Holy Spirit District
1a Nikolaiviertel
1b Heilige-Geist-Viertel
1c Marienviertel
1d Klosterviertel
2a Schlossviertel
2b Marktviertel
2c Neu-Kölln
3a Gertraudenviertel
3b Schleusenviertel
Sources:
Content: CEGeppert: Chronicle of Berlin from the development of the city to the present day , Berlin 1840 , August Brass: Chronicle of Berlin Potsdam and Charlottenburg, Berlin 1843
Map basis: District Office Mitte von Berlin
The Heilige-Geist-Viertel is one of what used to be four quarters in the historic district of Alt-Berlin , which is now part of the Mitte district. The name has existed since at least 1727 and refers to the Heilig-Geist-Spital of which the Heilig-Geist-Kapelle still exists today. Today the term is once again important in the field of urban planning.
history
The history of the Heilige-Geist-Viertel goes back to the time when the city of Berlin was founded around 1230, when the Marienkirche in the neighboring Marienviertel was already mentioned in a document. At that time, the city was expanded in the north to Neue Friedrichstrasse (today in this area Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Strasse ) and a little later surrounded by a city wall. In the late Middle Ages, the city of Berlin consisted of the four districts Marienviertel, Heilige-Geist-Viertel, Nikolaiviertel and Klosterviertel according to a traditional fire brigade alarm plan.
Buildings in the Holy Spirit Quarter
Holy Spirit Hospital
The Heilig-Geist-Spital was one of the oldest foundations in Berlin and was first mentioned in 1272 in the guild letter of the bakers . It was one of three hospitals in medieval Berlin. It was located on the western side of Spandauer Straße not far from the Spandauer Tor , which no longer exists today, and was used to care for the elderly and the sick. The Heilig-Geist-Kapelle belonging to the hospital was built around 1300 and is one of the oldest surviving structures in Berlin. From 1655 until the construction of the garrison church in 1703, the chapel was used by the Berlin garrison. Catholic services were held here until 1905. The hospital building was demolished in 1825 and replaced by a two-story new building. In 1906, the chapel was included as a lecture hall in the new building of the commercial school of the Berlin merchants, which later became part of the economics faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin. Only the chapel of the hospital's buildings has been preserved.
Spandauer Tor
The medieval gate was at the northern end of Spandauer Straße, close to the Heilig-Geist-Spital. With the construction of the baroque fortifications under Johann Gregor Memhardt , the gate was moved to the northeast between two bastions . After the fortifications had been removed, a square was formed in front of this former baroque gate at the fork in Oranienburger Strasse and Rosenthaler Strasse around 1750 - the Hackesche Markt .
Castle front with the Hotel König von Portugal
The hotel " König von Portugal " was located at Burgstrasse 16, where Lessing's play "Minna von Barnhelm" was played. The hostel was known to castle guests and had a particularly romantic inner courtyard.
Itzig Palace
Owner of the building on the corner of Castle Street and New Friedrichstrasse (now Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße ) was Daniel Itzig (1723-1799), a banker Frederick II. In 1762 acquired Itzig five houses on the Castle Road, including the 1718 by Philipp Gerlach built Palais Montargues, had it demolished and in its place until 1765 by chief building officer August Gotthilf Naumann the Elder. J. build a baroque palace, which was later given the address Burgstrasse 25. In 1817 Itzig's descendants sold it to the doctor Nathan Friedländer. From his son Carl Jacob Friedländer the corporation of the merchants acquired it in 1856, which had it replaced by the new building of the stock exchange (see below).
Stock exchange
The Berlin Stock Exchange was founded on June 29, 1685 by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm in Berlin. The first trading session took place on February 25, 1739. Initially, the upper floor of the former pleasure house in the pleasure garden in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin City Palace was used before it was demolished in 1798 in favor of a new building for the stock exchange. The building in Burgstrasse on the other side of the Spree was built by Friedrich Hitzig from 1859 to 1864 . It was destroyed during World War II.
Six bridge
The "Cavaliers Bridge" was built in the first half of the 19th century as a wooden pedestrian bridge between the Lustgarten and the Holy Spirit quarter. It was better known as the “ six bridge ” - this is how several bridges were called colloquially, for which 5 or 6 pfennigs (ie a six - as the Berliner said at half a groschen to 12 pfennigs) had to be paid as a bridge toll. Around 1885 this was replaced by the much larger Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge (today Liebknecht Bridge ). On the other side of the Spree was the Kleine Burgstrasse (today Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse ).
Royal Court and City Post Office
Around 1650 the Great Elector began to set up postal connections in the Mark Brandenburg and to appoint a postal director for the residence. In 1683 there was a post office on Poststrasse at the corner of Georgenstrasse (Königstrasse) which housed the general post office and the postmaster's apartment. At this time only electoral / royal shipments were transported; Companies and private individuals had to find other means. After Count Kolbe von Wartenberg , who for some time was also Chief Postmaster, had to leave Berlin because of corruption, the Royal Court Post Office moved into his baroque palace on the Long Bridge (Schlüter-Bau) in 1712 - now called the "Neue Post". The old building on Poststrasse was used as the residence of the postmaster general until the 19th century, but was then demolished.
Around 1826 the Berliner Stadtpost-Expedition bought on the instructions of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. the first land for the establishment of the court post office . On the area between Spandauer, Königstraße, Heiligegeiststraße and Kleine Poststraße - today the eastern part of the Marx-Engels-Forum - was the former court and city post office until about 1945. The approximately 12,000 square meter complex initially consisted of several individual buildings, which were bought one after the other by the post office and replaced by a new building in 1882
Pilgrimage from Berlin to Wilsnack
The Berlin – Wilsnack pilgrimage route was followed from the end of the 14th century to the 16th century and was the most important pilgrimage destination in Northern Europe at that time. The starting point was the St. Marienkirche or the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Berlin-Mitte . The goal was the miracle blood church of St. Nikolai in Wilsnack in northwestern Brandenburg . Since the exploration of the pilgrimage route at the end of the 20th century, it has experienced a renaissance.
The Holy Spirit Quarter today
Today the Marx-Engels-Forum is located between the streets of Spandauer Straße , Karl-Liebknecht-Straße and Rathausstraße east of the Spree . If you leave the Berlin City Palace on the east side after the reconstruction, you can look across the Spree to the Marx-Engels-Forum and further towards Alexanderplatz into a park. The monument to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is located here at Heilige-Geist-Straße 16. There was once a residential building at this point.
At the beginning of the 1970s, when the value of the old town quarters that had grown over centuries was rediscovered in many European cities, all buildings in the historic city center of Berlin were demolished in the area between the Spree and Alexanderplatz, with the exception of the Marienkirche, according to an urban redevelopment model authorized by Walter Ulbricht that had survived the war to make room for the construction of the television tower and the GDR state axis .
Anyone walking across the Marx-Engels-Forum today cannot see that at this point, at a depth of about 1.50 m, under today's pavement and the park, the Heilige-Geist-Viertel in the historic city center of Alt- Berlin found. The difference in height is only noticeable when you walk from the Marx-Engels-Forum to the Marienkirche and there go down the steps to the church.
With the laying of up to ten-lane traffic aisles in the course of Grunerstraße and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, the rounded town plan so typical of all medieval towns, which resulted from the old town walls and the surrounding walls, was cut up and erased from the town's memory (only the light rail on the old moat between the Alexanderplatz and Hackescher Markt stations traces this to this day).
However, there are efforts to restore the urban character of this district as well. As early as 1999, the Berlin Senate decided on the “ Inner City Plan ” as an urban planning model, although no consensus for reurbanization could be found for this area - then until now. A long-term discussion developed between the proponents and the opponents of any kind of reconstruction . Plans arose for an Alexanderplatz dominated by high-rise buildings, which also provided for a reconstruction of the base of the television tower at the historic eaves height , as well as individual structural objects that looked out of place between the Red City Hall and the Marienkirche.
See also
literature
- Heinrich Alberts: The Chronicle of Berlin . Chronik Verlag 1986, ISBN 3-88379-082-6
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 16 ″ N , 13 ° 24 ′ 11 ″ E