Luisenbad (Berlin)
The Luisenbad ( , until about 1809: Friedrichs-Gesundbrunnen , from 1875 Marienbad ) was a bath in today's Berlin district of Gesundbrunnen . Founded at a source on the river Panke in the early 18th century, it was a popular destination for Berliners in the mid-18th century, around which a large park with inns, a church and overnight accommodation was built. After just a few decades, the bathroom fell into a crisis. The Luisenbad experienced numerous changes of ownership and renovations around the bath in the following centuries. The final death knell for the bathing business was the industrialization of Wedding and the resulting space requirements as well as the pollution of the Panke resulting from the discharge of sewage . While the Luisenquelle was initially relocated to the basement of a house owned by the Galuschki brothers, where they bottled and sold medicinal water, the bathing house fell victim to road construction. Directly on the Panke, on the neighboring property, the Marienbad was built during this time , a medicinal and swimming pool with a theater, later a cinema, restaurants and other entertainment options. While the bathing business became less and less important, the area around the former Luisenbad developed into a nightlife and entertainment district by the middle of the 20th century. At the end of the 19th century there were 40 restaurants, bowling alleys, variety shows, garden bars and the first movie theaters . At the former location of the Marienbad there is now the library at the Luisenbad . The source and the buildings created around it are, along with the Vorwerk Wedding, one of the two nucleus of the later Berlin district of Wedding . The district of Gesundbrunnen derives its name from the healing spring.
history
prehistory
In 1709 a fulling mill was built on an island of the dammed Panke . The area was probably a destination even then. The miller planned the first mill together with a beer serving. The miller used a nearby spring, the size of an arm, on the east bank to supply drinking water and for this purpose laid a footbridge over the Panke, roughly where Badstrasse is today.
The source rises around where the backyard of the houses in Badstrasse 35–39 is today. Their exact location can no longer be reconstructed. Over time, word got around in the neighborhood and among day trippers that it was medicinal water. In 1751, the chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf went to the spring "which the mob had long been crying out for a healthy fountain" and examined its water. Marggraf confirmed the healing properties.
According to legend, probably brought into the world by Behm and later spread mainly through Otto Suchsdorf's book Geschichte des Gesundbrunnens , King Friedrich I got a sip of water from the miller's wife on a hunting trip in 1701 and discovered the healing power of the spring . The legend did not stand up to a test carried out in the 1980s, as the mill was only built eight years after the alleged discovery of the spring, and the royal hunting ground at what would later become Gesundbrunnen was not built until 1712.
The mill itself worked as a paper mill from 1714 . In 1844 it was replaced by a newly built flour mill . The mill building later became the property of the factory owner Carl Arnheim, who had it converted into a restaurant with a bowling alley. It survived the ages and has been preserved at its old location - albeit without the mill wheel.
The Behmsche Gesundbrunnen
Around 1757/1759, the doctor and later court pharmacist Heinrich Wilhelm Behm became aware of the spring and convinced the Prussian King Friedrich II to leave the spring to him "on the field of Wedding, without paper mill near the mineral spring located there" and the Vorwerk Wedding if he builds buildings for the use of the same at the source. To thank the patron and for advertising purposes, Behm named the source the Friedrichs-Gesundbrunnen . Behm had extensive plans for the Gesundbrunnen, which he was only able to implement in part. Frederick II by no means approved all of Behm's plans.
Behm and his first partner Dr. Schaarschmidt built a first building ensemble with a well house, bath house , guest house for 40 spa guests, treatment houses and an inn around 1760. The buildings were arranged around a central square with the fountain in the middle. The Traiterushaus , the inn, was the miller's former home. The guest house was only one of the three originally planned houses, the floor plan and colonnade of the house were reminiscent of the original splendid plans, but the house itself was designed much more simply. Outbuildings such as stables and dairy were still half-timbered.
The lifeguard lived in a building belonging to the mill. In addition to the various water applications, there was wine and beer, tea, coffee, chocolate and various dishes. The area's landscape was first deliberately designed. The design of the facilities, which was based on English parks , attracted day trippers with the shade of the trees directly on the river. In its original extent, the Gesundbrunnen encompassed the area that is now bordered by Osloer Strasse, Prinzen / Pankstrasse, Thurneysser Strasse and Panke.
Behm praised the water of the Gesundbrunnen as a remedy for " cold fever , clogged intestines, hyppochondria , weightiness of the mother, bleaching , congestion of the blood, gout and tearing of the limbs, clogged golden eagles, clogged cleansing of women, cramps , flatulence , rivers, Tooth , head and ear pains , also heavy hearing and deafness , melancholy , dehydration, emaciation, worms, narrow-chestedness , the flow of seeds and white flow of women-persons; as well as various types of Venereal diseases , inflammation , stains and skins of the eyes, the incipient gray and black star , old sores and eating salty rivers, ulcers , contractures and stiffness of the limbs, stone pain, paralysis , either from internal causes or from external wounds and injured limbs ”.
Bathers, however, often complained of rashes. Behm recommended continuing the treatment until the rash dried up again. Behm warned the spa guests emphatically against "colds, excessive heat and tormenting passions".
The fountain itself was accessible all year round; the spa was open from May to October. The spa operation was possible either as a drinking cure or as a spa treatment. For the drinking cure, Behm recommended starting slowly with a glass of water with Epsom salt , then on the second day two glasses without salt, until at the end of three weeks he increased to eight glasses a day and should experience noticeable relief from various diseases. For a spa treatment, the water was warmed up in kettles, one bathed in tubs in one's own room covered with blankets; if the warm steam became too much for you, you could stick your head out of the covers. Around 1000 of the warm baths were administered in the first year. Next to the well house was a cold plunge pool with spring water.
The spring water has been sold in pharmacies in Berlin since 1761. Behm also sold the "Oker mud" that had deposited in the spring. This should have helped against cataracts , stiff neck and bladder weakness .
By 1780, the year Behm died, he planted 12,000 trees and had the unsafe and difficult-to-use sandy paths paved with oats . The heirs divided up Behm's estate: the Vorwerk Wedding was separated from the Gesundbrunnen and the associated dairy . Well and dairy fell to Behm's widow, his daughters and son-in-law Derling, who transferred the business to a tenant.
Luisenbad
The Gesundbrunnen remained in the possession of Behm's descendants until 1794, who sold it. In a few years, the source and the land changed hands several times: Professor Christian Heinrich Pein was the owner from 1795, but he soon sold the fountain to Fürstenberg. Fürstenberg complained about the poor condition of the facilities and in 1799 sold the fountain to Christian Sigismund Trenk, who sold the facility back to Fürstenberg in 1801. Fürstenberg only kept the fountain for a few years before it went to the merchant Warnatz and then to the merchant Belitz.
The success of the bath had long since flattened out and the area fell into disrepair until the pharmacist and bookseller Christian Gottfried Flittner acquired the spring and the area, probably in 1809. He obtained the approval of Queen Luise, who was popular at the time , to convert the mineral spring into 'Luisenbad'. rename it. Flittner had a temple-like well house built around the spring. The inscription In fonte salus ('In the spring is salvation') was written on the well house . The bath also included a bust of the queen, to the unveiling of which the author Friedrich Wilhelm Gubitz wrote:
"The voices breathe from paradise: Luise
The spring of the meadow whispers: Luise."
The renaissance of the Luisenbad lasted only a few years.
Industrialization and tanneries
The final decline of the place as a bath began through the further industrialization of Wedding and especially the associated pollution of the Panke. In 1852 the long lease canon expired, which allowed the colonists on the Panke above the Luisenbad to sell their properties. There tanneries settled , which needed the fresh water of the Panke for their work, but even returned a stinking broth into the river. The bathroom where this broth arrived was badly affected. Further up the upper course, various tanneries had settled on the river, among other things, which led their waste water directly into the Panke, where it then flowed past the source and the spa.
The expansion of Badstrasse to a road and the associated elevation of the street finally divided the former park area. The six foot (almost two meters) elevated road cut through the park so that the southern part with St. Paul's Church was separated from the actual fountain.
Drying up of the source
The construction work in the Gesundbrunnen finally also caused the spring to dry up. Sewer work in 1862 ensured that the previously arm-thick jet only trickled down as a trickle, while the rest of the spring water sank into the Berlin underground as a result of the work.
The spring was damaged again during construction work for the area in 1869 and then completely buried during further development of the area in the late 19th century. The well house was relocated to make room for newly built apartment buildings and was completely demolished in 1906 when Travemünder Straße was built. The former well to the dried up source was still in the basement of the Luisenhaus until the middle of the 20th century , but was concreted over in 1964.
Decline and division of land
Already after 1820 Quelle and the property belonging to it changed hands several times until they passed to Carl Gropius in 1845 . This converted the bathhouse into a garden bar. Gropius himself was so unconvinced of the attraction of the spring that he soon sold the actual spring property to the general practitioner Carl Meyer and only kept the property south of Badstrasse next to St. Paul's Church. Meyer tried to stop the well's decline by giving away the water for free. According to Meyer, the customers were "the people who often moved out into the open by the thousands with their wives and children". Meyer was the last one who tried to run the Luisenbad as a spa with health-promoting effects. Meyer's health spa was followed for a short time by an insane asylum on the fountain area, which was the cause of numerous complaints to the authorities because of its negligent management and continued deterioration.
All other owners after Meyer concentrated on the amusement and excursion effect at the already known place. Meyer himself went mad, sold through his guardian, the fountain property was sold to Brendel & Comp., Then to the bank CFO Brendel and Louis Schüler. Students now owned several properties directly on the former park area on Badstrasse.
Industrialization also began in Wedding in the 19th century . In the later Gesundbrunnen numerous factories settled and the need for living space grew. Roads were laid out and land parceled out. This also affected the area of the Luisenbad and its formerly wide park. In 1856 the master baker Trott had a house built with a bakery and stable building on the corner of Badstrasse and Prinzenstrasse.
Marienbad
Around 1880 the former bath house fell victim to the widening of Badstrasse. Between 1874 and 1877, the merchant Ernst Gustav Otto Oscholinski built a Russian bathing establishment with a swimming pool and a house on the neighboring parcel, the only larger free plot of land left after the development (today: Badstrasse 35/36). In reference to the popular and fashionable Czech spa town at the time , he named the spa Marienbad. Oscholinski tried a big hit with a front garden of a five-story residential building, a bowling alley , a theater and a bathroom that included both outdoor bathing in the Panke and a Russian steam bath. For the first time, bathing should take place all year round. However, Oscholinski took over financially with his plans and had to sell after a short time. The Marienbad experienced a similarly unsteady development as the Luisenbad and changed hands ten times between 1877 and 1885 alone.
In Marienbad, however, healing and rest played less of a role, rather the ensemble was designed as a place for excursions, so that a cinema and other entertainment venues were added a little later. At that time, visitors were already coming directly from Berlin by horse-drawn tram . The first long-term owners were the building contractors and brothers Carl and Emil Galuschki in 1885 , who began to restore the area to its current state. They built the characteristic houses on the Badstrasse 33–39 property. The Marienbad itself was in the double tenement house at Badstrasse 35/36. They modernized the only a few years old bath and built a water tower with a steam engine to circulate the water. New halls and an orchestral stage were built in the previous garden.
The restaurant in the Venetian vestibule style with ballroom and beer garden, which was built in 1887/1888 and advertised with the slogan: " Here families can make coffee " , was particularly well known . The center of the Gesundbrunnen near the Panke remained a nightlife and entertainment district until the 1960s.
Between 1902 and 1907 the area changed again. The bank promenade of the Panke was designed as a public street for the first time - today's Travemünder Straße. This happened against Galushki's will. He could not prevent the construction, but won compensation of 633,314 marks for himself (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 3.86 million euros). Probably by the construction of public town spa Wedding in Gerichtsstraße 1908, the final decline of the healthy well and his successors began. When the relocated well house got in the way of the road construction again, Galuschki had no more financial means to have it implemented again. This time it was torn down entirely. With the construction of the street, part of the apartment buildings had to be demolished, as well as the historic well house.
Relics
The spring has been lost and only a few of the former Marienbad remains to be found. Nevertheless, the long spa and bathing operation has left its mark. Today's district Gesundbrunnen got its name from the former Gesundbrunnen there. The remaining buildings of the Marienbad were converted into the library at the Luisenbad in the course of an extensive renovation in the 1990s . At least one relief of the former temple-like bathhouse together with the inscription In fonte salus can be found on the facade of the splendidly designed rental buildings on Badstrasse.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl-Peter Steinmann: Sunday walks 2 . Transit-Buchverlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88747-286-3 , p. 25-26 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harald Reissig: Luisenbad Badstrasse 38/39 . In: Helmut Engel , Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Wilhelm Treue (eds.): Geschistorlandschaft Berlin. Places and events. tape 3 : Wedding . Nicolai, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-87584-296-0 , pp. 265-283 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Joachim Faust: Badstraßenkiez: Where a spring once gushed. In: Weddingweiser. October 2, 2014, accessed September 3, 2016 .
- ↑ Andrei Schnell: Is the Gesundbrunnen more than a footnote in history? In: Weddingweiser. June 30, 2016, accessed September 3, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c The spring of the meadow whispers: Luise . In: Panke Spiegel . No. 2 , March 19, 2011 ( panke-spiegel.de [accessed on September 3, 2016]).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Christine von Oertzen: Boulevard Badstrasse. Big city history in the north of Berlin . Ed .: District Office Wedding of Berlin. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89468-081-4 , pp. 10-43 .
- ↑ a b Christine von Oertzen: Boulevard Badstrasse. Big city history in the north of Berlin . Ed .: District Office Wedding of Berlin. Edition Hentrich ,, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89468-081-4 , p. 63-65 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 33 ′ 12.6 " N , 13 ° 22 ′ 44.1" E