Elsnerhaus
The Elsnerhaus , also spelled Elsner-Haus , is an office and commercial building in Berlin-Kreuzberg , Oranienstraße 140/141/142, on the edge of the historic newspaper district of Berlin . The building was built between 1912 and 1914 for Otto Elsner Buchdruckerei und Verlagsbuchhandlung AG and, despite some changes, is a listed building .
architecture
The building was built between 1912 and 1914 according to a design by the architect Paul Karchow in the style of the reform architecture typical of the time . The building had five full storeys and an extended roof, but the top full storey was integrated into the roof as a mansard storey facing the street , so that the facade clad with shell limestone was only perceptible as four storeys. It is divided into eleven axes, with triple windows with horizontal lintels above the arched openings on the ground floor in the upper floors . On the 1st and 2nd floors, the facade is accentuated horizontally by sill cornices running across the entire width , whereby the cornice on the 2nd floor is a little stronger, is additionally emphasized by a block frieze and around the base of the wide, rounded bay windows on the 3rd floor ., 6th and 9th axis is cranked . The upper part of the facade is structured more rhythmically by the bay windows. The 6th axis is the central or symmetry axis , which also includes the passage to the rear of the property on the ground floor. Above the basket arch of the passage sits a strong keystone on which a stylized two-headed heraldic bird is flanked by a scroll with a feather (left) and a book and a sheet of paper (right) as allusions to the client. Above that, the inscription "Elsnerhaus" can be seen in an egg stick-like profiled frame. These elements are the only remnants of the house's originally more extensive three-dimensional jewelry, which included a symmetrical sequence of four sculptures on sturdy consoles and arc lamps suspended from horn-like curved beams in the interstices between the basket arches. In addition, the parapet fields under the windows of the 3rd floor were decorated with relief ornaments.
In World War II the building was like most in this neighborhood badly damaged. During the repairs, the roof was not rebuilt, which meant that the former mansard floor became a slightly lower, but now clearly visible, fourth floor. Whether most of the plastic decorative elements (or their damaged remains) were removed only during these construction measures, or whether they - as with many other buildings - were removed before the Second World War in the course of a cost-effective facade renovation or in the sense of a taste modernization , is not to be proven.
use
The joint stock company Otto Elsner Buchdruckerei und Verlagsbuchhandlung was founded on December 1, 1912 - presumably primarily to raise capital for the construction of the Elsnerhaus. Although the Elsner family continued to be active in the printing and publishing industry, the company was renamed Elsnerhaus AG on December 1, 1919 , when the only official purpose of the company was the real estate use of the Elsnerhaus and the equity stake in other companies ( holding businesses). Members of the Elsner family formed the board of directors until the Second World War. The share capital was nominally one million Reichsmarks , which should roughly correspond to the value of the Elsnerhaus.
The rooms on the ground floor of the Elsnerhaus were rented from the start; a contemporary illustration shows a branch ("Depositenkasse") of Deutsche Bank AG and Café Eden as tenants. (see web links )
After the war, the company Elsnerdruck , headed by Gerhard Elsner, gave up the building and built a new building on the property at Lützowstrasse 107–112. In 2003 it was taken over by Bertelsmann and production relocated to Pößneck .
The Kreuzberg housing department, finance department and workers welfare department were later housed in the old Elsnerhaus . In the fall of 2012, the renovation for a music shop began according to plans by the architect Andreas Hölzer. The largest music department store in Europe is to be built here.
Web links
- Elsnerhaus at luise-berlin.de, accessed on April 22, 2012
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Image of the Elsnerhaus in its original condition from Bilderbuch Berlin , last accessed on May 10, 2017
literature
- Handbook of German Stock Companies , 48th edition (1943), Volume 2, page 1470.
- Detlef Krenz: The Ritterstrasse. In: Kreuzberger Chronik , issue 51 (October 2003). ( online , accessed April 22, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elsnerdruck - the story on elsnerdruck-stiftung.de, accessed 22 April 2012
- ↑ Music meets history ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at hhpberlin.de, accessed on April 22, 2012.
- ↑ Just Music is building a new branch ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on das-musikinstrument.de, accessed on April 22, 2012
- ↑ New ideas for Moritzplatz. In: Der Tagesspiegel of July 11, 2008, accessed on April 23, 2012
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 16.2 " N , 13 ° 24 ′ 25.8" E