Cabinet house
The former cabinet house is a representative building of the 18th century in the inner city of Potsdam on the Neuer Markt . It has the address Am Neuen Markt 1 and forms the corner development between Schloßstraße and Neuer Markt. The building, originally constructed as a bourgeois residential building, was connected to the neighboring corner house in Schwertfegerstraße 8 in 1765; The resulting building complex formed the Potsdam residence of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm for about 20 years . It was then used as an engineering academy. The building got its name from the use by the royal cabinet from 1833.
history
The house on Neuer Markt was built in 1753 instead of a previous building as a bourgeois residential building for the country preacher Krumbholz and his family. Therefore the building is also known under the name Krumbholzsches Haus . The new building was initiated by King Friedrich II in the course of the redesign of Potsdam, which was promoted under his government. After the preacher's death, Frederick II had the house rented for four hundred thalers annual interest and connected inside with the neighboring corner house at 8 Schwertfegerstraße. From 1764 to 1786 this building complex served as residence for Friedrich II's nephew, who later became King Friedrich Wilhelm II. The inside of the building was furnished appropriately, but a residence suitable for the Prussian Crown Prince was only partially created: Despite a lot of changes in it, a very good oak staircase with curved steps was built, and a lot of silk stuff and gallons for fitting the walls, followed by mirrors , Tables, chairs, beds, etc. were purchased, as a former town house it was always much too narrow and uncomfortable for a great prince.
In the corner house, the future King Friedrich Wilhelm III. born. It is very likely that Wilhelm von Humboldt was also born there. His father was chamberlain to Crown Princess Elisabeth , the first wife of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm.
Between 1788 and 1806 the entire building was the seat of the Royal Engineering Academy , a half-civil, half-military establishment. Seconded officers mainly taught military subjects, including fortress construction and ballistics. However, natural science subjects such as mathematics and architectural drawing were also taught, but these were geared towards military training. In 1807 the engineering academy was closed again. The reasons for this were the disinterest of Friedrich Wilhelm III. in science and the occupation of Potsdam by Napoleonic troops. Major General Bonaventura von Rauch lived in the former academy building from 1788 to 1806 with his large family , who was a teaching officer from 1788 and director of the engineering academy from 1796 to 1806. In the academy building, u. a. to his two sons Leopold and Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch , both like their father later generals of the Prussian army, and daughter Cecilie, who was married to Gustav Freiherrn von Maltzahn Graf von Plessen (1788–1862), Majorate of Ivenack in Mecklenburg.
From 1833, the royal cabinet used the building, which was now called the Cabinet House.
From 1900 the cabinet house was once again the crown prince's residence for the 18-year-old Wilhelm of Prussia . After the First World War, the building was often unused. It temporarily served as the residence of the former Prince Oskar of Prussia . Later the cabinet house was partly used by the land registry office, while another part served as a normal residential building. During the GDR era, offices of the geodetic-cartographic inspection were housed there.
The cabinet house was restored from 1999 to 2002 with a high level of monument preservation effort. Today the center for contemporary historical research and the Potsdam Tourismus Service (PTS) of TMB Tourismus-Marketing Brandenburg GmbH are located here.
architecture
Am Neuer Markt 1
The corner house on Schlossstrasse has eleven window axes facing Am Neuen Markt and five window axes on the narrow side. The building with a basement has two full floors and a mezzanine floor in the attic zone . The first and second floors are provided with pilaster strips that encompass the windows . The windows on the first floor are framed by drilled flasks; Plastic cloth hangers are arranged below the sills. The reserves around the windows are structured with a plaster groove.
The central axes of both facades are emphasized by specially decorated entrances. A decorative element of the main facade is a cantilever balcony attached above the entrance gate, which is supported by a Moor and a Moor as caryatids . The sandstone sculptures are by Friedrich Christian Glume . At the top of the gate, the balcony is supported by a curved keystone. The sandstone balcony parapet is worked as a wattle ornament. The central axis of the facade facing Schlossstrasse had an entrance, which is now only used as a window, with an outside staircase. The former front door is framed by a profiled sandstone wall with rounded corners. At the apex there is a curved keystone with a horizontal roof over it. The space between the door frame and the roof is adorned with three-dimensional flower hangings.
On the upper floor, the structure of the pilaster strips around the windows is supplemented by a further level. An Ionic pilaster is placed on each of the pilaster strips at the corners of the building . The windows, which are also framed by Faschen, are crowned here, with the exception of the central axis of the main facade, by triangular roofs on small side consoles . The roofs are filled with shell-shaped ornaments. The sills of the windows are supported by brackets flanking an ornamental field made of braided tape. The balcony door in the central axis is unlike all other facade openings with a rounded arch. Its center is decorated with a keystone head with accompanying plant ornaments. The upper floor is closed off by a projecting main cornice, which is divided axially to the pilaster strips between the windows with small consoles. The attic storey above with its transverse rectangular windows cut into the smooth wall surface has no dividing elements.
The tall rectangular windows on the two main floors are divided symmetrically with centrally positioned fighters. In contrast to this, the balcony door is divided into rectangles of different sizes, which are provided with curved decorative bars. Mielke attributes this elaborate form, which is unique in Potsdam, to the influence of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm.
The intricately crafted winding oak staircase has been preserved inside. According to Manger's testimony, this was only added in connection with the furnishing of the house as a crown prince's apartment in 1765.
A clear attribution of the design to an architect has not yet been made. Manger suspected a Berlin architect, since the master builders Johann Boumann and Carl Ludwig Hildebrandt , who were then working in Potsdam, did not have enough time in addition to their practical work to be able to deal with their own inventions . Today the design of the building is largely attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm Diterichs .
Schwertfegerstrasse 8
The simple corner building has seven window axes towards Schwertfegerstraße and four towards Am Neuen Markt. One and a half floors rise above a grooved ground floor with simply carved window openings, which is closed at the top by a cornice. The windows on the first floor are framed with surrounding bezels, while the windows on the mezzanine floor are simply cut into the facade surface via two thin cornices. The roof sits directly on the projecting main cornice without an attic.
The central entrance axis to Schwertfegerstrasse is particularly emphasized as a central projection. The access gate is located in a weak facade protrusion, which is closed over the ground floor by a profiled cornice. This is supported on the sides by consoles and in the middle by a simple keystone. The two upper floors are joined by pilaster strips above the portal and at the corners of the building, which are decorated with consoles under the main cornice. The central window of the first floor has a straight roof.
Mielke published the original floor plan of the building in 1972. Heinrich Ludwig Manger designed the house, which was built in 1765 .
literature
- Heinrich Ludwig Manger : Heinrich Ludewig Manger's building history of Potsdam, especially under the government of King Frederick the Second . First and Second Volume, Berlin and Stettin 1789; Third volume, Berlin and Stettin 1790, reprint Leipzig 1987.
- Friedrich Mielke : The community center in Potsdam . Tübingen 1972, ISBN 3-8030-0017-3 and ISBN 3-8030-0016-5 .
- Council of the city of Potsdam (ed.): 1,000 years Potsdam, leaves from the city's history, Part I . 1987, FG 010/001/88
- Christiane Theiselmann: Potsdam and the surrounding area . DuMont, Cologne; 2nd edition, 1996; ISBN 3-770-13129-0
- 90 years ago. A contribution to the history of the Prussian engineer corps . In: New Military Papers, IX. Volume (1879), pp. 1ff
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- Searching for traces - article on potsdam.de
- Article Kabinetthaus in PotsdamWiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manger 1789, p. 283
- ↑ Manger 1789, p. 283
- ↑ Jörg Kirschstein , Kaiserkinder: The Wilhelm II family in photographs , MatrixMedia, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3932313417 , p. 18 ( online ) (pdf)
- ↑ Manger 1789, p. 175
- ↑ Mielke 1972, pp. 390f., Fig. 243
- ↑ Mielke 1972, ills. Plates 272 and 273
- ↑ Manger 1789, p. 176
- ^ Paul Sigel, Silke Dähmlow, Frank Seehausen, Lucas Elmenhorst: Architectural Guide Potsdam. Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-496-01325-7 , p. 10
- ↑ Mielke 1972, p. 188, fig. 90
- ↑ Manger 1790, p. 644 under point 5)
Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '45.2 " N , 13 ° 3' 28.5" E