Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse (Cottbus)
The Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße ( Lower Sorbian R. Breitscheidowa droga , formerly Kaiser Street ) runs east-west in and connects the Bahnhofstrasse with street youth in Cottbus .
The former Kaiserstraße was built between 1898 and 1911 with upscale rental apartments and commercial buildings. It was already included in the development plan of 1892 between Taubenstrasse and Waisenstrasse, but was not uncovered until 1907 between Bahnhofstrasse and Tiegelgasse.
In 1912 it led to Moltkestrasse. However, it was interrupted between Grünstraße and Schillerstraße. It was not until 1928 that a connection to Dresdener Strasse was created at the height of Tiegelgasse.
The renaming of Kaiserstrasse took place in 1946 in memory of the social democratic politician Rudolf Breitscheid, who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 .
The buildings of the former hotel and the department store “Weisse Taube” of the same name, the former Kreissparkasse and the Weltspiegel film theater shape the image of Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße. The unity of the development points to the urban model of the time before the First World War.
Architectural monuments
| location | designation | description | image | |
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| 1 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 1 | "White Taube" apartment building for sale and rental | The building was erected in 1897 as a corner building on behalf of the businessman Otto Rechnitz. It is the former “White Taube” department store. Construction was carried out by the Cottbus construction company CL Schade jun. During the post-war period, the dormers , the gable and the roof turret were removed from the roof.
In 2001, the house facade was renovated and, in the process, large roof houses were built, which in terms of their shape and arrangement do not correspond to the prototypes of the building period. The floor plan is L-shaped and it is a facing brick building with four to six axes. The corner of the house is separated from the facade by tower-like risalits . The main entrance is in the sloping corner axis, which has a gabled bay window . In the gable is the old pub sign and a house motto in a clover leaf arch. On the 2nd floor, below the bay window, the inscription "Kaufhaus Weiße Taube" can be read in scrollwork . The ground floor is designed as a shop zone, while the first and second floors stand out by means of a cross-floor blend arcature and vertically accentuated ornamental cornices. On the 3rd floor, the window parapets with medallion fields entwined with plants, such as B. personalities, branches of industry and coats of arms. In addition, the sides of the street are livened up by a differentiated window design. There is a bay window on the front facing the Straße der Jugend and the entrance portal to Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße. Due to the interplay of dark and light red in the brick facade, the building looks very decorative. Furthermore, it has terracotta imitating architectural decorations made of stucco and dark green glazed brick strips. The building is typical of traditional and contemporary rental housing, whereby the function of a department store was already recognizable in the partitioning of the wall space. Due to its corner location, the building is an imposing eye-catcher from the old town. |
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| 2 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 2 | Hotel and restaurant "Weisse Taube" | The former restaurant and hotel “Weisse Taube” was built between 1899 and 1901 and is located on a corner plot between Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße and Taubenstraße. The builder and owner was Otto Rechnitz.
The architect Georg Schneider drafted the plans for the former hotel in 1897. The construction management and draft revision were carried out by the Cottbus architecture and construction office August Patzelt. After a complete renovation, the hotel "Monopol" was opened here in 1912. From the beginning of the 1920s until 1995 it housed the Cottbus-Mitte tax office. In the 1950s, the district council and the city council moved into this building. In 1999/2000 the structure was comprehensively repaired. The corner building with a width of four to five axes with a polychrome facade with different red exposed bricks is traversed by dark and light green glazed brick strips that contrast with the plastered architectural decoration. The sloping corner axis has an ogival portal and a four-storey bay window protruding over the eaves . The axes on the side of the bay window are highlighted by a glare and a closing gable. The variety of ornate windows is striking: segmented arched windows, the reveals of which are provided with slender columns and composite capitals made of terracotta ; coupled round or segmented arched windows with massive central pillars under a pointed arch panel; Segmented arched windows with roofs. Inside, important parts of the once magnificent furnishings have been preserved. Behind the entrance there is an oval vestibule with stucco ornaments borrowed from the Rococo on the walls and ceiling. Adjoining Taubenstrasse is the three-bay hall with architraved pillars and the hotel restaurant's ceiling fields framed by stucco profiles. Reference should also be made to the former common room on the first floor with a sturdy stucco ceiling and the stately main staircase. The hotel is the last representative of this branch of industry with such an original building report. It is one of the noteworthy architectural and historical examples of historicist architecture based on the Brandenburg brick Gothic. |
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| 3 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 12 | Kreissparkasse | The corner property at Bahnhofstrasse / Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse was used as a larger garden until 1935. The Kreissparkasse bought the site and had a new building built. In 1937 the unadorned pre-war building made of plastered bricks was inaugurated. The house is functional and only had one apartment for the caretaker at the time, Johannes Man. In 1950 the Stadtsparkasse took over the premises in Bahnhofstrasse and from now on the district and Stadtsparkasse worked together until 1997. The new office opened on Brandenburger Platz. In 1983 Cottbus’s first ATM was installed in this building. The front of the two-storey building faces Bahnhofstrasse, and the company logo is located above the large glazed entrance portal. The low ground floor is plastered like brick, to the left of the main entrance there are two entrance doors. The outer door leads to the administration wing and the second door leads to the machine room. The counter and customer room on the 1st floor can be reached via a large staircase from the entrance area. The Sparkasse's credit department is currently based in this building until the end of 2012. Nothing has yet been decided about the future fate and use of the old building. |
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| 4th | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 13 | Rental house | The apartment building was built in 1907/08 for master bricklayer Moritz Hausten. The building has a Berlin roof and is integrated into a perimeter block development. The plastered facade was emphasized by a bay window , which ends with an exit on the top floor. Above the bay window there is a gable with a visible framework and a flat bat dormer on each side. The smoothly plastered pilasters encircle the bay window and form the ground floor. The side axes were provided with a comb plaster and the side is shingled on the top floor.
On the second and third floors, the axially arranged windows are accentuated by smoothly plastered frames with decorative fields. The entrance area is decorated with a rose frieze and stylized depictions of animals. The cassettes built into the front door house masks that reflect the motifs of the wall decoration. The interior has remained almost unchanged. There you will find the original inventory of doors and windows, wall frames, stucco ceilings and polychrome terrazzo floors from the construction period. The building is exceptionally well preserved and offers a varied, subdivided architecture with a sophisticated detailed solution. Through the combination of fluted pilasters, rustic half-timbered and clapboard elements as well as stylized Art Nouveau decor, the building shows the eclectic tendency typical of the time. |
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| 5 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 66 | Rental house | This plastered building with a Berlin roof on the north side of the street was built in 1907/08.
This building combines neo-baroque decorative elements with large-scale half-timbered decorations in an individual way, making it a striking example of a rental apartment building from the period shortly after the turn of the 20th century. The building was repaired in 1973. A facade renovation and a modernization of the interior took place in 1990. This took place u. a. an elevator extension at the rear of the house and the expansion of the roof, losing the roof houses on the street side. The windows were copied from the original. The ground floor is kept simple. Here only the through gate is framed and covered by a curved gable with a cartouche. A slightly arched bay window at the front with a curved gable end decorated with cartouches is located on the central axis, and the bay windows are decorated by dividing posts with pearl cords. The arched window and balcony parapets were decorated with scrollwork. Due to the creative combination of the facade areas with ornamental frameworks, the third floor and the ridge-high, broken gable dominate the view. Here the middle bay continues as a round bay and is plastered at the level of the third floor. Parts of the passage are covered by a flat barrel vault with a simple geometric plaster structure on the walls. |
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| 6th | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 67 | Rental apartment and commercial building | This building under a gable roof and with a short side courtyard wing was built in 1911 and clearly shows the influences of reform architecture.
However, the mighty bay windows and roof structures indicate a beginning of a turn towards the monumental. In 1973 the side bay windows were closed during repairs. Further repair and restoration work on the facade and the passage took place in 1995. On the street side, the facade is emphasized in the middle by a three-storey bay window . This is trapezoidal on the first two floors and rectangular on the third floor. The four-part bay windows are wood-framed on the third floor. In addition there is a Off The Hook, oversized, truss-decorated apron through a roof dormer with a hipped roof , which in turn two roof houses with tail gable is accompanied. The right outer axis shows a decorative window with a flat round bay window; to the left of the bay are loggias with arched parapets. There are simple stucco elements on the parapet mirrors of the three bay windows. The ground floor has a central, arched house passage. A door opening is arranged on the right-hand side of the passage. The door and gate are from the construction period with small, barred central windows, large fenugreek and iron fittings in the lower part. Flat ceilings and ridge vaults or barrel vaults are detached in the passage, and an arcade separates the hall from the passage. Wooden loggias and a stair tower can be found on the courtyard side, which is now smoothly plastered. |
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| 7th | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 69 | Rental house | This rental apartment building, built in 1910, shows the conservative architecture of the time before the First World War.
Here, in 1999, the facade was repaired while preserving the upper floor windows and the interior was renovated while preserving the architectural features (including entrance area with mosaic floor and wall tiles, staircase over an oval floor plan with curved two-flight staircase and skylight, stucco ceilings, doors, parquet floors of the upper-class apartments) . The building with the wing facing the courtyard shows an entrance portal covered with cornice roofing (with vases). The center of the facade of the simply designed ground floor has a bay window in front of it . Here the mansard roof has a curved gable. The basement was clad with sandstone slabs, the three upper floors are summarized by finely squared colossal pilasters . Garlands, cartouches and cloth or plant hangers serve as architectural decorations, especially to emphasize the windows. The windows are designed in many ways. There are Ochsenaugen on the concave bay sides as well as in the dwelling, and on the second floor there are again French windows with filigree parapet grilles. On the courtyard side there is a three-storey round bay window, a balcony axis and a stair tower with a portal-like entrance. |
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| 8th | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 69a | Rental house | The plastered building with an L-shaped floor plan, enclosed by a mansard roof , was erected in 1911/12.
The facade was designed in the same way as house number 69, but a little more cautious in the use of architectural decorations. The ground floor is located above a sandstone-clad basement and has a ribbon structure. The front door opening on the side is crowned by a cornice roofing with volutes and accompanied by geometrically ornamented pilasters . The double-leaf, metal door was extensively glazed and provided with grilles decorated with medallions. Decorated consoles support the central bay window , the sides of which are convex. There are three slender windows on each floor, with an additional balcony exit on the second floor, the filigree balcony grille also arching outwards. The windows of the outer axes are in three parts or combined in pairs, simply framed and partially emphasized on the lintel and parapet zones. Despite the modernization measures in 1995, the porch swing door in the entrance area, its decorative glass inserts, the arched skylight accompanied by an ornamental frieze, the staircase and the two-leaf apartment doors from the construction period have been preserved. |
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| 9 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 70 | Rental apartment and commercial building | The apartment building was built in 1912 by the owner at the time, the architecture and construction business Dümpert & Haucke, in the neo-classical style. Until after 1945 this was the seat of the Siemens-Schuckert AG branch. This played a major role in the construction of the power station, the electrification of the city of Cottbus and the construction of the tram.
Around 1995, the building was modernized or partially reconstructed with the preservation of the room structures and ceiling stucco decorations as well as the doors, the main staircase and a staircase tower on the courtyard side with a spiral staircase. The property was then used as an office building. The street front is divided into a three-zone, vertical facade structure under a Berlin roof . The first two floors are combined by a central balcony bay window . On the side, colossal pilasters with braided ribbon decor adorn the porch. The side axes are provided with twin windows, over which there are gabled plaster fields. On the second floor, cartouches with integrated vases decorate the window parapets in a strong frame. Massive side balconies form the transition from the ground floor to the first floor. These are connected in the middle with the balcony bay window. Originally, the inscription “Siemens-Schuckert-Werke” could be read on the smooth plaster tape that was created in this way. Between the paired windows on the third floor, two large cartouches adorn the facade. The building is an example of neo-classical tendencies in architecture in the period before the First World War. |
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| 10 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 71 | Rental apartment and commercial building | The apartment building was designed by the owner, the architecture and construction business Dümpert & Haucke, and built between 1907 and 1909. From 1905 to 1930, the company's headquarters were on the property on the rear facing Schwanstrasse. The building with a courtyard wing has a Berlin roof . Due to its creative exterior design, the building stands out impressively from the neighboring buildings, but its architecture still blends in harmoniously with the closed row of houses. An almost facade-wide curved gable , the underside of which is decorated with a pearl frieze, determines the external impression. The design of the facade is based on Romanesque models; the window arcade has ornate columns. Above that there is an oculus with a radiant grille .
In 1975 the vertical decorative strips (varying strings of pearls) were removed and the facade was thus designed in a simple manner. In the left outer axis there is a round-arched gate entrance under a two-storey segmental arched loggias. Triple windows were installed on the third floor. The central axis has polygonal bay windows with a small roof as a transition to the ornate, wooden round bay window on the third floor. In the right outer area you will find the representative house entrance under a wide, wooden tail gable . In the entrance area, the floor tiling and the stairs and doors, which are richly crafted in Art Nouveau form, have been preserved in their original form. |
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| 11 | Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 78 | "Weltspiegel" cinema | The Cottbuser Weltspiegel is a polygonal, elongated, plastered brick building and the second oldest functional cinema building in Germany that is still in use. It was created according to a design by the architect Paul Thiel and was built by the Moritz Hausten construction company. The first film was shown on October 4, 1911. Silent films accompanied by music from a piano were broadcast until 1929. The cinema held about 800 visitors at that time. From the opening until March 1998, the Weltspiegel was used as a cinema without interruption. In the 1950s, changes were made to the facade during repair work. The writing "Weltspiegel" has been removed. Inside the building, panels, lighting and seating were replaced. In addition, the hall foyer was enlarged. Further restoration work took place in 1977 and 1990, with the cinema technology also being modernized in 1977. Among other things, a new projector room was built. The stage and the stage portal were converted to wide screens. From 1998 the building was empty. Extensive renovation work began in March 2010. This is how the facade got its original appearance from the year it was opened. In addition, a new extension to the Weltspiegel offers space for two further smaller cinema halls with 90 seats each and a café. A modern ventilation system was installed during the renovation. |
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Map with all coordinates: literature
- Gerhard Vinken et al. (Edit.): Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler , Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 .
- Irmgard Ackermann, Marcus Cante, Antje Mues: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, monuments in Brandenburg. Volume 2.1: City of Cottbus. Part 1: Old town, Mühleninsel, Neustadt and Ostrow, inner Spremberger suburb, “ city promenade ”, western expansion of the city, historic Brunschwig. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2001, ISBN 3-88462-176-9 .
- Antje Mues: Cottbus. Architecture and urban development 1871 to 1918. Westkreuz-Verlag, Berlin / Bonn 2007, ISBN 3-929592-99-1 .
- Ingrid Halbach, Karl-Heinz Müller, Steffen Delang, Gerold Glatte, Peter Biernath: Architectural Guide Cottbus. Walks through the city and surroundings. Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-345-00506-9 .
