Köllnischer Park

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Köllnischer Park
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Park in Berlin
Köllnischer Park
Park view.
In the background the Märkisches Museum
Basic data
place Berlin
District center
Created in the 18th century
Surrounding streets Wallstrasse,
Strasse am Köllnischen Park,
Rungestrasse,
Inselstrasse
Buildings Buildings and other sights in the park
use
User groups Foot traffic ; Leisure , events
Park design Gustav Meyer
Technical specifications
Parking area 10,000 m²

The Köllnische Park is a Grade II listed park near the River Spree in Berlin district of Mitte . The approximately one- hectare park was built in the 18th and 19th centuries on the site of earlier fortifications. On the area and in the surrounding area there are interesting buildings from different centuries.

Location, naming and transport links

The Köllnische Park and its surroundings

The not clearly delimited green space in the district of Mitte is surrounded by Wallstraße in the north, the street at Köllnischer Park in the east, Rungestraße in the south and Inselstraße in the west. On the western side, between the park and the street, there are some individual buildings and the Kölln high school . The building complex of the Märkisches Museum stands on the northern edge of the large site, facing the river . The eastern border is dominated by an office building with five floors that has been used by the Senate Department for urban development for several years . To the south is the clinker-clad building erected at the beginning of the 20th century , which served as the second headquarters of the AOK Berlin branch until 2003 . Activum SG acquired the property in 2014 and is converting the building into condominiums with the help of the project developer Home Center Management .

The bear kennel, which has been the enclosure for several generations of Berlin's heraldic animals since 1939, is located directly in the grounds of the Köllnischer Park .

In the 20th century, after the major redesign by the gardening director Gustav Meyer , the green area was given its current name, which is derived from the city of origin, Cölln, of today's Berlin. The park can be reached with the line U2 of the Berlin underground , station Märkisches Museum , and it is touched by the bus 147. The Jannowitzbrücke S-Bahn and U-Bahn (underground) station is also nearby.

Historical development

prehistory

The area of ​​today's Köllnischer Park was in front of the city of Cölln , part of the medieval twin cities of Berlin-Cölln. Up until the middle of the 17th century, the Spree was undeveloped, deep, swampy alluvial land here. After the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm had decided to build fortifications around the city in 1658, Bastion  VII was built here, at that time called "the bulwark in the mud". Large heaps of earth were necessary. The construction work lasted until 1683, the bastion was not completely drained until 1687. From a military point of view, the fortress was already out of date after the long construction period; after 1700 it was only used to control visitors and residents, to prevent desertion and to levy import taxes. King Friedrich Wilhelm I (1688–1740) ordered the fortress to be demolished after a customs wall had been erected around the now greatly expanded urban area . Civilian structures had already been built on the bastions, for example a temporary windmill and residential building on Bastion VII. Around 1700 the ramparts were planted with mulberry trees, only people from "upper class" were allowed to promenade there.

Gardens and park

Large reclining figure
by Hans Bautz, 1949

In 1736 the area was donated by Friedrich Wilhelm I to General Graf zu Waldburg , who had a house built on it and an extensive garden laid out. The next owner was the merchant and banker David Splitgerber . He took care of the expansion and beautification of the garden and ran the first Berlin sugar boiling plant on the edge of the large property from 1750 . The bookseller and writer Friedrich Nicolai mentioned the baroque garden in 1779: "It has very charming parts, including an open summer house, on a small hill overgrown with tall trees." In 1788 the sugar boiling plant had to close. The existing buildings served successively as a hospital , a workhouse and an asylum for men. The Märkisches Museum was later built on this property. Splitgerber's garden was sold by his heirs to a private person, from whom the Masonic Lodge Great National Mother Lodge for the Three Worlds acquired it in 1799 . The Freemasons developed the property into a landscape garden with a temple and pyramids, which was considered one of the most beautiful complexes in Berlin.

The area was restructured in 1858/1859, when the Inselstraße was laid through the Logengarten to improve transport connections to the city center. The lodge had to sell the larger eastern part of the garden to the city. The Kölln high school was initially built on this area. The use of the remaining area has been discussed in municipal committees for years. Various applications for commercial use were rejected with reference to the trees that are worth protecting. On April 15, 1869, the city ​​council decided to set up a public children's play area and “promenade area”, approved the necessary funds and urged that it be carried out quickly. The decision was based on a plan by Berlin's first master horticulturist Gustav Meyer, who provided for some new plantings, bars and benches. The redesign was completed in 1873. In 1883, after the old fortress moat was filled in, the Kölln Park reached its present-day dimensions. After the Märkisches Museum was completed around the turn of the century, a small area directly on the banks of the Spree was added to the park as a promenade around 1960. The last major changes took place between 1969 and 1971: the remaining hills of the former Bastion VII were removed, and a windmill stump was found among other things. A terrace was laid out right next to the museum and the lapidarium was set up - an open-air museum with stone sculptures and fragments, which were mainly attached to various structures as decorative elements. The historic children's playground in a quiet corner of the park has also been renewed.

The works of art have been restored since 2014 and the sculpture terrace at the Märkisches Museum has been fenced off.

Landmarks in the park

Lapidary

Hercules fighting the Nemean lion

The collection contains original stone works of art and copies that were originally attached as jewelry to structures that no longer exist today. Some are set into the boundary walls of a terrace specially built in 1969, others are set up freely in the park. On the wall of the terrace, for example, there are plastic fragments of five heads, which probably served as window keystones on the old Berlin town hall in Spandauer Strasse, as well as two allegorical reliefs, various house signs from the 17th and 18th centuries, a late Gothic vault stone Sandstone relief from the 16th century, which comes from the Berlin City Palace .

Putti group

Free-standing objects in the collection : (selection)

Zille monument and neo-renaissance fountain

Zille monument
by Heinrich Drake

The bronze statue by the draftsman Heinrich Zille (“Brush Heinrich ”), designed by the sculptor Heinrich Drake in 1964/1965 for the sculpture and flowers exhibition in Treptower Park, is more recent and therefore not typical of the park's sculptures . The sculpture was moved here after the end of the open-air exhibition and is included in the Berlin State Monument List.

A historic fountain was re-erected in 1971 at the corner of Köllnischer Park and Rungestrasse, which came from a private garden in Berlin-Hirschgarten . It was made around 1860 and received by the art direction , the term neo-Renaissance fountain . Due to urgent renovation work, it was enclosed in 2009 so that it was barely recognizable.

Wusterhausen bear

Wusterhausen bear

The Wusterhausener Bär (also: Wusterhausischer Bär , Wusterhauser Bär or Baer ) is a remnant of the former fortifications that originally stood in the courtyard of Neue Jakobstraße 10. From there he was transferred to the Köllnischen Park in 1893. The round, small tower, made of bricks and provided with an ornate dome made of sandstone, was part of a weir that controlled the water level in the fortress moat. The expression "bear" is derived from the Latin berum (= 'the weir'). The Wusterhausen bear at Bastion VII apparently got its name because the path to Wusterhausen passed very close by. The rotunda is crowned by a hood with a trophy for weapons and included in the lapidary.

Development

Märkisches Museum

The Märkisches Museum is the most important building on the grounds of the Köllnisches Park. It was built between 1901 and 1907 based on designs by the long-standing Berlin city planning officer Ludwig Hoffmann . The parts of the building represent various buildings from the Mark Brandenburg and Northern Germany from the Romanesque , Gothic and Renaissance styles . The architectural style of the museum rooms (the “mood”, as Hoffmann put it) was adapted to the objects from Berlin and Märkische history exhibited therein.

Bear kennel

Middle wing of the bear pen

The bear pen directly at the southern entrance to the Köllnischer Park was built on an area that had been a street cleaning depot with public lavatories from 1900 to autumn 1938. A first part of this small facility was already finished in 1928 and accommodated the Berlin heraldic animals. The kennel was not officially put into operation until August 17, 1939. Of Nazi officials had previously been critical asked if there in the politically tense situation shortly before the start of World War II were not more important things than to build a shelter for the Berlin heraldic animals; the mayor of Berlin, Julius Lippert , himself a committed functionary of the Nazi regime, had the planned construction carried out in order to meet the wishes of the population. A red brick central section contained three cages and various functional rooms, plus two run-out areas with water ditches. To this day, the facility has remained essentially unchanged. Four bears died in the war, one survived and was taken to the Berlin Zoological Garden . It was not until 1949 that the partially destroyed kennel was reconstructed and newly occupied with two bears. In 1990 there was a threat of closure because there was no money for necessary modernization measures in what was then the city district. After violent protests from the population, the Senate took over the costs, the cages received underfloor heating , a light dome was installed and the house electrics were replaced. In April 1993 the two bears Maxi and Schnute as well as the then city bear Thilo were able to move into their facility again. Animal welfare associations criticized the unsuitable keeping of the Berlin heraldic animals, they wanted to close the facility and give the two bears to a bear park. After several attempts to achieve this goal by legal action, it was decided at the end of 2013 that the remaining bear Schnute , who was born here on January 18, 1981, may remain in this kennel "until the end of her life". The bear Maxi died in August 2013, while the bear Schnute , who suffered from osteoarthritis, was put to sleep on October 11, 2015 at the age of 34. The kennel has been vacant since then.

After some discussions and investigations, it was decided in June 2017 to turn the listed complex into a place for teaching and learning . The resolution specifically states: "[...] the former bear kennel can develop into a place for cross-departmental and citizen-oriented knowledge transfer that has broad, public and institutional cooperation potential and is accessible to a broad public for the first time." For this development are planned in the district budget 110,000  euros , the inauguration should take place in 2019.

The state insurance becomes a Senate service building

The large monument complex east of the Köllnischer Park (today's address Am Köllnischen Park 3) was built in 1903/1904 according to plans by the architect Alfred Messel as the administrative center of the former state insurance institute in the style of late expressionism in Baroque forms . Architecturally, the building is divided into nineteen axes, clearly emphasized by colossal pilasters . After its completion it had a hexagonal roof tower with a curved hood on the mansard roof. In the horizontal parapet areas, the facade is sparsely decorated with allegorical figures, simulated balusters or decorative cartouches with symbols of craftsmanship (for example an iron between two scissors) made of shell limestone. The surface design with red clinker bricks is coordinated with the Märkische Museum, which was built at the same time. The building is accessed via a central staircase and has a large and a small meeting room, a former director's apartment and two inner courtyards. Above the southern side portal there is a group of male figures in a classic representation and the slogan "One for all - all for one".

After war-related repairs, the building housed the administration of the GDR's state social insurance between around 1950 and 1989 .

The building was renovated in 1990 and is now the seat of the specialist departments and service areas of the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.

House at the Köllnischen Park

Decorative figure on the facade of the AOK building

The house on the south side of Rungestrasse was built in the 1930s as a clinker cladding in the Expressionist style based on plans by the architect Alfred Gottheiner (1874–1940) for the central administration of the AOK Berlin . The building complex consists of an elongated wing on Rungestrasse with two rear wing buildings and a western section on Wassergasse. The eight-axis central building with a portal, inviting open staircase and a three-dimensional facade dominates the street front.

In the GDR era, the building housed the SED party college from 1955 . The party university was an official state university with an entry in the university register of the GDR, which also had the right to award doctorates and habilitation. During a study period of up to three years, functionaries for GDR bodies and young socialists from developing countries were trained or qualified in short courses. On the street Am Köllnischen Park, an extension was built in 1971, which was used for major events such as congresses, exhibitions, youth consecration celebrations , etc. This building complex was called "Haus am Köllnischer Park", which was later used to describe the entire building ensemble.

After the settlement of the Party School in 1990, AOK got back their property after some vacancy. She used the complex until 2003, when everything was sold to the project developer Vivacon . After its bankruptcy , a new owner was found in 2013 who had the existing old buildings converted into condominiums. The resulting complex will be marketed as Metropol Park . The actual house on Köllnischer Park, which has since been demolished, will be replaced by new buildings in perimeter block development and marketed as an embassy .

From the public bathing establishment to a commercial building

The Volksbadeanstalt , a building in the Swiss country house style on the western side of the Köllnischer Park, dates from 1888. The non-profit association for public baths in Berlin had the building erected so that “the less well off Berlin population can enjoy a warm bath at any time of the year to get the cheapest prices imaginable ”. The city of Berlin made the building site available and made a financial grant. A bathtub cost 50 pfennigs in class I and 25 pfennigs in class II, and a shower bath cost  25 or 10 pfennigs - towel and soap included. The house has been used by various municipal offices since 1945.

Other interesting buildings in the area around the park

literature

  • Folkwin Wendland: Berlin's gardens and parks from the founding of the city to the end of the 19th century . Propylaeen Verlag, Berlin 1979, ISBN 3-549-06645-7 .
  • Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Capital Berlin-I. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 237 ff.
  • Karl Seidel: On the history of the Köllnisches Park . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 7, 2001, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 146-160 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  • G. Funnek, W. Schönholz, F. Steinwasser: Park and green areas in Berlin , Berlin Information 1987, ISBN 3-7442-0028-0

Web links

Commons : Köllnischer Park  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Garden monument Stadtpark Köllnischer Park
  2. ↑ a b c Karl Seidel: On the history of the Köllnisches Park . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 7, 2001, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 146-160 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  3. ↑ a b c parks and green areas ...
  4. ↑ Fences for the Köllnischer Park. At: morgenpost.de , January 20, 2014
  5. ↑ Details on the Lapidarium monument
  6. ↑ Zillenkmal
  7. ↑ Neo-Renaissance fountain on the website of the Berlin Senate, 2009.
  8. ↑ Wusterhausen Bear Monument
  9. ↑ Bärenzwinger monument
  10. ↑ Uwe Aulich: Stadtbärin: Maxi is dead . In: Berliner Zeitung , 23 August 2013
  11. ↑ website of the Association of Berlin Bärenfreunde
  12. ↑ Schnute is dead . In: Der Tagesspiegel , accessed on October 12, 2015.
  13. ↑ Bärenzwinger is to become a cultural place of learning and teaching . In: Berliner Woche , June 20, 2017.
  14. ↑ Architectural monument office and apartment buildings at Am Köllnischen Park 2–5
  15. ↑ View of the facade from the archive of the Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin
  16. ↑ 48 project sheets from Alfred Messel on the State Insurance Institute Berlin. In: Archive of the Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin; Retrieved April 8, 2010
  17. ↑ Homepage and organizational chart. Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection
  18. ^ The party college of the SED - a critical review. Website with some thoughts and facts on the history of the PHS; Retrieved April 8, 2010.
  19. ↑ Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk, Hainer Weisspflug: House at the Köllnischen Park . In: Hans-Jürgen Mende , Kurt Wernicke (ed.): Berliner Bezirkslexikon, Mitte . Luisenstadt educational association . tape 1 : A-N . Haude and Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89542-111-1 ( luise-berlin.de - as of October 7, 2009).
  20. ↑ '30s beauty made of red brick, central but quiet at the Märkisches Museum. ( Memento from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ "EMBASSY" project page
  22. ^ Deutsche Bauzeitung , April 26, 1888
  23. ↑ Cultural monument advertising pillar on the corner of Rungestrasse and Wassergasse
  24. ↑ "Floor factory" monument, around 1890

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 47 "  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 53"  E