Ermelerhaus

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The Ermelerhaus on Märkischer Ufer  10, 2009

The Ermelerhaus at Breiten Straße 11 was one of the few patrician houses in Old Berlin that has been preserved in the historic district of Alt-Cölln . The listed building was demolished in 1966/1967. On the property at Märkisches Ufer No. 10 in the historic district of Neukölln am Wasser , his new building of the same name, listed as a historical monument, was built in 1968/1969 using characteristic structural elements.

Residential and commercial building until 1914

Floor plan of the Ermelerhaus. Redrawn in 1948 using old blueprints.
Cross-section through the front building of the Ermelerhaus
Cross-section through the side wings of the Ermelerhaus
The Ermelerhaus in the Breiten Straße, which was restored except for the removed relief above the gate passage, in 1964, two years before its demolition
The hall on the first floor around 1912
Staircase with illusion painting in the Ermelerhaus, 1932
The rose room as a restaurant room in 1969. The wall paintings of the Dammsmühle are no longer available.

The three-story house has been rebuilt several times by its owners since the 1720s, with paintings and an almost circular, freely curved wooden staircase. Ludwig Damm, an army supplier to Friedrich II , who acquired the house in 1760, furnished it in the Rococo style . Since then, the stairwell has had an illusionistic painting and a wrought-iron , gilded banister. From the corner niches it was illuminated by lantern- carrying putti that floated into the sky in the ceiling painting . The three wings of the building were enfiladed on the first floor . The three-strand ballroom contained wall paintings depicting landscapes from Roman antiquity , created by the Berlin vedute and theater painter Carl Friedrich Fechhelm , an allegorical ceiling painting in the style of Johann Christoph Frisch and a stucco marble fireplace . The seven other living spaces, two of which were each in the wings around the yard were, with woodwork richly endowed with overdoors provided Fechhelms. In the rose room, which was designed as a rose-covered arbor , two large murals showed the owner's country estate, the dam mill .

The next owner, the tobacco manufacturer Neumann, only had the facade redesigned in the classicism style in the years after 1804 . The main frieze below the windows on the second floor and a narrow one above these windows showed tendrils, rosettes, masks and palmettes . The uniaxial central projection was emphasized by a relief made of cast zinc above the portal, which thematized the tobacco trade. It was crowned by cast zinc statues of Mercury and Justice , flanked by crater vases .

In 1824 the tobacco manufacturer Wilhelm Ferdinand Ermeler (1784–1866) bought the house (advertising slogan: Where does the best tobacco come from? Remember, my friend, von Ermeler ). The successful entrepreneur was a typical representative of the well-educated and aspiring Berlin bourgeoisie . Through weekly public evenings on Wednesdays and closed on Sundays, the Ermelerhaus became a meeting place for Berlin society over the next few decades . The sculptor Rauch , the bishop Neander , the music critic Rellstab , as well as the governor of Berlin, the " Old Wrangel " and the politicians Auerswald and Itzenplitz appeared regularly in the circle of artists, scholars and merchants well into old age . Since the 1860s, Ermeler's daughter-in-law Anna Elisabeth (d. 1891) has been running a “ polyglot salon” that is unique in Berlin .

Except for the installation of a balustrade on the roof, two maps painted on wood in the passageway, which showed the company's trade relations and the early German railroad network, and conversions on the ground floor to set up shops , Ermeler and his descendants did not make any changes to the house and spent considerable funds on its preservation and restoration in the years 1868–1872. It therefore survived the waves of demolition and modernization typical of Berlin in the 19th century.

Library until 1931 and branch of the Märkisches Museum from 1932 to 1945

Wilhelm Ermeler's son Karl Albert (1816–1872) and his son Richard (1845–1907) had continued the tradition of the open house. Richard Ermeler's heirs sold the company to Badische Tabakmanufaktur in 1909 . The Ermelerhaus was already a sight when the family sold it in 1914 for one million gold marks to the city of Berlin with the condition that the Rococo rooms be kept unchanged until 1965. Under the conditions of the First World War , it temporarily housed the municipal library .

When he took office in 1931, Berlin's new Lord Mayor Heinrich Sahm fulfilled the long-cherished wish of the director of the Märkisches Museum , Walter Stengel , to take over the Ermelerhaus and the extensive factory buildings in the rear part of the property as a branch and exhibition building. In his museum work since 1925, Stengel represented the new concept of the museum as an exploration point for the urban present . The Ermelerhaus opened in October 1932 with a painting exhibition in which works by Käthe Kollwitz and Ernst Barlach and, from March 1933, Alfred Cassirer's art collection were shown. A permanent exhibition presented the cultural history of Berlin in the 18th century, preferably through testimonies from the immediate vicinity of the house in the Breite Straße. The development up to the present day presented specially designed rooms that Stengel dedicated to historicism , Art Nouveau and the Bauhaus . From 1935 the factory rooms showed the world of children and the world of housewives .

At the personal intervention of the Prussian Finance Minister Johannes Popitz , the transverse building of the Ermelerhaus housed the classicist staircase painted by Karl Wilhelm Wach and parts of the facade of the Weydinger house from Unterwasserstraße 5, which had fallen victim to the new Reichsbank building . One room in the side wing was given a stucco ceiling that Andreas Schlüter had created for the Palais Wartenberg in 1701 and that was in the Kunstgewerbemuseum after its demolition .

Although the Ermelerhaus was integrated into the National Socialist cultural policy, the content of the exhibition remained “free of National Socialist ideas”. Already the presentation of the Cassirer Collection in the days of the NSDAP takeover of power with “old-class Berliners, Jews and the nobility of the counts” appeared to be “completely lost in time” according to Max Sauerlandt's testimony .

Like the Märkisches Museum in Berlin in the 1920s , the Ermelerhaus developed into a crowd puller and its visit was part of the teaching program of Berlin schools. When the Second World War broke out , the Ermelerhaus had to close. Its collections have been outsourced.

Public building from 1945 to 1967

During the Second World War, some of the interiors and the facade of the Ermelerhaus suffered damage from bomb fragments. Immediately when the war ended services had apparently spontaneously the magistrate in his empty Rococo and showrooms ensconced . The relocated exhibition, whose holdings had only partially survived the war, was not allowed to return to the rooms despite Stengel's efforts and the house was no longer available to the Märkisches Museum. Stengel's conflicts with the SED cultural politicians , who had finally set the tone in East Berlin since 1948, resulted from their rejection of his museum concept, which lacked the emphasis on socio-historical references in the sense of Marxism-Leninism .

After a short break, the Ermelerhaus was again used as the council library , as the municipal library had been called since 1934, and the city ​​archive . The remains of the Friedland library from Kunersdorf , which had been saved in 1945, were also put on display . On the first floor there was a public reading room, where around 1948 “all Berlin and many foreign and foreign newspapers and magazines” were displayed. The stairwells could be visited.

The restoration of the rococo rooms began in 1952. First they could be completed in 1954 in the bird room . The original light colors of the ceiling painting came to light in the stairwell. Since 1959, the rococo splendid rooms on Breite Straße have also been shown to visitors. The roof structure was renewed in 1959 and the facade was restored in 1960/1961.

Demolished in 1967/1968

Even the plans of the GDR for the redesign of the Berlin city center, published since 1949 and often changed, did not make it clear whether the Ermelerhaus should be preserved. As a result of the programmatic demolition of the Berlin City Palace at the end of 1950 to create a demonstration area for 400,000 people, it was obvious that the Breite Strasse was too narrow to approach the grandstand . After Stengel publicly protested against the planned demolition of the Berlin Palace in 1950, his position at the head of the museum had become untenable. When he fled to West Berlin in December 1952, the Ermelerhaus lost its most prominent defender. Despite the systematic restoration of the Ermelerhaus by the magistrate, there were repeated rumors that it would be demolished.

The construction of the State Council building and its functional building along Breite Straße around 1960 led to the demolition of the buildings north of Neumanns- and Sperlingsgasse , which made the future doubling of the width of Breite Straße apparent. When the demolition spread to the block south of Neumannsgasse in 1964 in the course of the further expansion of the government center of the GDR , the demolition of the Ermelerhaus was considered a done deal and led to unmistakable protests all over Berlin. When the Ermelerhaus and the rest of the development on the western side of the Breiten Strasse were demolished in the winter of 1967/1968, the City District Council announced that the Ermelerhaus would be rebuilt elsewhere by the 20th  anniversary of the GDR on October 7, 1969.

Before it began to be demolished, the Ermelerhaus was carefully documented and the Schlüter ceiling, which was installed in 1934, was removed. The dismantling of the wall designs, the banister and the ceiling paintings of the hall and the rose room, then that of the facade decoration followed in 1967 during the demolition. Because of the fixed date, the work had to take place “in an extremely short time”.

The council library moved into a restored wing of the Marstall building opposite . The staircase of the Weydinger house was built into the transverse building of the Nicolaihaus at Brüderstraße 13 in 1977 , while the ceiling painting by Wach was built into the headquarters of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship . The Schlüter ceiling was intended for installation in the Ephraim-Palais , which is to be rebuilt and where it has been since 1987.

The GDR building ministry was connected to the functional building of the State Council in the width of the street, which was doubled to the south of Neumannsgasse. Since 1968, these prefabricated buildings have taken up the entire length of Breite Straße, while Straßenland is located on the Ermelerhaus square.

Reconstruction in 1968/1969

Märkisches Ufer 12, 2009. The neighboring house built in 1968/1969 together with the Ermelerhaus and connected to it is a copy of the opposite house at Friedrichsgracht  15, which was demolished in 1969
Ermelerhaus on a stamp of the GDR Post from 1971

In 1968, the city district council chose a vacant lot on the Märkisches Ufer road in the old part of Neukölln am Wasser as the location of the Ermelerhaus to be reconstructed . The project was included in the later failed planning of a traditional island , to which the Ephraim-Palais, which was to be rebuilt, was to belong alongside other relocated buildings. Construction work began in the autumn of 1968. The cleared ruin site had a high groundwater level, which is why the new Ermelerhaus projected by Klaus Pöschk had to be placed on a base and had a staircase on the cheek . As a result, it lost its gate passage and the massive double-leaf wooden door had to be replaced by a modern metal-glass construction. When the stairwell was rebuilt, only the putti but not the painting were used. Six reconstructed, slightly modified and decorated with antiques and pictures from the 18th century on the first floor could be visited via the concrete staircase with the original gilded railing . They received the original ceiling paintings and the fireplace, a stove and parts of the boiseries. The rest and the stucco largely correspond to the original. Fechhelm's murals and overhead portraits were removed as early as 1966 in order to be restored in the Märkisches Museum, where they remained. Instead of the murals, there were textile wallpapers with Rococo motifs on the walls and in the overhangs of the new building .

The interior of the new Ermelerhaus is connected to its neighboring house, Märkisches Ufer 12, which was built at the same time. This three-storey, five-axis building is a replica of the later cleared town house Friedrichsgracht 15, which originated from the time of the soldier king around 1740 and, uniquely, still had the outside staircase that was common at the time. It was one of the eight listed buildings on the opposite bank that had been torn down since around 1967 to make room for the high-rise buildings on the Fischerkietz . The house was considered to be in relatively good condition both inside and out. However, his crowning the central axis was Stuck - Emblem already fallen. His new building does not correspond to the original in terms of its floor plan or structural details, and the door and skylight are also simply reproductions. Like the Ermelerhaus, it stands on a plinth.

Contrary to a widespread legend, the two buildings were not relocated , but rebuilt as an adaptation in the dimensions of the dismantled original, for which important characteristic parts inside the Ermelerhaus and on its facade were either reinstalled or, such as the upper frieze of the facade and the relief above the portal.

Gastronomic facility

Right on time for the Republic Day in 1969, the Ermelerhaus opened as one of the few luxury restaurants in East Berlin. A wine restaurant was located in the Rococo rooms on the first floor, and a café on the mezzanine floor . The Ermelerhaus was always well attended and the scene of public receptions, also by western visitors. In the cellar, which can be reached separately via the cellar stairs of the neighboring house, the inexpensive and rustic Raabediele pub complemented the gastronomic offer. It was intended to commemorate the historic Raabediele restaurant, which was located in the house at No. 10 at Sperlingsgasse , which was demolished at Easter 1964 and a half-timbered building from 1621 that was restored after war damage . After the reunification of Berlin, the Ermelerhaus restaurant lost its exclusive position in the gastronomy of the center of Berlin and had to close after a few years, as did the Raabediele later.

In 1997, the art'otel hotel chain acquired the Ermelerhaus and its neighboring building together with the property at Wallstrasse 70–73. A hotel complex was created based on a design by the Austrian architect Johanne Nalbach, the ambience of which was designed by a certain artist in accordance with the company's philosophy . Georg Baselitz dedicated himself to the Art'otel Ermelerhaus Berlin . The Ermelerhaus is included in the complex, with its courtyard becoming the breakfast room for the guests. During the restoration of the Rococo rooms, “countless eavesdropping bugs” came to light. The hotel rents the rococo rooms of the Ermelerhaus with catering to private users, for example for family celebrations or conferences. The upper floor and the neighboring house are rented out as offices. The hotel canteen is located in the rooms of the former Raabediele.

Archaeological investigations in the Breite Straße

After drawing up a development plan for Breite Straße and its dismantling in 2008/2009, the Senate Department for Urban Development of the Berlin Senate wants to initiate archaeological excavations at the original site. Then a decision should be made as to the form in which the redevelopment of the Breite Straße will remind of the Ermelerhaus.

literature

  • Andreas Bernhard: The Ermelerhaus - A lost cultural and historical museum . In: General Director of the Stadtmuseum Berlin Reiner Güntzer (Ed.): Yearbook Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Vol. VIII 2002 . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89487-467-8 , pp. 125-142
  • Fritz Rothstein: Berlin, Ermeler-Haus (issue 37 of the architectural monuments series ). E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1974
  • Getrude Vuadens: From Ermelerhaus to Weltenhaus . Rascher & Cie., Zurich 1934
  • Markus Sebastian Braun (Ed.): Berlin - The Architecture Guide . Econ Ullstein List, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-88679-355-9 , p. 40.

Web links

Commons : Ermelerhaus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the history of construction and ownership see Wolfgang Stengel: Guide through the Ermeler House. Breite Straße 11, branch of the Märkisches Museum . 5th expanded edition. Published by the museum management (quoted here as “Stengel”), Berlin 1937, pp. 1–3, there also the reference to Michael Hirn's wooden staircase from 1724
  2. ↑ For a description of the house see R. Borrmann: Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler von Berlin . With a historical introduction by P. Clauswitz. Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1982 (facsimile reprint of the Springer edition, Berlin 1893), p. 419
  3. ↑ Floor plans of all floors for the year 1939 by Andreas Bernhard: The Ermelerhaus - A lost cultural and historical museum . In: General Director of the Stadtmuseum Berlin Reiner Güntzer (Ed.): Yearbook Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Vol. VIII 2002 . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89487-467-8 , pp. 143-181, here p. 152.
  4. ↑ To Ermeler and his family and the importance of the house see Marlies Ebert: The history of the family and tobacco company Ermeler. Bourgeois and entrepreneurial life and work in 19th century Berlin . In: General Director of the Stadtmuseum Berlin Reiner Güntzer (Ed.): Yearbook Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Vol. VIII 2002 . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89487-467-8 , pp. 105–142, on the guest evenings pp. 120–125, on the later polyglot salon (see below) p. 124 f.
  5. ↑ For the history up to 1967 see Erika Schachinger: Alte Wohnhäuser in Berlin. A tour of the city center . Verlag Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1969 (cited here as “Schachinger”), pp. 28–30
  6. ↑ See Kurt Pomplun : Das Ermelerhaus - a swan song . In: Ders .: Berlin houses. History and stories . Bruno Hessling Verlag, Berlin 1971 (here cited as “Pomplun”), pp. 27–30, here p. 29
  7. ^ On Stengel's activities see Kurt Winkler: Walter Stengel (1882–1960) - A biographical sketch . In: Reiner Güntzer (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Volume III , 1997. Henschel, Berlin 1999, pp. 186–210, on the general concept p. 192 f., On the Ermelerhaus p. 195
  8. ↑ For the Cassirer Collection see: Sabine Beneke: Ausklang einer Epoche. The Alfred Cassirer Collection . In: Andrea Pophanken, Felix Billeter (Ed.): The modern age and their collectors. French art in German private ownership from the Empire to the Weimar Republic . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2001 (cited below as “Beneke”), pp. 327–345
  9. ↑ Schachinger, p. 30
  10. ↑ Bernhard, p. 180 "appears" that way after evaluating the exhibition catalogs. On “integration” on p. 149 and on propaganda intent on p. 180
  11. ↑ Beneke, with evidence, p. 343
  12. ↑ This expression is used by Stengel when describing the painful process, see: Walter Stengel: Chronicle of the Märkisches Museum der Stadt Berlin . In: Eckart Hennig, Werner Vogel (Ed.): Yearbook for Brandenburg State History . 30th volume. State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg e. V. (founded 1884), Berlin 1979, pp. 7–51, here p. 39
  13. ↑ On this Bernhard, p. 150
  14. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Engel, Hans-Joachim Schlott-Kotschote (Ed.): Fontane then and now. A selection from the “ Walks through the Mark Brandenburg ” with additional reports, the previously unpublished introduction to a “History of the Friesack Country” and a list of the churches and mansions of the former province of Brandenburg and Berlin that are important from the point of view of monument preservation April 1, 1958 . Publishing house for international cultural exchange, Berlin-Zehlendorf 1958, p. 85 (to the library), p. 50 (to the installation in the Ermlerhaus)
  15. ↑ See Ilse Stremelow: Berlin - beloved home . Verlag für Technik und Kultur, Berlin 1949, p. 16 f., On the newspaper reading room p. 16, with a drawing of the Rococo staircase p. 17
  16. ↑ On the restorations after 1945 see Ernst Badstübner, Hannelore Sachs (Red.): Monuments in Berlin and in the Mark Brandenburg. Their maintenance and care in the capital of the GDR and in the districts of Frankfurt / or and Potsdam . Böhlau, Weimar 1988 (cited here as “Badstübner / Sachs”), pp. 380–383
  17. ↑ Description of the tour at Winfried Löschburg's: Between Jungfernbrücke and Fischerstrasse . Berlin advertisement Berolina, Berlin 1959, p. 17 f., Illustration p. 15
  18. ↑ Illustrations of the plans and models, also with explanations, in: Werner Durth , Jörn Düwel , Niels Gutschow : Architektur und Städtebau der DDR - Volume 2. Structure. Cities, topics, documents. With photos by Stanisław Klimek . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1999 (cited below as “Durth”), pp. 68, 215–245, 257–283
  19. ↑ This emerges from a "proposal for the design of the center of the capital of Germany" from August 3, 1950, partly printed in: Durt, Volume 2, p. 214 f., With plan [of the "route" and the "flow rate"] for demonstrations by the City Planning Office Mitte on August 5, 1950, p. 222
  20. ↑ Pomplun, p. 30
  21. ^ Bernhard, p. 150
  22. ^ So Fritz Rothstein: A monument for posterity preserved. To rebuild the Ermelerhaus in Berlin . In: Bildende Kunst 1, 1970 (cited below as “Rothstein”), pp. 16–19, here p. 18
  23. ^ Heinrich Trost (general editor): The architectural and art monuments in the GDR. Capital Berlin. I. Edited by a collective from the Research Department. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1983, on the stairs of the Weydingerhaus p. 82–84, with illustration on p. 84, on the ceiling painting p. 163
  24. ↑ Badstübner / Sachs, p. 383
  25. ↑ In addition Rolf-Herbert Krüger: The Ephraim-Palais in Berlin. History and reconstruction. Published by the Berlin district councils of the societies for local history and for the preservation of monuments in the Kulturbund der GDR (= miniatures for the history, culture and preservation of Berlin monuments No. 25), Berlin 1987, p. 71
  26. ↑ On salvaging the equipment and the problems of the new construction: Rothstein, p. 17 f.
  27. ↑ On the significance of the Friedrichsgracht house No. 15 see Schachinger, pp. 40–43, with floor plans, illustrations No. 34–40
  28. ↑ Floor plan by Fabiano Pinto: art'otel . In: Bauwelt , 15/00, April 20, 2000, 91st year (cited below as “Pinto”), pp. 28/29
  29. ↑ Formulation in Badstübner / Sachs, p. 383
  30. ↑ The official Berlin website also describes the Ermelerhaus as being implemented after 1966 without further ado : berlin.de ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted 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.berlin.de
  31. ↑ On the Raabediele and on the house at Sperlingsgasse 10 see Schachinger, p. 32 f.
  32. ↑ Pinto, p. 28

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 45 "  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 32.5"  E