War School (Potsdam)

War School Potsdam ; Kremlin
	Aerial photo of the entire facility (2008)
Basic data
Place:	Potsdam
Construction time :	1899-1902
Opening:	2nd August 1902
Renovation:	multiple
Status :	Monument protection
Architectural style :	historicism
Architect :	Franz Schwechten
Architects :	Garrison construction inspector ; Martin Meyer (construction manager)
Use / legal
Owner :	country Brandenburg
Client :	Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Technical specifications
Height to the top:	50 m
Usable area :	5600 m²

The historic Royal Prussian War School or the Schwechten building is a complex of buildings that was built from 1899 to 1902 on the instructions of Kaiser Wilhelm II on the Potsdamer Brauhausberg . The ensemble of buildings was used continuously after the war school was closed in 1914; from 1946 to 1952 and from 1990 to 2013 it housed the Brandenburg State Parliament until it was replaced by the Potsdam City Palace. From December 2015 to September 2018 it was a refugee accommodation. From the second half of 2019, 200 apartments will be built in the building. During the GDR era, the nickname " Kremlin " became established for the complex.

Building history

The new war school in 1902

The building was built from 1899 to 1902 according to plans by Franz Schwechten . The architectural design in the style of the English cottage construction with half-timbering and white-plastered fields using Renaissance motifs was carried out according to the emperor's specifications. Wilhelm II preferred the Brauhausberg as the location, referring to the entrenchments that were built at this location in 1813 . This was owned by the forest administration of the Zauch-Belzig district and has now been leased for a long time. The construction management was entrusted to the garrison building inspector Martin Meyer. The new building was intended to replace an old facility in Potsdamer Waisenstrasse (today Dortustraße), which was no longer suitable for the increased demands after the establishment of the Empire.

The Porta Palio in Verona served as a model for the main entrance . The central part of the building complex was a 1804 designed by Friedrich Wilhelm III. 64 meter high observation tower built for Queen Luise , which was integrated into the building ensemble.

On April 14, 1945 the building was partially destroyed in bombing by the Royal Air Force ; the files stored here were largely destroyed, despite the first relocation as early as 1943.

It was not until the end of the 1940s that the newly founded council of the City of Potsdam, which was now responsible, had the buildings repaired in a makeshift manner because they were supposed to be used as a school, but this did not happen.

The technical features of the building include the low pressure steam heating , which has been in operation almost unchanged since 1902. Otherwise there are only a few of these types of plants in France .

In the course of the conversion of the building complex into a warehouse, the tower was reduced to 50 meters in 1935. Further additions were made by the SED district management, so that an almost closed courtyard complex was created.

Prussian War School

The war school , initially located on Waisenstraße (today Dortustraße) in Potsdam, was given a new building on the Brauhausberg on the instructions of Wilhelm II. It served to train officers in the Prussian army in the German Empire . The first course began the day after the building was inaugurated with ensigns . It was dissolved at the beginning of the First World War . The building's street-side facade is a listed building .

Directors of the War School

1902–1906: Ernst von Arnim , Lieutenant Colonel
1906–1911: Guido Sontag , Colonel
1911–1913: August von Geyso, Lieutenant Colonel
1914– : Pit, lieutenant colonel0000

1919: The military school becomes the Reich and Army Archives

Tower of the Reich and Army Archives on Potsdamer Brauhausberg , 1929

The whole building from the long shot , 1930

During the First World War, the war school was used as a battalion assembly point. In 1919, the Versailles Treaty banned war schools in Germany. It was therefore decided to manage the civil and military files of the German Reich in the building. The building has now been converted into the Reichsarchiv , the main task of which was to

to take over the records of the army and the war societies of the First World War and to record the archival files of the Reich authorities,
to provide information for administrative and scientific purposes and
to carry out their own scientific research into the history of the German Empire, especially the First World War.

Due to the limited storage space, some outposts were initially set up in the city, barracks were set up on the site, but at the same time a permanent extension began, which was moved into in 1935. In the same year the civil archive holdings were relocated so that the buildings now formed the Potsdam Army Archives . From 1936 the Army Archives became an independent authority under the direction of Friedrich von Rabenau ; Ernst Zipfel remained head of the Reichsarchiv until 1945, which kept its official seat in Potsdam.

President of the Reich Archives

Hermann Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim , colonel, then major general ret. D. (1919-1931)
Hans von Haeften , major general ret. D. (1931-1934)
Ernst Zipfel (1935–1945)

Several employees

Wilhelm Dieckmann
Karl Heinrich Schäfer
Otto Korfes
Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack
Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim , son of the above President
Hans Bernd von Haeften , son of the above named President

Use from 1945 to 1990

In the post-war period there were disputes about the repair and use of the damaged buildings between the Potsdam City Council and the Soviet military commander Colonel Andrej Werin . The Soviet military administration used the building until June 1948, after which "the house of the German State Archives in Potsdam, Am Havelblick Str. Object 2227 with the total floor area of 5600 m²" was handed over to the State of Brandenburg . The Finance and Taxation Department of the Ministry of Finance initially moved here. Since the Brandenburg State Association of the SED claimed the building complex for its own administration, the former war school became the seat of the SED State Management Brandenburg in 1949 and at the same time became the property of this party. Soon afterwards, on August 1, 1952, the states were dissolved and districts of the GDR were founded. The school building complex has now been used by the SED district management in Potsdam . The party house was soon popularly known as the “ Kremlin ” because it was here that the requirements of the Soviet Union were implemented in the GDR. The move in of the SED district management led to the transfer of previously used properties (Hebbelstrasse 49, Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 37 and 67) to the city of Potsdam.

State parliament seat from 1990 to 2013

The building as the seat of the state parliament, 2008

After the Brandenburg State Parliament, elected in 1990, decided to relocate its headquarters to the former war school, it was restored in 1991 at a cost of millions and people moved into on September 25th of that year. With the reunification, the assets of the former SED passed into the possession of the state of Brandenburg and with it the property on the Brauhausberg. Even with the extensions added during the GDR era, the building itself never fully met the requirements of a state parliament, it required high maintenance costs and was also in a rather unfavorable location. So it was already used as a temporary solution, while in 1995 the first concrete demands for a replacement arose. The last session of the state parliament finally took place on November 22, 2013, after the city palace on Potsdamer Alter Markt had been rebuilt, where the state parliament has had its seat since January 2014.

Refugee shelter

Apartments should be built in the building from 2016. Due to the refugee crisis of 2015 , it was rented by the city of Potsdam and used as refugee accommodation from December 2015 to September 2018. At times up to 414 refugees were housed in the building. From the second half of 2019, the two million euros already planned for 2016 conversion of the rooms to 200 apartments will begin.