Tiergartenstrasse ( ⊙ ), today embassy again
  • Japanese embassy on the south side of Tiergartenstrasse ( ⊙ ), today embassy again
  • Yugoslav Legation at the corner of Rauchstrasse and Drakestrasse ( ⊙ ), today the seat of the DGAP
  • Norwegian embassy corner Rauchstraße / Drake ( ⊙ ), today, partly an office building of the Georgian Embassy used
  • Spanish Embassy Lichtensteinallee at the corner of Thomas-Dehler-Straße ( ⊙ ), today embassy again

For the following diplomatic missions, new buildings were built or existing buildings were converted. These buildings were destroyed in the war:

  • Finnish Legation, north side of Rauchstrasse
  • French Consulate General, southwest corner of Tiergartenstrasse and Hiroshimastrasse
  • Swiss Legation, Lichtensteinallee on the corner of Landwehrkanal, the existing embassy building in Alsenviertel was not demolished as planned, today the property on Lichtensteinallee that is intended for the new building belongs to the zoo

The Speer construction staff planned a new building for the following diplomatic missions, but this was not carried out after the start of the war:

  • Argentine Embassy, ​​south side of Thomas-Dehler-Strasse
  • House of the " Fascio " at the southern end of Hiroshima Street
  • Czechoslovak Legation on the north side of Rauchstrasse, after the break-up of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Legation moved to the former Czechoslovak Legation at Rauchstrasse 27, the new building was omitted

  • Japanese Embassy (1940)

  • Italian embassy

  • Spanish embassy

  • Yugoslav Legation

  • Norwegian Legation

Between 1939 and 1944 a number of air raid shelters were built in the embassy district for the diplomatic missions. These special bunkers (also called mission bunkers) are rather small compared to type buildings. Some of the bunkers were integrated into the building, as was the case with the underground bunker under the garden terrace of the Yugoslav legation. Others of the mission bunkers were separated from the embassy buildings, such as the flat bunker behind the nunciature (Rauchstrasse 21) or the two flat bunkers of the Danish and Spanish embassies, which were accessible from Lichtensteinallee. These four bunkers still exist today.

Destruction and the post-war period (1942–1976)

From 1943 onwards, the embassy district was largely destroyed by increasingly severe air raids by the Allies , as well as damage and building losses during the capture of Berlin by the Red Army . Chuikov's troops reached the Landwehr Canal from the south on April 27, 1945. The highly competitive flak towers in the zoological garden were only a few hundred meters away from the embassy district, which was also in the way of a panning through the zoo and the Reichstag . On May 2, 1945 the fighting in Berlin was over. An inventory from 1979 shows 16 buildings or building complexes in the approximately 40  hectare area north of the Landwehr Canal and west of today's Stauffenbergstrasse, of which only 13 were from the pre-war period:

In the western part of the district between Zoo and Klingelhöferstrasse, only the Café am Neuen See and its bunkers (1), the Spanish embassy (2), the Danish embassy (3), the Norwegian embassy (4), the Yugoslav embassy (5) survived the bombing war ) and the Villa Rauchstrasse 25 (6). At the end of the war, Villa Rauchstrasse 25 was the only building still in existence in the four-hectare area between Klingelhöferstrasse, Stülerstrasse and Landwehr Canal - today known as the Tiergarten Triangle . In the eastern part of the quarter between Klingelhöferstrasse and Stauffenbergstrasse, only the Villa von der Heydt (7), the Krupp representative office (8) (today: Canisius-Kolleg), the Japanese embassy (9), the Italian embassy (10 ), the Greek legation (11), the Estonian legation (12) and the Bendlerblock complex (13). Of these thirteen buildings, twelve are now listed , with the only exception being the Café am Neuen See.

In the post-war period until the end of the 1970s, the area changed only slightly. Rubble was cleared and the remains of buildings removed. Between 1964 and 1971, some bunkers in the area around Rauchstrasse , which had been built as "mission bunkers " until 1944, were demolished. There was no longer any need for embassies in the west of the divided city of Berlin. Until 1979 there were only a few new buildings: The Mormon Church (A) on Klingelhöferstraße was built in 1972/1973. From 1976 to 1979 the new Bauhaus Archive (B) was built on the Landwehr Canal. The residential building at Rauchstrasse 19/20 (C) was built as part of the IBA. At the southern end of Stülerstraße, there is another building (D) listed in 1979.

IBA and the end of division (1977–1990)

Portal arch with sculpture
City villa at Rauchstrasse 5, architect Hans Hollein

The International Building Exhibition (IBA) was an architecture exhibition including an urban planning concept, organized and implemented by the Berlin Senate from 1977 to 1987. The main focus of the IBA was the "critical reconstruction" of the historical cityscape in inner-city areas. This should be done by renewing the old building stock (IBA old) as well as by adding new buildings to the stock (IBA new). In both programs, emphasis was placed not only on maintaining the established cityscape, but also on social aspects and ecological building . In the embassy district, three new IBA projects were carried out as part of the IBA: "Four town villas", "Town villas on Rauchstrasse" and "Ökohäuser Rauchstrasse / Corneliusstrasse". There were no IBA old projects in the embassy district, as there was hardly any old building material left. Historically, there was never a closed perimeter block development in the embassy quarter ; instead, spacious villas dominated . All three projects took up this type of loose development, but still carried out densification.

The residential building at Rauchstrasse 19/20 (“Four City Villas” ⊙ ) was built between 1978 and 1982 based on designs by Bangert , Jansen , Scholz and Schultes (BJSS). Four closely placed cube buildings, each with four floors, are connected by bridges, and thus form the corner pillars of the loosely enclosed inner courtyard. Each of the four buildings contains four maisonette apartments with loggias and high windows. There is a garage in the basement .

Rob Krier conceived the project “Stadtvillen an der Rauchstrasse” with his urban development winning design from 1980. This divided the block between Rauchstrasse in the south and the edge of the Tiergarten (Thomas-Dehler-Strasse) in the north into ten building plots, only one of which has already been announced the Norwegian Embassy was cultivated. A semi-public green space was to be created in the middle of the block. A free-standing building was built on each of the building plots, with the two buildings at the western end of the block being combined into one unit. These two houses combined form a portal to the inner area of ​​the block, over whose passage a sculpture by Rob Krier is attached, which shows a larger than life bust of a man with a gold helmet. Although these buildings were referred to as city villas, they are five-story apartment buildings with a square floor plan, flat roof and five apartments per floor. The designs for the individual houses came from:

  • Rob Krier himself (double building Stülerstraße 2/4 ⊙ and Rauchstraße 6 ⊙ )
  • Aldo Rossi (Thomas-Dehler-Straße 7, corner of Drakestraße ⊙ )
  • Henry Nielebock (Thomas-Dehler-Straße 5 ⊙ )
  • Di Battista & Grassi et al. (Thomas-Dehler-Straße 3 ⊙ )
  • Brenner & Tonon (Thomas-Dehler-Straße 1 ⊙ )
  • Valentiny & Herrmann (Rauchstrasse 4 ⊙ )
  • Hans Hollein (Rauchstrasse 5 ⊙ ).

The new buildings were built in 1985. For the planning and design of the individual buildings, Krier's draft had strict specifications with regard to the square basic grid of 21 meters and visual axes . The number of floors and detailed specifications for use per floor and apartment sizes resulted from the funding conditions for the construction as social housing in the 1st funding route or as a tax-privileged form of ownership in the 2nd funding route. As a result, the design concept was severely restricted; the solitaires essentially differ only in the variation of the façades and the staircase floor plans. Architecture critics attribute this arbitrariness, which is limited to surfaces, to postmodern architecture . The square floor plan in particular turned out to be less than ideal for a successful division. Overall, the construction phase is nevertheless considered to have been carried out successfully and of high quality.

On the southern side of Rauchstrasse opposite the “Stadtvillen” is the IBA project “Ökohäuser Rauchstrasse / Corneliusstrasse”, with which Frei Otto wanted to implement ideas for ecological building. Three buildings (Rauchstrasse 12 and Corneliusstrasse 11/12) with a total of 26 residential units were erected on a plot of approximately 4000 m² according to designs by Frei Otto and Hermann Kendel . These followed Frei Otto's concept of the "tree house", in which the supply core of a high-rise building is interpreted as a trunk, the platforms as branches and the apartments as nests. In this infrastructure of one to two-story building sites, which were stacked three times on top of each other in a concrete shell, the residents were supposed to build their individual one to two-story houses themselves. A lot of emphasis was placed on greenery and the use of solar heat. The start of construction was delayed to 1988, after the end of the IBA. Due to a lack of interest in self-construction and due to coordination problems within the community of owners, the original concept was shared: In the two south-facing houses facing Corneliusstrasse (south-west: ⊙ , south-east: ⊙ ), 18 subsidized condominiums were built; the north- facing house facing Rauchstrasse (north: ⊙ ) was used as Apartment building erected in social housing. In 1991 the buildings were completed. After completion, the post-modern aesthetics of the “patchwork facades” were criticized, especially the bricolage of the south side facing the Landwehr Canal. The interplay of participatory, self-determined building and ecology is also questionable, because the rigid concrete framework and the planning, regardless of neighboring building sites, create thermal bridges that would counteract the heating savings through passive insulation. In addition, the structural analysis of the "concrete shelves" and the individual houses planned and built later made it necessary to use pillars to support them later.

New buildings and conversions since the capital city decision in 1991

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, German reunification in 1990 and the capital city resolution in 1991, diplomatic missions moved from Bonn to Berlin. The state representations also followed because the Bundesrat , Bundestag and federal government had relocated their headquarters to Berlin. As far as there were diplomatic missions in East Berlin , these hardly met the requirements for space and representational purposes of an embassy in the all-German capital in terms of size and design. The embassy quarter, which was largely empty and close to the government quarter, was ideal for new buildings and renovations, especially since some states still owned land or partly dilapidated buildings in the quarter.

The embassies of the following countries moved to the embassy district since 1991 and used converted old buildings for this purpose:

The embassies of the following states (or the representations of the following federal states) have moved to the embassy quarter since 1991 and built new buildings:

The following representative buildings were erected by foundations, political parties, associations and corporations under public law:

The Bendlerblock is located in the south of the block between Hildebrandstrasse and Stauffenbergstrasse. The Federal Ministry of Defense moved in here . The German Resistance Memorial Center was set up at the historic site where the attack on July 20, 1944 was planned and destroyed . The newly erected Bundeswehr memorial is geared towards the new tasks of the Bundeswehr since the end of the Cold War.

Other office buildings were built by private investors, some for their own use, such as the KPMG solitaire at Klingelhöferstrasse 18, and some for mixed use by other office tenants. Hotels have also been built in the embassy district since 1991, one in Drakestrasse 1 as a result of the conversion of the former Danish embassy, ​​the other as a new building in Stülerstrasse 6.

Residential buildings have also been newly constructed in the embassy district since 1991. The largest project was developed by the Groth Group and Diamona & Harnisch under the name "Diplomatic Park". Ten townhouses were built along Clara-Wieck-Strasse. Each of the buildings has four floors, plus an attic, a basement and an underground car park. The second major new residential building project is located at Köbisstrasse 1–5. There, four buildings with a total of 16,800 m² of living space were constructed according to designs by Walther Stepp (wing structures) and Hilmer & Sattler (central structure), divided into 91 apartments. The residential complex is marketed under the name “Hofjäger-Palais” and was ready for occupancy in 2006. The last vacant lot to be closed with residential buildings for the time being was the building on the corner of Von-der-Heydt-Strasse and Köbisstrasse, which the project developer calls "Heydt Eins". The building is divided into 66 rather small apartments and was ready for occupancy in 2016.

literature

  • Harald Bodenschatz, Cordelia Polinna: Learning from IBA - the IBA 1987 in Berlin . Senate Department for Urban Development, Berlin 2010, urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-136959 .
  • Matthias Donath: Architecture in Berlin 1933–1945 . 2nd Edition. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-936872-26-2 .
  • Kerstin Englert, Jürgen Tietz (ed.): Embassies in Berlin. 2., ext. Edition. Tanning Mann Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-7861-2494-8 .
  • Wolfgang Schächen : Architecture and urban development in Berlin between 1933 and 1945. Planning and construction under the aegis of the city administration. 2nd Edition. Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-7861-1178-2 . (At the same time dissertation at the TU Berlin )
  • Martin Wörner, Doris Mollenschott, Karl-Heinz Hüter (ed.): Architectural Guide Berlin. 5th edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-01180-7 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the designation and previous names according to Kaupert's street directory
  2. ↑ Overview of the new division of the city of Berlin into districts and districts. Grunert, Berlin 1884.
  3. ^ Edition Luisenstadt, 2008: Albrechtshof-Ufer in Berlin-Tiergarten . Retrieved September 16, 2008.
  4. ↑ Development plan and perspective view for Albrechtshof, Berlin in the holdings of the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin
  5. ↑ Single house at Stülerstrasse 1, Berlin-Tiergarten in the holdings of the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin
  6. ^ Villa Kabrun, Berlin-Tiergarten in the holdings of the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin
  7. ^ Residence of the master builder Hennicke, Berlin-Tiergarten in the holdings of the architecture museum of the TU Berlin
  8. ↑ Architectural sketchbook , year 1877, booklet 4, sheet 4
  9. ↑ Villa of the Commerce Council Stephan, Berlin. in the holdings of the Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin
  10. ^ Residence Prof. Paul Meyerheim, Berlin-Tiergarten in the holdings of the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin , further views in the holdings of the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin
  11. ↑ Berliner Adreßbuch , edition 1933. Scherl, Berlin 1933, urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-1-4187665 , part III, item 122 , pp. 11-12.
  12. ↑ Hans J. Reichhardt and Wolfgang Schächen: From Berlin to Germania: about the destruction of the Reich capital by Albert Speer's redesign plans . Catalog for an exhibition at the Landesarchiv Berlin, November 7, 1984 to April 30, 1985. Landesarchiv, Berlin 1985.
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Schächte: Architecture and urban development in Berlin between 1933 and 1945 - planning and building under the aegis of the city administration . Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-7861-1178-2 . (At the same time dissertation at the TU Berlin, cited from the 2nd edition)
  14. ↑ Dietmar Arnold, Reiner Janick: Sirens and packed suitcases: Bunkeralltag in Berlin Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-953-7 , p. 44.
  15. ↑ Measurement of the area between the inner edges of Thomas-Dehler-Straße, Stülerstraße, Tiergartenstraße, Stauffenbergstraße, Reichpietschufer, Herkulesufer, Corneliusstraße, Drakestraße and the extension of Lichtensteinallee to the shore, Lichtensteinallee results in around 42 hectares, but without subtracting the inner street areas.
  16. ^ Building mass plan for the area of ​​the International Building Exhibition, inventory 1979 . In: Josef Paul Kleihues (Ed.): Series of publications on the International Building Exhibition Berlin 1984/87 , The New Buildings , Documents - Projects, Issue 3 - Südliche Friedrichstadt, Stuttgart 1987, p. 44.
  17. ↑ Dietmar Arnold, Reiner Janick: Sirens and packed suitcases: Bunkeralltag in Berlin Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-953-7 , p. 182.
  18. ↑ Dietmar Arnold, Reiner Janick: Sirens and packed suitcases: Bunkeralltag in Berlin Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-953-7 , p. 90.
  19. ↑ a b no. 148: Four connected “city villas” in Rauchstrasse 19/20. In: Martin Wörner (Ed.): Architekturführer Berlin , 5th edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-01180-7 , p. 92.
  20. ↑ No. 58, Four linked urban villas . In: Derek Fraser: The Buildings of Europe: Berlin . Manchester University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7190-4022-1 , p. 62.
  21. ↑ a b c d Harald Bodenschatz, Cordelia Polinna: Learning from IBA - the IBA 1987 in Berlin. Pp. 70-73.
  22. ↑ Master plan for city villas on Rauchstrasse. In: arch INFORM .
  23. ↑ Gert Kähler : Apartment and rule . In: Günther Fischer (ed.): Farewell to postmodernism . Vieweg & Teubner, Braunschweig 1987, ISBN 3-528-08764-1 , pp. 195-197.
  24. ↑ Kim Förster: How to build, how to continue living? . In: Bauwelt . No. 20 (2015), pp. 28–29.
  25. ↑ Frei Otto's tree houses in Berlin-Tiergarten , references on sdg21.
  26. ^ Köbis triangle: Chinese Cultural Institute, Klingelhöferstrasse 21 on the website of the Berlin Senate Administration
  27. ↑ C. v. L .: A touch of Elbchaussee at the Tiergarten . In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 16, 2008.
  28. ↑ Uwe Aulich: Investor: Decision based on gut feeling. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 29, 2012.
  29. ↑ Uwe Aulich: Heydt Eins: in Tiergarten luxury apartments for commuters. In: Berliner Zeitung , October 20, 2013.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 5, 2019 .