Zinnowitz cultural center
The Kulturhaus Zinnowitz is a multifunctional building in the municipality of Zinnowitz on the island of Usedom , where cultural events took place until the 1980s. It was built from 1953 to 1957 and was previously called the German-Soviet Friendship House of Culture . It functioned as a cultural institution with a theater hall, a dance café, a library and a dining room with an attached large kitchen. The ruinously preserved building was placed under monument protection in 2007 because of its former importance as a concise and dominant element of local events . The cultural center has been converted into a residential complex since 2017.
Development and planning
After the Second World War , the formerly bourgeois holiday resort of Zinnowitz was declared the first seaside resort for the working people and, with Aktion Rose - in which large parts of the private property were expropriated - the holiday service of the Soviet-German stock corporation Wismut was awarded. For this purpose, buddies from the uranium mines of the GDR visited the bathing resort, which were housed and maintained in numerous newly built structures.
On behalf of the GDR government, cultural centers were also built on the Baltic coast between 1952 and 1957. In July 1952, the Second Party Conference of the SED decided the basis for this. A dispute about the socialist design of cultural houses resulted in an ideas competition and the development of type projects that were carried out at the building academy . In addition to the axially symmetrical, longitudinally cubic building type with the representative gable and risalit , a horizontally emphasized wing system was built in Zinnowitz. After the exaggerated proportions here with the stringing together of building elements of classicist character, discrepancies arose in the implementation of the political and ideological guidelines during the construction of the Zinnowitz House of Culture. But that could happen here because it was a gift from socialism .
The extremely monumental building was built from 1953 by the architects W. Litzkow, G. Ulbrich, G. Möhring and the stage technician K. Hämmerling from VEB Industrieprojektierung Nord on behalf of S (D) AG Wismut. Outwardly reminiscent of the architecture of the prewar years, the five-wing complex spreads out in front of a park, which it seems to occupy with its side wings. Comparable to a courtyard of honor opened to a park.
The complex comprised a theater and a cinema with 900 seats, a dining room with 400 seats as well as various function rooms and a library with 12,000 volumes. The interior of the culture house was carried out by renowned companies such as the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau . A similar building from this period is the Murchin District Culture House .
architecture
The architecture of the house of culture can be assigned to socialist classicism . The monumental complex as a symmetrical five-wing structure consists of two- and three-story plastered buildings with attics . A large outside staircase with a portico pillar between two single-axis risalits forms the entrance portal , which leads into the reception hall of the central pavilion. The two side wings, which are structured by stylized pilasters , are connected by simple elongated plastered buildings. The side wings each have a portal flanked by pilasters on the front, which is bordered by pilaster strips and ribbons.
environment
- Park
- Sports facility with soccer field
Uses
For decades the Kulturhaus was the cultural center in the western part of the island of Usedom. The cinema and theater hall attracted numerous artists from home and abroad and was an often used recording location for television plays on television in the GDR such as the comedy series “ Maxe Baumann ” and “ Ferienheim Bergkristall ”. In addition, artists from the Milan Scale , the Grand Opéra Paris , singers and dancers from Moscow, and the Indian National Ballet performed in the halls.
Decay and re-use
A fundamental renovation and reconstruction of the building began in 1987, but was initially stopped by the fall of the Wall . At the beginning of the 1990s, the building was completely looted due to a lack of building security and has been empty since then.
The establishment of 86 apartments and a wellness complex is planned on the site. The plans are to be implemented from mid-2017 to 2019, with the cultural center being extensively renovated. The sales prices for the apartments should be between 250,000 and 650,000 euros.
The apartments are supposed to be ready by 2022 - the Polish investor promises in July 2020 - but this has to be given a big question mark, as there are always longer breaks between short activities. See article in the Ostsee-Zeitung of July 10, 2020.
Gerd Rauschenbach, who was senior construction manager at the Kulturhaus for Wismut during the GDR era, explains in a guest article in the Ostsee-Zeitung in August 2020 why the Kulturhaus will no longer work. He is of the opinion that the community has no choice but to reverse the purchase, lift the monument protection and tear down the ruins, then plant trees and create a small lake that used to be there.
Park
For the redesign of the park in front of the Kulturhaus, the supreme state planning authority of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - the Ministry of Transport, Building and State Development - approved around 622,000 euros in urban development funds in 2008. The total cost was 668,000 euros and all upgrading measures were completed in September 2009. The city park was upgraded to a central green space within the town.
literature
- Simone Hain, Stephan Stroux, Michael Schroedter: The salons of the socialists: culture houses in the GDR . Ch. Links, 1996, ISBN 3-86153-118-6 .
- Ulrich Hartung: Workers 'and farmers' temples. GDR cultural centers of the fifties. A compendium of architectural history. At the same time dissertation from the Humboldt University Berlin, 1996. Schlezky & Jeep, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89541-102-7 . (History of the GDR cultural centers in the 1950s and a detailed, illustrated catalog)
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Munich, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-422-03081-6 , p. 729.
- Mélanie van der Hoorn: Indispensable Eyesores: An Anthropology of Undesired Buildings . Berghahn Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84545-530-9 .
Web links
- Literature about Kulturhaus Zinnowitz in the state bibliography MV
- ModerneREGIONAL: Report with historical interior photos
- Building project Kulturhaus Zinnowitz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simone Hain, Stephan Stroux, Michael Schroedter: The salons of the socialists: culture houses in the GDR . Ch. Links, 1996, p. 187.
- ^ Official announcement sheet of the Usedom-Nord office. Volume 03. Tuesday, October 23, 2007. Number 11. (PDF; 4.5 MB), accessed on January 5, 2010.
- ↑ Josef Kaiser: The Maxhütte House of Culture. In: German architecture. Issue 3, 1954, p. 107.
- ↑ Georg Dehio: Zinnowitz. Former Culture house. 2000, p. 729.
- ^ History of the Zinnowitz seaside resort
- ↑ Ulrich Hartung: Workers 'and farmers' temples, GDR culture houses of the fifties - an architectural compendium. Berlin 1996, p. 161.
- ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (ed.): The architectural and art monuments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Western Pomerania coastal region. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1995, p. 383.
- ↑ The History of the Zinnowitz Seaside Resort , accessed on January 5, 2010.
- ↑ Kulturhaus Zinnowitz | Seidel + Architects. Retrieved January 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Zinnowitz: Culture house becomes exclusive residential complex , Ostseezeitung , accessed on July 2, 2017
- ↑ Kulturhaus Zinnowitz: high groundwater level delays construction projects. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
- ↑ OZ guest commentary: “That's why the Kulturhaus in Zinnowitz won't work anymore”. Retrieved August 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and State Development
Coordinates: 54 ° 4 ′ 46 ″ N , 13 ° 54 ′ 36.6 ″ E