House of Science Braunschweig
The House of Science , formerly the Braunschweig University of Education , at Pockelsstrasse 11 in Braunschweig is an example of late expressionist architecture from the Nazi era . It was designed by the architect Emil Herzig and opened in 1937 as the " Bernhard Rust - College for Teacher Training ". After the war it was re-established as the " Kant University". Today the premises belong to the Technical University of Braunschweig and house the Braunschweig House of Science.
History of use of the building complex
1937-1945
The foundation stone for the building complex on Pockelsstrasse was laid on March 19, 1935. At that time the building, which was designed by the architect Emil Herzig, was supposed to serve as a new building for the cultural studies department of the Technical University of Braunschweig. However, it was decided to set up a college for teacher training during the planning phase . On May 23, 1937, the "Bernhard Rust University" was finally opened. It symbolized the politics of the National Socialist state government in two ways : It attached great importance to the training of teachers in order to ensure that the pupils were educated in a way that was true to their own beliefs, and to a strong external effect, which was given by the monumentality of the building. However, shortly after it was founded, the duration of the training was shortened to 4 semesters and the reseminarization of teacher training was announced as early as 1940, as the National Socialists considered academic teacher training to be unnecessary.
The design of the complex corresponded to the line of official state architecture and is considered an example of late expressionist architecture. At the time of construction, there was also an observatory on the roof of the tower-like central building , the so-called “People's Observatory ”, which was destroyed during the war.
After 1945
Since the facility survived the Second World War almost unscathed, lectures were held here again from November 1945. The state of Braunschweig and the British military government agreed to re-establish the Braunschweig University of Education under the name " Kant University ". Popularly it was soon known as the "Hochkantschule" due to the central tower.
The university was not only the first place in Braunschweig to offer free university education again after the war, it also developed into the intellectual and cultural center of the city. From 1945 urban cultural events took place at the university, and from 1946 the Braunschweig State Theater chose the gym as its new venue. Festive events, lectures, readings and concerts also took place here. As early as November 1945, a series of lectures entitled “Questions of the Present” took on the task of coming to terms with the then immediate past.
In the Kant University, however, not only an intellectual, but also a democratic new beginning took place: the first and the last session of the democratic state parliament of Braunschweig took place in this building. During the final meeting on November 21, 1946, the state of Braunschweig finally became part of the new federal state of Lower Saxony . In 1978, both the university teacher training and the building complex of the Technical University of Braunschweig were attached.
From 1953 to 1974, students from the Technical University of Braunschweig built the top tower floors into a very extensive radio and television studio. This “student broadcasters working group (ags)” still exists today at the TU Braunschweig; but in a different place.
Todays use
Today, the Braunschweig House of Science is located in the premises of the old university of education, the aim of which is to network society and science more closely. This takes place, among other things, through public exhibitions and events that are aimed at communicating science in a comprehensible manner. The shareholders of the House of Science are the Braunschweig Stadtmarketing GmbH, the Technical University of Braunschweig , the Employers' Association of Braunschweig Region eV, the Research Region Braunschweig eV and the Union Commercial Association of 1818 eV A new format promoted by the House of Science is the Science Slam at present their research topic to the young scientist within ten minutes, following the example of the poetry slam . The audience evaluates both the content and the presentation of the speaker and then chooses the winner. The House of Science awards a golden brain as a trophy.
architecture
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When the architect Emil Herzig designed the building complex on Pockelsstrasse, his concept envisaged a division into three main parts: the lecture hall, the natural history museum and the gym. An inner courtyard open to the north was enclosed by these buildings. It was only with the construction of the north wing in the sixties that the building complex got its present form.
The architectural style of the complex, whose conservative brick facade hides a modern framework made of reinforced concrete , corresponds to North German brick Expressionism , which, however, was more than ten years old when construction began. In its original state, the interior design in particular showed a strong symbolic reference to the ideology of National Socialism : the wall sconces resembled torch holders, the wrought-iron banisters and radiator panels were reminiscent of swastikas . In the central building there was also a vaulted room known as the “Hall of Honor”.
The image of the complex is dominated by the six-story central building, in which there are lecture halls, seminar rooms and the auditorium. The steeply towering roofs, which particularly characterize the facade of the Natural History Museum and the vaulted hall in the tower, show a clear reference to the North German sacred building of the brick Gothic . Herzig's design was evidently geared towards achieving as monumental an impression as possible from a distance. The pillars of the central building worked into the facade give the complex an ambitious effect, which is, however, slowed down by its bulk.
- modification
In 2008 and 2009, renovation work was carried out in the building complex on Pockelsstrasse. A restaurant was built on the 6th floor and new seminar rooms on the fifth floor. The new student service center of the TU Braunschweig was built on the ground floor . The entire infrastructure was also completely renovated. The outdoor facilities are currently being renewed and a bistro is being built for the students on the ground floor. In the next few years, the Center for Systems Biology of the TU Braunschweig will also be built behind the building complex .
In May 2011, the building was supplemented with a modern glass dome, the construction of which had repeatedly been delayed. The dome construction cites the dome of the public observatory that adorned the roof of the building until it was destroyed in World War II. The telescopic base of the former public observatory was torn down in 1953 by students from the student station "ags" at the Technical University and the dome was rebuilt as a wood and glass construction to obtain a large recording room above the roofs of Braunschweig. On January 18, 2007, this structure was destroyed by hurricane Kyrill.
literature
- Andreas Eberhard and Lars Strominski: From the Little Exer to the House of Science. The place, the house, its history. Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig 2017, ISBN 978-3-927115-78-1 (= publications of the university library and the university archive of Braunschweig, volume 18.Catalogue for the permanent exhibition opened on September 8, 2016 in the Haus der Wissenschaft Braunschweig). on-line
- Markus Mittmann: Building under National Socialism. Braunschweig, the "German settlement town" and the "model settlement of the German labor front" Braunschweig-Mascherode. Origin, design, analysis. Niemeyer, Hameln 2003, ISBN 3-8271-9050-9 (At the same time: Hannover, Univ., Diss., 2003: Building under National Socialism: Settlements and Housing in Braunschweig 1933–1945 and the “Model Settlement of the German Labor Front” Braunschweig-Mascherode. ).
- Markus Mittmann: National Socialist Building: The "Bernhard Rust University" in Braunschweig. (= Kleine Schriften 25), Braunschweig City Archives and City Library, Braunschweig 1993.
- Holger Pump-Uhlmann: The building complex for the former "Bernhard Rust University". In: Technical University of Braunschweig. From the Collegium Carolinum to the Technical University (1745–1995). Olms-Georg AG, Braunschweig 1995.
- Helmut Weihsmann : Building under the swastika. Architecture of doom. Promedia Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85371-113-8 , pp. 310-311.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 29.2 ″ N , 10 ° 31 ′ 46.1 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Uwe Sandfuchs: The reseminarization of teacher training in the Third Reich. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, Volume 62, 1981, pp. 137–156 ( nbn-resolving.de [accessed on August 15, 2017]).