Club of Berlin

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Headquarters of the Berlin Club ( Jägerstrasse  1). Left of the old club building (both part of the Hamburg representation )

The Club of Berlin regularly organizes lectures for its members followed by discussions on current issues of civil society as well as meetings at politically and culturally interesting places in the city. Founded in 1864 as an open platform for exchange, the club in the capital was and is an important meeting place for well-known people from business, politics, culture and science.

Today the club has around 300 members, whose membership fees finance club life, with over 20 events per year. His club rooms are back in the Jägerstraße in Berlin district of Mitte .

history

The Club of Berlin was founded on October 8, 1864 as a society with the purpose of "the sociable association and entertainment of its members". The English men's club was the model. It was led by a five-member board of directors elected by the members, of which Lauchlan MacLean was chairman from 1864 to 1877 , who u. a. belonged to the Prussian state parliament from 1850 to 1855 and held the title “Real Secret Upper Government Council” as Ministerialdirektor in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. At that time the club had around 180 members, in 1918 there were around 300, after which the number rose to over 700 members.

The club resided in the specially built clubhouse at Jägerstraße 2/3 since 1893 . It had a library, a wine cellar, a restaurant, gaming rooms and a bowling alley. It was popularly known as the “Millionaire Club” because its members included wealthy industrialists, bankers and ministers. In Berlin alone there were twelve such clubs at the end of the 19th century. The Club of Berlin was supposed to serve "social entertainment" and intellectual exchange. In addition to bankers and industrialists, the club included political figures, but also artists such as Oskar and Reinhold Begas , Martin Gropius and Richard Strauss and scientists such as Ferdinand Sauerbruch . The club also included Jews , but most of them were converts .

The decline of the club began during the National Socialist era . In 1938 the Club of Berlin and the German (men's) club (Berlin) merged to form the German Club of Berlin . However, this no longer played a special role in the social life of the capital. Jewish members had to leave the club.

In 1945 the club was banned by the Allies . The club's house was expropriated in 1945 by the Soviet military administration and handed over to the Bund der Kulturschaffenden , the later Kulturbund , which established its headquarters around the corner on Mauerstraße. In 1949 the building at Jägerstrasse 2 was converted into public property by the GDR and the seat of the club for cultural workers . In West Berlin , club members rented rooms on Kurfürstendamm for their lectures , but the number of members fell continuously. Club life was largely extinct in the 1980s. At the end of the 1980s there were just 25 members, including the bankers Hermann Josef Abs and Johannes Zahn .

With the German reunification , the club was revived in a contemporary form. Since 1993 the club has been called the Club of Berlin again . He gave himself a new statute and allowed women as members.

The property at Jägerstrasse 2 was taken over by federal property and in 1998, together with the corner house at Jägerstrasse 1, was sold to the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , which opened Hamburg's federal representation there in 2000 . The association's headquarters are again today at Jägerstrasse 1, in several rooms that are rented by the City of Hamburg.

In 2014 the club celebrated its 150th anniversary. State Minister for Culture Monika Grütters gave the keynote address .

Club life

The Club of Berlin wants to create a protected space in which analyzes and action plans for the further development of society can be developed and discussed openly and confidentially. With its diverse events, lectures and discussions - currently there are around 20 events per year - it wants to increase the language skills of its members and initiate changes, not only for Berlin, but also beyond. Only members of the club and invited guests have access to the events of the club.

It has been a registered association since 2004 . It is recognized as a non-profit organization and is financed primarily through the contributions of its around 300 members.

The club has a board of directors and a board of trustees . According to the statutes, the highest organ is the general assembly.

building

Entrance to the old clubhouse, around 1898

The building, which was built between 1892 and 1893 by the architects Heinrich Joseph Kayser and Karl von Großheim for the Club of Berlin and is now a listed building, is now used by the State Representation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the federal government and the Club of Berlin. It was given a richly designed facade made of sandstone in the neo-baroque style on Jägerstrasse , while the facade on the courtyard, which opens onto Mauerstrasse, was framed in neo-Renaissance style with glazed bricks and red sandstone. Rebuilt after damage in the Second World War , from 1999 onwards it was repaired with renovation and modernization by the architects Dinse, Feest + Zurl . The staircase and the sequence of rooms in the halls have been preserved from the original interior.

→ See also: Building of the Club of Berlin

Members (selection)

The club was founded in 1864 as an association of well-known merchants, scientists, politicians and artists. They include (s):

literature

  • Ariane Knackmuß, Marion Welsch (Ed.): Welcome to the club? The history of the Berlin Club and the fate of its Jewish members under National Socialism . Lexxion Verlag, 2007.

Web links

Commons : Club von Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The ups and downs have tradition. In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 8, 2014