Town hall Köpenick
| Town hall Köpenick | |
|---|---|
 View of the building from the Luisenhain |
|
| Data | |
| place | Berlin-Koepenick |
| builder | first town hall: Hans Schütte and Hugo Kinzer ; Extension: City Planning Director Rundschmidt and Government Builder Herbert Hennings |
| Architectural style | Märkische brick Gothic |
| Construction year | 1901-1905; 1938–1940 (partly); -1949 |
| height | 54 m |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 26 '44.6 " N , 13 ° 34' 29.1" E |
The Köpenick Town Hall is located at Alt-Köpenick 21 in Berlin's Treptow-Köpenick district, Köpenick . It was built from 1901 to 1905 instead of a previous building for the then independent Brandenburg town of Cöpenick (spelling: Köpenick since January 1, 1931). The building, which was expanded again in sections between 1927 and 1949, has been a listed building since 1982 .
prehistory
The emerging young bourgeoisie needed a representative building in the 18th century for the new tasks in the community as a council chamber. In the office of the mayor Cöpenicker Georg Friedrich Cardinal was in 1763 at the former Castle Street (since the mid-20th century Old-Koepenick) corner Rosenstrasse - in proximity to Schloss Koepenick built the predecessor of the present town hall Köpenick -. The appearance of the two-storey plastered building differed from the more elegant town houses in the area almost only by a triangular gable with the city's coat of arms , like most Gothic town halls.
On November 20, 1896, the mayor at the time, Gustav Borgmann, presented his concept for a new town hall building to the city council , which included everything from a 200 m² meeting room and a fire-proof plan chamber to a gas lighting , central heating and ventilation system for the 72 office rooms seemed desirable and affordable for a modern administration building.
After a two-year period of reflection, the city council approved the project on December 16, 1898. On February 4, 1901, the city fathers hired the architect and former government master builder Hans Schütte, who had been working in Bonn - Poppelsdorf to carry out the building shell, which was estimated at 375,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 3 million euros) convinced with his designs. In November 1901, however, Schütte preferred the Köpenick construction site to the more lucrative post of municipal construction officer in neighboring Lichtenberg and only visited the construction site three times a week in accordance with the contract.
The Köpenick magistrate commissioned the architect Hugo Kinzer , based in Charlottenburg near Berlin , with the continuation of the town hall project , who coordinated with Schütte and worked with him to advance the construction project.
New town hall building
The building plans by Hans Schütte and Hugo Kinzer envisaged the erection of a three-story corner building with a 54 meter high tower as the "protruding corner stone of the new town hall building". This is emphasized by the use of stylistic elements of the medieval brick Gothic, which should create a worthy city center. The construction cost had to be corrected in July 1901 - before the groundbreaking ceremony - by 25,000 marks to 375,000 marks. The site on which the previous town hall stood served as the building site. This, the neighboring police building and some private residences should make way for the new building. Looking ahead, a two-meter-wide strip facing what was then Schloßstraße was kept free to leave room for a later road widening.
The new building was carried out in two construction phases, because the old town hall and the police building were to remain in use during the construction period until a move to the new building seemed possible. After a construction period of 13 months, the first construction phase at the corner of Rosen-Böttcherstraße was handed over to the municipal administration for use on August 15, 1902, so that on October 20, 1902, with the move of Mayor Borgmann, the old town hall was demolished and the second construction phase included the main part at the corner of Schlossstrasse and Rosenstrasse began. The official laying of the foundation stone for this took place on December 8, 1902 in the foundation of the town hall tower. This cornerstone has since been visible in the councilor's room in the council cellar. It contains, among other things, a five-mark piece from 1902, photographs of the old town hall and a view of Cöpenick from the waterfront, a copy of the municipal administrative report from 1901, issues of the newspapers Cöpenicker Dampfboot and Cöpenicker Tageblatt , a registry office directory and an address book each from 1902.
On June 30, 1903, the roof structure was erected over the city council meeting room and the new building was registered for acceptance of the shell. From August to October 1903, a construction workers strike paralyzed all further construction work, so that the inauguration planned for 1904 at the end of Mayor Borgmann's term of office failed. He was retired on April 1, 1904. His successor in office was Georg Langerhans .
In December 1904 the entire front part of the town hall was completed except for the equipment of the city council meeting room, so that the offices in the main building and the official apartments of the mayor, police inspector and janitor could be occupied. On April 1, 1905, the Ratskeller opened with a dining room, two guest rooms and wine cellars. The caretaker's apartment was also in the basement. The large conference room was also inaugurated in September.
On the ground floor there were 20 offices, the apartment and service rooms of the police and the rooms of the municipal savings bank with a vault. On the first floor there were 25 office rooms, the mayor's living and office rooms, a small meeting room for the magistrate and three rooms for the registry office . On the second floor there were 22 offices and the city council meeting room. There were five more offices on the third floor.
In addition to the 375,000 marks for the shell, a further 135,000 marks had to be raised for the interior. An additional 122,000 marks were added for the acquisition of the building plots. The total cost ultimately amounted to 633,500 marks. Georg Langerhans carried out the official inauguration on October 7, 1905.
Captain von Koepenick
The new Köpenick town hall became world famous exactly one year after its inauguration, when the 57-year-old unemployed shoemaker Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt arrested Mayor Georg Langerhans in a captain's uniform of the 1st Guard Regiment with ten soldiers who had been ordered to him on October 16, 1906 to seize the city treasury. The successful prank was only discovered after the multiple criminal record had disappeared and Voigt, who was arrested ten days later, went down in history as " Captain von Köpenick ".
In 1996 a sculpture for the captain of Köpenick was placed in front of the main entrance of the town hall . The bronze statue was created by the Armenian Spartak Babajan in the Seiler art foundry . A Berlin memorial plaque for Voigt was also attached to the town hall .
City hall extensions
The city of Köpenick was incorporated into Greater Berlin as the 16th administrative district in 1920 . By assigning other communities such as Friedrichshagen and Rahnsdorf to the new district, the population of the district rose from 35,000 to 63,000 people. As a result, the administration building, which was generously constructed for the time, was already too small 15 years later.
In August 1923, the eight cells of the police prison in the courtyard were converted into additional office space. Four years later, the council meeting under Mayor Robert Kohl decided to build a first extension immediately adjacent to the old building along Böttcherstraße, which was based on the old building in terms of design and architecture. This extension building with 35 office and eight basement rooms was handed over for use on May 11, 1927, so that the construction department, which had been relocated to Friedrichshagen up until then, could move in again.
On December 17, 1936, another new building project with what was now the most extensive expansion was proposed. 122 office rooms, another large meeting room and new business premises for the Berliner Stadtbank were planned. To this end, the wing in Böttcherstraße was to be expanded again, but also the old building on Schloßstraße. A curved connecting wing in the inner courtyard of the town hall was to connect both wings in a southward direction. Several residential buildings in Böttcherstrasse and Schloßstrasse as well as the previous second staircase on the south gable of the historic town hall were demolished for the construction work, which was estimated at 900,000 marks . The National Socialist Mayor Karl Mathow laid the foundation stone on April 19, 1938. The construction work was entrusted to City Planning Director Rundschmidt and Magistrate Builder Herbert Hennings from Berlin-Wilmersdorf . Due to the start of the war in 1939, the extension could not get beyond the shell stage and was not completed until after the Second World War in March 1949. The number of service rooms increased to around 320.
This extension section was to be followed by another at the beginning of the 1940s, which was supposed to extend the two wings of the town hall, demolishing the preserved historical buildings, up to the Schlossplatz and connecting them again to the square. The Nazi authorities forecast that the population in Köpenick would double over the next few decades. However, these construction measures did not take place either.
From 1990 onwards, 20 additional offices were created through the expansion of the roof floors, so that a total of 340 have been available in the town hall since 2010.
In the 2010s, the renovation of the inner courtyard of the town hall began, in the spring of 2014 the remains of the wall of the first town hall from the years 1720-1750 were exposed. Because the monument preservation office and archaeologists have a say in such work, it must now be decided how to deal with these finds. The renovation work will therefore probably not be completed by the end of 2014, as originally planned.
Architectural features
Outwardly, the exterior facade designed in the style of the Brandenburg brick Gothic with Rathenow facing bricks is outstanding . The corner tower with the town hall clock rises diagonally at the confluence of Rosenstraße / Alt-Köpenick. The entrance area is reminiscent of a medieval monastery.
The main staircase with a three-armed staircase between Romanesque columns carved in sandstone , the individual capitals of which are adorned with the head of a fisherman, a town clerk, a town policeman and a bricklayer, has lead-glazed windows on the outside with ornaments showing images of urban commercial life. The vaults of the platforms and corridors are made as cross-cap vaults . Decorative tiles with Art Nouveau ornaments are worked into the walls , which, in addition to the otherwise historicizing forms, refer to the emerging taste of the time of construction.
The historic city council meeting room with artistic woodwork and monumental windows only partially preserved in the original version is the culmination of the furnishing work. The lead glass windows of the meeting room originally showed scenes from the laundry and dyeing company W. Spindler , whose later owner Carl Spindler was also an honorary citizen of the city of Köpenick, facing the Luisenhain . Significant buildings of the city of Köpenick are shown below - still preserved.
The window to the inner courtyard showed the new town hall with its coat of arms in the middle, on the left pictures from the fishing industry and on the right scenes from the construction period of the town hall. Below, still preserved, a procession of Köpenickers is shown. Although the Köpenick town hall in the area of the meeting room was not destroyed by bombs during World War II, the large decorative windows at the top disappeared without a trace between 1944 and 1946.
During a thorough renovation in 1954, part of the historic wall design in the conference room was painted over and thus largely destroyed.
In 2005, in preparation for the celebrations for 100 years of Köpenick Town Hall, a comprehensive reconstruction of the meeting room and the staircase according to monument specifications took place, in which large parts of the historical design (if still present) could be restored.
Use since 2001
The Köpenick town hall was the seat of the district office and district council assembly (BVV) of the Köpenick administrative district until January 1, 2001 . With the district merger in 2001 it lost the town hall status and is the seat of several departments of the district office of Treptow-Köpenick, including the district mayor. The district councilors and the BVV office have since been located in the Treptow town hall .
Mayor in the town hall of Köpenick
Source up to 2002: Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
| Period | Surname | Political party | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1904-1918 | Georg Langerhans | German Progressive Party | |
| 1918-1921 | Ludwig Behnke | SPD | |
| 1921 | Martin Franz | independent | |
| 1921-1923 | unoccupied | From 1921: District Mayor | |
| 1923-1929 | Robert Kohl | SPD | |
| 1929-1933 | Martin Franz | independent | |
| 1933-1945 | Karl Mathow | NSDAP | |
| 1945-1946 | Gustav Kleine | KPD , then SED | |
| 1946-1948 | Fritz Bessen | SPD | |
| 1948-1951 | Gustav Kleine | SED | |
| 1951-1961 | Fritz Schiller | SED | |
| 1961-1967 | Herbert Fechner | SED | |
| 1967-1989 | Horst Stranz | SED | |
| 1989-1990 | Wilfried Engel | SED | |
| 1990-1992 | Monika Höppner | SPD | |
| 1992-2000 | Klaus Ulbricht | SPD | |
| 2001-2006 | Klaus Ulbricht | SPD | From 2001 district mayor in the Treptow-Köpenick district |
| 2006-2011 | Gabriele Schöttler | SPD | |
| 2011 | Oliver Hedgehog | SPD |
Web links
- 100 years town hall Köpenick - District Office Treptow-Köpenick
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
Individual evidence
- ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung , 18./19. March 2006, p. 14
- ^ Chronicle for the imperial capital . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, 1, p. 13 (laying of the foundation stone for the extension of the town hall).
- ↑ Hennings, Herbert . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, 1, p. 1052. “Reg. Builder".
- ^ Short message on the Berlin page of the Berliner Zeitung of July 11, 2014; Page 18.
- ↑ Maria Curter: Berlin's district mayor . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 7, 1997, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 126 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ^ Cöpenick administrative district . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1923, III, p. 116.
- ↑ Biography of Gustav Kleine on kommunismusgeschichte.de