Commandant's House (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View of the commandant's house from Unter den Linden boulevard

The Commander's House (also old headquarters ) on the boulevard Unter den Linden 1 in Berlin district of Mitte is the former seat of the city commandant of Berlin. It was built in the years 1653–1654 by Johann Gregor Memhardt and was last rebuilt in 1873–1874 in the neo-renaissance style. In the Second World War, burned and demolished in 1950, the house was commander from 2001 to 2003 as a representative office of Bertelsmann rebuilt. It was the place of work of the writer Stendhal , the politician Otto Wels and the resistance fighter Paul von Hase .

history

Commandant's office around 1860, color lithograph by Friedrich Rasche
Old headquarters, 1910
Commandant's House, 1937

The first major city expansion of Berlin was planned in the 17th century. The new Friedrichswerder district was to be built within the old fortifications of the royal seat . By performing commissioned Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg (the "Great Elector") his fortress builder Johann Gregor Memhardt . In recognition of this, Memhardt received a building plot in a good location as a gift from the Elector and had his two-story house built there around 1653, the first stone house on Friedrichswerder - the predecessor of the commandant's house.

After the building had become dilapidated, a representative royal immediate building was built for the secret secretary Samuel Schmidt in 1795/96 , built by the builder Conrad Friedrich Wilhelm Titel . This building was initially designed as a private palace with numerous living rooms and ancillary rooms as well as horse stables; in 1799 it was designated as the seat of the commandant of the Berlin garrison . In 1806, during the occupation of Berlin by Napoleon's troops , the writer Stendhal (bourgeois Marie-Henri Beyle) had lived in the commandant's house as the French war commissioner. In 1818 the commandant's office also took over the service of the Neue Wache , which is diagonally opposite from Karl Friedrich Schinkel Armory and university - the former Prince Heinrich Palais - had been built.

A major renovation took place in 1873/74. Another storey was added, the baroque hipped roof replaced a flat roof, the facade divided by side and a central risalit received plaster ashlar . The corners of the risalites are emphasized by terracotta eagles with outspread wings. The overall design was based on the Florentine palace architecture of the early Renaissance - there was a prominent example of such an adaptation in Berlin since 1830, namely Schinkel's Palais Redern on Pariser Platz , which had to give way to the new Hotel Adlon in 1907 .

During the November Revolution of 1918, the social democratic city commander Otto Wels got caught between the fronts of the Spartakusbund and the Council of People's Representatives . The last head of the house, the Berlin city commandant Lieutenant General Paul von Hase , was indirectly involved in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , when he ordered the government district around Wilhelmstrasse to be cordoned off after the supposed removal of Hitler . The People's Court sentenced him to the death penalty, which was carried out on August 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee prison .

Towards the end of the Second World War , bombing raids damaged the commandant's house. It was demolished in the 1950s; the GDR claimed the property for the cube of its foreign ministry erected along the Spree Canal , the narrow side of which stood on the street Unter den Linden. This building was demolished in 1995.

reconstruction

Demonstration on May 1, 1947 in the Lustgarten , on the left the ruins of the commandant's house
Front with historical facade
Rear with modern component

Framework

In 1999, Bertelsmann AG and Bertelsmann Stiftung acquired the prestigious property on Unter den Linden No. 1 in a public bidding process in competition with 37 competitors. The purchase price was 12.7 million marks. The Berlin Senate had made binding conditions for the use of the 967 m² area . The rebuilding of the old structure and the exact reconstruction of the historical facade were required . The design of the building interior was left up to the buyers. Bertelsmann wanted to set up a sophisticated representative office in the capital that would also meet the company's modernity standards. The result is a clear contrast between inside and outside. The architect in charge was Thomas van den Valentyn from Cologne ; the specialists from Berlin architects Rupert and York Stuhlemmer were brought in to restore the facade.

Facade reconstruction

In terms of construction, a two-shell solution resulted: inside the load-bearing structure made of reinforced concrete and masonry made of sand-lime brick , the outside plastered brick masonry with inlays of sandstone and decorative details. The historical sources were extremely poor. Original construction plans were not available. The reconstruction was essentially based on a 40 × 40 cm glass negative that the photographer Albrecht Meydenbauer had made in 1910 for the Royal Prussian Messbild-Anstalt , as well as on 30 amateur photos. In cooperation with the photogrammetry department of the Technical University of Berlin , the image material could be edited (rectified and digitally sharpened) so that it provided most of the information required. Together with a cadastral plan from 1880, with the foundation walls discovered during archaeological exploratory excavations in 2001 and some photos of rubble from the 1940s, the documents were sufficient to achieve results that were accurate to the millimeter in some areas.

The analysis of the archaeological excavation finds also made it possible to determine the color and origin of the material originally used. It turned out that the limestone used in abundance came mainly from Silesia . Since October 2002, the Polish Radków "Wünschelberger sandstone" for the base, the Polish Rakowice "Rackwitzer sandstone" for the cornice mined the new commander of the house. In total, around 312 tons of sandstone were used in the reconstruction. Numerous architectural decorative elements - lion heads, laurel wreaths, the relief " Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes ", the eagles - but also window frames, consoles and column capitals had to be recreated by specialized sculptors . The eight terracotta eagles, each weighing 500 kilograms, were made in Jacobsdorf- Sieversdorf, Brandenburg , and each baked for around 150 hours in the oven.

Overall, the reconstruction was carried out with extraordinary care. Structured bricks were manufactured and processed in seven different sizes, according to the different materials used in the successive phases of the original building history. For the arched windows, the masonry was put together from 300 specially cut stones, although nothing of it can be seen under three layers of plaster . Such a high degree of accuracy was also expressly used in order not to give additional nourishment to general reservations about the complete reconstruction of architectural monuments. The reconstruction was completed in November 2003. To the south of the commandant's house, Schinkelplatz has been restored in terms of garden conservation.

Interior

Behind the historicizing facade are interiors that are partly modern and functional, partly more conservative and representative. Press conferences , readings and the like can take place in a functional, 227 m² hall on the ground floor with a large media wall . The rooms on the first floor, equipped with chandeliers, fine wood paneling, oak parquet and leather armchairs, are mainly used by management staff. Also in the building are a large auditorium , conference rooms, a library , a bistro and a bar.

A special accent can be found on the back of the house. The old commandant's house had a U-shaped floor plan. Its small courtyard, which is open to the south, was closed in the new building by a slightly sloping, house-high steel and glass construction. Only at this point has the principle of the façade design, which is absolutely true to history, been broken. The newly created, high interior contains a 12 × 3 meter screen , the contemporary modification of a ceiling painting. Different lighting moods can be created here, cloudy or starry skies can be displayed or special films can be shown.

literature

Web links

Commons : Kommandantenhaus (Berlin)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ bertelsmann.de
  2. ↑ Secret Secretary Schmidt's residence, Berlin (old headquarters). In: Architekturmuseum TU Berlin. Accessed July 31, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '2 "  N , 13 ° 23' 52"  E