House of the German Transport Association

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Berlin, Mitte, Engeldamm, Association House of the German Transport Association 04.jpg

The house of the German Transport Association , now also known as the Taut House , is an office and commercial building in Luisenstadt in Berlin-Mitte , Engeldamm 70 / Michaelkirchplatz 1–2. The building was built in 1929/1932 for the German Transport Association , the transport workers' union . Based on a first draft by Bruno Taut in 1927, his brother Max Taut (both from the Taut & Hoffmann architectural association ) revised the plans in 1929 and completed the building by 1932. The house is a listed building .

investment

Memorial plaque on the house, Engeldamm 70, in Berlin-Mitte

The former union home is a six-storey reinforced concrete - skeleton with a little set back the top floor. The flat facade in the style of New Objectivity has horizontal windows, each arranged in pairs between load-bearing supports. The pillars and parapets were originally clad with a dark material, which was replaced by light-colored shell limestone panels during the reconstruction after war damage between 1949 and 1951 . The structure is accentuated by rounded corners. Load-bearing and non-load-bearing parts are differentiated in color. The entrance area is emphasized by three slightly protruding axes. A special feature is the triangular, rounded staircase made of black stone in the entrance hall. In the large conference room on the top floor there were six reliefs created by Rudolf Belling on the subject of "United power creates great things". In the ground floor zone there were various shops and businesses.

use

The house housed the central administrations of the unions that were not part of the large industrial unions. In the National Socialist period from 1933 onwards, the General German Trade Union Federation , to which the Verkehrsbund belonged, was expropriated and the building was used by the German Labor Front , among other things for the Berlin Gauverwaltung der Kraft durch Freude organization.

In February 1945 the building burned down completely in an air raid, only the reinforced concrete structure was still standing. The building was restored at the end of the 1940s. From 1950 the FDGB and, after reunification in 1990, individual unions such as the ÖTV used the house. In 1998, a basic renovation was completed in accordance with the listed buildings. When the new large union ver.di was formed, it became the owner of the house, but moved out in 2002 due to construction defects. The building then stood empty until 2010.

From 2010, the building was repaired according to plans by the architects' office Ingenbleek, Berlin, and converted into a residential building with commercial units on the ground floor, the spacious hallways and entrance area were retained. The supporting structure of the ceilings was refurbished and the reinforced concrete coffered ceilings that had shaped the building and were clad up to then, the hot-riveted steel columns and the main girder structures were permanently exposed in many areas. Many areas of the building have been reconstructed in accordance with the requirements of listed buildings. The building has been occupied again since 2014, but has been repeatedly exposed to vandalism.

literature

  • Sibylle Badstübner-Gröger, Michael Bollé, Ralph Paschke (arrangement): Handbook of German Art Monuments , Berlin. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-422-03038-7 , p. 134.
  • Guido Brendgens, Norbert König: Architectural Guide Berlin. Jovis Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-931321-46-0 , p. 220.
  • Manfred Speidel: Bruno Taut. Nature and imagination. (Exhibition catalog, Magdeburg 1995) Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-433-02641-6 , p. 242f.
  • Wolfgang Blumenthal, Elke Keller, Karlheinz Cuba: With the groschen of the members. Union houses in Berlin 1900 to 1933 . 2nd edition, Weist, Berlin 2013 (Writings of the Johannes Sassenbach Society; 2), ISBN 3-89626-398-6 , pp. 45–52.

Web links

Commons : Association house of the German Transport Association  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  2. ↑ Winfried Brenne: Bruno Taut. Master of colored building in Berlin. Edited by Deutscher Werkbund Berlin eV, Braun Verlagshaus, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-935455-82-8
  3. ^ Groundwater forces Verdi to move out , Berliner Zeitung of February 12, 2002
  4. ↑ cf. Taut-Haus am Engelbecken , website of the project developer, accessed on March 11, 2014
  5. ↑ Laura Weissmüller: Heimatschutz. Impact holes, broken window panes, Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 15, 2015, page 3.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 22 ″  N , 13 ° 25 ′ 13 ″  E