Machine house (Lustgarten)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The machine house with its tall chimney (left) was next to the old Berlin stock exchange (right) and was completed in 1832.
Engraving by Fincke after a drawing by Schwarz, 1833
The Lustgarten fountain reached a height of 13 meters
Anonymous steel engraving from 1840
This view shows the machine house on the western side of the Spree to the left of Friedrichsbrücke,
graphic by Payne, 1850
View of the Berlin Cathedral and the Lustgarten. The machine house with the pump for the Lustgarten fountain was north of the old stock exchange (far right).
Wood engraving by A. Eltzner, 1885, detail
The fountain water was drained through an underground channel, the outlet of which was at the Kupfergraben. In the background: the Berlin Cathedral, 1870
Photo: E. Römer

The machine house in Berlin's Lustgarten (also called the “pump house”) was located north of the old stock exchange from 1832 to 1893 and was part of the operating system for the 13-meter-high fountain in the Lustgarten.

The 13 meter high fountain

The construction of the Royal Museum in the Lustgarten (soon called the "Old Museum" after the construction of the New Museum) was completed in 1830. As part of the redesign of the site, the previous communication channel that connected the Kupfergraben with the Spree was also filled in. At the same time the landscape gardener Peter Joseph Lenné redesigned the pleasure garden together with Karl Friedrich Schinkel . A fountain was placed in the middle of the new facility, which was supposed to throw out a high fountain. From 1829 to 1830, an underground pipeline system was laid in the Lustgarten, through which the fountain could be supplied with the necessary water from the Spree. There were lawns around the fountain. From now on the pleasure garden was an open garden accessible to the people, but which could only be entered in appropriate clothing.

The machine house

The machine house was part of the operating system of the Lustgarten fountain.
Detail from Selter's Berlin plan, 1846

The machine house was completed in 1832. It was located north of the old stock exchange and was built exactly on the filled-in confluence of the communication channel into the Spree next to the Friedrichsbrücke (the former Great Pomeranzenbrücke). It contained a steam engine that drove a pump system that was needed to supply water to the fountain. Next to the "pump house" rose a chimney over 20 meters high , which was visible from afar. Schinkel had given it the shape of an obelisk so that it should not be too annoying in the vicinity of the museum. However, the steam engine initially proved to be problematic: It could not be put into operation until 1834 after various construction defects had been eliminated. Using the pump she operated, water from the Spree was pumped into a cistern on the roof of the museum. From there, the water flowed through the piping system at the appropriate pressure and then shot out of the fountain in a 13 meter high fountain. Then the water from the fountain was collected again and drained underground into the copper trench through a walled channel covered with granite slabs. The outlet opening is still clearly visible today on the canal wall at the Kupfergraben.

In 1893 the machine house and the chimney next to it were demolished in connection with the new construction of the Berlin Cathedral and the reorganization of the site.

Excavations

After the German reunification in 1990, various plans to redesign the pleasure garden were discussed. Finally, by September 24, 1999, a concept based on the historical models was implemented at a cost of seven million marks . During the construction work in the spring of 1998, the workers came across the old pipeline system from the early 19th century, which turned out to be still intact.

After the reconstruction of the fountain, the fountain bubbles again in front of the Altes Museum. 55 new trees decorate the facility. When the restored pleasure garden was handed over, the then governing mayor of Berlin , Eberhard Diepgen , praised the new pleasure garden as a “symbol for the gradual restoration of the old city center of Berlin”.

literature

  • Elke Blauert, Katharina Wippermann (ed.): New architecture. Berlin around 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89479-401-9 .
  • Richard Borrmann: The architectural and art monuments of Berlin. Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1893.
  • Rolf Bothe et al. : Cityscapes. Berlin in painting from the 17th century to the present. Willmuth Arenhövel, Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-87584-212-X .
  • Sybille Gramlich: Royal Spree Athens. Berlin in Biedermeier. In: Rolf Bothe, Dominik Bartmann : Cityscapes: Berlin in Painting from the 17th Century to the Present. Berlin 1987.
  • Markus Jager: The Berlin Lustgarten. Garden art and urban design in the center of Prussia. German art publisher, 2002.
  • Paul Ortwin Rave: Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Life's work. German art publisher, 1981.
  • Folkwin Wendland: The pleasure garden at the Berlin Palace. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History (Volume 20). 1969, pp. 94-139.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sybille Gramlich: Royal Spree Athens. Berlin in Biedermeier. In: Rolf Bothe, Dominik Bartmann: Cityscapes. Berlin in painting from the 17th century to the present. Berlin 1987, p. 143.
  2. ↑ Markus Jager: The Berlin pleasure garden. Garden art and urban design in the center of Prussia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2002, p. 158 f.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 12 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 0 ″  E