Kant garages

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Kant Garage Palace

The Kant-Garagen (also: Kant-Garagen-Palast , Kant-Garagenpalast or Serlin-Rampenhaus ) building at Kantstrasse 126/127 in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is the only multi-storey car park from the interwar period in Berlin and Brandenburg that was built between 1929 and 1930 . It is also the oldest preserved multi-storey car park in Europe with a double-pass spiral ramp and the only multi-storey car park in the world with a curtain wall . The Kant garage is the only multi-storey car park in Germany whose authentic furnishings have been almost completely preserved to this day and which was also used as a garage until 2017. Since October 2017, the authentic furnishings of the monument have been dismantled with the approval of the State Monuments Office and the Lower Monument Authority Berlin.

history

The multi-storey garage building (multi-storey car park) was designed by the architects Lohmüller Korschelt & Renker ( Bruno Lohmüller , Oskar Korschelt , Jakob Renker ) in cooperation with the office community of Hermann Zweigenthal and Richard Paulick for and with the entrepreneur and engineer Louis Serlin in the style of New Objectivity or designed and built of the new building . The building, which cost 1.5 million marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 5.5 million euros), could only be completed because Serlin had won the German Auto Club as the main tenant. The multi-storey car park was originally connected at the level of the first floor to the Villa Schulze , which has not been preserved today and which the gardener owner Carl Schulze had built on the property in 1895. It was used by Serlin for administrative purposes. There was also a chauffeur canteen here, which was also operated as a public bar (Groschenkeller) .

Shortly after its completion in October 1930, the Kant-Garagen-Palast caused an international sensation. Guided tours were even offered as part of the International Building Exhibition in 1932. At this point in time, however, the building was not yet completed in the form it has received to this day, because the top floor that closes the multi-storey car park was only added by the Siemens construction union in 1936–1937 .

The multi-storey car park was managed by Garagenpalast Betriebs-Gesellschaft mbH until 1939 . The " Aryanization " of the garage was done by SS Hauptsturmführer Gustav Lombard . Louis Serlin probably fled the National Socialists to the USA around 1941 and lived in Los Angeles after the war . The exact circumstances of the flight and dispossession are in the dark. In 1942, the "forest property owner Günther Graf von der Schulenburg , Wolfsburg in the town of the KdF car near Fallersleben " was registered as the new owner of the property and the multi-storey car park.

The Kant-Garagen-Palast survived the Second World War with only minor damage. The multi-storey car park itself received a direct hit from an explosive grenade only in the attic . Large parts of the glazing on the facades facing Kantstrasse and probably also some glass elements of the curtain wall on the rear of the building were destroyed by fragments and pressure waves from aircraft bombs . The two supporting structures of the glass facades, on the other hand, were not affected. However, the two-storey Villa Schulze was completely destroyed . The two neighboring residential buildings from the Wilhelminian era were also partially badly damaged: The residential building from 1897 to the west (Kantstraße 125) burned out, while the front building of the adjacent building from 1909 to the east (Kantstraße 128) was destroyed.

After 1945 Louis Serlin was reassigned his property. The petrol station and garage operations were then continued by Serlin's Kantgaragen operating company. The minor war damage to the garage building had all been repaired by around 1947. In 1948 the still-preserved curtain wall was removed from the entire height of the first floor and replaced with a brick wall - a security measure ordered by the Berlin Criminal Police. In 1956, a nursing service and car parking hall for Deutsche Shell AG was built on the cleared area of ​​the former villa . The Berlin real estate entrepreneur Karl Heinz Pepper (Group Pepper , Kant garages GmbH) acquired the construction of Serlin in September 1961. end of 2016 became the monument to the Berlin real estate entrepreneur Dirk Gädeke (Gädeke & Sons GmbH , Dirk Gädeke GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG.) Sold , who has not continued the petrol station and garage operations since the beginning of 2017. Gädeke will convert the monument for another use: a penthouse for his family will be built on the roof .

The multi-storey car park with gas station and car workshop , which had been used as a rental garage without interruption since October 1930, had previously served as a residential garage . The petrol station operation also supplied Berlin motorists with operating and lubricants for over 87 years, first as DAPOLIN- Shell- OLEX , later as a pure Shell and Sprint petrol station. From the end of May to the beginning of June 2017, the gas station in the Kant-Garagen-Palast was shut down by the company Geotank from Neuruppin . This work was commissioned by Sprint GmbH to create space for the conversion of the ground floor. (Document is missing)

architecture

Facade on Kantstrasse , 2012

The garage building is designed as a skeleton construction in reinforced concrete and filled with brickwork. The multi-storey car park offers parking spaces for around 300 vehicles.

The facade facing Kantstrasse was clad with sand-gray clinker brick slips (flat facing brick), all other wall surfaces are merely plastered . The street facade is illuminated in the area of ​​the driveways to the garage spaces (pit road) as well as the front stairwell across floors through wired glass windows in dark gray iron frames. The rear part facing away from the street to the S-Bahn route is completely glazed with a curtain wall of the glass roof factory Claus Meyn KG   (Frankfurt M.), largely preserved in its original state, and has an open fire escape at the side .

Inside the Kant garages, the contemporary garage spaces (boxes) with their worldwide unique Heinrichs sliding gates from the Berlin company Paul Heinrichs ( Tempelhof ) have been preserved. A total of 132 original Heinrichs boxes were preserved from 1930 to October 2017: 6 boxes in the basement, 13 boxes on the ground floor (8 were already missing here), all 34 boxes on the 1st floor, 28 boxes on the second floor (the remaining 6 garage doors were from 1980s), all 34 boxes on the third floor and 9 boxes on the fourth floor. The Heinrichs-Boxes are an integral part of the monument and, together with the double spiral ramp and the curtain wall, are unique testimonies to the building culture of automobilism in the interwar period.

There are also fire protection gates from the construction period, with which the individual floors would be closed automatically in the event of a fire. Parts of the equipment necessary for the automobile service of the 1930s, such as washing areas, sound chambers and lifting devices for the lubrication service ( hydraulic lifting platform ), were also retained until 2017.

The multi-storey car park is featured as an architectural feature in overview works on the New Objectivity of the Weimar Republic and in numerous Berlin books. The Kant-Garagen-Palast is still the only multi-storey car park in Germany that exemplifies this automotive construction task in publications on the history of architecture on classic modernism. Alongside the Garage de la Société Ponthieu-Automobiles ( Paris , 1907) by Auguste and Gustave Perret , which was demolished in 1970 , it is one of the few multi-storey car parks in Europe that is even noticed worldwide.

In a recommendation by the State Monument Council, the architectural and historical significance of the building, which has not yet been renovated, is described as follows:

“The multi-storey car park on Kantstrasse (1929/30) is the last unchanged building designed by the architect Hermann Zweigenthal alias Herman Herrey in Germany and at the same time an early work by his partner Richard Paulick, who later became famous. Above all, however, it is a singular traffic monument of national importance, namely the most important large garage of interwar modernism in Germany. The highly important garage construction survived the past seventy years in an authentic state of construction and with its original use. His garage building is not only the only preserved multi-storey car park in Berlin from the interwar period, it is also the only example of this construction project in all of Germany that can boast a double spiral ramp. Since the 'Casa dell'Automobile' in Rome (1928/29) has already been demolished, there is no older, and only one other, multi-storey car park with this type of elevation transport in all of Europe: the 'Autorimessa' in Venice (1934-35) that was built later . And the architectural facade design of the multi-storey car park is also unparalleled in Europe. The Kantgaragen are therefore not only an outstanding monument of the New Building, but also a unique - and here the expression is to be taken literally - architectural monument of automobilism in Germany and Europe. The State Monument Council recommends doing everything possible to ensure that this unusual testimony can be preserved. "

- Excerpt from the minutes of the meeting of August 27, 2010

Conservation controversy

Owner Pepper (1961–2016)

The owners Karl Heinz Pepper and later Christian Pepper used the monument for 55 years as a garage with a gas station and a repair shop. During this time, no conservation measures were carried out on the building. In 2013, Christian Pepper (Kantgaragen GmbH) applied to the responsible building authority in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf to demolish the building, which was in need of renovation after 83 years of uninterrupted use, for economic reasons. The reason given was an expert opinion prepared on behalf of the owner, according to which the entire "construction" and the access ramp were "permanently unsustainable" and "other use" would not be possible. For "economic reasons, the maintenance of the property can no longer be expected from [the monument owner]". With a similar statement, the owner's first demolition application to the competent authority was justified in 1991.

About the architectural and cultural-historical significance of the Kant garages for the architect Zweigenthal, the European architectural heritage of classical modernism , the city of Berlin and the history of automobilism in Germany, the owner of the multi-storey car park, Kantgaragen GmbH (Pepper Immobilien Holding) and Christian Pepper became owners (Pepper Group) personally informed in autumn 2013 by an open letter . This "appeal for the preservation of the Kant-Garagen-Palast" was signed and a. by the Akademie der Künste , the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nachkriegsmoderne of the Technical University of Berlin, the Berlin Chamber of Architects , the Bauhaus Archive , the Association of German Architects , the German Werkbund Berlin , the German Foundation for Monument Protection , docomomo Germany and docomomo International, ICOMOS German National Committee and numerous others Private individuals from all areas of society.

The dilapidation brought forward by the then owner of the multi-storey car park in the 2013 demolition application could not be confirmed by two independent reports. The appraisers commissioned by the owner and the responsible monument authority found “significant deficiencies” in autumn 2014, but these are by no means irreparable or serious - for example, only two percent of the total substance of the concrete structure actually needs renovation.

These officially determined deficiencies were not, as the Berlin Monument Protection Act (DSchG Bln § 8, Paragraph 1–3 and § 16, Paragraph 1) provides, remedied by the owner at the time “within reasonable limits”. The demolition application was pending from the end of 2014 until the end of 2016 with the competent authority and finally became obsolete when it was sold to a new owner. It is now up to the new owner of the monument to remedy the deficiencies identified by the authorities.

Owner Gädeke (since 2017)

At the end of 2016, the Kant-Garagen-Palast was sold to the real estate entrepreneur Dirk Gädeke (Gädeke & Sons GmbH) . The new owner has to adhere to defined monument preservation goals, but will also utilize the monument according to property management criteria. Gädeke (Rational Generalunternehmer GmbH & Co.Kantgaragenpalast KG) will give up its previous use as a multi-storey car park with a gas station and workshop, convert the monument with the approval of the responsible monument authority by summer 2018 and convert it into a profitable usage concept. A scientific inventory and assessment of the multi-storey car park and the development of an overall concept for the preservation of historical monuments are planned in advance of the monument law approval by the monument authority (status: November 2017). The evaluation of the monument is currently only based on a master's thesis in the monument conservation course, which was written in 2011 by Mirco Schneider at the TU Berlin.

The renovation and conversion plans were drawn up by the Berlin architects Nalbach + Nalbach Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH , under the leadership of Johanne Nalbach. The architects will renovate and reconstruct the outer shell of the monument. Inside, the building has to be adapted to the currently valid building regulations for Berlin (BauO Bln) due to the new use and the fire protection regulations, the workplace regulations (ArbStättV), the energy saving regulations (EnEV), the technical building equipment (TGA) etc. have to be extensively converted become.

It is planned to convert the multi-storey car park into an office, event and gallery building. The renovation began in October 2017. All dismantling and reconstruction measures are coordinated with the State Monuments Office and the Lower Monument Authority in Berlin and approved by these authorities. The renovation plans drawn up by Nalbach + Nalbach provide for the authentically preserved curtain wall of the monument to be dismantled and replaced by a reconstruction with modern glazing ( Schüco windows). Of the 132 listed Heinrichs-Boxes, only 36 are to remain in the building - 9 Heinrichs-Boxes per floor.

The remaining 94 Heinrichs boxes are being expanded. The guide rails of the Heinrichs boxes will also be dismantled together with the authentic floor covering. Unheated garage floors with closed rows of boxes and driveways are to become open office floors with modern air conditioning.

As with the Holtzendorff garage (Berlin 1929) by Walter and Johannes Krüger , only a few authentic components of the traffic monument in the Kant-Garagen-Palast are to be preserved as spoilers of the Berlin garages from the interwar period .

In order to be able to use the basement as an underground car park in the future, all Heinrichs boxes are to be removed and a new entrance and exit to be built. The listed spiral ramp will be structurally retained, but will no longer be used in the future. Sanitary facilities (toilet, shower) and additional conference rooms are planned in the ramp eye, once a washing area for cars. A market hall with restaurants, delicatessen shops and a food market is currently planned for the ground floor. In future it will be closed to the street by a glass wall. The gas station has already been dismantled.

A gallery use is currently planned for the first floor. The second, third and fourth floors are also to be converted. Office use is currently planned. A new penthouse is planned on the roof . To illuminate the third and fourth floors, two large light shafts (glass cylinders) are to be broken through the ceilings.

In the gap between the Kant-Garagen-Palast and the neighboring building (Kantstrasse 125), the former location of the villa, Gädeke & Sons GmbH is to build a new hotel. The nursing service and car storage hall from 1956 is already being demolished for this purpose.

meaning

The Kant-Garagen-Palast has been a listed building since 1991/1992 . In addition to the Stern Garages in Chemnitz (1928) and the Grossgarage Süd in Halle (1929), the Kant-Garagen-Palast is one of the most important preserved multi-storey car parks from the interwar period in Germany. It is one of the key buildings for this construction project in the Weimar Republic . Its cultural and architectural historical importance is on a par with works of New Objectivity such as the Schminke house in Löbau, the ADGB federal school in Bernau , the Schocken department store in Chemnitz or the Bauhaus building in Dessau . The Kant-Garagen-Palast is a monument of automobilism of national and international importance.

literature

  • Bauwelt , 1930, issue 42, pp. 1350–1351.
  • Die Form , 1932, No. 8, pp. 247, 251-254.
  • L'architecture d'aujourd hui , 1932/1933, issue 5, pp. 42–44.
  • Thomas Katzke: Draft of a new usage concept for the "Kantgaragen" taking into account the monument protection and expansion of the building substance by a new building (diploma thesis, department of architecture), Technische Fachhochschule Berlin (today: Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin ) 1998.
  • Jan Gympel: Pacemaker of progress - victim of progress? Buildings and facilities for traffic. (Series of publications by the German National Committee for Monument Protection, Volume 60), Bonn 1999, p. 34.
  • Bauwelt , 2004, issue 17, pp. 14–19, PDF.
  • Thomas Katzke: The big city garage . Influence of automobilization on the Berlin architecture of the twenties (thesis, Institute for Historical Studies, supplementary course in the history of the Berlin-Brandenburg cultural landscape), Humboldt University Berlin 2005.
  • Jürgen Hasse: Overlooked spaces: On the cultural history and heterotopology of the parking garage , transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2007, pp. 106–112, ISBN 978-3-89942-775-2 .
  • René Hartmann: The multi-storey car park as a new building task - buildings and projects in Berlin until 1933 (Master's thesis, Institute for Art Research and Historical Urban Studies), Technical University Berlin 2009.
  • Joachim Kleinmanns: Parking garages. Architectural history of an unloved necessity , Marburg 2011, pp. 63–68, ISBN 978-3-89445-447-0 .
  • Mirco Schneider: Kant-Garage-Palace. Building history, inventory, preliminary renovation planning (master's thesis, degree course in monument conservation), Technical University of Berlin 2011.
  • René Hartmann: Architecture for automobiles - multi-storey car parks and multi-storey car parks in Germany. A car [mobile] vision in the 20th century (dissertation, Institute for Art History and Historical Urbanism), Technical University Berlin 2015.

Web links

Commons : Kant Garages  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ René Hartmann: Architecture for automobiles - multi-storey car parks and multi-storey car parks in Germany (dissertation), TU-Berlin 2015
  2. Decision 236/2017 of September 1, 2017 on the change in use of the historic Kantgarage
  3. Thomas Katzke: Hermann branch Thal (special issue), In: Bauwelt 17/2004, pp 10-25
  4. ^ Berlin, building files archive Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, building files Kantstrasse 126–127
  5. Thomas Katzke: Draft of a new usage concept for the "Kantgaragen" taking into account the protection of historical monuments and expansion of the building substance through a new building (diploma thesis), TFH-Berlin 1998, p. 37
  6. Der Tagesspiegel No. 23351, p. I2
  7. Parking spaces three hundred . In: Baunetzwoche , No. 239, September 16, 2011, pp. 8-10. PDF
  8. ^ Wiesbaden, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Claus Meyn KG
  9. ↑ Minutes of the meeting of the State Monument Council on August 27, 2010 (PDF)
  10. René Hartmann: Demolition of the Kant garage - a palace that smells of exhaust gases. In: Der Tagesspiegel . August 1, 2013, accessed August 1, 2013 .
  11. Nikolaus Bernau: Driven for wear. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 9, 2013, p. 23
  12. ^ Dieter Bartetzko: One last emergency stop . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 19, 2013, p. 30
  13. Sven Bardua: All around, that's not difficult. In: FAZ.net , June 22, 2014
  14. ^ Appeal for the preservation of the Kant-Garagen-Palast Initiative to save the Kantgarage, September 2013
  15. ^ Kantgaragen-Palast in Berlin - analysis of the current situation at Europe's oldest parking garage. Krebs + Kiefer Engineers, June 3, 2014
  16. Cay Dobberke: Kant garages are allowed to stay. In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 8, 2014
  17. Law for the Protection of Monuments in Berlin (Monument Protection Act Berlin - DSchG Bln) ( Memento of the original of 23 May 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Senate Department for Urban Development Berlin  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de
  18. Thomas Schubert: Visionary plan for Kantgarage: the historic parking garage has a future as a house of ideas. In: Berliner Woche , November 4, 2016
  19. Kant garages saved. Nalbach + Nalbach modernize in Berlin. In: Baunetz , November 22, 2016
  20. ^ Mirco Schneider: Kant-Garagen-Palast. Building history, inventory, preliminary renovation planning (master's thesis), TU Berlin 2011
  21. ^ Nalbach + Nalbach. BauNetz article on the project, November 2016
  22. Building regulations for Berlin (BauO Bln) ( Memento of the original dated November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de
  23. Decision 236/2017 of September 1, 2017 on the change in use of the historic Kantgarage
  24. Plans for the conversion of the Kantgarage, presented by Johanne Nalbach during the panel discussion "Werkstatt Kantgarage", September 28, 2017, book arch at Savignyplatz Berlin
  25. Monument Kant-Garage (n) Monument database Berlin

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 21 ″  N , 13 ° 18 ′ 43 ″  E