Paul Hertz Estate

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Location of the Paul Hertz housing estate in Berlin
Map of the Paul Hertz settlement

The Paul-Hertz-Siedlung is a locality in the north of the Berlin district Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf with approx. 6000 inhabitants in around 3200 apartments. The settlement was named in November 1962 after the former Senator for Economic Affairs Paul Hertz . The streets were named after resistance fighters against the Nazi tyranny .

The Paul-Hertz-Siedlung is to the east through an allotment garden area (colonies 'Zukunft', 'Heimat' and 'Frischer Wind'), to the north through the busy Heckerdamm, and to the south through the city ​​motorway (Goerdelerdamm) and to the west through the A 111 (Kurt -Schumacher-Damm) strictly separated from neighboring districts. Due to these barriers, it is in an urban island location.

history

The planning of the settlement, initially known as Charlottenburg-Nord II , goes back to the 1950s - apart from the planning of buildings according to the Führer plans, which was prevented by the war economy . At that time, the Charlottenburg district was forced to use building land reserves to reduce the urgent need for housing (around 17,000 people looking for accommodation). An area in the north of the district was considered, which until then had been used by allotment gardeners and businesses. In 1961, the population register still showed 775 inhabitants, mostly "permanent users" in allotment gardens, for the area.

In 1959, the later non-profit housing corporation Groß-Berlin ( Gewobag ) acquired the land. In August 1959 it carried out an architectural competition with the aim of building a new building for 7,000 residents. Around the same time, two construction phases of the Gewobag with 1400 residential units were already completed in the residential development Charlottenburg-Nord to the west .

At that time, the Alte Tegeler Weg and the Holtzdamm , which had lost their importance after the completion of the Westhafenkanal and had been replaced by a new street over the Jakob-Kaiser-Platz , ran across the area of ​​the future settlement . At the same time were urban motorway -Abschnitte Goerdeler Damm, Kurt-Schumacher-Damm and 930 m wide exciting Rudolf-Wissel Bridge under construction.

The construction of the estate should begin in 1961 according to plans by the architects Wils Ebert , Werner Weber and Fritz Gaulke. The resistance of the allotment gardeners and long-term users to the evacuation of the area initially led to delays due to legal disputes, in which the tenants were unsuccessful. By 1964, 2,616 social housing units had been completed in three construction phases . Most of these are located in four-storey rows of buildings, to a lesser extent in nine eight-storey "point buildings". An initially planned development with up to twelve storeys had to be abandoned in the meantime, following the objection of the allied aviation safety authority due to the proximity to Tegel Airport .

The settlement was supplemented in 1965 by five two-story rows with 70 senior citizens' apartments on the central north-south green corridor.

Structural and urban planning concept

During the planning and implementation of the construction project, some of the first in Berlin, new concepts were pursued:

  • District heating provided by a specially built heating plant of the energy supply company GASAG ,
  • Use of industrially prefabricated components in the construction of high-rise buildings,
  • Winter construction of 750 residential units under heated, weatherproof halls,
  • Domestic waste disposal through 23 waste incineration ovens; initially celebrated as "pioneering" ("completely smokeless") and funded with federal funds, shut down a few years later due to enormous emissions ,
  • Television cabling of the settlement using three central high antennas.
View over the A 100 to the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung
Interior of the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung

The urban planning concept of the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung is considered exemplary for the early 1960s. Typical are, for example, the open and green construction and the traffic development of the settlement through a collection road ring with radial branch roads and turning systems at their endpoints.

In addition, the creation of the necessary residential facilities was also the subject of urban planning. A school, a day-care center and two smaller shopping centers were planned as well as, in keeping with the spirit of the times, a gas station on the southern edge of the settlement. However, essential components of this infrastructure were not completed until 1966, a few years after the settlement was fully occupied. When it was inaugurated in March 1966, the school was named Helmuth-James-von-Moltke-Schule after Helmuth James von Moltke , the co-founder of the Kreisau Circle .

Seven medical practices have been relocated to apartments provided for this purpose. The tenants were given two washing machine houses in low-rise buildings, but these were later converted into a neighborhood meeting place, guest apartments and a children's club.

The Paul-Hertz-Siedlung was already connected to the western city as well as to Siemensstadt and Spandau with several bus and tram lines . In 1980 it was connected to the U7 line of the Berlin subway at Jakob-Kaiser-Platz station.

In the south of the settlement ends a "dead tunnel" coming from the Jungfernheide S-Bahn and U-Bahn station , through which the Tegel Airport, two kilometers away, was originally supposed to be connected to the subway network (see also the article on the U- Train line U5 ). For this reason, the central green corridor of the settlement had to be kept free from construction loads.

Recent history - the dispute over the roof structures

View from the Goerdelersteg

By 1988, the settlement population had decreased from the original 6800 to 5100 inhabitants due to aging processes . In view of the new housing shortage in the city, triggered, among other things, by immigration from Eastern Europe , emigrants from the GDR and refugees from Asia , the Senate Administration and the municipal housing associations pushed ahead with plans to create additional living space in the existing housing estate in West Berlin . The starting point for these considerations was to use existing infrastructures close to the city center instead of building new settlements on the outskirts of the city at high cost and using up valuable space.

In 1989, the residents of the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung learned - initially through rumors and without having been involved in the planning - that their settlement had also become the subject of construction plans that were almost ready for execution. GEWOBAG and the then Senator for Building, Wolfgang Nagel , only hesitantly admitted that they were planning to build 300 apartments in roof structures. The tenants and the tenants' council reacted with great indignation. They feared not only that the housing situation would be adversely affected for years by construction work, but also that the neighborhood would deteriorate in social terms due to the influx of further foreign tenants. In addition, they could not be convinced of the promise that the planning intentions could be implemented quickly, as construction work in the settlement (roof and facade renovation, thermal insulation) had been dragging on for some time and caused dissatisfaction. The conflict also got into an ongoing election campaign and after the promise that the roof structures should not be built without the consent of the tenants, Senator Nagel issued a preliminary decision for the roof extension in 1991 - contrary to this promise.

Despite persistent, angry protests by the residents and only after legal disputes, a “ redensification ” of the settlement was carried out from 1992 , whereby even the recommendations from an advisory board procedure that had been initiated in the meantime were not taken into account. The new residential construction was initially carried out in a staggered construction on the flat roofs of the four-storey buildings; 493 additional rental apartments were completed in these roof structures. Then 90 owner-occupied apartments were built on the central green corridor of the settlement and on its edge. For this purpose, the senior citizens' apartments built in 1965 were demolished, which had been considered unattractive for a long time due to poor equipment and cramped living conditions and were difficult to rent. In the balance sheet, these measures increased the housing stock to around 3200 residential units.

The number of inhabitants in the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung has increased again due to the additional housing offer. In 2005 the settlement had 5972 residents. Of these, 1473 were senior citizens and 981 were children and adolescents. To meet the increased need for childcare facilities, an additional daycare center was built in 1997 at Heckerdamm 235 at the corner of Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Straße.

Since the merger of the formerly independent districts of Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf in 2001, the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung has been a location in the district of Charlottenburg-Nord in the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.

Memorials

The settlement is located near the former Plötzensee prison , where almost 3,000 people were executed during the National Socialist era . In memory of the victims of the National Socialist tyranny imprisoned and murdered there, including those involved in the attempted coup of July 20, 1944, also many members of church resistance movements , the two Christian churches erected two memorials north of the Paul Hertz settlement:

In the settlement itself (Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Straße corner Heckerdamm) a bust commemorates Paul Hertz, who gave it its name .

Street names in the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung

Brief biographies of the people after whom the streets in the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung are named:

Road sign in the settlement
  • Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Straße : Bernhard Lichtenberg (born December 3, 1875 in Ohlau , Silesia ; † November 5, 1943), theologian and cathedral provost, preached against National Socialism, rescued those persecuted from the Gestapo who died in Hof (Saale) on the transport to Dachau concentration camp
  • Delpzeile : Alfred Friedrich Delp (born September 15, 1907 in Mannheim ; † February 2, 1945), Jesuit and member of the Kreisau Circle , executed in Plötzensee
  • Gloedenpfad : Elisabeth Charlotte Gloeden (born December 9, 1903 in Cologne ; † November 30, 1944), trainee lawyer , hid a person involved in the attack on Hitler on July 20, 1944, was executed in Plötzensee with her husband Erich Gloeden and her mother Elisabeth Kuznitzky
  • Kirchnerpfad : Johanna Kirchner (born April 24, 1889 in Frankfurt am Main ; † June 9, 1944), journalist, social welfare worker, after 1933 illegally active for the SPD , executed in Plötzensee
  • Klausingring : Friedrich Karl Klausing (born May 24, 1920 in Munich ; † August 8, 1944), officer, coordinated the assassination attempt on Hitler from Berlin, executed in Plötzensee
  • Leuningerpfad : Franz Leuninger (born December 28, 1898 in Mengerskirchen ; † March 1, 1945), functionary in Christian trade unions, managing director of the non-profit settlement company "Deutsches Heim", since 1933 illegal trade union work and contact with Christian resistance groups, arrested on September 26, 1944 , sentenced to death on February 28, 1945, executed in Plötzensee
  • Reichweindamm : Adolf Reichwein (born October 3, 1898 in Bad Ems ; † October 20, 1944), educator and cultural politician, contacts with the Kreisau district and communist resistance organizations, executed in Plötzensee
  • Schwambzeile : Ludwig Schwamb (* July 30, 1890 in Undenheim ; † January 23, 1945), lawyer, illegal resistance meeting in his apartment, executed in Plötzensee
  • Strünckweg : Theodor Strünck (born April 7, 1895 in Kiel ; † April 9, 1945), lawyer, already participated in the overthrow plans of 1938. After the failure of the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, Theodor Strünck used the escape opportunities available to him not to Switzerland in order not to expose his relatives to “kin detention”; Shot in the Flossenbürg concentration camp
  • Teichgräber row : Richard Teichgräber (* 5 August 1884 in Dahlen , † 25 February 1945), locksmith, illegal union activities, was arrested on 15 December 1934 sentenced on October 6, 1937 for treason to prison, concentration camp Buchenwald , the concentration camp Lublin , KZ Auschwitz in Mauthausen concentration camp
  • Terwielsteig : Maria Terwiel (born June 7, 1910 in Boppard ; † August 5, 1943), lawyer, Rote Kapelle resistance group , executed in Plötzensee
  • Wiersichweg : Oswald Wiersich (born September 1, 1882 in Breslau ; † March 1, 1945), mechanical engineer, already imprisoned as an active trade unionist in 1933, after his release under police supervision, in 1935 linked to resistance groups, executed in Plötzensee
  • Wirmerzeile : Josef Wirmer (born March 19, 1901 in Paderborn ; † September 8, 1944), lawyer and politician, resistance group around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , executed in Plötzensee

literature

  • Dagmar Girra and Sylvia Lais: Signposts to Berlin's street names - Charlottenburg . Berlin: Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein 1996, ISBN 3-89542-082-4
  • Life in the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung . Local history museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (ed.). Berlin 2001
  • Joachim Jauch: Paul-Hertz-Siedlung - a Charlottenburg residential area . in: Berlinische Monatsschrift, issue 7/1994
  • Karl-Heinz Metzger, District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (Ed.): 300 Years of Charlottenburg - From Charlottes Palace to Berlin City . Berlin: Euramedia Werbung 2005, ISBN 3-00-015120-6
  • Heinz-Kurt Steinkampf: The new Paul-Hertz-Siedlung in Berlin . in: The Democratic Community, vol. 15, 1963, issue 6, p. 556f.
  • New residential city Charlottenburg northeast . in: Der Tagesspiegel of February 22, 1962 (newspaper article)
  • New city for 9,000 Berliners . in: Telegraf of November 29, 1962 (newspaper article)

Map basis: District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of Berlin: District map Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf 2005, 1: 10,000

Web links

Commons : Paul-Hertz-Siedlung  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the planning history according to the archives of the district office Charlottenburg of Berlin, city planning office
  2. ↑ Steinkampf: The new Paul-Hertz-Siedlung in Berlin. in: "The Democratic Community", 1963
  3. ↑ Heimatmuseum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf: Life in the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung , p. 27
  4. ↑ Information from GEWOBAG from February 2006 and own calculations
  5. ↑ Population figures according to Metzger: 300 years Charlottenburg , p. 88
  6. ^ According to Girra, Lais: Signposts to Berlin's street names , German Resistance Memorial Center and Ev. Community center Plötzensee

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 14 "  N , 13 ° 17 ′ 58"  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 9, 2006 .