Alsen Colony

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Map of the Colonie Alsen 1883 (top is west)

Colonie Alsen is the 1863 Berlin district of Wannsee ( Steglitz-Zehlendorf ) by the banker Wilhelm Conrad founded summer villa colony on the north bank of the little ones and the western shore of Lake Wannsee .

The magnificent villas of this noble Berlin colony, embedded in a park , represented a unique cultural landscape from the time of the Empire and the Weimar Republic . Few houses have survived today, so that the total work of art that was created at the time can only be guessed at.

history

Wilhelm Conrad, an enthusiastic nature lover and water sports enthusiast, had the idea of ​​building a country house colony on Wannsee, where one could spend the summer months in nature and on the water in the so-called "good company". At that time, the Wannsee was still far outside the city of Berlin , and so the project was quite a risk. Conrad was managing director of the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft and began buying the property in 1863 in the village of Stolpe - located at Reichsstrasse 1 (today: Bundesstrasse 1 ) of the inn "Stimmings Krug" on Königstrasse and also the forest and heath area further away from the village the purchase of land. Soon the property comprised around 320  acres .

Conrad Gustav Meyer , Berlin's municipal horticultural director and student Peter Joseph Lenné , was able to win over the parceling of the land and the creation of a road and development plan . In 1868 he began selling the land. The first buyers were predominantly members of the exclusive gentlemen's club “ Club von Berlin ”, to which Conrad also belonged, wealthy business people, industrialists, bankers, artists and scientists who had business and private contacts with one another. With his own summer residence, the "Villa Alsen", Conrad built the colony's first building in 1870. In 1872 there were 64 residents in twelve villas. In 1890 there were 189 people.

Gustav Meyer's concept developed into a successful and unique total work of art - in keeping with the times, to a certain extent the educated counterpart to the nearby Klein Glienicke Landscape Park of Prince Carl of Prussia , which was created by Lenné and Schinkel from 1816 onwards.

Naming

Zinc copy of the Idstedt lion after the restoration in 2005

In 1872 the colony was named Colonie Alsen . Conrad's brother-in-law, General Louis von Colomier is said to have suggested this naming, as the Wannsee location reminded him of the Baltic Sea landscape on the island of Alsen . With this, the colony - in the sense of the nationalist-patriotic attitude typical of the time - made reference to the Danish War with the decisive Prussian victory of the North German Confederation on the island of Alsen in 1864 , in which General von Colomier played a key role. The Seestrasse in the colony was later renamed Colomierstrasse after him.

The zinc copy of the Idstedt lion , which was set up in 1874 (older data say 1869) in the elevated mountain park (also called "Switzerland"), commemorates this event. Today the lion, restored in 2005, stands on the Wannsee shore in Heckeshorn , where the colony merges into the Düppeler Forest .

Transport links

In order to connect the colony to Berlin in terms of transport technology, Conrad came up with the idea of ​​building his own railway connection from Berlin to Wannsee - the Wannsee Railway . He also successfully implemented this second bold project as the “crazy train running on Conrad” or “bankers train” mocked by the Berliners - certainly partly due to the fact that he himself was chairman of the supervisory board of the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg railway company . On June 1, 1874, the first trains were still partially running on the Potsdam railway line. In 1891 the very own route was then completed - with the connection of the so-called " main line " from Zehlendorf to Wannsee (today S-Bahn line S1). It went on to Neubabelsberg , where it switched back to the main line and made the connection to Potsdam . The Wannseebahn also attracted many day-trippers thanks to its favorable suburban tariff and is still one of Berlin's popular excursion routes today. The original station building in the style of historicism was replaced in 1927/1928 by the building by Richard Brademann in the style of Expressionism and New Building , which still exists today .

Slow decline

The villa colony, with its representative villas, dream houses, “castles”, magnificent gardens, sailing clubs and associations, was a lively focus of the illustrious life of the upper middle class, oriented towards the classical ideal of education. The New Wannsee Cemetery is also part of the colony. Along with other celebrities, Conrad himself found his final resting place here in a grave of honor in the city of Berlin.

From 1900 many villas in the colony were equipped with central heating and double windows, making them permanent residents for the majority of the owners. The influx stagnated when new villa suburbs emerged in Nikolassee , Schlachtensee and Dahlem . After the First World War , some residents of the colony could no longer keep their villas due to inflation and had to sell. In the 1930s, many of the Jewish residents were forced to sell and emigrate . Until 1941, owners of Jewish origin were expelled, expropriated or murdered. Their property then passed into the hands of prominent Nazis and / or was used for National Socialist institutions.

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , there was finally war damage to many villas and houses, as the Volkssturm was supposed to stop the advance of the Red Army into the city of Berlin with the help of Nazi troops - as a last bastion .

Many of the orphaned or looted villas were used as hospitals and recreational facilities by the Allies after the end of the war, or they were converted into school camps. Another “destruction” of the villa colony and the village of Stolpe came about as a result of the building boom and the associated building sins of the 1970s. The "Villa Alsen" - Wilhelm Conrad's summer residence - had to give way to the construction of an apartment complex and a hotel.

Individual villas

Liebermann Villa from 1909
Villa Marlier, house of the 1941 Wannsee Conference
  • Country house of the publisher Carl Langenscheidt , Colomierstrasse 1/2; Carl Langenscheidt, son of the founder of the publishing house Gustav Langenscheidt , had a country house built in the half-timbered style by Bodo Ebhardt in 1899 . In 1901 a stable building with a coachman and servant apartment was added. The property is still owned by the family.
  • Springer house of the publisher Ferdinand Springer , Am Großen Wannsee 39/41; Built in 1901 by the architect Alfred Messel ; Stone building with a steep mansard roof with pan cover and clapboard-clad gables; The client's father, Julius Springer , founded Springer-Verlag for scientific and technical literature.
  • Liebermann Villa , Colomierstrasse 3; 1909designedby the architect Paul Baumgarten in collaboration with the client and painter Max Liebermann ; After the extensive restoration, the house now forms an artistic unit of architecture, gardens, original paintings and documentation of the life of the artist and his family as a museum.
  • Villa Alsen , Königsstrasse 4; Wilhelm Conrad's country house, built in 1870 by Julius Hennicke and Hermann von der Hude in the late classicist style; Demolished in 1970 and replaced by an apartment complex and the Wannseeblick Hotel.
  • Villa Arons , Am Großen Wannsee 5; Villa built in 1875 for the banker Heinrich Leo by Julius Hennicke and Hermann von der Hude ; It was acquired in 1880 by the banker Barthold Arons , whose son Bruno Ahrends later built a country house on the property at Am Großen Wannsee 6, which he also acquired.
  • Villa Herz , Am Großen Wannsee 52/54; romantic “fairytale castle” built by Wilhelm Martens for the manufacturer Paul Herz in a neo-Romanesque castle-like style.
  • Villa Marlier ( House of the Wannsee Conference ), Am Großen Wannsee 56/58; Built in 1914 by Paul Baumgarten for the entrepreneur Ernst Marlier ; In 1941 the Nordhav Foundation bought the villa. The Wannsee Conference took place here on January 20, 1942 , the content of which was the organization and coordination of the deportation and extermination of the entire Jewish population of Europe.
  • Villa Siemens , Am Kleine Wannsee 5c. Arnold von Siemens , the eldest son of the inventor and entrepreneur Werner von Siemens , had thebuilding, which is now a listed building, built according to the plans of the architects Paul and Walter Hentschel in the years 1886–1889. The building is now used for various medical and organizational facilities at the Immanuel Hospital in Berlin.
  • Villa Schönberg , Bismarckstrasse 30a
  • Villa Ravené, Königstraße 69 (demolished: 1967)
  • Villa Alsen , Königstrasse 3/4 (not preserved)
  • Wannseeheim , Hohenzollernstraße 14, architects: Alfred Breslauer / Paul Salinger, current use: Wannseeforum (Goethe-Institut Germany)
  • Villa Feist-Wollheim, Hohenzollernstraße 10, architect: Carl Koeppen (year of construction: 1913/1914)
  • House Franck, Hohenzollernstrasse 7, architects: Philipp Franck / Emil Lange (year of construction: 1909), residents: Philipp Franck (impressionist painter, co-founder of the Berlin Secession, director of the Prussian State Art School) and family
  • Villa Lenz , Hohenzollernstrasse 20a / b, architect: Otto Stahn (?) (Year of construction: 1913/1914), residents: Erich Schultz-Bundte (entrepreneur) and family (Lenz); 1912/1913 acquired by Wilhelm Conrad (banker and founder of the Alsen villa colony)
  • Villa Tiemann , Petzower Straße 7, architect: Heinz Schild (year of construction: 1876)
  • House Blanvalet , Am Kleinen Wannsee 31, Wilhelm Conrad / Varanovsky (year of construction: 1888/1929), residents: Lothar Blanvalet (publisher)
  • Villa Baudouin, Am Kleinen Wannsee 16, architects: Alfred Breslauer / Paul Salinger (year of construction: 1905), residents: André Baudouin (businessman)
  • Haus Rühmann, Am Kleinen Wannsee 15 (not preserved), architect: unknown (year of construction: around 1930)

literature

  • Hinnerk Dreppenstedt, Klaus Esche (Ed.): All of Berlin. Walks through the capital. 3. Edition. Nikolai, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89479-139-X .
  • Country houses and villas in Berlin & Potsdam. Volume 2: Ingo Krüger : Little Wannsee. Aschenbeck & Holstein, Delmenhorst u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-932292-57-X .
  • Country houses and villas in Berlin & Potsdam. Volume 3: Ingo Krüger: Großer Wannsee, Colonie Alsen, Villa Liebermann. Aschenbeck & Holstein, Delmenhorst u. a. 2005, ISBN 3-932292-57-X .
  • Anke Stemmann: Max Liebermann Villa on Wannsee Berlin. (=  The new architecture guide. 82). Stadtwandel, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-937123-88-1 . (Brochure about the Colonie Alsen and the Liebermann Villa).
  • Klaus-Dieter Wille: 43 walks. History in Wilmersdorf and Zehlendorf. (=  Berlin Kaleidoscope. 25). Hessling, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-7769-0180-2 .
  • Michael Haupt (Ed.): Villa colony Alsen on the Great Wannsee. Accompanying volume for the exhibition in the Memorial and Education Center House of the Wannsee Conference. House of the Wannsee Conference, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-9813119-3-8 .
  • Nils Aschenbeck: Villas in Berlin - Kleiner Wannsee. Michael Imhof Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-660-2 .

Web links

Commons : Colonie Alsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lieselott Enders : Historical local lexicon for Brandenburg: Teltow (= Historical local lexicon for Brandenburg . Volume 4). Verlag Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1976.

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 '38 "  N , 13 ° 9' 38"  E