Brixplatz

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Brixplatz
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Place in Berlin
Brixplatz
View over the central lake
Basic data
place Berlin
District West end
Created 1909
Hist. Names Place F,
Sachsenplatz
Confluent streets
Reichsstrasse ,
Westendallee
use
User groups Pedestrians , cyclists , road traffic , public transport
Technical specifications
Square area Trapezoid
base sides:
190 m, 140 m
legs: 100 m

The Brixplatz is a park of city space size in the Berlin district of Westend the district Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf . In the development plan of Neu-Westend he was originally a place F reported. In 1909 it was named Sachsenplatz and was renamed on July 31, 1947 after the architect and temporary rector of the Technical University of Charlottenburg, Josef Brix .

Creation and concept

The children's playground on Brixplatz

On the site of a gravel pit , a green area the size of a town square was designated in connection with the planned Neu-Westends residential area in 1909. The first plans for a park that would preserve the existing depression were taken up and specified in 1913 by the newly appointed Charlottenburg City Garden Director Erwin Barth . Barth was inspired by the Klettenbergpark in Cologne , which had been designed by his teacher Fritz Encke . Because of the First World War , it could only be realized between 1919 and 1922. The 2.1  hectare park is intended to bring the city residents closer to the geology , flora and fauna of the Brandenburg area. The rock formation on the east side reproduces the Rüdersdorfer limestone cliffs. In addition, there are situations with boulders , a gravel pit with Scots pine and artificially created pond and swamp areas as biotopes for plants and animals from the Berlin area, which were not open to the public until 1960. The design was based heavily on the existing topography and has height differences of up to 14 meters.

A school garden was laid out on the northeast corner and a children's playground on the southwest corner. The inner, lower-lying area of ​​the park with an artificial lake as the center was closed to visitors in order to ensure the undisturbed development of flora and fauna , but was opened to visitors in 1960. Since the beginning of 2006, this has led to parts of the facility being damaged by vandalism .

Artist colony

Due to the attractive location, many celebrities moved into the apartment buildings, especially on the south side of the park. The boxer Max Schmeling met his future wife, the actress Anny Ondra , who lived in the neighboring house . The social focus was probably the cabaret artist, poet and painter Joachim Ringelnatz , who lived there from 1930 until his death in 1934 with his wife Leonharda, known as "Muschelkalk", and his dachshund "Frau Lehmann". He and many of his friends were regular guests in the "Westend-Klause" pub on Steubenplatz, which still exists today . In addition to Schmeling and Ringelnatz, the actor Willi Forst lived in the same building at Sachsenplatz 11 .

The composer Paul Hindemith lived in house number 2 , as well as the actor and director Veit Harlan , today best known for his later anti-Semitic inflammatory films such as Jud Suss , with his wife, the actress Hilde Körber and his children. The actress Henny Porten moved in 1935 with her husband of Jewish descent from their Dahlem villa to Sachsenplatz because she did not consent to the politically desired divorce. Due to the Nuremberg race laws , they were only allowed to keep their cook, which was not enough to manage the large Dahlem villa. Both survived the era of National Socialism on Sachsenplatz.

Todays use

The Brixpark is now partially maintained by the private park initiative Brixplatz on a voluntary basis , after a management abandonment was considered in 2003 due to scarce municipal funds.

At Sachsenplatz: the nightingale

Ringelnatz immortalized Brixpark with the poem Am Sachsenplatz: The Nightingale , the beginning of which is shown on the Ringelnatz plaque at the entrance to Brixpark:

It sang one night ...
Eine Nachti ...
Yes Nachtigall
Am Sachsenplatz
This morning. - Did you
ever hear that in Berlin ? - She sang, it seemed
to me, for me. For Ringelnatz.
And yet it embarrassed me
because she sang the same exultation that rang through the hearts of
all poets of old
in her verses.
In beautiful verses!
Nightingale
Please visit
Sachsenplatz from time to time;
I live there. - I know that you are
not looking for verses from Ringelnatz.
And yet the enthusiasts were right,
who sang about you good and bad.

literature

  • Stephan Brandt: Berlin-Westend. Sutton, Erfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-86680-458-6 , pp. 51-53.
  • Dietmar Land, Jürgen Wenzel: Home, nature and cosmopolitan city. Life and work of the garden architect Erwin Barth. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-7338-0338-8 .
  • Clemens Alexander Wimmer: Parks and Gardens in Berlin and Potsdam . Ed .: Senator for Urban Development and Environmental Protection, Dept. III - Garden Monument Preservation. 3. Edition. Nicolai, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-87584-267-7 , pp. 21-23 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brixplatz . Year 1919 in the online exhibition 100 Years of Landscape Architecture from the Association of German Landscape Architects . Retrieved March 27, 2014.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 10 ″  N , 13 ° 15 ′ 17 ″  E