Dönhoffplatz
| Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz Dönhoffplatz |
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|---|---|
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|
 Dönhoffplatz on a postcard before 1905 |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Berlin |
| District | center |
| Created | 18th century |
| Newly designed | around 2007 |
| Confluent streets |
Leipziger Strasse (north) , Kommandantenstrasse (east) , Krausenstrasse (south) , Jerusalemer Strasse (west) |
| Buildings | Spittelkolonnaden , milestone copy |
| use | |
| User groups | pedestrian |
| Space design |
Hermann Mächtig (19th century) Erwin Barth |
| Technical specifications | |
| Square area | around 20,000 m² |
The Dönhoffplatz in Berlin on Leipziger Strasse in the Mitte district was a square and green area named after the Prussian Lieutenant General Alexander von Dönhoff between the 1740s and 1975 . In 1979, during the GDR era , a reconstruction of the Spittelkolonnaden was set up on the nameless green area, which was named Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz in 2010 .
The area was redesigned several times, including according to plans by the garden architects Hermann Mächtig and Erwin Albert Barth . The area of today's Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz is the same as that of the old Dönhoffplatz, except for a slight shift and straightening.
location
The historic Dönhoffplatz took up an area of around 22,000 m² and was bordered by the streets Leipziger Strasse (north), Kommandantenstrasse (east), Krausenstrasse (south) and Jerusalemer Strasse (west). In the 1970s, high-rise buildings in the Leipziger Strasse residential complex were built on around half of the old square. A small playground was created at the southwest corner.
The current facility was not built until the late 1970s. Along with the reconstruction of the southern Spittelkolonnaden was 1979, a copy of the historical mile column from the old Dönhoffplatz to a new place ensemble collages . The stone obelisk ("Mile Zero") was erected there in 1730 as the beginning of the distance to Potsdam .
Dönhoffplatz 1734 to 1914
The later Dönhoffplatz was created on an open area in front of the Leipziger Tor when the fortifications were removed in 1712. Initially the area was called the Esplanade in front of the Leipziger Tor , then the Großer Markt , because until the construction of market halls in the entire Berlin urban area (around 1889), outdoor trading took place here. Deciduous trees grew around the square, on it a stone obelisk (" mile pointer") was erected in 1730 , which was used as the beginning of the distance to Potsdam (mile zero and later part of the trunk road 1 ).
The commander of Berlin, Alexander von Dönhoff , whose Dönhoff infantry regiment was to be stationed in the area and drilled on the square, received an order from King Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1734 to build houses around the square to "regulate" it. Dönhoff himself also lived on the square (today: Leipziger Straße 75/76). After the development, the square was given its name in the 1740s, which goes back to Dönhoff, initially written Dönhofscher Platz . Since 1750 at the latest, the square has been recorded as Dönhoffplatz or Döhnhofischer Platz on Berlin city maps and in the address books.
The place name was a sign of the appreciation of the Dönhoffs in the Prussian monarchy . The Dönhoffs had emigrated from Westphalia to Livonia and Poland in the Middle Ages and had established themselves in the Duchy of Prussia in the 17th century . The descendants of Count Friedrich von Dönhoff, the "progenitor" of the Prussian line, increased the influence of the family. His son Alexander von Dönhoff served as major general and played an important role in the Katte trial.
During the 18th century, numerous aristocratic palaces were built on Leipziger Strasse. The most famous building on Dönhoffplatz was the Hardenberg Palace at Leipziger Strasse 75 (today: Leipziger Strasse 55). State Chancellor Prince von Hardenberg had his place of residence and work in the building named after him from 1804. After 1848 the Prussian state parliament moved into the building.
In 1852 an English company had received a concession to build a waterworks in Berlin. a. also a fountain for the Dönhoffplatz. This lion fountain stood directly in front of the obelisk.
In the Prussian state parliament on Dönhoffplatz between 1859 and 1866 there was a dispute between progressive liberals, the nobility and the king about the reform of the army, the constitutional conflict, called for by the crown. The MPs feared that the abolition of the Landwehr would strengthen the king and weaken parliament. This conflict was resolved by Otto von Bismarck with a budget trick . The Berlin Liberals underlined the demands with the erection of the monument to Baron vom Stein. The erection of the statue was delayed by the king for several years until 1875. Obelisk and fountain had to give way when the bronze sculpture by the sculptors Hermann Schievelbein and Hugo Hagen in honor of Baron von Stein was finally erected on the edge of the square . With the base, the monument was 7.80 meters high.
Other buildings on the square, such as the Tietz department store (in which Berlin's first escalator was set in motion on December 22, 1925), the Reichshallen (theater and concert hall), and commercial buildings on Krausenstrasse and Leipziger Strasse were added over time.
The free area in the middle was decorated with green spaces for the first time in 1887, based on a design by Horticultural Director Hermann Mächtig . Already 14 years later Erwin Albert Barth came up with new plans to transform Dönhoffplatz into a decorative square: a green area with water fountains in an octagonal lawn and small trapezoidal beds with low bushes were created.
In 1907, a 2.80 meter high bronze monument was erected on the southern edge of Dönhoffplatz for the Baron von Hardenberg , which the sculptor Martin Götze had created. The unification of the Prussian reformers on Dönhoffplatz seemed sensible from the point of view of the contemporaries, since "their joint reform work forms the foundation for today's state and constitutional life in Prussia."
At times, Dönhoffplatz was the terminus of various lines on the Berlin tram .
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Wilhelm II's reign , in June 1913, festivals were held in the center of Berlin. The streets and squares were particularly spruced up - the Dönhoffplatz received a 15-meter-high airship memorial . The sculptors Hermann Feuerhahn and Georg Roch had designed an obelisk under the direction of the architect Bruno Möhring , which contained the names of twelve German airship and aviation pioneers ( Zeppelin , Stosfeld, Berson , Daimler , Heinrich and others) in large designed medallions. The memorial was made of “perishable material” (probably plaster ) and was dismantled after the festive season.
Dönhoffplatz 1914 to 1948
In 1925, seven years after the end of the First World War , those responsible in Berlin's city administration began thinking about improving traffic management in the Leipziger Strasse area. The planner Hermann Jansen prepared a sheet of traffic regulation proposals for Dönhoffplatz , on which the intersection of Leipziger and Jerusalemer Strasse and a corner of the square are shown. As a snapshot you can see a telephone booth, a hand pump "for the coachman" and a sales house for silk stockings right on Dönhoffplatz. As a result of this planning, Leipziger Strasse was widened from 1929, for which the area of Dönhoffplatz had to be reduced.
During the Weimar Republic , the square was increasingly perceived as a recreational area on one of Berlin's most popular shopping streets, Leipziger Strasse. The boycott of Jewish businesses after the seizure of power by Hitler particularly hit the Dönhoffplatz because with " Hermann Tietz that time the largest department store in Europe was established 'there, then 1,934 victims of the" Aryanization was. "
While the National Socialists kept the monuments of the civil reformers Stein and Hardenberg on the edge of the square and also the name Dönhoff, they devoted themselves to the center of the square with verve. In 1935 the Wilhelm-Lach-Tower was erected there, also called the “clock of life”. The small bell tower got the inscription:
“Nine children are born every five minutes in the German Reich - seven people die every five minutes. This tower is dedicated to the memory of the first National Socialist mayor in the Mitte district, P [artei] g [enosse] Wilh [elm] Lach. Born June 9, 1901 - died July 6, 1935. "
At the end of the Second World War , the buildings surrounding the square were badly damaged and were largely demolished during the clearing and reconstruction of the city center.
Dönhoffplatz in East Berlin (1948 to 1990)
The historical policy of the SED , which was in power in East Berlin , included the programmatic eradication of unwanted memories of the Prussian monarchy. Numerous street names, buildings and monuments disappeared from the cityscape of Berlin. Hardenberg's memorial, damaged in the war, was gradually cleared away. The last documents to demonstrate the disappearance are a photo from 1948 and the list of monuments from 1949. In 1948 the base of the monument was still visible, in 1949 it was listed for the last time in the Berlin list of monuments. Since then it has been considered lost.
The Freiherr vom Stein on Dönhoffplatz, on the other hand, was used as a “key witness” for the German-Soviet friendship. At the stone monument, the GDR called for German reunification under socialist leadership. At the celebration of Stein's 200th birthday in 1957, the GDR was praised as the fulfillment of Stein's “innermost wishes”.
From 1969 on Leipziger Strasse was rebuilt and the stone memorial was placed in a depot; the Dönhoffplatz became a construction site. Joachim Näther's collective planned to supplement the ensemble with a replica of the Spittelkolonnaden , thereby transforming Dönhoffplatz into an “oasis of relaxation”. The decisive change began with Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik and the move from Ulbricht to Honecker . After signing the basic treaty with the Federal Republic in 1972, the GDR did not want to be reminded of its own national propaganda of the 1950s. In 1975 the magistrate decided not to re-erect the stone monument and to take its name from the square. However, it was not made public in this way, but in the new city maps the area was now simply nameless. In close coordination with Erich Honecker, the East Berlin chief architect Roland Korn developed the new ideological planning for the square. Instead of the stone monument, a replica of the old post milestone was commissioned. This was rebuilt a few meters from the original location. Korn held on to a replica of the Spittelkolonnaden with parts of the southern original, which had been dismantled in the 1920s to enlarge Leipziger Strasse. The plaque attached to the colonnade “Destroyed in the fascist war of robbery and conquest. Rebuilt by the workers 'and peasants' power ”is therefore only half true (only the northern parts of the ensemble were actually destroyed). The new colonnades and the post column gave Leipziger Strasse with its modern high-rise buildings a historical color.
After Stein was reassessed in the course of the GDR policy of "tradition and heritage", the stone monument was rebuilt in 1981 under the Honecker government in front of the building of the GDR Foreign Ministry on Unter den Linden . After the reunification of Berlin in the 1990s, the statue was moved to a new location in front of the Berlin House of Representatives . Members of the of Walter Momper founded association "statue for Berlin e. V. ”, collected the money for the re-erection of the Hardenberg monument, estimated at around 250,000 euros. A new memorial was cast on the basis of a model casting from the Hardenbergs' private collection and was also erected in front of the House of Representatives in June 2011.
Dönhoffplatz after 1990
In 2010, the District Council Assembly (BVV) in the center of Berlin decided to name Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz, which has been nameless since 1975 , in memory of Marion Countess Dönhoff's achievements for reconciliation with Eastern Europe and her advocacy of democratic journalism . The decision was taken in March 2011. A display board on the west side of the milestone provides information about the name giver.
Worth seeing in the area around the former square
- The copy of the milestone
- the replica of the southern Spittelkolonnaden ,
- some listed buildings in the Krausenstrasse such as a former armory, now a 4-star hotel,
- Commercial buildings in Krausenstrasse,
- Erich Mendelsohn's old Mossehaus on the corner of Schützenstrasse and Jerusalemer Strasse,
- the Axel Springer high-rise ,
- the Bundesdruckerei on Kommandantenstrasse,
- the Friedrichstrasse as well
- the in the Lindenstraße located Jewish Museum .
literature
- Christian Haase, Jörn Kreuzer: "Germany can only be saved by Germany": the struggle for the national legacy of the Wars of Liberation on Berlin's Dönhoffplatz in the 19th and 20th centuries . Nottingham 2011.
- Institute for Monument Preservation (ed.): The art and architectural monuments of the GDR, capital Berlin . tape I . Henschel, Berlin 1984, p. 150, 210, 227, 230 .
- Wolfgang Ribbe, Jürgen Schmädicke: Small Berlin story . Stapp, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-87776-222-0 .
- Hans-Werner Klünner: Berlin squares . Photographs by Max Missmann . Nicolai, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-87584-610-9 .
- Harald Neckelmann: The Leipziger Strasse in Berlin . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-86680-446-3 .
Web links
- Dönhoffplatz . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
- Hermann Jansen: Traffic regulation proposals, Berlin. Dönhoffplatz, 1925
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Unless otherwise noted, all results are taken from the following article: Christian Haase, Jörn Kreuzer: Germany can only be saved through Germany - The struggle for the national legacy of the wars of liberation on Berlin's Dönhoffplatz in the 19th and 20th centuries. University of Nottingham 2011. nottingham.ac.uk . Further information on Dönhoffplatz can be found on the memorial plaque created by the authors on Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz in Leipziger Straße
- ↑ Berliner Platz , ... p. 10
- ↑ places . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative Tables , 1799, p. 205.
- ^ Street register . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative Tables , 1801, street representations and residents, p. 216.
- ↑ The session building of the Customs Parliament . In: The Gazebo . Issue 20, 1868, pp. 309 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - woodcut).
- ^ Berlin archive . Archiv-Verlag, Braunschweig 1980–1990, collection sheet 05049
- ^ Andreas Hoppe (ed.): Space and Time of Cities: Urban Self-Logic and Jewish Culture since Antiquity . 12 from Interdisciplinary Urban Research. Campus Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-39536-4 ( Google Books ).
- ↑ Berliner Platz , ... p. 56
- ↑ Ground plan of the green areas. In: Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin
- ↑ Berliner Platz , ... p. 57
- ↑ Views of Dönhoffplatz in 1925 in the Architekturmuseum Berlin
- ↑ Homepage of Helmut Caspar
- ↑ The Hardenberg memorial no longer exists. ( Memento from July 3, 2007 in the archive.today web archive ) In: Berliner Morgenpost , October 26, 2002
- ↑ Why Berlin receives a second Hardenberg memorial. ( Memento from April 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Berliner Lindenblatt , February 14, 2008
- ^ Memorial of Prince Hardenberg unveiled (May 31, 2011) .
- ↑ Krausenstrasse 35/36
- ↑ Office buildings at Krausenstrasse 9/10 Office buildings at Krausenstrasse 17/18
- ↑ Office buildings at Krausenstrasse 19/20
- ↑ Mosse House, Schützenstrasse 18-25
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Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '37.8 " N , 13 ° 23' 53.2" E