Great mountain road
The Big Mountain Road is one of the oldest streets and the main business center in Hamburg-Altona . From the 17th century until after the Second World War, it led from the Nobistor , north past the old town center of Altona and the Jewish cemetery , up to the northern part of Ottensen . Today's route between Thedestrasse, via Bruno-Tesch-Platz, Goetheplatz and Max-Brauer-Allee at Hamburg-Altona train station is greatly shortened. Your image is determined by commercial and office buildings, especially the building of the city branch of the furniture store IKEA Altona .
course
The name Große Bergstraße is based on the geography, it is a rise from low terrain with 15 meters of altitude at the former Grenzbach between Altona and St. Pauli ( Pepermölenbek ) to the Altonaer Geesthöhe with 31 meters. It was laid out under the name Bergstraße in 1655 and called the Große Bergstraße from around 1700 , in the western part towards Ottensen Langer Balken .
After extensive destruction in the Second World War and in the course of the redesign according to the Neu-Altona Plan in the 1950s, the entire lower part of the Große Bergstrasse was separated from the Nobistor . It has since started on the corner of Thedestrasse with house number 139, or opposite on the corner of Blücherstrasse with house number 140. From the intersection of Virchowstrasse to Goetheplatz, it is designed as a pedestrian zone with clearance for bus traffic. In this part of the north side - from east to west - Hospitalstrasse, Schumacherstrasse, Lornsenstrasse and Willebrandstrasse flow as pedestrian passages. From Goetheplatz, at the confluence with Goethestrasse, to its end at Max-Brauer-Allee with house numbers 261 and 264, it is open to car traffic. The Lamp'lweg crosses in this section. The pedestrian zone, however, runs from Goetheplatz through the Neue Große Bergstraße , which runs parallel to the south, to Altona train station.
By 1958, a street called Kleine Bergstrasse branched off east of the Jewish cemetery ; it disappeared when the area was completely rebuilt. Instead, in 1960, a new Kleine Bergstraße was laid north parallel between Goethestraße and Thedestraße .
Structural development
The Große Bergstraße has been one of the main traffic and business streets in Altona since the 19th century. It began at the former intersection of Kleine Freiheit / Reichenstrasse (which roughly corresponds to today's intersection area Holstenstrasse / Nobistor), crossed Große Johannisstrasse, passed the Israelitisches Friedhof to the north and ran through the residential area of Altona-Altstadt to Bahnhofsplatz, corner of Allee , today Max-Brauer-Allee. In contrast to the Königstrasse to the south with its “elegant” clientele from the Elbe suburbs, it was considered a shopping street for the little people , the Altona residents themselves. The street was almost entirely built up with two to three-story plastered buildings, as they are still on the north side today the street between Virchowstrasse and Goethestrasse exist.
In the 1960s and 1970s, ensembles such as the Neue Große Bergstrasse pedestrian zone and the Frappant shopping center were celebrated as the modern “Neu-Altona” shopping center; they were supposed to offer exclusive shopping opportunities and attract wealthy customers. The concept did not work, as early as the late 1970s, falling sales and changing tenants led to devaluation. Since the end of the 1980s there were renovation plans and measures, but they did not stop the decline. Business closures, especially of department stores and large shops, have led to vacancies in entire building complexes since the mid-1990s. Starting in 2003, short-term rental contracts were increasingly given to artists, art initiatives and creative projects as temporary users in order to bring about a cultural revitalization of the street. Since 2009, demolitions, renovations and major construction projects, in particular the construction of the Ikea Altona furniture store, have changed the structure.
Nobistor to Thedestrasse
The first major building to be purchased was Heinrich Brandt's neo-renaissance commercial building in 1867 on the corner of Große Bergstraße (today Nobistor) and Grund (today Königstraße) . From 1919 the lingerie shop Ignatz Fleischer was here. The house was completely destroyed in the Second World War. The new building was not realized until the beginning of the 1960s, as a fundamental restructuring with the relocation of roads and land was carried out. In the course of the expansion of Holstenstrasse to the south and the associated development of the Kleine Freiheit , the Simon-von-Utrecht-Strasse / Louise-Schroeder-Strasse / Jessenstrasse / Ehrenbergstrasse axis was created for car traffic. The eastern part of the Grosse Bergstrasse from Holstenstrasse to the Jewish cemetery was thus separated and renamed Nobistor . The section from Unzerstraße to Thedestraße / Blücherstraße merged into Louise-Schröder-Straße . The course of the Große Bergstrasse was thus shortened by half. This is still noticeable today from the house numbering: the Große Bergstrasse begins with house number 140 or 139.
The new building on the site of the former Brandt House was opened in 1963 as a Karstadt department store. After Karstadt took over Neckermann at the end of 1976 , the location was given up in 1977 and the previous Neckermann department store in the Frappant complex was now used. The building then stood empty for ten years until it was converted into an Ibis hotel and a supermarket in 1988.
On the opposite side of the street there were retail shops and small companies such as the men's wardrobe store Julius Cohn, later Büsing & Zeyn or the Hotel Stadt Kiel until after the war . In 1905 James Henschel built one of the first cinemas in Altona at Grosse Bergstrasse 11–15 under the name Helios Theater ; from 1931 it was called Schauburg-Altona . In 1951 it was rebuilt as a "crank Nobistor" and in 1954 it was converted into a sex cinema.
This row of streets was demolished in the early 1960s and a new department store was built for the clothing company C&A , which closed this branch in 1993. Then this building also stood empty for a few years until it was demolished in 2007 for an extension of the endoclinic, which was put into operation in May 2009.
Bruno-Tesch-Platz to Altonaer Poststraße
In 1968 the Altona district announced an architecture competition for the site on the south side of the Große Bergstrasse between Altonaer Poststrasse and Jessenstrasse and had the entire development demolished. The open space created in this way encompassed a 5.3 hectare triangular area. Under the title City 80 , a building ensemble was created in the following years that consisted of a shopping and gastronomy center and department store ( Frappant , Große Bergstrasse 166 to 180, completed 1973), a shopping mall with an office tower ( Forum , Große Bergstrasse 154 to 164 , completed in 1975) and a high-rise with a row of shops (high-rise Jessenstrasse 4 / Große Bergstrasse 146, completed in 1975). After completion, the pedestrian zone was expanded from Goetheplatz to Jessenplatz. This was named in 2008 in Bruno-Tesch-Platz .
Frappant / City Ikea - Große Bergstrasse 166 to 180
The Frappant was designed by the architect Borhan Mohregi and completed in 1973. It was a reinforced concrete building with 47,000 m² of total usable space, 16,700 m² of which was retail space. At the opening, a center was presented on five levels with thirty shops and boutiques, six restaurants, a discotheque called White Club on the fourth floor and a so-called Activarium with a sauna and fitness room (in the terminology of the time) on the lower ground floor. Connected with a connection via the second level was a department store with three sales levels, then Neckermann , taken over by Karstadt from 1977 , and a multi-storey car park with 550 parking spaces. There were also 120 residential units above. The offer went far beyond that of a normal shopping center, in particular with the catering area, which was open late into the night, an attempt was made to counteract desertification after the shop had closed.
The concept was presented as unique in Europe and praised in the press. With the oil crisis in autumn 1973, a phase of economic stagnation began in many industrialized countries (see also stagflation , Eurosclerosis ); the unemployment rate rose; Limits to growth and pollution became aware; Consumer criticism increased.
In 1974 the expected or hoped for affluent customers failed to materialize. In 1975 the first improvements and modifications were made, with free entry to music and cabaret events, the catering area should be filled. Little by little, the high-priced shops collapsed, later entire floors were empty. In 1998, the penultimate tenant, Norisbank , moved out of the building; Karstadt stayed until its lease expired in December 2003.
After several changes of ownership and the insolvency of the owner, the Dutch Beton Byggen BV , the building was put up for auction in 1998. At the latest then it became clear that after years of neglect and insufficient asbestos removal millions would have to be invested in order to maintain the house. The new owner, the Bavarian Immo Trading GmbH , subsidiary of Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG , treated the complex as a speculative object . After Karstadt moved out, rental contracts were signed with artists for temporary use and profitable resale was promoted. In the summer of 2008, the Swiss company K-Werkstatt wanted to take over the complex, which was now perceived as a construction sin , and convert it into a new residential, office and department store called Christians-Quartier . However, the plans were stopped by the district because the high sales price of 11.5 million euros forced the new investor to counter the usage and redevelopment plans to build too much retail space instead of apartments. On July 7, 2009, the furniture company Ikea bought the building for 11.5 million euros. The rental contracts with the artists were terminated on November 30, 2009. After a public petition that confirmed the construction project for a new furniture store with 77%, the frappant was demolished in December 2010. The IKEA Altona was the first so-called City-Ikea with around 20,000 m² of sales area , i.e. a branch that was located in the inner-city area and not in one Outskirts. According to IKEA, 70 million euros should be invested and 250 to 400 jobs created. The opening was on June 30, 2014.
Forum / New Forum - Große Bergstrasse 154 to 164
The forum was next to the Frappant, now IKEA, and is a reinforced concrete structure that was completed in 1975. It is a shopping arcade of 5,000 m² with an overbuilt office complex of 15,000 m². The main user from 1975 to 2004 was SAGA (or SAGA GWG ). Since 1995 many of the shops have moved to the Mercado shopping center built in Ottensen , there has also been a large number of vacancies here. From 2003 onwards, several social and artist initiatives moved into the passage, which enlivened the cultural life in the Große Bergstrasse and addressed the possible effects of the renovation plans. In 2009 they had to leave the passage again, the building was bought by the Frankfurt real estate company Urbis Asset Management and completely renovated. After the extensive renovation, the house was named Neues Forum Altona . A few supermarkets, chain stores and retail stores have set up shop on the ground floor, offices and studios for commercial, professional and cultural uses are set up on the first two floors, and the upper floors of the ten-story building are furnished with around 375 residential units.
High-rise with shops - Große Bergstrasse 146 / Jessenstrasse 4
The third complex on the south side of Grosse Bergstrasse was the residential high-rise building at Jessenstrasse 4. It is a good seventy meters high and has sixteen floors. On the ground floor it is surrounded by a row of shops, which today houses a supermarket and several small shops and restaurants. The upstream square has been redesigned several times. In July 2008 it was inaugurated as Bruno-Tesch-Platz in memory of the communist Bruno Tesch who was executed in Altona in August 1933 .
Goetheplatz to Altona station and Neue Große Bergstraße
As early as 1951, a six-storey building complex was built on the rubble site at the end of Grosse Bergstrasse at what was then Bahnhofsplatz, based on the concept of commercial and office construction. It consists of the house of the Hamburger Sparcasse from 1827 (Haspa), Große Bergstraße 258 on the east side of Schillerstraße, the old building of the tax office Große Bergstraße 264–266 and the department store Lindloff with the front to Max-Brauer-Allee, which opened from 1955 to 2003 was taken over by Peek & Cloppenburg .
The further expansion of the Große Bergstrasse was established as a business area in 1956 with an "Ordinance on the future design of Neu-Altona". The subsequently implemented measure was the demolition of the partially war-damaged development between Poststraße and Bahnhofsplatz and the construction of the Neue Große Bergstraße as the first pedestrian shopping street in Hamburg. The back of the savings bank building was expanded with a shopping arcade, on the opposite side four reinforced concrete skeleton buildings were erected as administration and bank buildings with shops and restaurants on the ground floors. The Schillerstraße was shortened and built over with a gate. The pedestrian area was up to 35 meters wide and interrupted by sales pavilions, which could be demolished again without much effort. This provisional solution was chosen because the construction of a new S-Bahn line below the Große Bergstraße was planned and the entrances and exits were planned here on the Neue Große Bergstraße and on the Hospitalstraße.
The inauguration of the pedestrian zone took place in November 1966. But as early as 1968 it became clear that this shopping area was not getting the desired response from buyers. As the planning for the further expansion of the Große Bergstraße progressed, the advertising association Neue Große Bergstraße feared competition from new shops in the neighborhood. The connection through a pedestrian tunnel to the newly built Altona train station and its underground shopping mall in 1979 did not bring any improvement. This was perceived as rather dirty and off-putting.
Since 2012, extensive renovations, demolitions and new developments have also been carried out in this part of the street. Under the name Bergspitze , a building complex was built on Goetheplatz between Großer Bergstrasse and Neuer Großer Bergstrasse, which exceeds the development limits to such an extent that the development plan has been changed. Since the formerly generous space is already being cut by the Ikea building, this project was also controversial.
Political development
Loss of importance of the business center by 2005
In 2005 there were around 130 retail stores on Grosse Bergstrasse and Neue Grosse Bergstrasse, together around 900 meters long, and at the adjacent road junctions. These included greengrocers, meat and grocery stores, clothing, shoe and fashion shops and businesses in the leisure and gastronomy sector, as well as law firms and medical practices. The apparently diverse range now has a clear focus on the low-price segment - bookshops and specialist shops for household electronics, sporting goods or glass and porcelain goods are not among them. The longstanding vacancy, the lack of so-called “customer magnets” such as department stores and the downsizing of the main post office are considered problematic.
The reasons for the development, mostly described as decline, are diverse. Four reports drawn up since 1975 (client / creator: University of HH / urban geography, chamber of commerce, commissioned planning office, Altona district office) as well as the discussion about the referendum against the reopening of the road for motorized individual traffic (2003) highlighted, among other things:
- the structural design south of the pedestrian zone, which was highly praised in the 1970s, but from the 1990s onwards was often described as unaesthetic, with its comparatively tall buildings (Hamburg's chief building director Egbert Kossak commented on this at the end of the 1990s as follows: “It would be best to do this To blow up building sins. " )
- the unwillingness to improve quality on the part of property owners;
- the length of the shopping street and the lack of accessibility by car;
- the lack of non-commercial services for customers as well as attractive leisure activities after business hours.
The following external influences were named in the reports:
- the increase in the attractiveness of the Ottens business district west of the Altona train station;
- the changed shopping behavior and the structural change in retail in general. Accordingly, around 1990 the Große Bergstrasse was downgraded from an “A2 / B1” to a “B-Zentrum” in the Hamburg center concept.
Typical of the seemingly helpless attempts to upgrade by politics and administration were, for example, the demolition of the sales pavilions or the short-term reopening of the Great Mountain Road for private transport, which - after a public petition - was followed by the dismantling of a municipal route for bus transport and taxis.
Urban development measures since 2005
The Große Bergstraße and the Neue Große Bergstraße as well as the surrounding streets were declared in 2005 to be the "redevelopment area Altona Altstadt S5" with the aim of the revitalization of the quarter. The problem areas were particularly highlighted in the concrete blocks "Frappant" and "Forum". This urban development program ran until 2017 and was completed in that year. The redevelopment agency was the urban renewal company (STEG).
Another funding program for the area around Große Bergstrasse is the integrated urban district development Altona Altstadt , which has existed since December 2006 and was designed for eight years, i.e. until 2014. The program was partially canceled in 2018, and follow-up care is to run until 2021. Under terms such as “active urban development” and “neighborhood management”, processes were initiated through which “the neighborhood is socially stabilized, the living environment is upgraded, volunteer work is aroused, the local economy is strengthened, networking in and identification with the neighborhood is developed.”
A third urban development project, in which the Große Bergstrasse also participates, is the "Altona Masterplan", with which future plans are to be developed for the districts of Altona-Altstadt, Altona-Nord and Altona-Sternschanze. This program, too, wants to promote citizen participation, like the integrated district development.
When the former shopping centers of the forum were given to Urbis Asset-Management and the freaking to Ikea , protests arose, as this turned off planning with public participation, but also to controversial discussions among residents, traders and users of the buildings. The artists working in the Frappant building criticize the fact that a furniture store like Ikea leads to a further architectural and economic monoculture in the district and expels the local artists from the district. The expected road traffic of up to an additional 8,300 vehicle movements is seen as a burden for the district and its residents. Of the political parties in the district assembly , only Die Linke opposed a new Ikea building.
Starting in August 2009, a residents' initiative protested against the expected heavy additional traffic load, among other things, with a referendum; At the same time, a second request was initiated, which spoke out in favor of the settlement of Ikea and justified this with the hoped-for "magnetic function" of the department store. In a referendum with a very high turnout (43.5%) in January 2010, over 77% of the residents of the Altona district who voted in favor of a new Ikea building.
Web links
- Website of the "Steg" for the redevelopment area "Große Bergstrasse / Nobistor" in Hamburg-Altona
- The redevelopment and urban redevelopment area Altona-Altstadt S5 Große Bergstraße as a 2D map
- Webcam Great Mountain Road
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian Hanke: Hamburg's street names tell a story . Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-929229-41-2 , page 19.
- ^ Werner Skrentny: Hamburg on foot. Twenty district tours through past and present, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-87975-360-1 , page 211
- ↑ Frappant - from Mozart to Kazakhstan ( 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. . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . March 9, 1974, Retrieved November 5, 2009.
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: The steady decline of a shopping center ( 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. , August 15, 1998.
- ↑ Selling price too high: District stops striking demolition . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . June 13, 2007, accessed November 14, 2009.
- ^ Ole Reissmann: A clear vote in Hamburg-Altona: 77 percent of the citizens want City-Ikea . In: Spiegel Online . January 21, 2010 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 25, 2017]).
- ↑ Pilot project: Ikea presents its first plans for Altona . In: Hamburger Abendblatt. April 25, 2009.
- ↑ Nicola Meir: Billy moves in with me . In: The time . Edition 25/2014. June 12, 2014.
- ↑ Alsterdorf Assistant West: New Forum Altona ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2014 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. . In: alsterdorf-assistent-west.de .
- ↑ One year Neue City von Altona ( 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. . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . October 4, 1974, Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- ↑ Preliminary building permit for the mountain peak issued - Senate commission against chief building director ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2014 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. . In: altona.info . 20th August 2012.
- ^ Anna Nieweler, Anja Tiedge: The project "Construction East" . In: TAZ.de . April 15, 2006.
- ↑ Establishment of a quarter management for the development quarter “Altona-Altstadt” in Hamburg ( Memento of the original from January 14th 2010 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. . In: competitionline.de . Call for entries March 2009, accessed on November 16, 2009.
- ↑ hamburg.de: More Altona - the future plan ( memento of the original from January 20, 2011 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. , accessed November 16, 2009
- ↑ Joseph Varschen: A lot of traffic at Ikea . In: The daily newspaper . August 21, 2009.
- ↑ Ikea: Citizens' initiative protests against City-Filiale Altona ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: moebelkultur.de . August 20, 2009.
- ↑ Eva-Maria Musholt: citizens want Billy . In: The daily newspaper . September 15, 2009.
- ↑ Marco Carini: The elk is coming to Altona . In: The daily newspaper . January 22, 2010.
Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 5 " N , 9 ° 56 ′ 30" E