Republic Square (Berlin)
| Republic Square | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 The Reichstag building with the Republic Square in front of it |
|
| Basic data | |
| place | Berlin |
| District | Zoo |
| Created | in the first third of the 18th century |
| Confluent streets |
Scheidemannstrasse (south) , Heinrich-von-Gagern-Strasse (west) , access road to the Reichstag building (east) , Paul-Löbe-Allee (north) |
| Buildings | Reichstag building, Paul Löbe House , Jakob Kaiser House , Swiss Embassy , House of World Cultures in the Congress Hall , Federal Chancellery . |
| use | |
| User groups | pedestrian |
| Technical specifications | |
| Square area | 36,900 m² |
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 7 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 21 ″ E
The Republic Square is located in the Berlin district of Tiergarten of the Mitte district in the government quarter in front of the Reichstag building . The Spree flows in the immediate vicinity . The square is almost completely green with lawn and has been decorated with small hedges (called "Heckenbosquets").
history
The square on the edge of the Great Zoo was built around 1730 with the Berlin customs and excise wall moved to the west and already served as a parade ground for the Prussian soldiers under King Friedrich Wilhelm I. it was called the parade ground in front of the Brandenburg Gate . It was designed as a town square after 1860 and renamed Königsplatz on December 18, 1864 . The new name goes back to the fact that "different kings used to hold their parades here", as explained in a Berlin address book. The Reichstag building erected in 1884–1894 on Königsplatz replaced the palace of the Prussian Count Atanazy Raczyński .
In 1873, the Berlin magistrate had the Victory Column built in the middle of the square to commemorate three victorious campaigns . The Siegesallee, laid out immediately before the inauguration of the Victory Column, ran towards them from the south in the center; Alsenstrasse came from the north .
There was also the Kroll Opera House on the west side , the General Staff Building on the north-west corner and the Palais des Alsenviertel in the north , one of which has been preserved in the 20th century and is used as the Swiss embassy .
The Bismarck National Monument created by Reinhold Begas was unveiled in front of the Reichstag building in 1901 . On this occasion, the Königsplatz received a mosaic pavement and a round lawn with several paths to the Victory Column in the center.
A monument to the Minister of War Albrecht von Roon , executed by Harro Magnussen , added to the northern edge of the square in 1904. In addition, in 1906, on the western edge of the square and thus also in front of the General Staff building, there was another marble monument made by Joseph Uphues , which honored Field Marshal Moltke . All three monuments were moved to the northern edge of the Great Star in 1938 , where they still stand today - albeit on different bases.
During the Weimar Republic - from 1926 to 1933 - the square already bore its current name to document the abolition of the monarchy at this prominent location. With the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , it was renamed Königsplatz back.
The last fighting of the Second World War took place in the inner city of Berlin , as a result of which the Reichstag building and the Platz der Republik in front of it were severely damaged. When the war debris was removed, the bomb and grenade funnels on the square were also filled with ruins. After the era of National Socialism was over, it was given the republican name again in 1948.
On September 9, 1948, 300,000 Berliners protested in the square against the incipient split in Berlin due to the blockade of the western sectors and the violent expulsion of the freely elected city councilors and magistrates from the eastern sector by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the Soviet occupying power . The Berlin SPD leader Ernst Reuter gave his world-famous speech "You peoples of the world [...] look at this city!" When participants in a protest march to the Allied Control Council wanted to cross the Soviet sector after the rally, shot dead not far from the Brandenburg Gate a people's police officer met the 15-year-old student Wolfgang Scheunemann .
From 1961 the Berlin Wall ran a few meters behind the rear of the Reichstag building (east exit of the building) as the direct border from West Berlin to East Berlin . The border then took its course over the Spree in the form of a control system for cross-border shipping traffic and continued along the east bank, although the Spree belonged to East Berlin up to the western bank. The ship traffic controlled there consisted almost exclusively of Polish cargo ships and push convoys with Polish coal for the power stations in West Berlin. The border control officers searched the ships for refugees from the outside, among other things underwater. Since the wall behind the Reichstag led into this ship border crossing, there was a plaque on the west bank of the Spree in memory of people who had been shot while trying to flee to the west. After the political change, this plaque was given a new location between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate.
Due to its proximity to the Berlin Wall at the time, the square was in a quiet location with little traffic. Like the zoo, the large meadow was popular as a recreational area on weekends and, above all, as a barbecue area for Berliners of Turkish origin. The parking spaces on its edge were used as a practice area for driving schools on weekdays. Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 did the square lose its peripheral location in divided Berlin. The decision to renovate the Reichstag building and use it again as the seat of the German Bundestag after the government moved from Bonn to Berlin was essential for a revitalization . Today, as it was during the Cold War , it is a tourist attraction.
On the night of October 2 to 3, 1990 at midnight on the occasion of German reunification, the flag of the unit was hoisted on the Platz der Republik , which has been blowing day and night since then (it is illuminated at night) and with 6 m × 10 m probably the largest federal flag is.
In 1996 and 1997, an international competition for the redesign of the open spaces in the government district was held to completely design the government district. After a jury had assessed more than 300 submitted concepts in two phases, a landscape architecture office each from Berlin Lützow7 (Platz der Republik) and from Solothurn Weber and Saurer ( Spreebogenpark ) received a first prize. The underlying concepts were implemented between 1998 and 2009. According to the design of the Berlin landscape architects, the new construction of Ebertplatz with Spreetreppe, the citizens' forum between the Chancellery and House of Parliamentarians, the sculpture meadow and the harbor square in the vicinity of the House of World Cultures took place . The design idea for the above-mentioned outdoor facilities, squares and promenades was, the place of the sovereign , of the people, through an appropriate and versatile green space, stretched in formal rigor between the Reichstag building as the seat of the German Bundestag and the congress hall as the representation of the cultures of the world To give expression. The zoo's solitary trees “jump”, as it were, onto the open space and “disturb”, mixed in sorts and habitus, plurality symbolizing the rigor of the composition, which is geared towards parliament. The Forum and Platz der Republik are dedicated public green spaces and recreation areas with a size of four hectares .
Events
- In the autumn of 1948, a protest rally against the Berlin blockade with around 300,000 participants took place on the Platz der Republik , at which Mayor Ernst Reuter gave a haunting speech.
- Barclay James Harvest gave a free concert in front of 175,000 spectators on August 30, 1980
- Michael Jackson gave an open-air concert on Republic Square in 1988 during his Bad World Tour .
- In 1995, the Republic Square was a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world, when the wrapping of the Reichstag took place here according to plans by Christo and Jeanne-Claude .
- On July 22, 2005, a Platzer Kiebitz type ultralight aircraft , which was controlled by a private person , crashed just a few meters from the Reichstag building. The pilot, who came from a suburb of Berlin, was killed. A terrorist attack was ruled out. After the investigation was over, the police assumed a suicide . As a result, security was hotly debated domestically. For a short time there was a complete flight ban within the Berlin S-Bahn ring , but this was relaxed after a large protest from the population. Even the tethered balloon at Potsdamer Platz was forbidden from ascending, and sightseeing flights with historical machines were also excluded.
- In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup , in April 2006, the Republic Square was given an asphalt surface, partly with a gravel underlay. This enabled the Adidas World of Football , a miniature version of the Berlin Olympic Stadium , to be built. After the end of the World Cup and the dismantling of the stadium, the sportswear manufacturer had the green area restored to its previous state at its own expense. For this purpose, among other things, trees were searched throughout Germany that corresponded to the felled in terms of type, size and appearance. On November 21, 2006, the restored Platz der Republik was handed over to the city of Berlin. Adidas did not provide any information about the exact total costs of the repair .
See also
literature
- Hans-Werner Klünner: Berlin squares. Photographs by Max Missmann . Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung Beuermann GmbH, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-87584-610-9 , pp. 76-79.
- Heinz Ohff , Rainer Höynck (ed.): The Berlin book. Stapp-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-87776-231-X .
- Wolfgang Ribbe , Jürgen Schmädicke: Small Berlin story. 3rd expanded and updated edition. Stapp-Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-87776-222-0 .
- Tree casting for Republic Square . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 22, 2006; for the handover of the restored space
Web links
-
Republic Square. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
- Parade ground in front of the Brandenburg Gate . In: Luise.
- Koenigsplatz . In: Luise.
- Suggestions for redesign in 1927 and 1929 , 42 sheets by Hans Poelzig in the architecture museum of the TU Berlin
- 360 ° panorama of the Republic Square and the Reichstag
- A nice picture of the square and a few more sentences from the Senate Department for Urban Development
Individual evidence
- ↑ Königsplatz . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1909, part 3, p. 411.
- ↑ Angela M. Arnold: Rubble, Railways and Districts . Self-published, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-00-009839-9 , pp. 135–145.
- ^ Forum and Republic Square . Website of the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection , accessed on May 15, 2019.
- ^ Barclay James Harvest Album Portfolio: A Concert for The People (Berlin) ; officially named audience according to Police count.