Meyer's court
Straube overview plan of Berlin 1910
The Meyerischer Hof (colloquially: Meyers Hof ) at Ackerstrasse 132 in the former Berlin district of Wedding (today: Gesundbrunnen district in the Mitte district ) was an extreme example of dense residential and manufacturing space development, the so-called " tenement barracks ". This type of commercial building, in which living, working and transport facilities were not yet spatially separated, often existed in Berlin. The commercial area was also a work space, the arrival point of the post office and carts, the storage room for raw materials, and the place of production and residence. You could (or had to) live and work in the same house.
The spelling of the name above the entrance to the courtyard (which can also be found in the literature below ) was Meyer's-Hof .
description
In Meyers Hof, a front building with five rear buildings were lined up one behind the other on a plot . The word Hof already indicates commercial activities. The name Meyer refers to the owner of these buildings. In the 1870s, Jaques Meyer owned a textile factory at Köpenicker Straße 18-20, on whose grounds the villa was also located, in which he lived until Meyer's farm was built. On December 30, 1871, a mortgage to be repaid by January 1, 1877 was registered on the property of his factory . This money was probably needed for the construction of Meyer's farm. From 1878 his 27-year-old son Otto Meyer took over the administration. A newspaper article reports on problems in the early years:
“Even before construction was completed, the building was stormed by tenants looking for accommodation and taken over. A poor tenant population settled in, and when the current owner took over the property in 1878, it was completely neglected in the short time. He gave me some drastic descriptions of the tenants that the owner, Otto Meyer, now met. Very few people paid rent , and those who limited themselves to not paying were actually the better elements. Some went much further. One of the tenants, a potter by trade , had demolished the tiled stoves in his apartment and sold it. Another traded in Christmas trees, he had broken the floor of his room and sawed the boards into tree supports and documents [...] "
Initially, Meyers Hof was planned as a commercial and residential space, but as part of the founders' crash of 1873, the commercial space was considerably restricted in favor of apartments. After the collapse of many share-based companies , renting residential space seemed more lucrative and safer than renting commercial space .
Development
As in most apartment buildings, there were many more one- and two-bedroom apartments than larger apartments. Meyers Hof had a total of 257 apartments, 229 of which were equipped with a kitchen, living room and chamber. The apartments lined up on the left and right along a communal hallway. If you wanted to go from the living room to the kitchen, you had to cross this windowless dark corridor. Every second yard was occupied by toilet houses. The others, the second, fourth and sixth, were not built on. There were small stalls there, women selling vegetables and children running around. Many workplaces and workshops were built in Meyers Hof without police permission. The workplaces had to be branched off from the apartments and were mostly very small. There was no clear separation between work and living. A wide variety of new small businesses were quickly set up in the old workshops that had to be closed . There was a lot of fluctuation .
Industry
In 1903 Meyer installed a steam engine in the sixth transverse building , so that he furnished this transverse building from top to bottom with small businesses. Mainly printers , plumbers , punchers, comb makers , turners , shoemakers and tailors rented the small commercial spaces. Only two, sometimes just one, worked in these small workshops. The corridors that led to the apartments and small businesses were windowless and very dark during the day. When it rained heavily, the basements, where the larger workshops and other apartments were located, were under water.
Before the rear houses were converted into business premises, around 2,100 people lived in the Meyerhof, after which only 900 people lived in this tenement . When a freight elevator was installed in the fifth transverse building in 1910, this transverse building only functioned as a commercial area. In all the transverse buildings there were now shops, warehouses and businesses with a variety of industries that is hard to imagine in such a small space:
"Five Cigarrenmacher a Grünkramhandlung that 13 Soup Kitchen, a sculpture workshop, three mustard factories, the club house of the Methodist -Gemeinde, a noodle factory, First Berlin laundering sewing ', a button factory, a Bierverlag , a depot with street cleaning, a Filzplattenfabrik, a honey cake -Fabrik, a slipper factory, a Cylinderputzer factory, a travel case factory, a Bindfadenhandlung, a boiler shop, a glass letters factory, an umbrella pole factory, three sack acts a hairpin factory, a cooking school club branch of the Patriotic women's association , a paper bags-action, a Laundry, a Cartonfabrik, brush wood factory, a pearl grinding, a comb factory, a bathhouse, a goose action, an instrument maker, a cash register factory, a Eierkognak -Fabrik, a metal filament lamp factory, a milk evaporation, a garden fertilizer Factory, a hat factory and finally a coffin shop [...] "
Later story
The Meyers' community of heirs finally sold the farm, which subsequently became an object of speculation with rapidly changing owners. Even in the period after the First World War , working-class families lived here whose living conditions hardly improved. With the onset of the global economic crisis , unemployment also increased here , so that the rent payments became a considerable burden for the impoverished tenants, while the spatial confinement and inadequate sanitary conditions led to health damage. In 1932/1933 the residents of Meyers Hof also joined the Berlin tenants' strike. After their “ seizure of power ”, the National Socialists wanted to defuse this “red stronghold” through social support measures. Several tracts of the complex fell victim to the bombing of the Second World War , only the front building on Ackerstrasse and the first rear building remained. In the early 1960s was the then district of Wedding, as well as the other parts of the old Wilhelmine Mietskasernengürtels , the subject of extensive renovation efforts, which mainly from the Degewo organized. The premises of Meyers Hof came into the possession of the Alexandra Foundation in 1965 and as a result, it was gradually de-leased. In 1970 there were still 42 tenants living in the 82 apartments; on October 17, 1972, the remainder of the block was finally blown up. The old tenement was replaced by modern residential developments.
literature
- Johann Friedrich Geist , Klaus Kürvers : The Berlin apartment building . Volume 2 of 3, Munich 1984
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 12 ″ N , 13 ° 23 ′ 16 ″ E