Imperial Post Office Directorate (Chemnitz)
The former Imperial Post Office Directorate of Chemnitz , built between 1902 and 1904, is an important secular building in the historicist style on Reichsstrasse on the Kaßberg .
history
In the second half of the 19th century, industry and trade grew particularly strongly, which is why a reorganization of the postal system became necessary. This was carried out by Heinrich von Stephan , Postmaster General and State Secretary of the Imperial Imperial Post Office . As a result, efficient Oberpostdirectors were created at the economic centers.
On July 1, 1897, decided in Berlin, the district captaincies Chemnitz and Zwickau to build such a center in Chemnitz. 770 officials and sub-officials handled 15 million incoming and 18.5 million outgoing mail at that time. The city council provided 6500 m² of building land for the project free of charge. The construction planning was carried out by the Berlin government master builder Deez and the post office councilor Schmetting. Sculptor Georg Müller and master stonemason Ernst Morgenstern made the sculptural decoration of the building in which operations began on July 1, 1904. A secret senior post councilor , seven post councilors and eight senior post councilors as well as 117 employees worked in the Imperial Oberpostdirektion and controlled 6,125 civil servants, sub-civil servants, post keepers and postillions in their administrative area .
The building was badly damaged during the air raids in 1944/45. After building security measures, the company vocational school of Deutsche Post / Telecommunications moved into the building. At the same time, the apprentice dormitory was also in the building. The BBS was called "Alfons Pech". The building has been converted into a retirement home since 2019.
architecture
The building itself is a very representative neo-Gothic building. Neo-Gothic door and window frames made of sandstone, pilasters , rosettes, finials and claws are distributed over all the facades up to the fairy-tale, playful reliefs of the gable. Here amphibians and snails crawl under old oak trees, carrier pigeons flutter through the dense foliage, a fox lies in wait for a hare and a squirrel crouches in the branches. The function and scope of the building are represented by six smaller and four (previously five) larger glass mosaics on a golden background.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Seyffarth: Post full of finials, pigeons, amphibians . Freie Presse, Chemnitz February 3, 2012.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 48 " N , 12 ° 54 ′ 34.6" E