United Nations Square (Berlin)
| United Nations Square | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Ground plan of the square |
|
| Basic data | |
| place | Berlin |
| District | Friedrichshain |
| Created | 19th century |
| Newly designed | 1968, 1992 |
| Hist. Names |
Leninplatz (1950–1992) , Landsberger Platz (1864–1950) |
| Confluent streets |
Mollstrasse Landsberger Allee Friedenstrasse Lichtenberger Strasse |
| Buildings |
Fountain made of boulders , residential buildings, food hall |
| use | |
| User groups | Road traffic |
The United Nations Square is an urban square in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain , which includes both the green areas and the peripheral buildings. The axis Mollstrasse - Landsberger Allee runs over it in a west-east direction . At the north and east end the square is bounded by Friedenstrasse , while in the south the square runs to Lichtenberger Strasse / Palisadenstrasse. It is named after the world organization UNO .
After the war rubble had been removed from residential buildings west of Landsberger Platz, this square was initially given the new name Leninplatz after the Soviet leader Lenin . When the former rubble area to the west of the square and east of Büschingplatz was to receive a completely new residential development, it was decided in 1968 to relocate the square. Its center was then the Lenin monument erected there .
history
The square has its origin in the Landsberger Tor, which existed there until 1863, at the end of Landsberger Strasse. After the gate was dismantled, the square was named Landsberger Platz in 1864 . The development south of the Volkspark Friedrichshain suffered particularly severe damage during the Second World War . Two piles of rubble in the park also emerged from their cleared remains . Landsberger Platz, which had been cleared by many volunteers by 1950, was renamed Leninplatz in 1950 . In the 1960s, further demolitions took place in the area between Friedrichshain and Alexanderplatz . On the occasion of Lenin's one hundredth birthday , a completely new city quarter was built in 1970 with a redesigned Leninplatz including part of the former Büschingplatz . The square was dominated by a towering Lenin monument made of polished red granite . The square was framed by curved prefabricated buildings , including one of the tallest residential buildings in East Berlin .
Overview of the place names:
- Landsberger Platz (1864 to April 6, 1950)
- Lenin Square (April 6, 1950 to March 13, 1992)
- United Nations Square (since March 13, 1992)
Reorganization in the GDR
Redesign plans
On January 31, 1967, the SED Politburo announced a competition for the redesign of the square. The winning design by Hermann Henselmann was further developed and implemented by the collective around Heinz Mehlan . The foundation stone was laid on November 7, 1968 in the presence of Walter Ulbricht and East Berlin's Lord Mayor Herbert Fechner .
The redevelopment of the square should not only create a new part of the socialist city center. It should also be shown that type or prefabricated construction can also be capable of individual forms of expression. All in all, residential buildings of varying heights with a total of around 1250 apartments were built. The square is one of the outstanding examples of socialist urban development in the GDR. A flag (high-rise block formerly behind Lenin) and the abbreviation “SU” for Soviet Union (block S and U) were represented symbolically abstractly with the buildings .
The square symbolizes the transition from the historic city with the old buildings on the lower Landsberger Allee with the Friedrichshain hospital to the modern city center around Alexanderplatz . The part designated as the "Leninplatz residential complex" (without the south-west side) is under monument protection and ensemble protection and is entered in the Berlin State Monument List. In addition, individual buildings are included separately in the list of monuments. The square has no number 13. The official inauguration of the newly designed square took place at the same time as the unveiling of the Lenin monument on April 19, 1970.
In 1991 activists pasted over the street signs on Leninplatz and replaced them with the name Ritter-Runkel-Platz in order to make fun of the tense discussions about the renaming. Knight Runkel is a figure created by Hannes Hegen from the comic book Mosaik , which was very popular in GDR times. The “renaming” went unnoticed by the district office for a few days.
Residential buildings
High-rise tower (house numbers 1/2)
The building designed by Heinz Mehlan on the northeast corner of the square measures 75 meters in length and ranks three times from north to south: from 25 to 21 and then to 17 floors. The high-rise in large-panel construction is a further development of the WHH GT type . Some apartments have a balcony. The ground floor of the tower building forms a curved extension for shops for daily needs (restaurant, flower shop, post office, etc.). The entrance area of the residential tower is well designed.
In 1999, the owner at the time, the Berlin housing association Friedrichshain (which has since become part of the Berlin-Mitte housing association ), set up a concierge service in the tower for 267 rental apartments and one commercially used apartment for tenants . a. has a positive effect on tenant satisfaction.
U-block, also called "boomerang" (house numbers 3–12)
The house has ten upper floors and is a modification of the prefabricated type P2 / 11 with extensions of the type WBS 70 (house numbers 11 and 12, which clearly stand out due to their facade design and were ready for occupancy in 1987). House numbers 6 to 8 have angle elements so that the house units can be bent without any gaps. Therefore there are some apartments with trapezoidal rooms. Due to its shape, the block on the southeast corner of the square was popularly known as the boomerang . All apartments have a balcony facing the square. On the upper floors there are studio apartments with a glass cube (studio) and a terrace on the roof. The color scheme, which was already unusual for prefabricated buildings at the time, should be emphasized. The walls and parapets of the loggias, made of exposed aggregate concrete , had a basic white tone and the sides were made of blue enameled sheet metal. The loggias were glazed on every third floor (4th, 7th and 10th floor). The outer walls of the curves (trapezoidal elements) were given a yellow ceramic cladding. The glazed loggias were also given red parapets in the curves. The house was renovated from 1994 to 1997.
Green block (house numbers 15-22)
The house has ten upper floors and is located on the southwest corner of the square. It is a block of the type QP 71 ( transverse slab , denotes the load-bearing walls of the slab structure and 71 is the year of the first construction). Only a few apartments have a balcony (south-facing), but very large windows in the living areas. The building originally had green ceramic cladding - the current design is based on this.
S-block, also called "snake" (house numbers 23–32)
The house has ten upper floors and is located on the northwest corner of the square. It is the same type of construction as the "boomerang". However, the floor plan is angled twice so that the wing has a snake or S-shape. There is a pedestrian passage in the middle of the curve bordering the roadside. The house is 300 meters long. All apartments - except for the apartments on the ground floor - have a balcony facing the square. Here too, as with the “Boomerang”, there are studio apartments on the top floors. The entrance areas of this house are original. The original facade design corresponds to that of the "Bumerang" house.
Kaufhalle (house number 14)
A department store was built for the many new residents right at the southwestern intersection. It has a sales area of 1100 m² and stands as a single-storey solitaire in the green area. When it was completed, it was considered one of the most modern in the GDR. In the anteroom of the current Edeka store, there has been a post office and a bakery shop since the 1990s . The building itself was not changed, only the facade was given insulation and fresh colors.
Infrastructure
traffic
The square is centrally located and is therefore relatively well connected to the rest of the city. Three tram lines (M5, M6, M8) and a bus line (142) of the BVG cross the square. In the long term, a stop on the not yet realized U11 underground line is planned. For financial reasons, however, this is very unlikely in the foreseeable future.
School and service facilities
A school building and childcare facilities were available to the residents of the Leninplatz area.
In the tower high-rise there is a hairdresser and dining facilities, of which the Baikal restaurant was widely known until the collapse of the GDR , as there were suckling pigs there, for example .
Lenin monument
Draft and installation
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The Lenin Monument was designed by Nikolai Tomski , President of the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union , on behalf of the GDR government and manufactured by a collective. It was inaugurated on April 19, 1970 - three days before Lenin's 100th birthday - on the newly built Lenin Square by the Chairman of the State Council, Walter Ulbricht . The ceremony was attended by around 200,000 people, including representatives from the socialist brother countries , delegations from companies in other GDR cities and numerous Berliners. The 19-meter-high figure of Lenin stood on a round base with a 26-meter diameter. The monument was made of red Ukrainian Kapustino made -Granite. Tomski expected a contrast to the green hills of Volkspark Friedrichshain on the north side of the square. Originally it was Hermann Henselmann at this point a library - Pavilion of itself in the form of spirally provided upward-curling red flag. He wanted to make the honor of Lenin a symbolic experience and at the same time create a culturally usable (educational) building.
demolition
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The District Assembly (BVV) of the Friedrichshain district decided in 1991 with a majority of 40 members (13 voted against) to demolish the monument. The Lenin Monument was on the GDR's list of monuments from 1979. Urban Development Senator Volker Hassemer ( CDU ) had it removed from the list of monuments after the Friedrichshain decision . In protest, residents founded the citizens' initiative Lenin Monument and demonstrated against the demolition because it was part of the ensemble of the square. The protest was supported by artists and politicians. Tomski's grandchildren, who designed the monument, as well as local residents sued against the removal - albeit without success.
The demolition began on November 8, 1991. On November 13, the most symbolic part of the work took place: the 3.5 ton head was lifted off, which was later shown in the film Good Bye, Lenin! has been processed. The demolition of the entire monument took several months until February 1992. Many people tried to prevent or at least block the demolition work, which caused the work to take longer than planned. Overall, the demolition cost more than 100,000 D-Marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 82,000 euros). The 129 parts of the monument were buried in a sand pit on Seddinberg near Berlin-Müggelheim .
Lenin's head as a unique piece
In July 2009 it became known that the head of the Lenin memorial would be excavated and, from 2016, it would be unveiled in the planned permanent exhibition together with other Berlin monuments that had been removed, in particular the Siegesallee in Berlin's Tiergarten . To show Berlin and its monuments on the area of the Spandau Citadel . In August 2014, the Berlin Senate surprisingly decided not to release the head for the exhibition, as the monument protection authority has meanwhile advocated the cohesion of the entire monument. In addition, the technical and financial means to implement the plan would not be available. After protests, including from art and cultural scholars, the Senate turned around and released the head of the Lenin monument for exhibition in the citadel in September 2014. It was recovered in September 2015 and has been on display since April 2016 in the above-mentioned permanent exhibition in the Spandau Citadel.
Hot spring at the former monument site
A fountain has stood on the site of the monument since 1994 . It was designed by Adalbert Maria Klees, an employee of the Green Spaces Office. A total of 14 large boulders are placed on a natural stone surface, the heaviest of them weighing 24 tons . In the middle of the ensemble there are five roughly hewn granite stones in different colors with sparkling water. The stones are supposed to represent the five inhabited continents; they are named after the continents on which they were found and marked accordingly with small signs.
In the media
Several scenes from the DEFA film The Legend of Paul and Paula were shot in the Kaufhallen building.
The shooting of the music video for the song are you crying? the band Echt took place in a studio apartment and in the courtyard of the S-Block.
The opening scene of the feature film The Bourne Ultimatum was shot on the S-Block and in the Kaufhalle.
See also
Web links
- State monument list Berlin: United Nations Square
-
United Nations Square. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
- Landsberger Platz . In: Luise.
- Lenin Square . In: Luise.
Individual evidence
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↑ In the Berliner Zeitung of November 1, 1968 it was to be read: “The city council of Greater Berlin decides: On Leninallee, at the intersection of Lichtenberger Strasse, Mollstrasse and Friedenstrasse, Leninplatz has become a representative and impressive square in the capital of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin. ”
And on November 6th of the same year it was said:“ On November 7th, 1968 at 3:00 p.m. in the intersection of Mollstrasse and Lichtenberger Strasse, the cornerstone ceremony for the new Leninplatz will take place. Comrade Walter Ulbricht speaks . " - ↑ Karl-Heinz Hüter, Doris Mollenschott, Paul Sigel, Martin Wörner: 532. United Nations Square Housing Complex , 1968–70, Hermann Henselmann, Heinz Mehlan. In: Architectural Guide Berlin. 7th edition. Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-496-01380-8 , p. 324.
- ↑ Cityscapes from a bird's eye view. Where the city planners of Berlin made tabula rasa . In: Berliner Zeitung , October 30, 2018.
- ↑ Monument ensemble of residential complex Leninplatz
- ↑ Porter in the prefabricated building . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , January 1, 2011, p. V11
- ↑ Hans Maur : Memorials of the labor movement in Berlin-Friedrichshain , ed. by the district management of the SED, district commission for researching the history of the local labor movement in cooperation with the district commission for researching the history of the local labor movement at the Berlin-Friedrichshain district management of the SED. 1981, pp. 17/18
- ↑ Heiko Schützler: April 19, 1970 - The Lenin Monument is unveiled . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 6, 2001, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 127–130 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ↑ Citizens' Initiative Lenin Monument. on www.rosalux.de
- ↑ Welcome, Lenin - The head of the sculpture is to be excavated and exhibited . In: Potsdam Latest News , July 8, 2009.
- ↑ Stefan Strauss: Suddenly headless. Berlin is planning an exhibition on political monuments. But Lenin's head must not be shown. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 15, 2014, p. 15.
- ↑ Stefan Strauss: Welcome, Lenin! Soon the digging will be done: The Senate will release the memorial for an exhibition in Spandau. In: Berliner Zeitung , 20./21. September 2014, p. 17.
- ↑ Lenin drove off. In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 10, 2015
- ↑ Revealed . Information from the Spandau Citadel, requested on April 19, 2020.
- ↑ Wells from many countries . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 5, 1994.
- ↑ The fountain on United Nations Square . Senate Department for Urban Development, accessed on March 1, 2010.
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '23 " N , 13 ° 25' 47" E