Herthasee (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herthasee
Berlin Herthasee 1.JPG
Sea party at the Villa Walther
Geographical location Berlin-Grunewald
Data
Coordinates 52 ° 29 '18 "  N , 13 ° 16' 34"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 29 '18 "  N , 13 ° 16' 34"  E
Herthasee (Berlin) (Berlin)
Herthasee (Berlin)
surface 1.3 ha
Template: Infobox See / Maintenance / EVIDENCE AREA

The Herthasee located in western Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of the villa colony Grunewald . It has an area of ​​around 13,000 m² and is one of four artificial lakes within a branch of the glacial channel of the Grunewald chain of lakes . In this side channel, which begins at Schöneberg Town Hall , the artificial Herthasee forms the last body of water seen from the east and meets the Koenigssee of the Grunewald chain, which runs in a south-westerly direction.

The Herthasee is fed by the Koenigssee , to which it is connected by an approximately 30-meter-long canal, which is partly spanned by the Koenigsseebrücke Koenigsallee. It is also connected by a canal to the neighboring lake on the side channel in the direction of Schöneberg Town Hall, the Hubertussee . The Bismarck Bridge, which is a protected monument and impresses with its construction and sandstone sculptures from 1891, crosses this canal .

Round fen and goddess Hertha

Like the three other small lakes in the immediate vicinity, Hubertussee, Koenigssee and Dianasee , the Herthasee is not one of the original lakes of the Grunewald chain, but was excavated in 1889 to drain the swampy area when the villa colony Grunewald was built. The original name of the area, Rundes Fenn , with its Flemish word Fenn ('marshy moorland') indicates the historical character of the landscape.

And while almost all the other lakes in the Grunewald chain are elongated, Lake Herthasee roughly reflects the round shape of the old Round Fenn. The lake and the adjacent Herthastraße to the northeast were named by the founding fathers of the Grunewald colony after the alleged Germanic goddess Hertha . Based on Tacitus ' reference to a place of sacrifice of the deity Nerthus , the belief was widespread in the 19th century that the sanctuary of this Terra Mater (mother earth) was on Rügen .

Riverside footpath

View from the Bismarck Bridge
Guardian of the Bismarck Bridge

The bank areas belonged almost exclusively to the villas of the colony, also known as the “millionaire quarter”, and were not open to the public. Since the 1970s, the then Charlottenburg district (since 2001: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district), most recently as part of a landscape plan , laid out the Grunewald riverside hiking trail, which is intended to link the small lakes and the city ​​center with the Grunewald forest on a continuous path . While the entire south bank of the neighboring Hubertussee has now been prepared for this green corridor, most of the bank areas on Lake Herthasee are still in private hands. So far, only around 210 meters at the southeastern exit of the lake have been included in the path, which then leads under the stone Bismarck bridge along the connecting canal and continues directly on the path at Hubertussee.

Bismarck Bridge

The Bismarckbrücke and Bismarckallee were named in 1898 in honor of the deceased in the same year Chancellor and Prince Otto von Bismarck , who is so far considered one of the founders of the colony, as only after his intervention of the Prussian state was willing to part of state-owned forests to Release and sell development. The road bridge over the channel between Herthasee and Hubertussee, protected as a historical monument, dates from 1891, when the street was still called street G 3 .

The bridge arches and the pillars of the bridge substructure are made of masonry. Four stone vases, which crown the ornate pillars that extend upwards, and four obelisks by the sculptor Max Klein adorn the decorative strings made of red sandstone . Colossal sphinxes made of the same stone, created by Klein as a mythical creature from a mixture of Egyptian sphinx and Wilhelminian style, guard the bridgeheads. An iron lattice balustrade fits harmoniously into the stone work of art.

On the adjacent Bismarckplatz there was a bronze statue of the Chancellor on a granite base until the Second World War , which was also erected by Max Klein in 1897, melted down during the war and replaced in 1996 by a replica by Harald Haacke on the preserved monument base.

Villa Walther

Villa Walther

In addition to the riverside hiking trail, a 20-meter-wide bank section in the gardens of the former Villa Walther is open to the public; the path to the shore leads through a small park behind the villa, which can be entered. The villa is located at Koenigsallee 20 / 20a on the corner at Delbrückstraße 2 and in its splendor and size is hardly inferior to the listed palaces of Villa Konschewski on Hundekehlesee and Haus Flechtheim. Allegedly, the building officer Wilhelm Walther, as the builder of his own bombastic domicile, had completely exhausted himself financially and hanged himself in the tower room immediately after the villa was completed in 1917.

The Villa Walther is protected as an architectural monument as is the small park from 1912 as a garden monument , which probably also goes back to plans by Wilhelm Walther. In the area of ​​the steeply sloping shore on Lake Herthasee, level terraces with steep slopes lead the garden to the level of the villa - sculptures crown the last stairs to the house. Walther was regarded as a representative of eclecticism and his villa is seen as an "urban development and artistic lesson in his own architectural conception". The mixture of different styles that is characteristic of eclecticism is expressed in the alternation of playful turrets, strict facades, baroque sculptures, reliefs and frescoes . Walther was also involved in the construction of the Friedenskirche Grünau and various industrial and insurance buildings go back to him. The design for the St. Georg Fountain on Hindemithplatz in Charlottenburg , which originally stood in front of the former Hotel Bayernhof on Potsdamer Strasse , was also by Walther.

In the second half of the 20th century the villa stood empty for a long time. After a stylish restoration and a less suitable extension in 1985, the house found various temporary uses, including the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin . Between 1999 and 2015, the Romanian Cultural Institute Titu Maiorescu resided in the building.

See in more detail

Web links

Commons : Herthasee  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  2. Internet presence of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin , accessed on May 25, 2015.