Hausvogteiplatz

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Hausvogteiplatz
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Place in Berlin
Hausvogteiplatz
Historical fountain on Hausvogteiplatz,
in the background Haus zur Berolina
Basic data
place Berlin
District Berlin center
Created Mid 18th century
Newly designed last in the beginning of the 21st century
Confluent streets Oberwallstrasse, Niederwallstrasse, Jerusalemer Strasse, Mohrenstrasse , Taubenstrasse
Buildings The development of the Friedrichswerder limits it; fountain
use
User groups Road traffic , pedestrians
Technical specifications
Square area 900

The Hausvogteiplatz is located in Berlin's Mitte district at the intersection of Friedrichswerder and Friedrichstadt . It is a relatively small oblique triangular square that was created on former fortifications . In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it gained supraregional importance as the center of Berlin clothing . Part of the development is under monument protection . The landmark fashion center Hausvogteiplatz is located on the square .

Designation of the place, development

The square was called Quarree from around 1740 to 1750 , and from 1750 to 1789 the name Jerusalemsplatz , for the Jerusalemer Straße that begins here. In 1789 it was given its current name, which it owes to the royal court , which was relocated to the east side of the square in 1750 under Frederick II (Frederick the Great) - the so-called house bailiff.

Until the late 18th century, the square was popularly called Schinkenplatz , because of the shape of its floor plan, because meat was sold here and / or because "dishonorable women" lived in the area, known as "ham" in the coarse colloquial language. (based on the Yiddish word Schickse ). The name also suggests that it was derived from the neighboring ham bridge. Two streets bordering it to the southwest and southeast are also called Hausvogteiplatz. Incidentally, there is a separate green area of ​​around 160 square meters southwest of the actual square and is also called Hausvogteiplatz.

The underground line 2 stops under the square at the Hausvogteiplatz underground station .

history

City map of Berlin, 1847, detail

17th to 19th century

Under the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , Berlin was expanded into a fortress from 1657, with eight-meter-high ramparts, a wide, water-filled moat and 13  bastions . The Leipziger Tor , the main south-western entrance to the city, was located between Bastions III and IV . Even while the fortress was being built, settlements developed outside of the fortification lines, traffic between these suburbs and the residence increased rapidly, the fortifications proved to be a hindrance and their defensive value was questionable. As early as 1733, work began on partially laying down the ramparts and filling in the moat. The Spittelmarkt was built above the former Bastion IV and the Hausvogteiplatz on the site of the former Bastion III. On a city map from 1847 - the historic district of Friedrichswerder with Hausvogteiplatz is colored yellow here - the positions of the former ramparts and the triangular protruding bastions on the course of the western district boundary can still be clearly seen.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the Hausvogtei prison was located on Hausvogteiplatz. In cases of suspicion, people were arrested here who were subject to court jurisdiction, i.e. servants and craftsmen of the royal court and the residents of the Friedrichswerder district. The prison was also responsible for the Berlin Jews . A much-quoted word from that time warned: "Anyone who knows the truth and speaks it freely comes to the house bailiff in Berlin."

1853, at the height of the reaction in Prussia, was on the Hausvogteiplatz another woman because of perjury to the pillory asked: "... as there we noticed a curious people flock that before Hausvogteiplatz restless before around a bit crowded. We quickened our pace and now saw a rather elderly, corpulent woman, with her hands tied on her back to a stake that read: 'Because of perjury'. It was then written in 1853. It was therefore an attempt made at the height of the reaction to reintroduce the medieval punishment of pillory. When we stood in the same place on our way back at twelve o'clock, the spectacle, which we boys were naturally very interested in, had already disappeared from the scene. The government had probably realized that after 1848 it was no longer allowed to offer Berliners something like this. "

19th century

Hausvogteiplatz, 1840

The square was laid out as a fortified town square without any decoration or vegetation . In the middle of the 19th century, which cannot be precisely determined, he received a fountain system - it appears for the first time on a map from 1852. In June 1857, Peter Joseph Lenné was commissioned with a design for horticultural jewelry, but initially turned it down because he liked it Conditions that he found "not suitable for such plantings" seemed. In the end, Lenné drew a plan that “taking the fountain as the focal point, aims to turn this square with the ornament of graceful greens” and in which he precisely described the intended garden architectural details. However, this plan was not carried out. New discussions about the design of the square did not begin again until 1875, when a change in the street layout on Hausvogteiplatz was discussed.

Hausvogteiplatz, 1889

In the meantime the clothing industry had developed around the square. In 1891 the old bailiwick was demolished and the property was used to expand the bank building next door . Four-storey buildings, important evidence of the architecture of the late 19th century , were increasingly being built on the edge of the square . The commercial buildings with the house numbers 3–4, 8–9 and 12, all built in the 1890s, as well as house no. 1, which was built 30 years later, are listed. In the years 1877/80 and 1885, various plans for the redesign of the square were drawn up. The owners of the surrounding shops spoke out against the planting - they feared trees would block the unobstructed view of their company signs. Admittedly, there was initially no financial means for the planned changes, and it was only in 1890 that work could continue on the green space. The result at the time: a triangular lawn, planted with trees and bushes, on the edge two semicircular benches, in the center of the fountain .

20th century

This design of the square only lasted for a short time. For the new construction of today's underground line 2 , half of the space had to be torn up in 1906, all trees fell victim to the construction work, only the fountain remained. Thereafter, the central island of the square was extended to the north in order to integrate the subway entrance. The new horticultural design, decided by the park deputation in 1908, provided for a central gravel area, inside the fountain, bordered by a strip of lawn and flowers, a circle of trees on the outside and some now straight benches (head gardener Diekmann had written to the park deputation: "... the previous semicircular benches are rotten ... I sincerely ask for six benches to be delivered").

Hausvogteiplatz survived in this form well into World War II . In an aerial photo from 1943 it still appears undamaged. On the other hand, devastating war damage can be seen on a photo from 1945 - a large part of the surrounding houses and the square itself have been destroyed. A large area of ​​the subway shaft has been torn open so that the tracks are exposed. A single tree, a linden tree , survived the war and - at least just as remarkably - also the severe post-war winters, in which all of Berlin's parks were largely cut down and burned. In the years that followed, the site served as a dumping ground for rubble . After the clean-up work was finished, the first horticultural facilities were built again in the 1950s, the historic linden tree was integrated into the planting, but the destroyed fountain was not restored. Further redesigns took place in 1962/63 and 1983, when the entire area of ​​the square was covered with colored artificial stone slabs.

Hausvogteiplatz is in that part of Berlin that belonged to the GDR until 1990 . After the German reunification , plans were temporarily discussed in 1991 to develop the square into a textile and fashion center again. Such intentions failed because of the changed conditions in the clothing industry.

A fundamental change began in 1997 with an appraisal on the development history of Hausvogteiplatz, commissioned by the Berlin State Monuments Office and the German Urban Development Company. After evaluating the report, in which the square was rated as a “ traditional island ”, the Senate decided to restore it on the basis of the simply structured, convincing urban design from 1908; Lenné's planning elements should be taken into account. In autumn 2001 the square area was completed together with the adjacent streets. It took a little longer to restore the well. During archaeological excavations, the base of the basin from 1890 was exposed. In keeping with the original, the shallow basin was given a new edge made of sandstone . The fountain rises from a wreath of acanthus leaves . This cast bronze crown of leaves is a scaled-down replica of the originals in the historic fountain on Pariser Platz . Anita Ekberg was invited
to restart the fountain on June 20, 2003 , who, obviously as a gag, throwing a coin into the
Trevi fountain in the film La dolce vita , threw a first coin into the bailiff's fountain basin.

21st century

Signposts to nearby attractions

In the years that followed, prestigious new buildings were built, and existing buildings such as the listed Haus zur Berolina were extensively modernized. Here the Jewish traditions of the square could be revived: since December 2003 the Jüdische Allgemeine has been published here. It is the only national Jewish weekly newspaper in Germany and follows the tradition of the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, founded in 1837 by the Rudolf Mosse publishing house. In November 2015, the traditional Berlin men's outfitter BECON Berliner Konfektion GmbH opened a retail store on the ground floor of Haus zur Berolina, directly in front of the statue of the dancing Berolina , created by the artist Axel Anklam.

An information center for the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace and the rebuilding of its baroque facade has been located at Hausvogteiplatz 3 since spring 2005 , operated by the Friends of the Berlin Palace under the direction of Wilhelm von Boddien . This information center moved to the Humboldt Box on Schlossplatz in 2011 until the inauguration of the replica castle.

Assembly location

At Hausvogteiplatz and in the adjacent streets of the historic districts of Alt- Cölln , Friedrichswerder and Friedrichstadt , a center for the textile and fur trade and the clothing industry developed in the 19th century. The starting date is 1837, when the brothers David, Moritz and Valentin Manheimer founded their company. Other entrepreneurs from the early years, later well-known manufacturers and merchants, included David Leib Levin, Rudolph Hertzog and Herrmann Gerson . Gerson had started a textile trade in 1836, started manufacturing and selling ready-made clothing in 1841 and moved to Werderscher Markt near Hausvogteiplatz in 1848 . Soon he owned the largest company of its kind in Berlin, and with its offers in the luxury segment , he became a purveyor to the court , and noblemen and bankers were among his customers. As Gerson showed, in most cases the manufacture was mass-produced, at best average quality at affordable prices, but it could also deliver the highest quality individually cut in small numbers.

By 1860, 20 clothing companies had settled around Hausvogteiplatz, ten years later there were twice as many. As early as 1875 it was exported to Holland , England , Sweden , Switzerland and the USA . At the turn of the century, the entire district lived from the textile industry. The actual production was distributed among around 600 independent subcontractors, the so-called intermediate masters, for whom around 100,000 women sewed from home under often oppressive conditions in the tenements in the north and east of Berlin . From the end of the 19th century until at least the 1930s, the material representatives met around lunchtime in Café Schiller, the bosses and senior staff exchanged the latest news at “Reimann”.

The most economically successful period ended with the First World War . After that, the markets outside Germany in particular were lost, and sales fell significantly. But even in the Roaring Twenties , the designs of women's clothing in Berlin had a significant impact on the international fashion scene. In 1927, the specialist magazine Der Konfektionär counted more than 800 women's clothing companies in the capital. The Hausvogteiplatz was still the center of the industry.

The textile companies have always been predominantly owned by Jews, and many of the employees were also Jews. Mainly for historical reasons. For centuries, Jews had been banned from practicing most professions, one of the few permitted activities was the outpatient trade in old clothes, haberdashery and the like. When these restrictions were gradually relaxed since the 18th century, many dealers stayed in the familiar business area, opened shops and finally founded the internationally successful Berlin clothing industry with their businesses in the vicinity of Hausvogteiplatz .

Memorial

Inside view of one of the attached warning boards
Memories on the Hausvogteiplatz
second memorial on the steps of the subway entrance

In 1933, when the anti-Semitic National Socialist Party of Adolf Hitler came to power , the state began to systematically persecute Jews. The Jewish-owned clothing factories were the target of massive discrimination and disabilities from the start. Slanderous articles and caricatures in the synchronized press raised the mood against the Jews. Boycott uniformed SA people guarding the shop doors threatening potential customers. The sales of the entire industry collapsed dramatically. From a later point of view, some details seem bizarre: In 1936 the word “ready-made clothing” got on a prohibited list; Women's underwear was advertised with the statement that it was “guaranteed Aryan ”. New ordinances and decrees kept hindering business activity. Manufacturers and business owners were thus forced to sell their businesses to “Aryan” employees or competitors, many of whom left the country. Those who were unwilling or unable to do so ran the risk of being deported to an extermination camp a little later . 4,000 Jews from the Berlin clothing industry were murdered there.

An initiative group of committed intellectuals founded in 1992 campaigned for a monument on Hausvogteiplatz to commemorate the persecution of Jewish citizens during the Nazi era . First of all, a provisional information column was set up in 1994 . The limited artistic competition held in 1995 was won by Rainer Görß from Berlin; the jury proposed his work to the Senate Building Department for execution. On July 10th, 2000, the responsible senator presented the finished memorial of the fashion center Hausvogteiplatz to the public. The total costs amounted to 180,000 marks and were financed from the budget item art in urban space .

The monument consists of two complexes. In front of the eastern entrance to the underground there is a group of three narrow, rectangular, slightly inwardly inclined surfaces made of mirrored stainless steel , arranged in an open, accessible triangle and 2.70 meters high. They are reminiscent of dressing mirrors, as are common in the fashion industry. The inside, which is also mirrored, creates a labyrinthine , often broken representation of the viewer and the surroundings. Three metal text panels are embedded in the floor of the interior, providing information about the significance and fate of the Jewish entrepreneurs and employees who worked here. The second part of the monument names and dates of Jewish fashion companies on the steps of the subway entrance in a combination of text and mirror surfaces; Empty fields indicate that the information must remain incomplete.

Another indication of the fate of Jewish residents during the Nazi era can be found on a plaque in the house at Markgrafenstrasse 36.

literature

  • Brunhilde Dähn: Berlin Hausvogteiplatz , Göttingen 1968, 246 pages, new edition Berlin 2019, 272 pages, ISBN 9783981982947 .
  • Uwe Westphal: Berlin clothing and fashion. 1836-1939. The destruction of a tradition. , Berlin 1986, 208 pp.
  • Uwe Westphal: Ehrenfried & Cohn . Lichtig Verlag, Berlin 2015, 180 pp.

Web links

Commons : Hausvogteiplatz  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes E. S. Schmidt: The French Cathedral School and the French Gymnasium in Berlin. Student memories 1848-1861. Edited and commented by Rüdiger R. E. Fock. Publishing house Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3478-0 , p. 35
  2. O. Leithold: digital.zlb.de Under Miscellaneous you can find detailed statements about the planned bank building on Hausvogteiplatz; published in: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung with news from the Reich and state authorities. 1924 (44), No. 3; Page 23; Retrieved March 3, 2013
  3. Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment [1] , accessed on June 9, 2015.
  4. Without the author's name (probably Philipp Manes ): News from “Hausvogteiplatz . In: Pelz und Stoff No. 4, supplement to Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 45, Leipzig, June 9, 1934. "
  5. ^ Ehrenfried & Cohn : A novel about a Jewish textile entrepreneur from Berlin who lived on Hausvogteiplatz in 1935
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 20, 2006 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 47 "  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 48"  E