Carstenn figure
In Berlin, the Carstenn figure is a regular urban street structure with an avenue in the center of a circumferential street that is captured by four squares .
The original first figure of this kind was planned in 1870 in today's district of Wilmersdorf by the land developer Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carstenn and named after him. The shape of the Carstenn figure results from its boundaries and the assignment of the same to its center. Today's Bundesallee (laid out between 1872 and 1874 under the name Kaiserstraße , it was called Kaiserallee until 1950 ) forms the central axis and four representational and decorative spaces - designed as green areas - the corner points of the figure, which at the time were surrounded by residential buildings.
history
Carstenn bought the site of the former Wilmersdorfer Rittergut in 1870 and had today's Bundesallee built here. Carstenn, who was considered the initiator of private urban planning, wanted to build a country house settlement here. He had the first development concepts drawn up and also provided the planning for the associated infrastructure . In connection with the founder crash of 1873, however, he had to file for bankruptcy, which meant that the area and the roads that had already been laid out remained largely undeveloped. The two Carstenn figures have stood the test of time as a geometric system of streets and squares in the northern and southern sections of today's Bundesallee.
The Wilmersdorfer figure
The corner points of the original Carstenn figure are Fasanenplatz , Nürnberger Platz , Prager Platz and Nikolsburger Platz . The northern boundary is formed by the Schaperstraße , which runs in a slight curve , the southern boundary is formed by the Trautenaustrasse . The Prague street or today Graniauer road are the eastern and Pheasant Street and Nikolsburger road the western boundaries of the fabric. These streets and squares thus close to form a ring, from which several streets run in a star shape to a central section of the Bundesallee, where the Spichernstraße transfer station is now located, which connects the two underground lines U3 and U9 . These are Hohenzollerndamm , Meierottostraße , Nachodstraße and Spichernstraße .
In the 1960s, Bundesallee and Spichernstrasse were expanded into main thoroughfares and the character of the entire complex was thereby destroyed; Nürnberger Platz can no longer be recognized as a designed square.
- Geographical location of the Wilmersdorfer Carstenn figure: 52 ° 29 ′ 42.7 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 51.1 ″ E
The Friedenau counterpart
In 1871, a comparable Carstenn figure was planned and realized in the southern area of Bundesallee. At that time, Carstenn and the architect Johannes Otzen designed the Friedenau country house colony as an English- style villa suburb . Here, too, a circulating street ( Stubenrauchstrasse and Handjerystrasse as a horseshoe-shaped arch with the northern connection through Mainauer , Senta and Evastrasse and the Bundesallee in the center) forms the Friedenau Carstenn figure. The four squares were Berliner Platz (later: Maybachplatz , today: Perelsplatz ), Wilmersdorfer Platz (today: Renée-Sintenis-Platz ), Schmargendorfer Platz (today: Schillerplatz ) and Hamburger Platz (today partly through the Schöneberg III cemetery overbuilt). Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz forms the central point of the axis, with Bundesplatz (at that time: Kaiserplatz ) in the north and today's Walther-Schreiber-Platz (formerly: Rheineck ) in the south delimiting the central axis of the figure in the district . This counterpart of the Wilmersdorfer Carstenn figure still defines the strict geometric cadastral structure of Friedenau today .
The " car-friendly redesign " of Berlin in the 1960s intervened here too: The Bundesplatz was tunneled under and lost its cohesion; Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz is only surrounded by traffic on one side, which since then has largely been diverted asymmetrically into Schmiljanstraße .
- Geographical location of the Friedenauer Carstenn figure: 52 ° 28 ′ 20 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 42 ″ E
The connection between the two figures
Both figures are directly connected to one another via the street system. The former Kaiserallee was interrupted by the Wilmersdorfer See (today: Volkspark Wilmersdorf ) and had to be swiveled a bit after it was backfilled, but the streets of Prinzregentenstrasse and Handjerystrasse directly connect both parts in the east between Prager Platz and Renée-Sintenis-Platz together. This was not quite achieved on the west side: Landhausstrasse and Weimarstrasse (which was directly connected to Stubenrauchstrasse before the construction of the Ringbahn ) are separated from each other by the Volkspark Wilmersdorf.
Map with all coordinates: 