Nicolaihaus
| Nicolaihaus | |
|---|---|
 Exterior view of the Nicolaihaus |
|
| Data | |
| place | Berlin-Mitte , Brüderstrasse 13 |
| Construction year | 1674 |
| Floor space | 1700 m² |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 30 '50.7 " N , 13 ° 24' 10.5" E |
The Nicolai House is a historic town house in the Brüderstraße 13 in Berlin district center of the district of the same and a monument of exceptional importance. It is one of the few baroque houses that have survived in Berlin to this day and, like almost no other, it stands for Berlin history - and for the spirit of the Enlightenment.
It was named after Friedrich Nicolai , who bought the house in 1787 and worked here until his death in 1811. The building has been a listed building since 1977 . From the end of the 1990s it served as a museum for the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation . In order to secure this important monument for the future, the German Foundation for Monument Protection took ownership of it in 2011 and is therefore permanently responsible for its preservation. Thanks to extensive work, the Nicolaihaus is now a place of living history again. The building complex now houses the offices of the German Foundation for Monument Protection in the capital.
history
Today's plot No. 13 originally comprised two parcels that belonged to court employees in the 16th century. After a fire around 1650/1660, court doctor Böttcher had his house renovated; he received the second parcel as a gift from the elector . In 1664, the later mayor of Cölln , Heinrich Julius Brandes, bought the entire ensemble and in 1674 had it expanded into a two-story house with a central entrance and a gable roof. The foundation walls and vaulted cellars have been preserved to this day. From 1709 the property was owned by high-ranking military officials and ministers. In 1710/1711 the building was expanded into an aristocratic palace with representative room suites. After Friedrich Nicolai had acquired the house in 1787 for 32,500 thalers - that would be the equivalent of almost four million euros today - he had it rebuilt by Carl Friedrich Zelter . At that time the building got its late baroque-classicistic appearance, which by and large has been preserved to this day. Bookstore and publishing house were located on the ground floor. After the Nicolaische Buchhandlung moved to Dorotheenstrasse in 1891, the character of the traditional shops on the ground floor of the building should gradually change. The numerous memorial plaques on the facade of the building testify to the other illustrious residents of the house.
In addition to the Gotzkowsky and Nicolai families, the parties , Elisa von der Recke , Christoph August Tiedge , Christian Gottfried Körner , Minna Körner , Dorothea Stock and Ludwig Jonas lived here . In the 18th and 19th centuries, the house was one of the central meeting places of the Berlin Enlightenment and Romanticism . Guests included Johann Gottfried Schadow , Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Daniel Chodowiecki and Theodor Körner . The Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, founded in 1713 (today: Nicolai Verlag ) , was also housed in the house . The Nicolais private library with over 16,000 volumes was famous at the time.
"Foreigners who came to Berlin, grew mostly in Brüderstraße from, the hotels in the King of England and Paris were also Maurer's wine cellar and the so-called Baumannshöhle , a wine restaurant where Nicolai is temporarily daily with Mendelssohn and Lessing met . Nicolai's house soon became a sight; even later enemies insisted on paying their respects to the important man on a visit to Berlin. While it was an honor for travelers to Weimar to be received by Goethe , among intellectuals a visit to Nicolai was no less than an accolade. "
From 1910 to 1936, the Nicolaihaus housed the Lessing Museum , which the National Socialists had closed. Until then, the building was also known as the Nicolai-Körner-Lessing-Haus . Soldiers were forcibly committed to the building between 1936 and 1945. At the end of the Second World War , the garden wing and parts of the left side wing fell victim to Allied air raids and final battles . The facade of the Nicolaihaus, damaged by street fighting, was restored from 1952. The interior of the Nicolaihaus was converted into offices and workshops for the Central Institute for Monument Protection of the GDR . The left side wing was rebuilt in 1953/1954. The house was extensively restored between 1974 and 1984.
The building, which was listed as a historical monument in 1977, became public property in 1986 . The Institute for Monument Preservation received legal ownership. Between 1981 and 1990 the small stage “Das Ei” used some rooms and the courtyard as a branch (“Summer theater in the courtyard of Brüderstraße 13”). Legal claims of the Parthey community of heirs were realized in 1989. After German reunification , the Nicolaihaus became the property of the State of Berlin and was the seat of the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation until 1998 . The art historian Werner Schade has lived in the transverse building of the Nicolaihaus since 1968 .
At the end of the 1990s, the building became the responsibility of the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation . In November 2008, the Friends of Nicolaihaus Berlin was founded with the aim of revitalizing the historic building. When the Suhrkamp Verlag moved from Frankfurt am Main to Berlin, the Nicolaihaus was to become the company's headquarters from 2012. However, these plans were abandoned.
In July 2011, the German Foundation for Monument Protection bought the Nicolaihaus with funds from a private inheritance it had inherited, in order to bring together the Berlin and Potsdam state representations in one house in 2012 . After specific building research, a building application for a careful redesign was submitted for the new use. The Brandenburg architecture firm Krekeler, which specializes in historical building fabric, was commissioned with the work. After almost two years of restoration, it was opened in March 2016.
The Saxon state representation has been located to the east of the Nicolaihaus since 2000 .
Description of the building
The building ensemble has a baroque inner courtyard, which was overgrown with vines up to the upper floors. A wooden gallery with ornamental railings runs around it. On the ground floor of the front building there are large rooms that once served as the bookstore's sales rooms. The room layouts on the ground floor and the first floor correspond to the pre-war situation. The baroque staircase dates from the time of Friedrich Nicolai. Otherwise, the front building floor plan shows all the changes in the house from its first phase of construction up to the 20th century. When working on the house, the German Foundation for Monument Protection attached great importance to preserving these developments in the history of the building and the evidence of the different historical epochs.
A staircase also in Baroque style with a carved railing leads to the first floor. There are numerous administrative rooms for the 28 employees of the German Foundation for Monument Protection, but private apartments are also housed and rented out there.
In the foyer of the transverse building, artistic stone reliefs have been preserved from the earlier splendor . An important measure was the installation of the Weydinger staircase in the transverse wing. The classicistic gem was saved from the Ermelerhaus at Breite Straße 11 when it was demolished in 1967 and found its new place in the rear wing of the Nicolaihaus. In addition, a window with colored ornaments and a partially existing paper wallpaper with animal motifs are mentioned as special features.
See also
literature
- Marlies Ebert, Uwe Hecker: The Nicolaihaus. Brothersstrasse 13 in Berlin. A contribution to the cultural history of the city of Berlin. Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-89479-363-5 .
- Ernst Friedel : On the history of the Nicolaische Buchhandlung and the house at Brüderstraße 13 in Berlin. Berlin 1891.
- Heinz Ohff: They too were Prussians. 15 images of life. Safari, Berlin 1979. ISBN 3-7934-1458-2 .
- Gustav Parthey: The house on Brüderstraße. From the life of a famous Berlin family. Ed. by Gabriele Koelbel. The New Berlin , Berlin 1955, 1957.
Web links
- Nicolaihaus Berlin - Information from the German Foundation for Monument Protection
- Nicolaihaus Berlin - Information brochure (PDF)
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
- City Museum Berlin Foundation
- Friends of the Nicolaihaus Initiative (PDF; 2.12 MB)
- Michael S. Cullen : The House of the Seven Tablets . In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 30, 1998
- A museum for the German Enlightenment (PDF; 1.42 MB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Name on an undated picture postcard from the beginning of the 20th century
- ↑ a b c Anouk Meyer: Happy ending for a gem in the center of Berlin. The Monument Protection Foundation moves into the Nicolaihaus / Further tenants are still being sought. In: Neues Deutschland , July 26, 2011
- ^ Premiere folder from July 7, 1981 with the play Die Schneidermamsells. Berliner Posse with music by Louis Angely as well as a normal information sheet from 1982 with the indication of another piece: An eighth from the big loose ( Karl von Holteis Liederposse)
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 14, 2014, p. 3
- ^ Hans Hauser: The Nicolaihaus becomes a museum . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 8, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 97-99 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ^ Friends of the Nicolaihaus Berlin
- ↑ It works without Suhrkamp. In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 19, 2011
- ^ Nicolaihaus: Berlin's monument protectors move into the monument . In: Berliner Morgenpost , March 19, 2016.