Paul Wittig

Paul Wittig (born March 7, 1853 in Fraustadt, Silesia (today Wschowa , Poland ); † March 12, 1943 in Berlin ) was a German architect and civil engineer , he was director and chairman of the board of the Berliner Hochbahngesellschaft for many years .

Life

After graduating from high school, Wittig studied at the Berlin Bauakademie from 1872 . In 1877 he passed the first and in 1887 the second state examination.

In addition to his studies, he carried out his first private assignments. The most extensive of these was the relocation of a chemical factory from Kreuzberg to Niederschöneweide in 1883 . In connection with this work he met the architect Paul Wallot .

After completing his studies, Wittig found a job with the Berlin magistrate as a government architect before Wallot brought him to his Reichstag building office in 1889 . There he worked until 1897 and during this time he learned a. a. Alfred Grenander , who worked for Wallot from 1890 to 1897.

Wittig's grave in the Luisenfriedhof II

In 1897, Siemens & Halske's efforts to build an electric elevated and underground railway had progressed so far that a separate operating company, the elevated railway company, was founded for the construction and operation. Wittig was hired as the head of this company. His main tasks were no longer in the architectural field, but in the administration and solving land acquisition tasks. Wittig later formulated "that the master builder's previous training provides a very suitable basis for major administrative work". Wittig's creative activity was mainly limited to a few staircases and pillars. But the bridge over the Landwehr Canal and the building next to it, through which the elevated railway passes , were also built according to Wittig's plans. The only thing that has been preserved is a staircase at the Warschauer Strasse underground station . After different architects were commissioned by the Hochbahngesellschaft to design their facilities at the beginning, Wittig soon brought Grenander, whom he knew, to join the Hochbahngesellschaft as house architect, who had a decisive influence on the company's image.

Wittig was entrusted with its management for the entire 32-year existence of the elevated railway company. From 1897 to 1913 he was the sole board member of the Hochbahngesellschaft, and from 1913 to 1928 chairman of the board of directors. After the municipalization of the various Berlin transport companies, in the course of which the elevated railway company sold its systems and vehicles to the newly founded municipal transport company BVG on January 1, 1929 , Wittig still liquidated the elevated railway company. With his extensive knowledge, he was at the BVG's side in an advisory capacity in the early days.

Wittig lived in the Berlin district of Grunewald from 1899 until his death . He died in 1943 shortly after his 90th birthday and was buried in Luisenfriedhof II in Berlin-Westend . His grave is preserved. A small estate from Wittig is in the Berlin State Archives .

Honors

On the day of the opening ceremony of the Berlin elevated and underground railway, February 15, 1902, Wittig received the Crown Order III. Class awarded.

Memorial plaque for Paul Wittig in the Alexanderplatz underground station

In klosterstraße has already inaugurated a plaque at the opening in July 1913th This provides information on the development of the underground. On the right and left edges of the panel there are 16 relief portraits of personalities who contributed to the development of the Berlin subway, including one by Paul Wittig.

With the commissioning of the underground line E and the extensive completion of the Alexanderplatz underground station in December 1930, two memorial plaques were also placed on the mezzanine of this underground station. With Max Steinthal and Paul Wittig, they honored the two men "who, as co-founders and heads of the elevated railway company, initiated the construction of electric high-speed railways in Berlin and promoted them for many years." In 1932, a third plaque was added to these two memorial plaques for Gustav Kemmann . All panels were destroyed under the rule of the National Socialists . While the National Socialists dismantled Steinthal's tablet in 1933 due to his Jewish belief, the tablets for Wittig and Kemmann were melted down during World War II . It was not until December 21, 2002 that replicas of these panels were assembled at the original locations.

Works

Buildings and designs

Staircase at the Prinzenstrasse high station (destroyed in World War II)

• Chemical factory "Kanne" on the Oberspree, 1883 (not preserved)
• Expansion of around 60 rooms in the Reichstag building (based on designs by Wallot, not preserved)
• Elevated bridge over the Landwehr Canal, 1902 (not preserved)
• Gatehouse for the elevated railway passage on the Landwehr Canal, 1902 (not preserved)
• Stairway building at the Prinzenstrasse high station , 1902 (not preserved)
• Warschauer Strasse high station staircase, 1902
• Central supports underground station Wittenbergplatz , 1902 (not preserved)
• Central supports underground station Zoologischer Garten , 1902 (not preserved)
• Mausoleum for Ida von Blücher on Luisenfriedhof I , 1905

Fonts

• For the opening of the subway to Westend. Berlin, March 16, 1908.
• Lecture on the subway from Potsdamer Platz to Spittelmarkt . Reprint from Glaser's annals for trade and construction, year 1908, vol. 63, issue 4, page 71.
• The global cities and the electric express transport. Wilhelm Ernst & Son, Berlin, 1909.
• Guided tour of the Berlin elevated and underground railways through built-up areas. The Zirkel Architektur-Verlag, Berlin, 1920.
• The architecture of the elevated and underground railway in Berlin. The Zirkel Architektur-Verlag, Berlin, 1922.
• On the history of the elevated railway company. Berlin 1925.
• The first electric elevated and underground railway in Berlin / creation and redesign. In: Die Fahrt, 1st year, issue 1, pp. 11–16.
• Obituary for Professor Grenander. In: Die Fahrt, Volume 3, Issue 16 (August 15, 1931), pp. 301–302.

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Wittig in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by Paul Wittig in the catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Projects by Paul Wittig in the holdings of the Architekturmuseum in the university library of the TU Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Wittig: Retrospectives and Confessions on the 80th Birthday . Berlin, March 7, 1933, p. 2.
2. ↑ LAB E Rep. 200-83 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ The grand opening of the elevated railway . In: Berlin Intelligence Journal of February 15, 1902.
4. ^ Jörg Kuhn: The memorial plaque in the Klosterstrasse underground station . In: Aris Fioretos (ed.): Berlin above and below the earth / Alfred Grenander, the subway and the culture of the metropolis . Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89479-344-9 .
5. ↑ Johannes Bousset: Festschrift “On the opening of the subway from Alexanderplatz through Frankfurter Allee to Friedrichsfelde (Line E) and the extension of Line C from Bergstraße station via the Ringbhf. Neukölln to Grenzallee station on December 21, 1930 ” . Edited by Berliner Verkehrs-Betriebe and Nordsüdbahn AG
6. ↑ The Mausoleum Ida von Blücher on Luisenfriedhof I in Berlin: Description of the object ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.