Riviera (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Riviera Grünau
View of the Riviera dance hall (building on the left), April 2014

View of the Riviera dance hall
(building on the left), April 2014

Data
place Berlin-Grünau
architect Otto Gerth (for the extension of the 1920s)
Construction year 1888-1890
Floor space 615 m² (house combination);
5,200 (property without the access areas to the landing stages) m²
Coordinates 52 ° 24 '53.6 "  N , 13 ° 34' 58.6"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '53.6 "  N , 13 ° 34' 58.6"  E
particularities
Monument protection since 1977; at risk of collapse (2015); Parts of the roof structure have already collapsed (2015)

The Riviera Grünau is a historical ensemble of buildings for great dance and leisure fun in the Berlin district of Grünau in Regattastraße  161 with a formerly impressive ballroom directly on the street. It developed from a simple bar around 1888. To the south of the Riviera house is the Grünau Society House , which was built in 1874/1875 at the instigation of the Berlin stockbroker Schmidt.

The heart of the Riviera was the Bellevue restaurant . At the turn of the 20th century, Johannes Bittner became the owner of the property and remained so until the end of the Second World War. The Gesellschaftshaus and the Riviera have been on the state monument list since 1977, but have been closed since 1991 and are slowly decaying. The buildings have not yet been renovated (as of the end of 2015).

history

Amusement facilities along the waterfront in the Berlin area

Together with the rapidly growing population of Berlin after the founding of the German Reich , the need for a varied organization of leisure time developed. In the area around the German capital, new residential quarters, facilities for water sports, in 1880 a regatta course and "entertainment establishments" were built. As part of this development, clubs for rowers , paddlers and sailboat drivers were founded on the Dahme - which at that time was also called Wendische Spree - and had epoch-making boathouses built. For the well-being of visitors and athletes, many excursion and dance bars opened at the end of the 19th century, including Stein's restaurant (later Stein's casino) , the Paradiesgarten establishment , the Liebig café , the Grünau community center , the Riviera and many others. (The long regatta street was only created in 1935 by merging three streets). Immediately on the bank there were piers for rowing and sailing boats, with which visitors could come from the waterfront. Large sun terraces and beer gardens invited to linger.

The Riviera began modestly in 1888 with a beer from Ernst Krüger on the banks of the Dahme. Two years later, Krüger had a free-standing dance hall built on the street side with external dimensions of 14.60 mx 19.60 m. This building had eight meter high arched windows on all four sides and offered a beautiful view of the water. That is why the establishment was officially named Restaurant Bellevue . The dance hall can be seen in the info box (on the left side of the picture). Krüger soon sold this building to C. Klebig, as can be seen on the colored postcard opposite.

Postcard from 1895: Restaurant "Bellevue"

The appearance of the Bellevue restaurant around 1895 is shown in the greeting card shown here.

The Bellevue did not stay in the possession of Klebig for long, and Johannes Bittner became the new owner.

Total renovation and renaming

From around 1920 to around 1930, extensions and completely new garden areas on the side facing away from the street were gradually built according to designs by Otto Gerth.

The building of the dance hall with its neoclassical appearance was connected to some earlier individual buildings on the garden side, which in turn were extended. Bittner bought additional plots such as the neighboring Spreehof to expand the garden area.

After the redesign, flower beds, palm trees in pots, covered restaurant spaces, water features and an open glass-vaulted concert hall determined the ambience. A separate dance floor in the open air and artistically designed lights loosened up the facility, which, at the request of the owner, was now officially called “The Riviera” or Hotel-Restaurant Riviera.

Historical postcards show the building complex as well as the open-air terraces of the Riviera under palm trees.

The innkeeper and the cook's family (H. Gottschlich) had their apartments in the basement and on the first floor of the building combination with the dance hall, above which was a summer hall with a wide window front facing the Dahme. This room was oval and divided into niches, measured 7 mx 12 m and delighted visitors with furnishings in the Art Deco style . There was also a separate wine room . Paul Lincke also conducted his orchestra in the dance hall .

Bittner operated the former Spreehof as a hotel.

Around 1929, the plots of the restaurants shown here in Friedrichstrasse were given new house numbers, number 36/37 (Gesellschaftshaus) and 38/39 (Riviera).

In 1943 the Riviera was still owned (= E) by the innkeeper Johannes Bittner, who continued to live there. Immediately opposite on the other side of Regattastraße (number 168) the German Labor Front , local group Grünau, as well as an office for people's welfare and the NSDAP , local group Grünau, had set up in a former colonist homestead.

A publication from 2013 shows that during the Nazi era, the organization Kraft durch Freude were supposed to be the sponsor of the excursion restaurants Gesellschaftshaus and Riviera. The ensemble of buildings survived the two world wars relatively unscathed.

After 1945 trust management with change of operator

After the war, the Soviet city command transferred the administration of all sports and catering facilities in Grünau to the Köpenick district office with order 124. The names of the Riviera and the Gesellschaftshaus were retained, even in the GDR era, and they were managed by the HO . After the long years of use, a thorough renovation was necessary, which began in 1957. The construction workers knocked off the previous green and yellow plaster of the Riviera, partly also the clinker bricks of the social building. Both buildings received uniform gray rough plaster. The balustrades that had previously been on the roof of the Riviera were dismantled and the arch niches inside lost their Italian landscapes. The Riviera became the "HO Gaststätte Riviera" and thus complemented the neighboring society house when dance balls were no longer up to date. In the 1980s, the riviera dance hall had to be closed, the remaining rooms were used as a disco and night bar .

After 1990 closure and decay

After the turnaround and the dissolution of the HO, the real estate went into the possession of the federal government and thus to the Treuhandanstalt or its successor, the property fund . The management was given up, the houses closed. The district (since 2001: Treptow-Köpenick ) is responsible for maintaining the buildings that have been vacant since 1991 .

In 2006, following a tender, a Turkish entrepreneur from Ankara was found who bought the building ensemble consisting of the community house and the Riviera with the land except for a six-meter-wide strip of land. The purchase price should have been 650,000  euros . The new owner intends to build a conference hotel as a seven-story tower and residential villas for owners on the site. The building authorities have not received any specific building applications (status at the end of 2015), and a previously requested demolition permit was rejected because of the preservation order. Several times, most recently at the end of 2013, the district office asked the owner to take “measures to protect the building from further deterioration”. Because nothing had happened by January 2014, the district wanted to put out jobs for craftsmen to repair the broken roofs of both houses and to securely lock the doors and windows ( arrange for a replacement ). The owner would have been billed for the costs of around 40,000 euros. In the summer of the same year, it became known that after court rulings and several hours of talks with the district office, the owner had initiated makeshift measures to stop further decay and vandalism. The demolished windows and doors were closed with chipboard (it was planned to attach perforated panels to allow air to circulate, which prevents mold from forming). The agreed deadlines for roofing work, for the renovation of the rain gutters and for the careful inspection of the existing decorative stucco were not met. As previously announced, the district officials outsourced the security work to construction companies and then passed on the invoices.

Several amateur videos circulating on the Internet show that both the parquet and the chandeliers have been removed. The illegal visitors decorated a large part of the interior walls with graffiti . Construction experts estimate that the renovation of the building in accordance with the requirements of historical monuments costs around 15 million euros, which “is not reasonable for us”, as the brother of the owner, who lives in Potsdam, announced. From the facts, construction experts and economists conclude that the inaction is intended to await the collapse of the ensemble. This would have done the monument protection.

The next act around the Riviera occurred in November 2015: The Berlin administrative court negotiated the owner's lawsuit against the district because the district had a special scaffolding erected inside the building at short notice and now demanded the return of the advanced costs of 112,000 euros. This was intended to "prevent the roof from collapsing". However, the court ruled that, according to a more recent report, this had not passed because the roof girders are not made entirely of wood, but are held by four massive steel girders, which is also evident from the historical building files. The judge emphatically appealed to both sides to find a compromise which, according to a proposal by the owner, could consist in obtaining building rights for the property company building in return for the contractually promised preservation of the Riviera Hall and the construction of a public riverside path over both properties granted.

Trying to start over

After the previous quarrels with the Turkish acquirer, the purchase agreement was canceled by mutual agreement in 2017. A new investor, Terragon Projekt GmbH, has acquired this property and that of the neighboring company building. The construction of a senior citizens' residential complex with four new buildings with at least 190 residential units, a day care facility for senior citizens and a senior living community for 10 to 12 elderly people in five-storey new buildings is planned on both areas. In addition, a small restaurant for the public is to be built on the site on the Dahme-Ufer. The district office has issued a positive preliminary building permit for the project. The Riviera's ballroom is to be renovated in accordance with the requirements of a historic monument so that it can then be used as an event space. There will be a public riverside path directly on the banks of the river with a connection to the Regatta Road. The construction plans that have become known are criticized by numerous residents and citizens' associations, the development is far too massive and, above all, a glass connecting structure bothers. The director of the Berlin Senate Building Administration, Regula Lüscher, commented: “We think it's terrible.” In January 2019, the Treptow-Köpenick building administration went public again to announce that after a number of official audits, the first construction phase had been approved. Regarding the criticism of the citizens - presented by the local association Grünau - the head of the building authority Rainer Hölmer said: "I understand that in view of the unique history of the Riviera and society house, some citizens react disappointed when it comes to future use as a senior citizens' residence". However, there is no other alternative to the project, a fictitious interested party never made contact with the building management. And the ruins are on the verge of collapse. The project for a senior citizens' residential complex is also to be welcomed due to the demographic change. The first construction phase with the complete renovation of the architectural monuments (for which the investor, the Terragon-Gesellschaft plans around 13 million euros ) is to be completed by the end of 2021 and, in addition to the first senior citizens' homes, also include the re-use of the Rivierea hall with a public restaurant.

The Riviera was not damaged in a fire at the neighboring community building in Grünau (night of July 16, 2019).

Complete gutting

In January and February 2020, the project developer Terragon AG had the entire interior of the building including the floor torn down. Only the outer walls and part of the roof have remained. After completely modernierten interior design during the construction of the retirement home are to historically relevant parts of the building to be reconstructed.

Architecture and equipment

The Riviera, to the north of the society house, had an entrance from the street next to the building with a curved wrought iron gate to the garden area and to the house (to be recognized in the introductory picture at the very left edge of the picture). The hall building, made of bricks and plastered, is single-storey and has a flat roof in the street-side building section, followed by a slightly inclined monopitch roof. Of the arched windows that were initially on all four sides, those on the side components were walled up in 1920. In the interior of the room, fantasy buildings based on Italian models were painted on the round niches created in this way, a four-tier chandelier hung in the middle of the room. (The State Monuments Office secured the chandelier in the 2010s.)

The guest entered the imposing ballroom , adorned with palm trees and nine meter high walls. Large four-lane arched windows let in daylight from the east and west. On the gable sides, round niches with intermediate half-columns formed the architectural counterpart. The columns representations went in coving over and were with stucco decorated. Around the parquet- lined dance floor there were seating areas on all four sides on a circumferential half gallery with an unobstructed view of the room. A sandstone balustrade under the handrail carried ornamental elements worked out by sculptors. There was a niche for the orchestra on one long side. The ballroom was very similar to the ballroom in the Society House.

Others

  • Objects stolen from the ruins are already being offered on the Internet. A seller from Röthenbach an der Pegnitz wrote on a classified ad page in 2013: “Art Nouveau ceiling lamp / brass, from the ballroom of the Riviera in Grünau”.
  • Under the name of Riviera Grünau , a private person in the district of Grünau maintains a website and a small marina and offers boat berths here.

literature

Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Capital Berlin-II . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 352 f .

Web links

Commons : Riviera Grünau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Different sources give years of construction between 1885 and 1895. Here the year was taken from a current publication.
  2. ^ Grünau> Friedrichstrasse . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1922, Teil 4, S. 1684 (examples of localities in 1922, when Grünau was first shown in the Berlin address book).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Treptow-Köpenick 2012. A year and reader. District Office Treptow-Köpenick (ed.); Helgunde Henschel: Riviera and Society House - Splendor and Decline (Excerpt, pp. 134-137.)
  4. ↑ Gerth, Otto . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1922, part 1, p. 861. “ Architect; Member of the Association of Visual Artists. Buildings and apartments, designs. Overall execution and advice. Studio. Apartment in Grünau, Wilhelmstrasse 14; Atelier in Berlin NW 23, Klopstockstrasse 14 “.
  5. ↑ Friedrichstrasse 36, 37, 38 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1930, IV, S. 2004 (In 1934 the number 38 was added to the address at Friedrichstrasse 39, the owner of both properties is J. Bittner).
  6. ↑ Hotel-Restaurant “Riviera”, Berlin-Grünau; Street view 1938 ( Memento from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Architectural and art monuments
  8. ↑ Regattastrasse 161 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, Part IV, p. 2130. Bittner, Johannes; Gastw . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, I, p. 222.
  9. ↑ Forgotten places of entertainment . ( Memento from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) zitty-berlin.de 2013. (Scroll down to “Ballhaus Riviera”); Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  10. ↑ Private website with brief historical abstracts and a collection of around 100 historical views from Grünau , accessed on February 4, 2016.
  11. ^ Photo of the rusted "Night BAR Riviera" sign on the building, on www.flickr.com , postcard from Grünau with HOG Riviera and society house, 1963 , postcard from three parts of the HOG Riviera, no year .
  12. ^ The court saves these houses Facsimile of an article by the Berliner Kurier , December 6, 2013; Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  13. ↑ Partial success for Riviera and Society House. Press release of the district office on the problem of the two monuments in Grünau from December 6, 2013. Accessed on January 20, 2014.
  14. ↑ Urgent application rejected: Owner must protect Hotel “Riviera” . In: MOZ , December 7, 2013.
  15. ↑ Karin Schmidl: Chipboard instead of perforated sheet. Despite legal requirements imposed on the owner, the excursion restaurants Gesellschaftshaus and Riviera continue to expire in Grünau. In: Berliner Zeitung of August 27, 2014, p. 18.
  16. ↑ Karin Schmidl: Holes in the roof. The excursion restaurants Riviera and Gesellschaftshaus have been falling into disrepair in Grünau for 20 years. Now the district intervenes. In: Berliner Zeitung , January 16, 2014.
  17. ↑ The anger over the decline grows. in: Berliner Abendblatt , with a large photo of the ballroom on the Riviera; Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  18. ↑ Karin Schmidl: How traditional houses rot in Grünau. ; Print edition: One on the roof. Two traditional restaurants in Grünau have been falling into disrepair for years. District and owner argue. Now a judge has spoken a word of power . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 29, 2016, p. 15.
  19. ↑ a b senior citizens' residence on the Dahme . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 1, 2017, p. 12.
  20. ↑ Sabine Flatau: The Müggelturm attracts thousands of visitors again . In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 1, 2017.
  21. ↑ Thomas Loy: The future of the Riviera is uncertain at www.tagesspiegel.de, July 23, 2017. Accessed November 2, 2017.
  22. ↑ Ulrich Paul: From excursion restaurant to senior residence . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 23, 2019. p. 12 (print edition).
  23. ↑ Mike Wilms: Excavated and demolished . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 20, 2020, p. 8.
  24. ↑ View of the ballroom (in the foreground) from Regattastraße.
  25. ↑ Interior view of the ballroom of the hotel-restaurant "Riviera", around 1925 ( Memento from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: interior view of the ballroom of the society house, around 1920 )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zukunftingruenau.eu
  27. ↑ Absolute rarity !!! This Art Nouveau ceiling lamp / brass comes from the ballroom of the Riviera in Grünau ( Memento from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ^ Website of Riviera Grünau