Congress hall on Alexanderplatz
| Congress hall | |
|---|---|
 The teacher's house with the congress hall on the right |
|
| Data | |
| place | Berlin center |
| architect | Hermann Henselmann team |
| Client | Magistrate of the City of Berlin |
| Architectural style | Modern |
| Construction year | 1961-1964 |
| Floor space | 2500 m² |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 31 '14 " N , 13 ° 24' 59" E |
The congress hall at Alexanderplatz (also: Berlin Congress Center ) is a building in the Berlin district of Mitte . Together with the teacher's house, it forms a listed building ensemble on Alexanderplatz , which was created when the square was rebuilt in the early 1960s.
History and architecture
As a result of a resolution by the Berlin magistrate in 1964, the Alexanderplatz, which was destroyed in World War II, was completely rebuilt according to an urban planning concept by Joachim Näther and Peter Schweitzer .
For the central area of the square, the concept envisaged a new teacher's house (HdL) at the site of the former teacher's club house . This and the south-west adjoining congress hall were built according to plans by the East Berlin architectural office of Hermann Henselmann with his colleagues Bernhard Geyer and Jörg Streitparth. Bernhard Haustein, Günther Kless, Otto Schmidt, Ullrich Wagner, Siegfried Weißhaupt and Karl-Heinz Wendisch were responsible for the detailed planning, the civil engineering work and the artistic design of the facades and interiors. The execution of the construction and handicraft work was incumbent on the VEB Stuck und Naturstein Berlin . Three years of intensive construction work passed between the laying of the foundation stone on December 12, 1961 by the then Mayor of East Berlin, Friedrich Ebert, and the handover to the public. The teacher's house and congress hall opened on September 9, 1964. Until the completion of the Palace of the Republic in 1976, the congress hall was the meeting place of the People's Chamber of the GDR .
The congress hall at the HdL was a new idea of use, which should not only serve the training of teachers. The domed structure in reinforced concrete - shell construction has a round interior, around which two-storey low-rise buildings stretch. There were small meeting rooms and a snack room here. The central hall has 1000 seats and was equipped with the latest technology at the time. For many years after its completion, it was used to hold congresses, concerts, central celebrations for the magistrate or for dance events. In the 1980s it turned out that the acoustics of the domed hall were not ideal, and those responsible for the city council had possible structural changes checked. This led to the fact that small multiple surfaces were attached in the ceiling area, which led to a better sound image.
After the political change with the reunification of the city of Berlin, the situation arose that the now responsible Senate owned two congress halls: the congress hall opened in 1957 in the Tiergarten and the congress hall on Alexanderplatz. The entire building complex on Alex was sold to the merger of the bcc property company and the Mitte housing association. This invested around 2.5 million euros for a complete renovation and a renovation in line with historic monuments. The event building was therefore closed from 2001 to 2003. By the time it reopened in September 2003, a total of 23 event rooms with up to 2500 seats for large events had been set up in the building of the congress hall and the entire event technology was renewed. In addition, after previous practical tests at the Technical University of Berlin on a 3D model of the hall, new loudspeakers were used in the dome hall, which guarantee good and even sound quality. The seating was exchanged for chairs with red upholstery and folding seats that were specially developed and produced for the congress hall, the floor kept the black natural slate, the wall colors were refreshed according to the original equipment plans.
Because of the name similarity with that in West Berlin existing convention hall , the building has now received the Alexanderplatz mixed German-English names Berliner Congress Center (BCC).
Since 2003 the BCC has held regular congresses of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), and international events by doctors, scientists, artists or politicians, film premieres and award ceremonies have already taken place here. (The CCC had already attracted nationwide attention in 2001 with computer-controlled window lighting at the teacher's house - the Blinkenlights .)
The following respectful assessment by the managing director of the BCC, Helo Brackenhoff, describes the overall impression of the congress hall at the Alex very aptly and thus also confirms the inclusion of this building in the list of listed buildings of the Senate:
“This house is so unique in its combination of clear shapes, selected materials such as aluminum and the unusual color spectrum. The domed hall is definitely a highlight. [...] The house doesn't have any typical GDR architecture either, but was built at a time when architects had freedom. "
The older hall in the Tiergarten district has been used for more artistic events since 1989 and has since been called the House of World Cultures .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Alexanderplatz - the hinge in the east of Berlin . In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 25, 2013; accessed on November 2, 2016.
- ↑ Architectural ensemble of Haus des Lehrers and congress hall
- ↑ Dr.-Ing. Karlheinz Wendisch. In: arch INFORM ; accessed on November 2, 2016.
- ↑ First foundation for the city center . In: Neues Deutschland , December 13, 1961, p. 8.
- ^ Joachim Schulz, Werner Graebner: Berlin. Capital of the DDR. Architecture Guide GDR , VEB Verlag für Bauwesen Berlin, 1974; Pp. 48 and 53.
- ↑ A present for our educators . In: Neue Zeit , September 10, 1964, p. 12.
- ↑ a b c d Uwe Aulich: At Alexanderplatz, the Berlin Congress Hall becomes the Berlin Congress Center . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 23, 2003, accessed on November 2, 2016.