Kontorhausviertel

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Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus district with Chilehaus
UNESCO world heritage
Kontorhausviertel Hamburg
National territory:	Germany
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(iv)
Reference No .:	1467
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2015  ( session 39 )

Overview: World Heritage (red) and "buffer zone" (orange)

The Kontorhausviertel is located in the south-east of Hamburg's old town and consists of large, up to ten- story office buildings in the style of brick expressionism and other modern styles of the early 20th century. The quarter was created between the First and Second World War under the overall planning of the then Hamburg chief building director Fritz Schumacher . The central part of the office building area around the Burchardplatz was born on July 5, 2015 together with the adjacent Speicherstadt to UNESCO - World Heritage declared.

Emergence

Since the 17th century, a narrow residential area had emerged in this area of ​​the old town as a gangway district with many narrow streets, twieten and canals . The housing shortage caused by the Hamburg fire of 1842 led to further densification. The cholera epidemic of 1892 forced a sustainable rehabilitation of the area. It is true that the inadequate clarification of the Elbe water used for drinking water was the cause of the disaster; However, the inadequate hygienic conditions in these residential areas only caused the devastating effects.

The residential areas further south on the Elbe islands of Kehrwieder and Wandrahm had already been cleared in order to create the warehouse district's free port area required by the Reich government . The construction of the main train station began around 1900, and the subsequent breakthrough on Mönckebergstrasse, which was required for the construction of the underground , was completed in 1912. In the development plan of 1912 and due to the urban development competition of 1914, residential development near the port was planned for the area between Mönckebergstrasse and the Zollkanal .

Fritz Schumacher , building director and head of structural engineering since 1909, prevailed with his idea of ​​creating a center and planned the area as an area of ​​office buildings, although for example, when the Sprinkenhof was built, it was originally assumed that part of the residential area would be used.

Fritz Schumacher's revision of the development plan already provided for large building dimensions, which took into account the space requirements of the up-and-coming merchants after the customs connection to Hamburg. Each building should have an individual character.

The original residents of the district had founded the Bauverein Alt-Hamburg in 1925 , but ultimately had to move to the new residential areas designed by Schumacher in the Jarrestadt and on the Veddel .

World Heritage building

Reinforced concrete buildings with clinker facades are characteristic of the building fabric . The architects used various style elements to loosen up the large building mass. Typically most houses have copper thatched roofs. The top floor, mostly even the upper floors, are each set back a little from the main front. These staggered floors open the street canyons upwards. Vertical dividing elements are mostly made of clinker brick , for example at the Chilehaus and Meßberghof. The facade of the Sprinkenhof has a network-like structure in the central block, and ceramic decorative elements that symbolize trade and handicrafts create a more visual appearance. Most of the buildings were placed under monument protection in 1999.

Chile house

The illuminated Chilehaus with its striking tip

→ Main article : Chilehaus

The Chilehaus was built by Fritz Höger in 1922–24 and is considered Höger's main work. The builder was the shipowner Henry B. Sloman , who had acquired his fortune by trading with Chile - saltpeter . The listed building is groundbreaking for clinker expressionism , it was renovated at the end of the 1990s .

Commons : Chilehaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Messberghof

→ Main article : Meßberghof

The Meßberghof was built by Hans and Oskar Gerson at the same time as the Chilehaus . The building, initially named after Albert Ballin , was renamed “Meßberghof” after the adjacent street in 1938, as Ballin was no longer tolerated as a namesake because of his Jewish descent. The expressionist architectural sculptures come from Lothar Fischer . The Meßberghof has been a listed building since 1983.

Commons : Meßberghof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Miramarhaus

The Miramarhaus was built in 1921 as the first building in the new Kontorhaus district.

→ Main article : Miramar House

The first building was the office building for the Miramar trading company in 1921–22 based on a design by Max Bach in the Kattrepel, Curienstrasse and Schopenstehl area . It has a rounded corner, which only later became typical for "new building". Individual decorative elements show characteristics of clinker expressionism. The entrance area is decorated with ceramics by Richard Kuöhl .

Commons : Miramarhaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Mohlenhof

The Kontorhaus Mohlenhof was designed and realized in the years 1927-28 by the architects Klophaus , Schoch, zu Putlitz . With its simple style, it reflects the architecture of the late 1920s. The Mohlenhof is one of the office buildings that survived the Second World War almost unscathed. Above the main entrance of the building there is a larger than life Hermes sculpture by the sculptor Richard Kuöhl .

Commons : Mohlenhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Montanhof

Another large clinker brick building with decorative elements of Art Deco is located on Niedernstrasse / Kattrepel . These ceramic fittings enrich the clinker cladding of the facade. The building was built between 1924–1926 according to plans by the architects Hermann Distel and August Grubitz ( Distel and Grubitz offices ) for the Dobbertin & Co. company and the Komrowski shipping company , which is still based there today, with a typical stacked floor .

Commons : Montanhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Sprinkenhof

→ Main article : Sprinkenhof

The Sprinkenhof was built between 1927 and 1943 in three construction phases. It was built by Hans and Oskar Gerson together with Fritz Höger. The Sprinkenhof was Hamburg's largest office complex at the time. It encloses three inner courtyards. From 1999 to 2002 a renovation with extensive renovation took place.

Commons : Sprinkenhof  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Police station on Klingberg

→ Main article : Former service building of the Hamburg rulers

The police station built by Albert Erbe in 1906-08 on the corner of Klingberg and Depenau was later fully incorporated into the Chilehaus complex. The building was built as a police station and service building for the rulers . The sculptural decorations, portal figures with fruits, grain and fish, indicate this determination. The architecture follows the example of old Hamburg town houses from the Baroque era .

Pictures of the buildings above

• 

  Messberghof entrance area

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  The Mohlenhof on Burchardplatz

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  The Montanhof with typically recessed stacked floors

• 

  The Sprinkenhof is one of the largest buildings and has three inner courtyards

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  Police station 14 (Klingberg branch)
  with Chilehaus

Other buildings in the "buffer zone"

Old town courtyard

The building was built from 1936 to 1937 and contains shops and stores on the ground floor and 220 apartments on the floors above. The architect was Rudolf Klophaus . Numerous sandstone sculptures by Richard Kuöhl, arranged above the house entrances, represent typical Hamburg professions. The statues are weathered, some are missing their heads (2006).

Commons : Altstädter Hof  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Burchardhof

A commercial building with elements of a high-rise building was built on Steinstrasse / Burchardstrasse in 1931, based on designs by Max Bach and Fritz Wischer, further developing the design language of the Kontorhaus district, emphasizing the horizontal with the typical stacked storey and a flat roof.

Bartholomay House

Between Altstädter Strasse, Steinstrasse, Springeltwiete and Johanniswall, it was built in 1938/39 by the architect Rudolf Klophaus for Robert Bartholomay as the last office building in the classic style with large gables based on old Hanseatic town houses. These false gables were already felt to be strange and out of date at the time of construction.

Today the building is owned by alstria office REIT-AG, the main tenant is Hamburger Hochbahn AG.

Helmut Schmidt House

Next to the former cathedral square, where Domstrasse and Speersort meet, there is the Helmut Schmidt House (until January 7, 2016, the Press House), where several publishers used to work. Today Die Zeit still has its editorial team there. It was built in 1938 based on a design by Rudolf Klophaus for the National Socialist Hamburger Tageblatt . The company emblem, a Hanseatic cog by Richard Kuöhl, can be found - now without a swastika - on Curienstraße.

In contrast to the other clinker buildings, it has individual elements made of shell limestone, especially in the Speersort / Steinstrasse arcades. The original hipped roof was replaced by a stacked floor after bomb damage. After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, Der Spiegel and Stern had their editorial offices here from 1952 to 1969 .

At the beginning of 2013, the Cologne-based investment company Art-Invest Real Estate Funds , a subsidiary of the Bremen Zech Group for project development (real estate) , bought the building from Allianz Immobilien GmbH . The commercial building has a usable area of ​​approx. 19,400 m², which is divided into 75% office, 17% gastronomy / retail and 8% warehouse. After only two years, the building changed hands again in 2015 and was sold to SwissRe for an estimated 80 million euros .

To the west was the neo-classical building of the old Johanneum , which had been built in 1838/40 according to a design by Carl Ludwig Wimmel . This neighborhood had an inevitable effect on the design language and cites the arched arcades of the original Johanneum, which, after the school moved out, served as the building for the Commerzbibliothek and the later State Library.

Commons : Helmut-Schmidt-Haus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Pictures of the buildings above

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  Housing construction in the Altstädter Hof

• 

  Figure chimney sweep at the Old Town Court

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  The Burchardhof in Steinstrasse

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  The Bartholomay House

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  The Helmut Schmidt House

Older buildings

Some office buildings in Schumacher's planning area were built before the 1920s.

Schopenstehl 32

This house was built by Arthur Viol in 1885-88. The facade of a semi-detached house built around 1780 with its rococo portal and curved gable was incorporated into the new building. This house is one of the last testimonies to the Hamburg town house architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries at the original location.

Modern times

In the 1990s, new houses were built in the tradition of clinker buildings, such as the Danske Hus and the Neue Dovenhof .

World Heritage

Map of the world heritage area (red) and the buffer zone (orange)

On July 5, 2015, the Speicherstadt and the Kontorhaus district were added to the list of world cultural heritage at the 39th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Bonn.

literature

• Rita Bake : Different Worlds I. 45 historical stations through the Kontorhausviertel . State Center for Political Education, Hamburg, 2010 ( online )
• Alfred Kamphausen: The builder Fritz Höger . Publishing house K. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1972
• Ralf Lange : Hamburg's world heritage. Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus district. Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-88506-765-8 .
• Heike Werner, Mathias Wallner: Architecture and History in Germany. Werner, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-9809471-1-4
• Hermann Hipp , Hans Meyer-Veden: Hamburg office buildings. Ernst, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-433-02043-4 (illustrated book).

See also

• List of office buildings in Hamburg

Web links

Commons : Kontorhausviertel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
• Homepage of the "Kontorhausviertel Interest Group"
• Monument protection Hamburg-Mitte
• Discover Hamburg's World Heritage , tour of the Kontorhausviertel and Speicherstadt , NDR television from August 4, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hamburg's Speicherstadt is a World Heritage Site , shz.de, July 5, 2015
2. ↑ Portrait (kontorhausviertel.com) ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2015 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. 
3. ↑ See https://stiftung-bartholomay.de/stifter/ , often erroneously referred to as "Rudolf" in the literature.
4. ↑ Bartholomayhaus - alstria office REIT-AG. Retrieved February 9, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Hamburger Pressehaus renamed the Helmut-Schmidt-Haus ( memento of the original from January 14, 2016 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. , www.zeit.de, accessed on January 14, 2016 
6. ↑ Facts Helmut-Schmidt-Haus , art-invest.de, accessed on May 5, 2019
7. ↑ Swiss Re buys press house in Hamburg , IZ Immobilien-Zeitung from August 11, 2015, accessed on May 5, 2019 (paid article, initial information readable)
8. ^ Bonn 2015: 39th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Retrieved July 5, 2015 . 

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 '  N , 10 ° 0'  E