Müggelturm
| Müggelturm | |
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The current tower with the decaying restaurant; State 2007 |
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| Basic data | |
| Place: | Berlin-Koepenick |
| Opening: | 1961 |
| Status : | monument |
| Architects : | Student collective at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Observation tower |
| Apartments : | 1 |
| Client : | East Berlin magistrate |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 29.61 m |
| Floors : | 9 |
| Elevators : | none |
| Building material : | Concrete, steel |
| Construction: | Skeleton construction |
| address | |
| Address: | Road to the Müggelturm |
| Post Code: | 12559 |
| City: | Berlin |
The Müggelturm is a well-known excursion destination in the southeast of Berlin in the Köpenick district . It stands south of the Müggelsee in the Müggelberge on the Kleiner Müggelberg at a height of 88.3 m above sea level. NHN . When people talk about the Müggelturm , they usually refer to the tower built there in 1961. But there was another wooden tower that burned down in 1958.
reachability
The Müggelturm area can be reached from the Marienlust excursion restaurant in the south on the Dahme via a path with subsequent stairs and from the Teufelssee in the northeast via a second flight of stairs. From Müggelheimer Damm the road leads up to the Müggelturm at the base of the tower, which is only permitted for individual car traffic up to a parking lot a few hundred meters in front of the plateau. It is possible to use public transport ( BVG bus 169 ), but requires a more than one kilometer walk through the forest between the bus stop and the tower.
The old Müggelturm
Carl Spindler , the owner of the Köpenick laundry and dye works W. Spindler , after which Spindlersfeld takes its name, had a ten meter high wooden observation tower built on the small Müggelberg around 1880, which was called the Spindler Tower . Because of the small size, visitors could not look into the distance and only a few interested parties came. In 1889, Spindler had the tower extended in the Chinese pagoda style by the German architect Max Jacob for 40,000 marks . The tower with a height of 27 meters was opened on April 6, 1890 (Easter Sunday). The square floor plan with a conical shape had dimensions of 5 meters x 5 meters on the floor, was 4.20 meters wide above the restaurant and 2.80 meters on the viewing platform. Like the Spindler Tower, it was also made of wood and covered with shingles . The first innkeeper was Carl Streichhahn. The enlarged tower with its restaurant quickly developed into a popular destination. From the viewing platform, the visitors had a panoramic view up to 50 kilometers away over the forest and lake landscape of the region up to the city silhouette of Berlin. In the opening year of 1890 already around 52,000 visitors were counted.
Even without the tower, Theodor Fontane had the following picture from the height of the Müggelberge around 1880:
“For square miles only water and forest. Nothing that was reminiscent of the hand of culture. Not a path, not a footbridge and no other road visible than the confusing river network that runs through the seemingly endless forest areas. No smoke from the huts rises, no flock grazes along the banks, and only a fish gull hovers slowly over the Müggelsee. "
In 1924, the builder Walter Wichelhaus acquired the tower and made structural changes on the Kleiner Müggelberg in the following years. He had a number of buildings constructed that included a new restaurant, kitchen and apartment for his family. During the excavation work for the new outbuildings, the workers came across prehistoric finds, which were presented to the public in 1926 on a new terrace complex with an adjoining hall entitled History of the Müggelland and the Müggelberge . The collection, organized in cooperation with the Märkisches Museum , showed the visitors something in general about the culture of the people of the Stone , Bronze and Iron Ages as well as about the Sprewanen , a Wendish tribe that lived in the Dahme - Spree area. A well-known exhibit of the exhibition was a molar tooth of a mammoth . Another part of the exhibition proved that there used to be a large hall on the Kleiner Müggelberg, which probably served as a place of worship for the Sprewanen .
In 1928 Wichelhaus had the two stairs to the Kleiner Müggelberg built up. The northeast staircase from Teufelssee has 111 steps, the southern 374 steps. Both stairs were renewed in 1953.
In 1942, the museum's exhibits were relocated to the Butterfly Horst restaurant due to the war . There they could be seen together with the world-famous butterfly collection of the restaurant owner Bittner. Both collections were lost in a bomb attack in the following war years .
In 1945, when the Soviet Army approached Berlin, the National Socialists declared the tower a military object and used it as a radio tower for the purpose of transmitting information and as an observation post for the artillery . Like the neighboring Bismarckwarte on the great Müggelberg, the Müggelturm was to be blown up by German troops in April 1945 before the approaching Soviet army arrived. The tower innkeeper Walter Wichelhaus prevented the demolition by cutting the lead wires of the explosive charge.
After the war a restaurant was set up again for visitors and in 1953 the HO Köpenick took over the operation of the Müggelturm area. In January 1957, the wooden Müggelturm was closed because it was dilapidated and in February 1957 the Berlin magistrate decided to give the tower new stability through a new foundation and the installation of a steel framework . As part of the work, the restaurant was also to be expanded. On the afternoon of May 19, 1958, the tower burned down completely in a fire that was probably caused by welding work during the renovation. A completely new tower had to be planned at this point.
New tower built in 1960/1961
In the same year the Berliner Zeitung initiated an architecture competition for a new building, in which 32 designs were received. The designs were exhibited in August 1958 in the Köpenick town hall and a month later in the Berliner Zeitung pavilion at Friedrichstrasse station for the people of Berlin. The visitors' opinions on the designs, which they could write down in a book, confirmed the selection made by the competition committee. The design of a student collective from the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art under the direction of Jörg Streitparth , Siegfried Wagner and Klaus Weißhaupt emerged as the winner of the competition and was built in a revised version. Originally the tower was supposed to have an oval floor plan, but this had to be changed to the current rectangular shape for economic and structural reasons.
The foundation stone was laid on October 6, 1959, and the topping-out ceremony on August 20, 1960 . The opening took place on December 31, 1961 on New Year's Eve. The implementation of the new Müggelturm was considerably supported by the commitment and willingness of the population to donate. As part of the national construction work , the population donated 130,000 marks and volunteered 3,700 hours.
The 29.61 meter high, reinforced concrete skeleton tower has nine storeys with panoramic windows and a platform that can be reached via a staircase with 126 steps. The gastronomy area included a restaurant, a wine bar and sun terraces. The Müggelturm restaurant was managed by the HO. The new tower also quickly became a magnet for Berliners and their guests. An average of 240,000 visitors came every year. Especially on holidays such as Whitsun there was a dense crowd in the tower and in the catering area.
The architectural design of the tower with its ancillary buildings is based on the formal language of modernity and thus deliberately negates the eclectic attitude of its predecessor building. The Müggelturm with its adjoining buildings is a very early example of modern architecture in the post-war architecture in the GDR, which until then had been strongly influenced by the style of socialist classicism .
In a flower window of the guest room, the historically for the Prussian and Berlin was Geodesy important Trigonometric point 1st order Müggelberg marked on a stone. It was the fundamental point of the Soldner coordinate system 18 of the Prussian real estate cadastre, since 1879 the basis of the large-scale Berlin national maps. The point is defined in its origin with a fictitious legal value of 40,000.00 meters and a high value of 10,000.00 meters so that no negative coordinate values occur in the area of use. The stone is also reminiscent of Johann Jacob Baeyer (1794–1885), who was born in Müggelheim . Baeyer is considered to be the founder of the uniform European grade measurement . In addition to surveying the city of Berlin, he also used the ridge of the Müggelberge to measure the heights of the surrounding area: among other things, he determined the height of the Köpenick St. Laurentius town church and the Gosen mountains . Since the stone and its special location is protected as an official survey point , it may not be moved during renovation work without the consent of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment.
A lack of maintenance led to an urgent need for renovation in the 1990s . In 1996 the tower was fundamentally repaired with EU funding ( Community expenditure program ) for one million marks , but the catering area was in urgent need of renovation due to the ingress of moisture . However, the condition of the tower has worsened again since the renovation, so smaller puddles are formed on the steps to the viewing platform due to the penetration of building moisture . The coin-operated telescopes that were once installed are also no longer available on the observation deck.
The tower is open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. in winter and between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in summer. But it has one major shortcoming: it is not barrier-free .
Development since 1990 and usage concepts
First attempt at privatization failed
In 1991 the Treuhandanstalt sold the site to bcb GmbH , which developed various ideas for use. Despite the sale, ownership remained unclear. As a result, a concept presented in 1994 by the Müggelturm-Tourismus & Service GmbH , which was specially founded, was not well received by investors. Nothing was tackled.
The state of Berlin acquired the entire property in 1995. The management of the buildings and the site was in the hands of the Köpenick district until 2001 , since then the state-owned property fund Berlin has taken care of the property. Since May 1995 the building complex consisting of the Müggelturm and the catering area has been a listed building . The Berlin State Monuments Office wrote: “The Müggel Tower is a popular and widely visible landmark in the Müggelberge. It is a well-known accent in an unmistakable Berlin landscape. "
Second privatization attempt to convert it into a hotel
A draft for the construction of a hotel presented in 1996 by the long-time Müggelturm tenant Wolfgang Gerber and the Köpenick architect Ulrich Peickert was not accepted because it contradicted the zoning plan . Although the zoning plan was subsequently changed in 2000, no agreement was reached with the investors. The Berlin Senate rejected the proposal submitted in 2002 by a financial clerk in Berlin to build a castle complex with a hotel with the tower in the center for 25 million euros , as it was too "massive".
A first tender by the Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin ran from March to June 2003, but did not bring any viable offers from investors. In the run-up to the 2003 tender, 25 prospective architects from the BTU Cottbus took part in their diploma theses with designs that investors could use as inspiration. As a consequence of the unsuccessful tender, the conditions were modified and thus made more investor-friendly, since "the planning requirements expected by the State of Berlin and the requirements for the economic framework would make marketing considerably more difficult". Among other things, this would make it possible to tear down the catering area and have it rebuilt. A second call for tenders started in March 2004, which was supposed to run until August 2004, but was extended to the end of 2004 due to a lack of participation.
From this second tender, PM Gewerbe- und Verwaltungs GmbH was awarded the contract for its offer for the Müggelturm site by the tax committee of the Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin in January 2005 . The plans envisaged a hotel with 100 beds, a restaurant, a beer garden, three bowling alleys and a summer theater stage on the 6143 square meter area. Plans for the tower were not published in detail. The construction costs were estimated at ten to eleven million euros. Before that, however, the entire water, electricity and gas supply should have been checked and renewed - the funds for this would have been provided by the EU. The Müggelturm tenant Wolfgang Gerber and the Köpenick architect Ulrich Peickert were also involved in the plans.
On December 29, 2005, the head of the Berliner Liegenschaftsfonds, Holger Lippmann, announced that PM Gewerbe- und Verwaltungs GmbH was no longer interested in the property and would not exercise the purchase option that existed until December 31, 2005.
Third attempt at privatization failed again
In December 2007, the Krefeld investor and disco operator Marc Förste acquired the property for 25,000 euros . The purchase contract was subject to the condition that Förste submit a building application within three years , otherwise the property would revert to the State of Berlin. However, the documents submitted by Marc Förste at the end of 2010 proved to be incomplete and could not be approved. In addition, renovation work to preserve the building complex should have started. On June 23, 2011, the district assembly of Treptow-Köpenick unanimously recommended that the district rescind the previous purchase agreement and reassign the Müggelturm area. At a meeting between the investor and the property fund, however, the latter submitted a new building application and confirmed that they wanted to stick to the building project. As a result, the Liegenschaftsfonds initially decided not to reverse the purchase of the property. A building application that could be processed was nevertheless not made. Therefore, at the end of October 2011, the Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin formally announced its withdrawal from the purchase agreement with Marc Förste.
In addition, at the 50th anniversary of the tower on September 25, 2011, the press announced that a new investor was showing interest in the site. On January 28, 2012 it was finally published that the Köpenick real estate and project developer Matthias Große had signed a purchase contract with the property fund - subject to the reversal of the contract concluded with Marc Förste. The Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin filed a lawsuit for this purpose. Marc Förste, on the other hand, said that the reason for the delays was the city's strict requirements and the right of various interest groups to have a say.
Revitalization as a vantage point and venue
At the beginning of February 2014, the Förste file was closed. As the property fund announced, Förste had registered by him after losing a process mortgage can be deleted, thus the state of Berlin was the owner again. This paved the way for the preliminary contract signed in 2012 with Matthias Große, life partner of speed skater Claudia Pechstein . He has been the confirmed owner of the property since May 2014.
The new investor, who had already successfully carried out some construction activities in Berlin, presented his plans at a party on May 1, 2014 with free access to the site. He formulated the main objective as follows: “It is high time something happened before everything collapses. [...] We are talking with companies that floors help in the rehabilitation of eight <the tower> and it may advertise there, "With millions of euros are next to the tower renovation, a German-Italian restaurant, a lunch with. Currywurst - and Broiler sale , a sun terrace with pool and rooms for larger celebrations will be created. Große also plans regular cultural events on the Müggelturm area. Dates will be announced at short notice.
At the end of July 2014, a benefit concert by the Bell, Book & Candle group took place on the Müggelturm site , the proceeds of which were used in full for the renovation of the Köpenick landmark. The investor submitted the building application to the district office in 2015, but the approval took a little longer because Grosse still wanted to acquire the public area on the hilltop, which is to be redesigned to provide barrier-free access. In addition, the test report on fire protection was missing at this time. With the approval, everything should be ready within a year.
All permits were available at the end of 2015 and the renewal could begin. The hut at the foot of the tower opened in the spring of 2017 . Here visitors can get a little snack, coffee and cake or ice cream again. In the following months, the construction of a larger restaurant began, in whose rooms concerts are also planned. Grosse is also planning an open-air cinema on the terrace .
Restricted use of the tower is to be changed
The beautiful view from the tower can still not be enjoyed by all interested parties, because the upper platform can only be reached via the 126 steps (at almost 30 meters above the ground) inside the tower. In his last building application, Große had already planned to be able to install an externally ajar elevator on the tower body. The monument office had refused. In the spring of 2019, the surprising idea was added to erect a structurally identical and externally identical tower right next to the existing tower. This should be equipped with an elevator inside, at the level of the observation deck, both tower bodies are to be connected by means of a transition. This offers free access for everyone and would almost double the number of visitors to the tower. After the architect Siegfried Wagner found out about these plans from the media, he rejected the proposal with the words "For me this is real kitsch". (The other two involved in the planning at the time, Weißhaupt and Streitparth, have since died.)
However, Wagner subsequently met with representatives of the monument office and the investor and took part in a public discussion on the subject of tower reconstruction. Despite his initial emotional rejection, he was convinced that barrier-free access to the tower platform is a major step forward for the building and the entire area. So at the beginning of March 2019 a universally accepted proposal was made: A second tower with a built-in elevator should now be built next to the existing tower and both should be connected - and this should now have an oval shape according to the original building drafts. Thomas Wagner, the architect's son, provided a sketch.
When the visibility is good, the panorama of the city of Berlin can be clearly seen in the northwest, the Tropical Islands hall to the southwest , and the approach path of Schönefeld Airport, around eight kilometers away , to the west .
literature
- Berliner Verlag: Wooden Pagoda: the tower from 1889.
- Theodor Fontane : Walks through the Mark Brandenburg . Part 4. Spreeland. The Müggelsberge. projekt-gutenberg.org Quoted from the 1998 edition, Frankfurt / Main, Berlin.
- Annemarie Lange: Berlin - capital of the GDR , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1969, p. 184 f
- The rescue of the old Müggelturm (after: Heinz Hentschke ). In: The Müggelheim book: Landscape, history, people. Berlin 1997, pp. 141-142.
- Olga Kapustina: Müggelturm: When the Köpenick are in mourning. In: taz , June 2, 2010
Web links
- The Müggelturm . koepenick.net
- Operator's website. müggelturm.berlin
- Müggelturm. In: Structurae
Individual evidence
- ↑ Horst Wagner: May 19, 1958: Müggelturm destroyed by fire . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 3, 2001, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 139–140 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ↑ a b Norbert Koch-Klaucke: "For me this is really kitsch." In: Berliner Zeitung , January 30, 2019, p. 11.
- ↑ Restaurants> Müggelturm HO . In: Telephone book for the capital of the GDR , 1989. "1170 (Berlin), In den Müggelbergen ".
- ↑ Building history after 1900 koepenick.net, accessed on May 27, 2012.
- ↑ The area at the Müggelturm continues to decline . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 27, 2010.
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- ↑ New attempt at renovation: Association wants to save Müggelturm . In: welt.de , accessed on May 27, 2012.
- ↑ New negotiations about the Müggelturm . In: welt.de , accessed on May 27, 2012.
- ↑ Müggelturm owner threatens to take legal action . In: tagesspiegel.de , accessed on May 27, 2012.
- ^ Petra Zoepf: Building application for the Müggelturm area. Essential documents are missing - start of construction uncertain . In: Müggelheimer Bote . No. 2/2011 . Berlin 2011 ( online [accessed February 20, 2012]).
- ↑ BVV Treptow-Köpenick: Printed matter - VI / 1855: Enable a future for the Müggelturm . berlin.de ( memento of October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on February 20, 2012.
- ↑ Barbara Staacke: New prospects for Müggelturm - investor again submitted building application / purchase contract should not be reversed . Ed .: New Germany . July 8, 2011 ( online [accessed February 20, 2012]).
- ↑ Wolfgang Weiß: Wende am Müggelturm - Liegenschaftsfonds decides: new tender or direct award. Neues Deutschland , October 26, 2011, accessed on February 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Sandra Dassler: Celebration at the Müggelturm: A new investor has been found. Der Tagesspiegel , September 25, 2011, accessed on February 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Ronald Gorny: Sensational turning point. Pechstein friend wants to save Müggelturm. Berliner Kurier , January 28, 2012, accessed in 2012 .
- ↑ Müggelturm: restart now possible . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 8, 2014, p. 19.
- ↑ Karin Schmidl: Up on May 1st! In: Berliner Zeitung , April 30/1. May 2014.
- ^ Benefit at the Müggelturm . In: Berliner Zeitung , 26./27. July 2014, p. 24.
- ↑ Norbert Koch-Klaucke: Revival. The never-ending story of the Müggelturm renovation . in: Berliner Kurier , January 24, 2016; accessed on February 26, 2017.
- ↑ Sabine Flatau: The Müggelturm attracts thousands of visitors again . In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 1, 2017.
- ↑ Norbert Koch-Klaucke: Twins above the Müggelsee - tower owner and architect find a compromise for a new building . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 11, 2019.
Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 2 ″ N , 13 ° 37 ′ 30 ″ E