Luitpoldblock
The Luitpoldblock on Brienner Strasse is a commercial building in Munich that includes the eponymous Café Luitpold . The square was built in the classical style between 1810 and 1812 by Joseph von Utzschneider .
history
Beginnings in the 19th century
On the "floor plan of the electoral capital and residence city of Munich " from 1801, the property of today's Luitpold Block is still between the Schwabinger Tor and the Kapuzinergraben. The later Brienner Straße leading to Nymphenburg is already marked as an initially unpaved road. Joseph von Utzschneider , general administrator and second mayor, bought second-hand building plots on the site in front of the Maiden Tower.
Between 1810 and 1812, Utzschneider had the building, which was impressive for the time, built in the classical style. The dimensions of this building area corresponded to those of today's Luitpoldblock - it was only open on one side. The block was used as a brewery , apart from the residential wing facing today's Brienner Straße . Since there were already 56 breweries for around 40,000 residents in Munich at that time, it was a daring undertaking. In 1831 Ludwig Knorr (banker) became the owner of the Utzschneider brewery realities. Ludwig von Knorr stopped brewing in 1851.
After Ludwig (August) Knorr's death in 1852, his heirs sold their inheritance shares to various owners in the following years. For example, the residential wing of the Luitpoldblock went to the "Gastwirth und Salzstößler" Martin Daimer from Haidhausen . The new owner became the landlord of the Utzschneider'schen Garten restaurant, which was probably founded shortly before . It emerged as a "Tafernwirthschaft with bar, hospitality and accommodation rights" from the former bar and garden bar of the former brewery.
In 1863, none of the original Knorr heirs was owned by the Knorr houses. From then on, the owners of the Geviert changed quickly, until finally in 1885 the merchant Gottfried Kollermann took over the business premises for Heinrich T. Hoech. Between 1886 and 1888 he had the architect Otto Lasne build a large palace café , which became known worldwide as Café Luitpold .
The Luitpoldblock enjoyed a good reputation in Europe as a “fairy tale palace” and “fairy castle” . On January 1, 1888, Café Luitpold was opened to invited guests. The Munich art scene and free spirits such as the founders of Simplicissimus made the café their meeting place. And so the Café Luitpold also became a tourist attraction.
During and after the Second World War
Despite this success, Kollermann went bankrupt; again the owners changed several times. In 1923 the Bayerische Vereinsbank finally got involved as a financier. In 1929, a film palace with 1,200 seats was opened in the west wing. First under “Luitpold-Lichtspiele” and later “Luitpold-Theater”, the modern UFA cinema was installed instead of the Prinzensäle. In 1934, the bank finally became the owner of the square itself through a foreclosure auction with a maximum bid of 2.5 million Reichsmarks . In the time of National Socialism , the “Luitpold” remained the meeting place for Munich celebrities, including NSDAP officials who had their party headquarters nearby. During the war, twelve of the approximately 120 employees in the "Luitpold factories" were foreign forced laborers . They came from France, Poland and the Ukraine and lived in the staff apartments on the fourth floor of the Luitpold block. In 1944 the Luitpold Block was largely destroyed by the Allied air raids. A modest reopening of the coffee factory and the rebuilding of the west wing in 1948 could not build on the old times. In March 1960 the evening newspaper announced the auction of the inventory of Café Luitpold. In addition to silver and porcelain, the parquet floor and the floor tiles are going under the hammer.
New beginning in the 1960s
On April 1, 1960, the Munich entrepreneurial family Zechbauer acquired the building and bequeathed it to Marika, née Zechbauer, and Paul Buchner, who led the Luitpoldblock out of its shadowy existence. It was rebuilt, modernized and a center for hospitality and encounters was created. The redesigned Café Luitpold opened on September 7, 1962 with a large media presence. Architect Reinhard Riemerschmid integrated contemporary modernity into the room design and thus created concepts for a new restaurant and shopping culture. The generous expansion of the building sides of Armiraplatz and Salvatorplatz was completed in 1975. One year later, the Luitpold-Passage was built, which connects Salvatorplatz with Maximiliansplatz .
At the end of the 1980s, the Luitpold Block was spatially changed again and the palm garden with a twelve meter high glass dome was added. In 1993 Tina Schmitz, daughter of Marika and Paul Buchner, joined the management of the Luitpoldblock and provided new impulses for the development of the house. She died in late June 2017.
After a thorough renovation by the owners, Café Luitpold will be opened in September 2010 with its new tenant Dr. Stephan Meier reopened.
Tina Schmitz was the initiator of the “Brienner Quartier” association, which has been pursuing location marketing and positive image cultivation for the area around the eastern part of Brienner Strasse since 2007 .
Under the motto “Luitpoldblock goes green”, the technical systems in the building are constantly checked for their ecological efficiency. The air conditioning systems are cooled by the water from the underground city stream. The management tries to implement the subject areas and criteria of the association “ German Sustainable Building Council ” in the historic building.
Web links
- Homepage http://www.luitpoldblock.de/de/
- The Café Luitpold http://www.cafe-luitpold.de/
- Luitpoldblock on www.muenchen.de
- Homepage of the Brienner Quartier association
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Obituary: Great loss for Munich. In: www.sueddeutsche.de. July 3, 2017, accessed August 14, 2018 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 34 " N , 11 ° 34 ′ 29.2" E