Salt magazine (Museum Island)

The salt magazine on Berlin's Museum Island was at the end of the salt ditch. Right: the large five-storey warehouse of the New Packhof .
Painting by Friedrich Wilhelm Klose , 1835

The royal salt store on Berlin's Museum Island was a warehouse for curing and table salt belonging to the Prussian king . It was built in 1834 at the end of a branch canal and had to give way to the expansion of the museum area in 1897.

The salt trade in Prussia: a royal monopoly

The salt production and the salt trade belonged to the royal privileges ( regalia ) in Prussia , that is, the Prussian king had the monopoly on this economic activity. Since the population needed salt every day for various purposes (making food palatable, preserving food), this monopoly guaranteed the king a secure source of income. With the threat of drastic penalties ( gallows ) the king enforced the observance of the monopoly and in this way forced the population to only consume salt from the royal salt production. To store the salt, the state in Berlin had various salt houses or salt warehouses, such as the large salt yard in Neukölln .

The early Museum Island: an industrial area

For a long time, the grounds of the Berlin Museum Island (before and parallel to) the construction of the museum buildings there today were used to a large extent for commercial purposes. The so-called New Packhof , where export goods were stored, was located in the old orangery house . In the immediate vicinity, a flour warehouse for the Berlin bakers' guild and the Welper bathhouse were also built. There were also workshops here, including the studio of the sculptor August Kiss . Several storehouses and sheds were also available on the site for commercial purposes . In 1832 the old and new Packhof were merged into a single area on the Museum Island and equipped with new, larger buildings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The construction of the salt magazine on Museum Island, which was affiliated with the Packhof administration, should also be seen in this context.

Development by water: the salt ditch

The salt store on Berlin's Museum Island was located inside the Museum Island and had to be accessed through a branch canal.
Map by Olfers, 1841

The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1833 a canal was built on a "room space" next to a wood store, on which ships could get from the Spree to the center of the Museum Island, the so-called salt ditch. At the end of this branch channel, on which salt could be delivered, was the salt store, the view of which the Berlin painter Friedrich Wilhelm Klose recorded in a painting shortly after its completion in 1835 (see illustration).

Construction of the salt magazine

Salt magazines were warehouses for storing salt. They had to be built in such a way that the stored salt was protected from contamination and moisture. According to Krünitz, salt magazines should be completely covered with wood on the inside. It had to be ensured that moisture, including moist air, could not penetrate the salt store if possible. At the same time, it had to be ensured that any moisture that had penetrated could flow away again. An attempt was made to achieve this by leaving an open space under the wooden floor of the salt store. Small holes were drilled at intervals in the floorboards so that water that had accumulated in the salt could flow through these holes back into the empty space under the floor. Contamination was to be avoided by ensuring that the workers did not have direct contact with the salt, but had to pour the salt deliveries down into the salt storage room via certain funnels that were located above the salt store and were accessible via stairs.

Demolition of the salt magazine

As part of the expansion of the museum area with representative buildings in antique style, the area of the Museum Island was gradually freed from the existing residential buildings and the now disruptive commercial facilities in the second half of the 19th century. The salt ditch was filled in again. The salt store - like the other commercial buildings, including the flour house - was torn down in connection with the construction of the Pergamon and Bode museums in 1897.

literature

Sybille Gramlich: Royal Spree Athens. Berlin in Biedermeier. In: Rolf Bothe u. a .: Cityscapes. Berlin in painting from the 17th century to the present. Publishers: Willmuth Arenhövel, Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung. Berlin 1987. pp. 95-172. To the salt magazine: p. 154 f. ISBN 3-87584-212-X .
Johann Georg Krünitz: Economic-Technological Encyclopedia. Vol. 134. Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1823.
Friedrich Nicolai: Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 vols.). Berlin 1786.
Renate Petras: The buildings of the Berlin Museum Island. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, 1987.
Schmid: Establishment of a packing yard in Berlin in connection with the business locations for the local administration of indirect taxes and for the main stamp magazine. In: Construction of the Prussian State. Vol. 1. Berlin 1842.
Gustav Adolf Harald Stenzel : History of the Prussian State. Third part. From 1688 to 1739 . Verlag Friedrich Perthes, Hamburg 1841.

Individual evidence

^ Rolf Bothe, Dominik Bartmann : Cityscapes: Berlin in Painting from the 17th Century to the Present : [Exhibition in the Berlin Museum, September 19 to November 1, 1987.] In it: p. 154 on the salt magazine.
^ Gustav Adolf Harald Stenzel : History of the Prussian State. Third part. From 1688 to 1739. Verlag Friedrich Perthes, Hamburg 1841, p. 391.
^ Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, of all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 vols.). Berlin 1786. Nicolai, vol. 1, p. 136 f.
^ Renate Petras: The buildings of the Berlin Museum Island. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, 1987. In it on the salt magazine: p. 20.
^ Johann Georg Krünitz : Economic-Technological Encyclopedia. Bd. 134. Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1823. In it: Article salt magazine . Pp. 591-594.
↑ This was also the case with the salt magazine on Museum Island, as can be seen from a related cost statement. See Zeitschrift für Bauwesen . Vol. 1. Berlin 1851. Book I, p. 63 (item 49).
^ Renate Petras: The buildings of the Berlin Museum Island. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, 1987. In it on the salt magazine: p. 102.

[1] Rolf Bothe, Dominik Bartmann : Cityscapes: Berlin in Painting from the 17th Century to the Present : [Exhibition in the Berlin Museum, September 19 to November 1, 1987.] In it: p. 154 on the salt magazine.

[2] Gustav Adolf Harald Stenzel : History of the Prussian State. Third part. From 1688 to 1739. Verlag Friedrich Perthes, Hamburg 1841, p. 391.

[3] Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, of all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 vols.). Berlin 1786. Nicolai, vol. 1, p. 136 f.

[4] Renate Petras: The buildings of the Berlin Museum Island. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, 1987. In it on the salt magazine: p. 20.

[5] Johann Georg Krünitz : Economic-Technological Encyclopedia. Bd. 134. Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1823. In it: Article salt magazine . Pp. 591-594.

[6] This was also the case with the salt magazine on Museum Island, as can be seen from a related cost statement. See Zeitschrift für Bauwesen . Vol. 1. Berlin 1851. Book I, p. 63 (item 49).

[7] Renate Petras: The buildings of the Berlin Museum Island. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, 1987. In it on the salt magazine: p. 102.