Schwabylon
| Schwabylon | |
|---|---|
| Basic data | |
| Location: | Munich - Schwabing |
| Opening: | November 1973 |
| Shops: | 96 |
| Owner : | Otto Schnitzenbaumer |
| Technical specifications | |
| Architect : | Justus Dahinden |
| Building-costs: | planned: 140 million DM , realized: 160 million DM. |
The Schwabylon was a shopping and leisure center at Leopoldstrasse 202 / 202a in Munich - Schwabing, west of the Schwabing freight yard .
etymology
The name Schwabylon is a suitcase word from the terms Schwabing and Babylon . The Austrian writer Alexander Roda Roda had already published a collection of stories and anecdotes with the title Schwabylon or: The storm-free bachelor in 1921 .
description
The Augsburg real estate entrepreneur Otto Schnitzenbaumer (1922–2012) had the building planned by the architect Justus Dahinden (1925–2020) and built in 1973 for 160 million DM . It was opened on November 9, 1973.
The Schwabylon was characterized by its unusual architecture: It was almost windowless and from the outside was reminiscent of a step pyramid on which a stylized rising sun was painted in bright colors (red, orange, yellow). In the words of Justus Dahinden: “The rising sun on the step pyramid of Schwabylon should be more [...] than just an original facade graphic. […] Here, the functional purpose-built architecture is to be alienated and humanized through an overarching artistic intervention. ”There were no stairs in the building itself, only ramps.
The entire complex consisted of several components: a hotel including a shopping center, offices and apartments and the actual Schwabylon, the “shopping promenade with around 100 shops, boutiques and galleries, 12 restaurants, a beer garden with gnarled old chestnuts, an arcade, cinema, sports facilities, Roman Thermal baths, sauna, solarium, swimming pool and an artificial ice rink ”. From the neighboring Hotel Holiday Inn one came to the three-story nightclub Yellow Submarine , which "is surrounded on all sides by a 600,000 liter water tank in which over 30 sharks cavort".
However, the Schwabylon turned out to be a bad investment . At the end of 1974, the last six of the initial 86 shop tenants were given notice. This means that the shop center was empty again after just 14 months. The vacant part of the building was demolished in spring / summer 1979. The insurance company DBV-Winterthur subsequently built an administrative building on the property .
Parts of the underground swimming pool, the underground car park and the nightclub belonging to the entire complex (but without the shark pool), the Holiday Inn Hotel and the tall apartment buildings behind it (Leopoldstrasse 204/206) have been preserved. The apartment houses and the Holiday Inn Hotel survived through ominous real estate deals that the builder Otto Schnitzenbaumer is said to have undertaken ( Helaba scandal ). The hotel and the night club were demolished in January 2013, despite protests and efforts to preserve it from the population, in order to make room for the new construction of the Schwabinger Tor .
The Schwabylon left a formative impression in Munich. An exterior shot of the Schwabylon adorns the cover of the 1997 LP / CD "The Sound Of Munich" by the Munich band Merricks. In the “ Derrick ” episode “A Suitcase from Salzburg” (1975) the Schwabylon can be seen prominently in the picture several times, parts of the plot are even supposed to take place inside. Part of the Maulhelden episode of the Munich Stories series was filmed in the ice rink. The Schwabylon can also be seen from the inside for a few minutes in Fassbinder's film Faustrecht der Freiheit. The British rock band Queen completed a photo session in Schwabylon.
literature
- Binder, Herbert: Architecture critical - In quiet rest, [sic] rests Schwabylon. In: Der Architekt , No. 2/1975, pp. 91–93, ISSN 0003-875X
- Hermann Bossenecker: The Lord of Schwabylon. - The unstoppable rise of the agricultural machinery dealer Otto Schnitzenbaumer. ( Memento from September 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Die Zeit , No. 50/1971
- Hermann Bossenecker: Colorful bunker for millions - Will the major Schwabylon project by Munich-born Schnitzenbaumer fail ? In: Die Zeit , 42/1973
- Hermann Bossenecker: The Swiss are grinding Schwabylon - The vacant leisure center is to give way to an insurance building. In: Die Zeit 31/1977
- End of a ghost town . In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1978
- Under the roof . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1971 ( online ).
- Manfred Sack: Man himself - "Schwabylon" was opened in Munich and smothered with speech smoke by its architect. In: Die Zeit , No. 47/1973.
- Karl Stankiewitz: Munich - City of Dreams: Projects, bankruptcies, utopias . Franz Schiermeier Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-9809147-6-3 , p. 94
Web links
- Süddeutsche Zeitung: Places that have disappeared: The brief hype about Schwabylon , June 16, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ Under the roof . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1971 ( online ).
- ↑ End of a ghost town. In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1978.
- ↑ Alexander Roda Rodas Schwabylon / Sybabilōn in the German National Library.
- ↑ Obituaries
- ↑ The architect of Schwabylon is dead
- ↑ Disappeared Places: The Hype about Schwabylon
- ↑ Man himself. In: Die Zeit , No. 47/1973.
- ↑ a b The Lord of Schwabylon. ( Memento from October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Die Zeit , No. 50/1971.
- ↑ Münchner Merkur , August 17, 1979
- ↑ Schwabylon swimming pool . Website of the Bunker Friends Munich. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 30, 2011 Haie behind the counter , accessed on July 10, 2013
- ↑ Abendzeitung Munich, January 28, 2013 Leopoldstrasse: The "Holiday Inn" is being torn down , accessed on April 30, 2013
- ^ Merricks - The Sound Of Munich . Merricks website. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- ↑ Derrick: Episode 12: A suitcase from Salzburg Derrick Fan Blog. Retrieved October 2, 2012
- ↑ youtube; from hour 1 min 44
- ^ Into the wild seventies: Munich / Olympiapark · New exhibition in the Rockmuseum Munich on wochenanzeiger.de on May 5, 2016, accessed on May 6, 2020
Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 29.1 ″ N , 11 ° 35 ′ 10.9 ″ E