Karstadt on Hermannplatz

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Karstadt am Hermannplatz, 2012

The Karstadt on Hermannplatz is a listed department store in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg . Built in the years 1927–1929 by Philipp Schaefer in the Expressionist style , it was the largest and most modern department store in Europe at the time . The diverse range of goods and services on 72,000 square meters, the modern equipment with escalators , lifts and subway connections as well as the large roof garden with a viewing platform at a height of 32 meters have made it a popular attraction.

In April 1945, the department store was blown up by SS troops to make it difficult for the Red Army to get food. On the Hasenheide part of the old building was preserved, which was supplemented by a new building by Alfred Busse from 1951 to 1952. In January 2019, the owner Signa announced that it would restore the original facade view.

history

Karstadt am Hermannplatz, 1936
Debris after being blown up by the SS , 1945
Rest of the original facade on the Hasenheide, 2011

Located on the border between the former Berlin districts of Kreuzberg and Neukölln at Hermannplatz 10, the largest department store building in the Weimar Republic was built by the architect Philipp Schaefer between 1927 and 1929 . Schaefer worked as chief architect at Karstadt for 32 years. In 1930 he also built the administration building of Karstadt AG on Neue Königstrasse in Berlin and the Karstadt main office on Fehrbelliner Platz in 1935 . Its six-storey reinforced concrete building on Hermannplatz was bordered on the sides by two striking towers, each of which had a high column of light on the roof.

Between these towers was a 4,000 square meter popular rooftop restaurant, the low prices of which attracted many people. The entire structure was clad with Franconian shell limestone . The façades in a style mixture of neo-Gothic , expressionism and Art Deco could be measured against American models. With its technical equipment, the 21 escalators and the 20 elevators, the Karstadt house on Hermannplatz was extremely modern. A special feature was its direct underground connection to the Hermannplatz junction station of the urban subway . Apparently, the Berliners sometimes only went to Karstadt to enjoy the “great panoramic view”, so that access had to be carefully limited.

The house on Hermannplatz was largely destroyed in the Second World War . The SS laid explosives on April 25, 1945 because the supplies in the basement were not supposed to fall into the hands of the Red Army . The reconstruction took place according to a design by Alfred Busse in the years 1951–1952. Further extensions and modifications followed in 1954 and 1976. Most recently, the department store was expanded and renovated in 1998–2000 according to plans by the architects Helmut Kriegbaum and Udo Landgraf .

The building is a listed building , with its shell limestone facing refers to the old building and corresponds to the design concepts of post-war modernism. Only three window axes on the Hasenheide have been preserved from the original building and are still reminiscent of the important work of the architect Philipp Schaefer.

Planned reconstruction

In January 2019, the owner Signa Holding announced that it wanted to build an interpreted reconstruction of the facades destroyed in World War II, including the striking towers. Instead of shell limestone, the facade of the new building will be made of concrete. The original building had a floor area of ​​around 70,000 m², this is to be increased to 126,000 m². The additional floor space is to be used for apartments, among other things. The group will announce the start of construction at the beginning of 2021. The commissioned architect is David Chipperfield .

At the end of August 2019, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg urban development office and the Neukölln urban development office rejected Signa's new building project: “In summary, it can be said that the development and modernization of the existing Karstadt complex in connection with the redesign of Herrmannplatz is definitely welcome. In doing so, public interests must be taken into account and concepts that include surrounding actors should also be examined. The recourse to the historic house with all its effects and without it having a contextual connection to the use inside is rated as extremely critical and cannot be supported in this form. "

At the beginning of September 2019, Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller ( SPD ) criticized Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg's veto: “I don't think it's acceptable if the district office simply cancels a high three-digit million investment overnight. It doesn't work like that. ”It is the task of politics to negotiate with investors about the framework conditions for their plans and to find solutions that serve the well-being of the entire city. If the district offices do not comply with this demand for a “city-wide view”, the Senate would have to intervene if necessary . At the end of September 2019, Senator for Economic Affairs Ramona Pop ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) committed to the project. In August 2020, the Senate pulled the case because of its importance for the city as a whole.

Movies

  • The construction site of the department store can be seen in episode 4 of the TV series Babylon Berlin .
  • Hello neighbor, report about the Karstadt department store on Hermannplatz, 1992

literature

  • Sand in the Gears - Neuköllner Histories , Ed .: Neuköllner Kulturverein e. V., Edition Hentrich Berlin, 1990.
  • Lothar Uebel: Karstadt am Hermannplatz - A good piece of Berlin , publisher: Karstadt Warenhaus AG, 2000.
  • Rudolf Lenz: Karstadt - a German department store group 1920–1950 , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1995.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hildburg Bruns: Berlin is getting its biggest shopping temple back. In: bz-berlin.de. March 11, 2019, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ SIGNA: Berlin Hermannplatz , accessed on January 23, 2018
  3. ↑ No development plan for SIGNA's new building project at the Karstadt Hermannplatz site. August 29, 2019, accessed October 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Müller criticizes blockade of the Karstadt project by the district. Retrieved October 11, 2019 .
  5. ^ Saskia Patermann: Senator for Economics Pop is committed to the new Karstadt building. In: Berliner Morgenpost. September 26, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Three more Karstadt branches in Berlin are saved on rbb24.de
  7. ↑ Johanna Niedbalski: Before the department store on Hermannplatz. In: rbb24.de. August 31, 2018, accessed October 7, 2019 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 14.5 "  N , 13 ° 25 ′ 27.5"  E