Ernst Reuter settlement

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Theodor-Heuss-Weg, July 1955

The Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung is a housing estate in the Berlin district of Berlin-Gesundbrunnen in the Mitte district , which, as the first demonstrative building project of the post-war period, initiated urban renewal in West Berlin, which was characterized by demolition and new construction . It is a listed building monument.

history

Starting situation after the end of the war

After the rubble had been cleared away in Berlin and the greatest war damage had been repaired, residential construction in the first post-war years was limited to makeshift repairs to existing living space, especially since there was a lack of materials and specialists. After the split of the entire Berlin city administration, West Berlin was on the defensive in terms of building policy until 1952. During the Berlin blockade , housing construction largely came to a standstill due to a lack of building materials and after the end of the blockade in May 1949, West Berlin fell into an extraordinarily deep economic crisis with an extremely high unemployment rate (1950/1951: approx. 30%) and was associated with an enormous deficit in the public budget and also affected the construction industry. The starting position of West Berlin in terms of housing policy was simply catastrophic in 1949. The already existing housing shortage was exacerbated by the increase in the population, which resulted from the emigration of numerous people from the GDR and East Berlin . Public funding for housing - not to mention private capital - was scarce; American financial aid under the Marshall Plan did not start until 1950.

GDR postage stamp development program 1952

On the other hand, there was practically no unemployment in the construction industry in the eastern part of the city , and the psychologically important large-scale development of the Stalinallee as the most important project of the National Development Program Berlin in 1952 was tackled here at an early stage and at a rapid pace .

The situation of more or less improvisational financing and insufficient construction activity in West Berlin could only be overcome with the " social housing " that began in 1952 . Only with the adoption of the First Housing Act was West Berlin included in the financial system of the Federal Republic of Germany and the distribution of federal funds for housing construction from 1952 . This set the course for the start of reconstruction in West Berlin as well. This type of publicly funded housing construction, which dominates West Berlin, was viewed by the conservative or economically liberal side in misunderstanding its real character as "a quasi-state economic activity of the first order", even as "socialization", the "a new social landscape" create a "society of the classless middle".

Origin and architecture

Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung ( Berlin-Gesundbrunnen ), disc residential building
Ernst Reuter bust on Theodor-Heuss-Weg, July 1955

The settlement between Ackerstrasse and Gartenstrasse is located on the former site of the Keyling & Thomas iron foundry, which has been located there since 1874, and was formerly the largest of its kind in Berlin. The buildings had been destroyed in the Second World War, which is why there was a larger contiguous piece of land available here that belonged to only one owner and was also right on the sector boundary. Meyers Hof was located on part of the neighboring property , the last remaining remains of which were blown up in October 1972. For this reason, the site for the structural east-west competition directly on the sector boundary was selected for the construction of the Ernst Reuter estate. It can be seen as the first West Berlin “answer” to the development on Stalinallee in the years 1953–1955.

After the war-damaged buildings were torn down in 1953–1955, the Thomashof Grundstücks-AG built the estate on the property based on a design by Felix Hinssen and Peter Matischiok. According to the model of a relaxed, green city, 423 residential units with predominantly two rooms in row buildings with five, seven and nine storeys as well as a fifteen-storey " point high-rise ", which alone has 58 apartments. They formed a strong contrast to the neighboring Meyers Hof on Ackerstrasse with around 300 small apartments. The buildings with poorly structured facades and protruding flat roofs were built using traditional masonry technology , plastered and painted uniformly white. Balconies and loggias that are half embedded in the facade alternate with regularly lined up windows. The glazed balcony doors fill the entire width and height of the balcony. The settlement is accessed through the private road 'Theodor-Heuss-Weg' between Gartenstrasse and Ackerstrasse.

Ernst Reuter visited the construction site in July 1953, two months before his death. Federal President Theodor Heuss (1884–1963) attended the inauguration on July 18, 1954 . The settlement, which was originally to be called 'Thomashof', was named after the Governing Mayor Ernst Reuter (1889–1953), who died on September 29, 1953. In 1955, in memory of Ernst Reuter, a bust designed by Harald Haacke was erected, which the widow Hanna Reuter (1899–1974) unveiled in the presence of Federal President Theodor Heuss. The access road was named Theodor-Heuss-Weg around 1954.

Todays situation

The building complex between Feldstrasse and the Lazarus Foundation was expanded on both sides in the 1970s and 1980s, the western part by DEGEWO based on a design by the architects Werner Weber and Helmut Ollk . The park at the Nordbahnhof and the Berlin Wall Memorial are in close proximity . Ackerstraße is now a traffic-calmed area , while Gartenstraße has become a busy thoroughfare after the fall of the Berlin Wall . As a result of the construction of the wall, the entire district of Gesundbrunnen moved into an isolated peripheral location, which was demonstrated by the closure of the numerous shops and the department store on Brunnenstrasse . This was particularly true of Gartenstrasse, which is located on the outermost edge of Gesundbrunnen, which is also opposite to the north station , which is three meters above street level and which was part of the border installations. With the fall of the wall, this changed suddenly, the area of ​​the settlement was now back in the center of Berlin.

Transport links

In the construction of the settlement in was East Berlin location North Station of the North-South train the next S-Bahn station. The underground stations Voltastraße and Bernauer Straße of today's underground line U8 are about 700 m away, as are the underground stations Schwartzkopffstraße and Naturkundemuseum (formerly: Nordbahnhof ) of today's underground line U6 , which can be reached through the Szczecin tunnel were. With the construction of the wall, the S-Bahn station and the underground stations of underground line 6 were no longer accessible, so that only the stations of underground line 8 were available. In addition, a bus line ran and continues to use Gartenstrasse. The Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station was reopened on September 1, 1990. Bernauer Straße is accessed by the M10 tram line , which leads to the main train station .

literature

Web links

Commons : Theodor-Heuss-Weg (Berlin-Gesundbrunnen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b LDL Berlin: Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung
  2. ↑ Dieter Hanauske: Housing Policy in the Cold War . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 3, 2001, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 35–51 ( luise-berlin.de - here p. 39).
  3. ↑ Jörn Bier: Meyer's Hof in Ackerstraße 132/133 Jörn Bier. In: facebook.com. December 30, 2019, accessed February 15, 2020 . Aerial view of Meyer's Hof with the neighboring Eisengießerei AG
  4. ^ Theodor-Heuss-Weg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '10.3 "  N , 13 ° 23' 10.6"  E