Schwanenwerder
| Schwanenwerder | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Havel | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 26 '54 " N , 13 ° 10' 9" E | |
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| length | 830 m | |
| width | 430 m | |
| surface | 25 ha | |
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Schwanenwerder is an island in the Berlin district of Nikolassee in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district . It is located in the Havel at the exit of the Großer Wannsee and is connected to the bank by a bridge. To the west of the island on the opposite bank of the Havel lies Kladow , to the southwest the Pfaueninsel .
Schwanenwerder is almost completely built on with villas and single-family houses; access to the bank is not possible for the public. The island is made accessible by the island road, which runs largely kidney-shaped. Schwanenwerder is a popular residential area. Alexander Parvus and Nazi greats like Joseph Goebbels , Ernst Udet and Theo Morell lived here . Also Axel Springer erected there in a 2.7-hectare park, the Villa Tranquillitati .
history
founding
The approximately 250,000 m² island was first mentioned in 1704 as Der Sandtwerder . After that it was called Sandwerder , according to another source also Cladower Sandwerder . It was originally a sandy, largely bare area overgrown with a few trees and bushes. The street Am Sandwerder on the east bank of the Wannsee has been reminiscent of its old name since 1933 .
In 1882 the lamp manufacturer Wilhelm Wessel, who had made his fortune through the invention of the petroleum burner , acquired the island for 9,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 67,000 euros) from the Kladow landowner Kässel, and according to another source for 27,000 marks from the manor owner Hugo von Platen zu Sophienwalde. He had a bridge and a looped access road built. The island was parceled out. The plots were offered for sale, with each villa plot on the water having an inner plot for farm buildings and kitchen gardens, separated by Inselstrasse.
The first building on the island was the Villa Schwanenhof in the interior of the island, which the Wessel family lived in themselves. Why Wessel preferred the interior of the island for his own house is not known. But it is likely because it is at the highest point of the island and from there (back then without tall trees) the view over the island and Wannsee is best. The building has been preserved to this day.
In 1901, Kaiser Wilhelm II officially approved the more sonorous name Schwanenwerder , which Wessel had long wanted. At the turn of the 20th century, only three villas had been built, but in the years before the First World War , the island became a refuge for the wealthy with magnificent country estates. For example, the department store owners Berthold Israel and Rudolph Karstadt , the bank directors Oscar Schlitter , Samuel Goldschmidt (director of the Goldschmidt-Rothschild bank ), Arthur Salomonsohn ( Disconto-Gesellschaft ), Oscar Wassermann ( Deutsche Bank ) and Georg Solmssen, the banker and owner of the Schultheiss, lived here -Patzenhofer brewery , Walter Sobernheim , and the owner of the chocolate factory Trumpf , Richard Monheim. Next lived here Werner Feilchenfeld ( Counsel of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce ), Eduard Mosler (owner of the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft ), the surgeon Fedor Krause , Hans Quilitz (owner of glass works for the chemical industry), Waldemar Lohse (owner of a chemical plant), the Newspaper publisher Leo Goldstaub, the textile merchant Alfred Gugenheim, district judge Herbert Gidion.
time of the nationalsocialism
During the time of National Socialism there were forced sales and auctions of the property of the Jewish owners in favor of the National Socialist celebrities. The most famous island inhabitant of that time was the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . In 1935 he bought the property at Inselstrasse 8-10 from bank director Oscar Schlitter, which was far below its value. Three years later he also bought the neighboring property, which had belonged to the emigrated banker Samuel Goldschmidt, for a ridiculous price. Goebbels had his property expanded pompously and organized lavish parties. Near Goebbels lived at no. 18, formerly in the possession of Sobernheim and from 1920 up by Lenin's journey from 1917 to Moscow known Alexander Parvus inhabited from 1936 the actor Gustav Frohlich , but moved away after his girlfriend Lída Baarová , with whom he lived on Schwanenwerder, left him and began an affair with Goebbels. After that Albert Speer lived here for a while on rent. From 1938 the chemical industrialist (“ Spalt- Tablette”) Max Baginski lived in the former main villa in Sobernheim . After the Second World War , the villa was used by the Americans and was a private clinic from 1954 until it was demolished in 1971. Today there is a Würth AG conference center there .
In 1942, the resistance fighter Hansheinrich Kummerow planned an explosives attack on Goebbels right next to the Inselbrücke, which, however, was thwarted early.
Hitler's personal physician Theo Morell came into the possession of the villa and property of the banker Georg Solmssen through " Aryanization " in 1939 . The neighboring property Inselstrasse 20-22 was acquired by the Reich Chancellery in 1939 and is said to have been reserved for Hitler personally. In 1939 Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild had to cede her property at Inselstraße 7 to Albert Speer for only 150,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 644,000 euros).
After the Second World War
After the Second World War, the island was briefly occupied by the Russians , who set up a fishing station. However, they were ousted by the Americans in July 1945 , who used it for the Potsdam Conference . Among other things, Dwight D. Eisenhower had his quarters here - in the former villa of Walter Sobernheim - and later Lucius D. Clay , who planned the Berlin Airlift from there .
During the Second World War, the island was largely spared from destruction, but the area was neglected for years after the end of the war. From the end of the 1940s houses and property were returned to their rightful owners or their heirs in so-called “reparation proceedings”. These mostly separated from their properties by selling them to the State of Berlin. Around 40 percent of the island has since been owned by the land. In the 1950s to 1970s, many villas were demolished and plans for new construction were approved. Today hardly anything is reminiscent of the landscape park once interspersed with noble villas.
Today there is a youth home, a children's recreation center and a group tent on the island. Until 2010, Guard 3 of the Berlin water police was also located there . There is also a remnant of the destroyed Palais des Tuileries , which was bought in Paris in 1882 and brought here. A bunker that was built near his house to protect Goebbels can be viewed on request. On the property of the demolished Goebbels villa was the Aspen Institute , which tries to convey US policy issues abroad.
The construction of a modern and large-scale villa caused controversial discussions among the residents , as it is located directly on the bank and can be seen from the water.
In 2010, some more than 10,000 m² large undeveloped lake properties were auctioned on the island. The Liegenschaftsfonds also auctioned a 2,300 m² plot of land on which the Aspen Institute was last located, and before that the guard rooms of the Schutzstaffel and Joseph Goebbels' vehicle fleet.
The former Berlin police chief Georg Schertz, who grew up on the island and lives there, is regarded as a Schwanenwerder chronicler .
Others
- Until 1945 there was a sign on the small bridge to Schwanenwerder with the text "Private property, no driving on the road".
- When the first German version of the board game Monopoly appeared in 1933 , the most expensive property there was Inselstraße (not Schlossallee), whereupon Joseph Goebbels had the game banned.
- Schwanenwerder was mentioned in the television series Praxis Bülowbogen (1987–1996) because the family of Dr. Brockmann (played by Günter Pfitzmann ) lived in a villa there.
literature
- Schwanenwerder Island , (Brochure, 24 pages PDF; 1.9 MB).
- Heike Stange: Sobernheim family ... and the "Waltrud House" on Schwanenwerder , Ed .: Centrum Judaicum , Hentrich & Hentrich , Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95565-087-2 (= Jewish miniatures , vol. 163).
Web links
- Special exhibition on Schwanenwerder in the house of the Wannsee Conference
- Information column for the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berlin Quiet, please! In: tagesspiegel.de , May 8, 2013.
- ↑ a b c Horst Kammrad: Walks in Zehlendorf. Haude & Spener publishing house, 1996.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The island of Schwanenwerder. ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Internet presence of the House of the Wannsee Conference.
- ↑ a b The column of the Tuileries Castle stands on Schwanenwerder. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 4, 2006.
- ↑ a b c A tour of Schwanenwerder . At: tagesspiegel.de , April 17, 2015
- ↑ a b Christine Fischer-Defoy et al. (Ed.): Insel Schwanenwerder , Active Museum Fascism and Resistance in Berlin e. V., Steglitz-Zehlendorf Cultural Office, Berlin 2013
- ↑ Continue on Inselstrasse… . At: Berlin from 50 ...
- ↑ Brad Pitt: Pack your swimming trunks. In: Gala , July 25, 2007.
- ↑ Goebbels Schwanenwerder. In: zeit.de , May 11, 2010.
- ↑ Schwanenwerder - The many secrets of the island in the Wannsee. In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 23, 2014.
- ↑ The mysterious mega villa divides Schwanenwerder. In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 21, 2009.
- ↑ Katrin Lange: Mysterious mega-villa divides Schwanenwerder. In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 21, 2009.
- ↑ Thomas Loy: Goebbels Garage on offer. In: Die Zeit , May 11, 2010.
- ↑ Publishing information on the book and the Sobernheim family and their "Haus Waltrud" on Schwanenwerder
