Former administrative building of the state farming community of Saxony
The former administrative building of the State Farmers 'Union of Saxony in Dresden , Ammonstrasse 8, was built in 1936–1938 according to a design by Otto Kohtz and was the official seat of the State Farmers' Union in the Reichsnährstand . The building became better known as the seat of the Reichsbahndirektion Dresden from 1948 to 1993. The Deutsche Bahn AG still uses the building , which is now a listed building.
Usage history
The state farming community of Saxony was formed as a national socialist compulsory organization for all farmers and farmers and agricultural enterprises in accordance with the law on the Reichsnährstand of September 13, 1933, with all other professional organizations and public corporations (such as the chambers of agriculture ) dissolved were. The Reichsnährstand itself was u. a. divided into state associations - here the state farmers' union of Saxony - and embodied the National Socialist principle of blood and soil . From July 1933 , the state farmer leader of Saxony was Hellmut Körner , who until then had headed the Chamber of Agriculture as President and was also the initiator of the new building.
Several plots of land north of Ammonstrasse near the main train station were selected for the Saxon office of the Reichsnährstand, and the Berlin architect Otto Kohtz was selected for their over-planning and architectural design in an architectural competition. The building was built by him between 1936 and 1938 and used by the state farmers and the Reichsnährstand until 1945. Due to the quota of structural steels due to the armaments industry , the building could only be built using pillar masonry before the outbreak of the Second World War. Only the middle part with the rear wing was designed as a steel frame construction.
During the air raids on Dresden from February 13th to 15th, 1945 this building was also significantly damaged, but was only partially destroyed. However, the main building of the Dresden Reichsbahndirektion, west of Dresden Central Station on Wiener Platz and south along Wiener Straße, was completely destroyed. The railway administration had to be outsourced and temporarily housed; its offices were ultimately spread over 24 different buildings in the city.
In order to restore the functioning of this administration, the partially destroyed building was assigned to the disbanded state peasantry of Saxony as the administrative seat of the Reichsbahndirektion Dresden and was repaired and rebuilt by them, the inauguration took place on May 15, 1948.
After the dissolution of the Reichsbahndirektion Dresden on December 31, 1993, the building remained the property of the Deutsche Bahn AG, which still uses it for various offices.
description
Otto Kohtz designed a comb-like, elongated, five-story administration building in a functional design language with elements of neoclassicism . It was designed on the front side with a two-storey base zone made of ashlar , three wings open to the rear with just a simple design. Above this is a very flat sloping roof, which is perceived as a flat roof and was originally covered with galvanized sheet iron. The long, monotonous rows of windows as functional perforated façades are typical of the modernism that continued into the Nazi era , but it is unusual that the windows were not divided by bars .
The only dividing element is the protruding entrance as an angular porch. The vestibule is accessed from there through seven open, strictly right-angled gates, which is followed by a spacious staircase. The office building is architecturally positioned completely horizontally and thus also corresponds to the intentions of the then city planning officer Paul Wolf , who spoke out against (further) high-rise buildings in the old town.
The original sculptural decoration of the facades by sculptor Herbert Volwahsen could be interpreted as a counter-reflex to modernity and internationalization and corresponded to the National Socialist art ideas. The Dresden painters Sizzo Stief created the sgraffito on the central wing of the portal to Feldgasse, Paul Rößler created the former mural in the hall and Hans Nadler sen. the design of the 1st floor. All of these works were removed in 1946–1948. Only two sandstone fruit baskets by the sculptor Otto Rost indicate the original purpose of the administration building in the entrance hall by the stairs.
Since 1948 there have been two wall frescoes - planning and construction as well as operation and traffic - on the left and right of the front sides in the entrance hall. Aesthetically, this graphically held black and white sgraffito art can be classified on the one hand in the propaganda-tinged East German post-war art. Stylistically, however, the representations also tie in with the not very abstract local art and aesthetics during the 1930s and early 1940s. These frescos were extensively renovated in 2004 by Deutsche Bahn AG (as the legal successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn ), like the entire house. They are open to the public in the entrance hall on weekdays.
Trivia
Due to the monotonous rows of windows, the building is nicknamed the House of 1000 Windows or House of 1000 Toilet Windows .
literature
- Matthias Donath : Architecture in Dresden 1933–1945. 2nd revised edition, Redaktions- und Verlagsgesellschaft Elbland, Meißen 2016, without ISBN, pp. 28–31.
Web links
- Former Administration building of the state farming community of Saxony. Office buildings for the organization of the Third Reich. on das-neue-dresden.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Overview of the holdings of the German Digital Library, accessed on March 5, 2018.
- ^ Royal Saxon State Railway Direction to Dresden. at bahnstatistik.de , accessed on February 19, 2018
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 36.1 ″ N , 13 ° 43 ′ 45.7 ″ E