Town hall Schmargendorf
| Town hall Schmargendorf | |
|---|---|
 Town hall Schmargendorf |
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| Data | |
| place | Berlin-Schmargendorf |
| architect | Otto Kerwien |
| Architectural style | Märkische brick Gothic |
| Construction year | 1900-1902 |
| Floor space | 840 m² |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 28 '39.6 " N , 13 ° 17' 16.4" E |
The town hall Schmargendorf is the former town hall of the once independent community Schmargendorf , which has been part of the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf since 2001 . The historicizing building was built between 1900 and 1902 according to plans by Otto Kerwien in the Brandenburg brick Gothic style . With his design of the town hall, Kerwien referred to the mostly medieval secular buildings in Tangermünd and Stendal . Today it contains the registry office of the district, the music school and the Adolf-Reichwein library called branch of the public library .
prehistory
At the end of the 19th century, the farming village of Schmargendorf on the edge of the Grunewald had developed into a suburb of Berlin. In 1883 it was given a station at the closest point of the Ringbahn ( Schmargendorf station ) and in 1899 the place in the Teltow district became an independent administrative district . At this point in time, the Schmargendorf community council was still meeting in a small farmhouse on Breite Strasse. In 1900 it was therefore decided to build a new town hall. The Potsdam architect Otto Kerwien, who shortly before had completed the construction of the Babelsberg town hall, was commissioned.
Construction of the town hall
On June 1, 1900, construction of the Schmargendorf town hall began outside the previous settlement area on a plot of almost 2000 square meters on Berkaer Platz. The construction costs were estimated at 200,000 marks . Exactly two years after the start of construction, the new town hall opened on June 1, 1902. Because of numerous subsequent improvements to the building and price increases, the building cost 394,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 2.67 million euros), almost double the originally estimated amount.
Structure
The building, with a floor area of 840 square meters, consists of two wings that meet at an obtuse angle of around 125 °. The town hall tower with a height of 46 meters acts as a "joint" between the two wings. The usable area of the building comprises five floors from the basement to the top floor. On the lower ground floor, rooms were created for the Ratskeller , which has a separate entrance at the corner of the two converging wings, i.e. below the tower. In addition, an apartment for the property manager and four cells for police detainees were set up on the lower ground floor. On the ground floor, next to the vestibule, there were rooms for the police, the cash register, the tax administration, registrations and de-registrations, the construction office and a large apartment with five rooms for a senior administrative officer.
The 108 square meter council chamber extends over the first and second floors with a height of nine meters and thus dominates the east wing. On the first floor there was still a small conference room, a room for the mayor and community leader, a room for the district and community secretary, a room for the registry and a spacious apartment for the community leader. On the second floor, above the small conference room, there was the audience gallery of the council chamber. The rest of the area, like the top floor, was prepared for officials' apartments.
The two wing structures end in steep gable roofs with stepped gables . With the exception of the northwest facade, there are windows in all facades. The northwest front ends with a fire wall. Here the town hall could have been extended along Berkaer Straße if necessary.
Interior design
All corridors intended for the public, the main staircase and the Ratskeller were decorated with cross or star vaults . These vaults were designed as a Rabitz construction and were massively bricked up, with brick ribs being reproduced using original stones from a Brandenburg monastery .
The main staircase was built with 2.5 meter wide flights of stairs on which granite steps rest. The railings are solidly bricked with openings and faced with colored glazed bricks.
The 9 x 12 m council chamber was particularly decorated. Under the wooden beam ceiling, an imitation vault with the cross-section of a Tudor arch and stitch caps was drawn in again as a Rabitz construction . The desired impression was that of a vault made entirely of sandstone . Hanging from the ceiling, heavy chandeliers according to the designs of the architect Otto Nachtigall were attached in two places . Bronze decorations in the form of wild boar and bear heads are riveted to the wrought iron lighting fixtures . They should remember the nearby Grunewald .
The western transverse side of the meeting room was adorned with a large fireplace in which the radiators for the low-pressure steam heating system at that time were installed. A relief by the Charlottenburg sculptor Rudolf Franke is located above the chimney opening . It shows Wotan and Brünhilde performing the magic fire from the Valkyrie . The chimney is crowned by the coats of arms of the von Stubenrauch and von Eberstein families, from whom the then head of the Teltow district came from. The five stained glass windows in the hall also had coats of arms. The coats of arms of the noble families of the Teltow district were shown here; they were the von Beyme , von Gerlach , von Schlegel , Graf von Podewils and von Wilmersdorf families . Across from the window front were three busts of the German Emperors Wilhelm I and Friedrich III, also designed by Franke, on oak pedestals . and Wilhelm II. Carved panels that covered the walls up to a height of about one meter and the double doors, also richly decorated with carvings, were made of oak to match the pedestals. The village church Schmargendorf is depicted in the arch field above one door .
facade
The medieval late Gothic fortifications in the Altmark were the models for the design of the Schmargendorf town hall . In Tangermünde and Stendal in particular, there are buildings with a very similar design. At the Uenglinger Tor of the Stendal city fortifications , in addition to the same tower design, the white faced gables, the sloping faced coat of arms fields and the use of shaped stones can already be found .
Kerwien intended to give the building a "picturesque" look. For this he provided the building with numerous gables, towers and battlements . He also placed white panels in the red facade and used different window sizes and shapes. While the premises were appropriate to the needs of the time, the architectural reference to the Middle Ages was "meaningless".
The entire building has a porphyry granite base . The load-bearing masonry made of Miltenberg sandstone was faced with red bricks (" Rathenower Handstrichsteine") in the monastery format. On the main gable in the south facade there is rich jewelry made of glass mosaic , made by the Rixdorf company Puhl & Wagner .
The main facade, on which most of the decorative elements are located, forms the southern front to Berkaer Platz. The main entrance to the building is also located here. The entrance portal of the town hall protrudes from the south facade via a short staircase. Above the portal is the window front of the council chamber, the five windows of which are crowned with glass mosaics. Above the middle window is the large Prussian royal coat of arms, above the other four windows the small coats of arms of the four margrave families who once ruled over Brandenburg. These are (from left to right) the coats of arms of the Ascanians , the Wittelsbachers , the Luxemburgers and the Hohenzollerns . The inscription “ Anno Salutis MDCCCCI” is emblazoned above this coat of arms, also as a glass mosaic - also a reference to the medieval models, since this formulation had not been used for about 100 years at the time of construction. The south facade is crowned by an elongated mosaic of the Brandenburg eagle .
The decoration of the remaining facades is limited to the mentioned panels and structural ornaments. Dark green glazed bricks are also used, especially in the tower area . The tower itself has a square floor plan up to the ridge height of the wing structures. Above the ridge, a round tower seems to be screwing itself out of the square tower - an effect that was achieved through the spiral-shaped use of glazed stones in the round tower facade. Up to the second floor there is an arbor in front of the tower , which also forms the entrance to the Ratskeller.
Conversions
Less than 20 years after the inauguration of the town hall, the building lost its function with the formation of Greater Berlin on October 1, 1920, as Schmargendorf now became a part of the Wilmersdorf district . The registry office of the district moved into the Schmargendorf town hall, and the council hall , which is no longer required, serves as a wedding hall. The grandstand was also no longer needed in this context and was dismantled. Due to the romantic appearance of the town hall with its playful architecture, the registry office has developed into a popular wedding venue.
The town hall building survived the Second World War largely unscathed. Only one bomb exploding nearby destroyed most of the glazing. The destroyed glass paintings in the former council chamber were replaced by simple diamond glass panes after the war.
A restoration took place in the early 1960s . The facade was cleaned and war damage repaired. Historical procedures were also used to restore the appearance. For example, the panels were whitened with soaked lime using a medieval process . As part of the restoration, the windows in the main staircase were also replaced. The appearance of the original stained glass windows has not been recorded. The new stained glass windows were designed between 1962 and 1964 by the Wilmersdorf artist Helena Starck-Buchholz , wife of the artist Erich Buchholz . The work was carried out in 1964/1965 again by August Wagner's company, which had supplied the glass mosaics for the facade a good 60 years earlier. There are a total of 14 windows in the main staircase, five of which are circular.
Numerous renovations over the years, due to the different space requirements at different times, changed the interior appearance of the house. For example, the simple corridors that were in front of the company apartments were connected with corridors decorated with cross vaults for the public, so that the cross vaults suddenly stop in today's corridors. Lights, doors and partition walls that were subsequently installed also usually do not match the original historicizing appearance.
use
Registry office
Even after the district reform in 2001, the registry office, now in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district, remained in the Schmargendorf town hall. Furthermore, it is very popular among wedding couples. Also celebrities like director Ernst Lubitsch (1922), physicist Albert Einstein , composer Friedrich Hollaender (1932), actor Curd Jürgens (1937), physicist Manfred von Ardenne (1938), musician Helmut Zacharias (1943), racing driver Bernd Rosemeyer , actress Romy Schneider (1975), actor Erik Ode (1954), boxer Bubi Scholz (1955), actress Anita Kupsch , musician Paul Kuhn , soccer coach Helmut "Fiffi" Kronsbein , actress Ingrid Steeger , singer Gunter Gabriel , singer Roland Kaiser , singer Susi Dorée (1970 ), Actor Harald Juhnke (April 8, 1971) and politician Friedbert Pflüger (December 22, 2006) tied the knot here.
District library
Furthermore, the district library is located in the town hall, which was named after the educator and resistance fighter Adolf Reichwein . The adult department uses the former police rooms on the ground floor, the youth department is located on the second floor. A bust of Adolf Reichwein by Knud Knudsen was erected in the vestibule to commemorate him . The library was built from 1952 by Hertha Block, who was active in the union of proletarian revolutionary writers and was imprisoned in the SA prison in Papestrasse . In memory of Block, the Hertha-Block-Promenade of the east-west green corridor opened in 2012 was named after the librarian.
Other institutions
In the north wing, the district's music school uses numerous rooms. In the meantime, a youth home and a day care center were also located in the town hall. The Ratskeller, which was reopened on September 1, 1963 after the renovation of the entire building, has specialized in hosting family celebrations and catering for tour groups.
Forecourt
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To the right of the Schmargendorf town hall, a boulder commemorates the 1991 partnership between the Kulmbach district and the Wilmersdorf district .
literature
- The new town hall in Schmargendorf . In: Baugewerks-Zeitung , 34th vol., No. 76 (September 20, 1902), pp. 1233-1235 and a plate
- Town hall Schmargendorf . In: Berliner Architekturwelt , 5th year, issue 1 (October 1902), pp. 13-16 and a color table
- Christine Klautzsch: The town hall Schmargendorf - building history and equipment . Written term paper in the subject of art studies for the master’s examination at Faculty I of the Technical University of Berlin. Berlin 1979.
Web links
- Schmargendorf town hall, monument in the Lexicon of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district
- Rathaus Schmargendorf in the Berlin district lexicon of Edition Luisenstadt
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
Individual evidence
- ^ Teltower Kreisblatt , Vol. 44, No. 77 (April 1, 1900), p. 307
- ↑ Teltower Kreisblatt , vol. 45, no. 5 (January 6, 1901), p. 19
- ↑ Teltower Kreisblatt , vol. 47, no. 203 (August 29, 1903), p. 810
- ↑ Klautzsch, p. 45
- ↑ Klautzsch, p. 72
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel , June 13, 1962, p. 7
- ^ Mathias Berner: Schmargendorf: The town hall is 100 years old . In: Berliner Morgenpost , September 7, 2002
- ↑ Rathaus Schmargendorf, monument in the Lexicon of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district
- ^ Brigitte Schmiemann: Divorce in Schmargendorf. In: Berliner Morgenpost , August 3, 2012, p. 12
- ↑ Klautzsch, p. 44
- ↑ Sign at the town hall
