German House (Prague)

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Former German House (2015)

The German House in Prague was the seat of the association of the same name and from 1875 to 1945 a center of social life for the city's German-speaking population. Its purchase as a club house was decided by the German Casino Association, founded in Prague in 1862 (since 1916 the German House Association ), at the 1867 general assembly.

Purchase of the Palais Vernier

Location of the building (marked in yellow) in the center of Prague

The choice fell on a representative building in one of the main streets of Prague Am Graben (Na prikope), which was built in 1760 on the filled-in moat between Prague's Old Town and New Town . This palace was built in the Baroque style from 1695 to 1700 for Freiherr Johann Joseph (the younger) Vernier de Rougemont and Orchamp (died 1764), KkKämmerer, at Medleschitz near Chrudim , married to Katharina Millesimo in 1755 . The former Vernier'sche Palais , adjacent to the Piarists - school , the Palais Sylva-Tarouca (named after the Silva-Tarouca (noble family) ) and the Prague Powder Tower in 1797 by Franz Heger in the style of Classicism rebuilt, then still had a deep garden, strictly cut boscettes and colorful parterres. The complex shows a drawing from around 1790. The part that was left in the middle of the 20th century, a restaurant garden, was a pale memory of it.

After all sales negotiations had been concluded, the house owner at the time could not make up her mind to sign the purchase agreement with the Deutsches Casino association , which was sponsored by Anton Kiemann (1836–1922), lawyer in Prague, brother of Johann Kiemann , state lawyer in Prague . The association then reached a settlement with the heirs. They undertook to hand over the house to the association within six months of the owner's death in return for payment of the value-secured sales price. On July 31, 1873, the Palais Vernier finally became the property of the association and, as the Deutsches Haus, became a social center in Prague.

Expansion of the German House

In the autumn of 1873 work began on redesigning and converting the building, installing gas lighting; in 1891 this was replaced by electric light and a garden hall and a music pavilion were built. According to the plans of the Viennese architect Sattler, the Prague-based construction company Kirpal und Linsbauer built a wing structure with the hall of mirrors and the hall of columns, which was completed in 1875. The official opening of the house of the Verein Deutsches Casino took place on December 12, 1875.

On October 25, 1886, a house on Heuwaagplatz (after 1945 Gorki Square (Gorkeho namesti), named after the Russian writer Maxim Gorki , today part of the Republic Square (Prague) ), including a garden, was purchased. The two garden areas were subsequently merged and designed uniformly. A reading room was created in 1889 through renovations.

Due to the inadequate spatial situation in the German House , Emil von Förster worked out a building plan in 1895 . In 1896, a committee of the German Casino Association drew up a building program, on the basis of which an architectural competition was advertised for the planned new building. The architects Kuder and Müller from Strasbourg emerged as the winners of this competition . Their design was revised together with the chief inspector Deistler and the architect Schwarz by 1898. However, since this did not meet the building regulations in force in Prague or the ideas of the association, it was revised again from 1899 in the office of the court architect Alfons Wertmüller in Karolinenthal . Because of the expected high costs, the club's management decided in 1900 not to build a new building, but to convert the existing building. In 1901 the pillared hall, the dining and play rooms were renovated and a lounge was built.

In 1903 another house, also on Heuwaagplatz, adjacent to the clubhouse, was acquired and demolished by the club. Between February and November 1906, a new building was built in its place by court architect Alfons Wertmüller according to plans by the architect Josef Zasche . From 1908 onwards, the interior was fitted out with rental apartments.

In 1907 two more houses belonging to the association were demolished. The association wanted to build a one-story gatehouse in their place in order to have access to a side street. This project was not approved by the city administration. Therefore, the garden was enlarged and a high wall was built against Heuwaagplatz.

From around 1903 the planning work for the construction of a large hall began. Josef Zasche made the first plans. These plans became concrete in 1907 through a resolution of the general assembly. The administration of the city of Prague raised an objection, which became apparent in a communication from the Administrative Court of May 13, 1910. Because of the lengthy legal negotiations expected, the association withdrew its project. The room layouts were retained as before. In 1913, an architectural competition was advertised for the new construction of the German House, which the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) prevented. In 1916, the German Casino Association changed its name to the German House Association

After the First World War

After the establishment of Czechoslovakia and the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after 1919, the term Deutsches Haus was no longer officially allowed to be used. The restaurant was designated as Restaurant 26 after number 26.

In February 1933 it was decided to build a new clubhouse. The construction project was carried out in two construction phases. The so-called Grabenhaus on Hauptstrasse had to be preserved as it had been a listed building since 1909. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 9, 1933. After the shell of the first construction phase had been completed on July 1, the demolition work continued. The shell of the second construction phase was completed on November 17, 1933, and a restaurant was put into operation on March 10, 1934. The official opening took place on May 3, 1934.

The new building of the German House comprised apartments for the staff of the house, utility rooms, club rooms, some halls in a basement and four floors - the largest of them offered around 650 square meters of space for around 2,000 participants, a public restaurant, a public cellar and bowling alleys .

The large ballroom was painted by the painters Kurt Hallegger and Maxim Kopf , who came from Prague, with frescoes under the motto “Artists move through the city”. The anteroom of the hall, intended as the hall of honor of the Sudeten Germans , was furnished with busts of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer , Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach , Joseph von Führich , Franz Josef von Gerstner , Ernst Mach , Gregor Mendel , Franz Metzner , Adalbert Stifter and others, about their whereabouts after World War II nothing is known.

After the Second World War

Casino and Fast Food (2017)

After the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia and the German-speaking population of the city of Prague after the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), the name was changed to Slovanský dům ( Slavic House ) after May 1945 .

After the beginning of the state of the Czech Republic , the building complex was renovated in 1997 and converted into a business and office center with restaurants and a multiplex cinema with 10 halls and around 1,800 seats. In 2003, SachsenFonds , a subsidiary of Landesbank Sachsen , acquired the Slovanský dům for around 60 million euros. The resale of the Palais ensemble with a total usable area of ​​around 21,000 square meters to the investment group Invesco took place for around 89.7 million euros.

literature

  • Baedeker travel guide Prague, with a large city map by Madeleine Reinecke, Thomas Veszelitz and Robert Fischer, 2013, at Deutsches Haus
  • Alfred Klement von Treldewehr (1889–1957) History of the German House in Prague , 1938
  • Anton Kiemann: Writings on the history of the German house , 1902; 1912
  • Prague. A picture guide by Karel Plicka and Emanuel Poche , Panorama Prague. German translation: Günther Jauch, 1982; Translation: Günther Jauch, Berlin 1982, p. 150, text passage 257 with a picture of the house on the Na Prikope site
  • Johanna von Herzogenberg : Prague . A guide; Prestel Verlag Munich, 1966

Web links

Commons : Deutsches Haus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ( Procházka novel : Millesimo (called del Caretto from the house of the Margraves of Savona), Genealogical Handbook of extinct Bohemian noble family , Neustadt an der Aisch 1973, ISBN 3 7686 5002 2 , p. 191; and in the supplementary volume, Munich 1990 , ISBN 3-486-54051-3 , p. 95, overview family table of the barons Vernier von Rougemont ; The coats of arms of the Bohemian nobility. J. Siebmacher's great coat of arms , vol. 30, 1979, Neustadt an der Aisch, Vernier de Rougement p. 95 , Coat of arms plate 55, ISBN 3 87947 030 8 )
  2. ↑ ( Johanna von Herzogenberg : Prague. A guide, Prestel Verlag Munich, 1966, p. 292 f.)
  3. ↑ http://www.prag.citysam.de/am-graben.htm
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slovanskydum.com
  5. ↑ SachsenFonds sells building complex in Prague for 89.7 million euros ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 9 ″  N , 14 ° 25 ′ 54 ″  E