Schwartz's villa
The Schwartzsche Villa is a monument at Grunewaldstrasse 55 in the Berlin district of Steglitz . The building was built by Christian Heidecke in 1895/1896 and inaugurated in 1898 as the summer residence of the banker Carl Schwartz. It has housed a public cultural institution of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf Department of Culture since 1995, under the direction of Brigitte Hausmann since 2017.
history
In 1895, one year after his retirement, the banker Carl Schwartz commissioned the architect Christian Heidecke, who had previously built Max Liebermann's house at Pariser Platz 6 and 7, to build the villa. The house was inaugurated on February 16, 1898 on the occasion of the christening of the first grandson.
The villa served the family as a summer residence until Carl Schwartz's death in 1915. After a renovation in 1915, two of the banker's daughters lived in this house with their families until the end of the Second World War . Gabriele Schwartz, the last family member living in the house, died in an air raid in the last weeks of the war , and the house was initially empty.
In the post-war years , parts of the house were used by the Wadzeck-Anstalt, an orphanage, which, however, moved to Lichterfelde in 1947 . The Schwartzsche Villa was unsuitable for such a use due to the heavy traffic in the meanwhile strongly changed environment. The later use as a warehouse for the Butter-Beck company was classified by the district housing office as a misappropriation of living space and thus prohibited. In 1961 the property was finally acquired by the community of heirs of the descendants through the state of Berlin, originally to build an extension of the town hall there. For this the villa would have had to be demolished. It was then occupied for a long time by students and shared apartments. Later development plans included the construction of a house for adult education ( adult education center ) or an indoor swimming pool. However, since the beginning of 1981 a Lankwitz cultural initiative has been campaigning against these plans for the preservation and conversion of the villa into a cultural center . In order to promote the idea, u. a. held a first street festival on Hermann-Ehlers-Platz in June 1981 .
As a result of this initiative, the house was listed as a historical monument in 1983 , and a sponsoring association Kulturhaus Schwartzsche Villa was founded to develop a usage concept. After a district decision in favor of a cultural center, the Berlin House of Representatives approved ten million marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 9.53 million euros) for a renovation of the villa. 97 years after its inauguration as the Schwartz family's summer residence, a second foundation stone was laid . In 1995 the Schwartzsche Villa was opened as a cultural center. In addition to the gallery, there is a concert and events hall, a room theater, an atelier, a printing workshop, a photo laboratory, a rehearsal stage and a music room.
Todays use
In addition to exhibitions in the gallery and studio, concerts in the salon and performances in the room theater are presented. Art courses for children are also offered and the rooms in the house can be used for rehearsals and workshop work. Concerts and readings are mainly planned and organized by external organizers. The exhibitions present works by contemporary artists, another focus is regional history.
There is a café on the ground floor where people with disabilities are trained and work under collectively agreed terms.
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Schwartzsche Villa on the website of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf Cultural Office
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schwartzsche Villa website. Retrieved August 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Information page of the Steglitz Cultural Office , see here u. a the monthly program of events (PDF), accessed on August 13, 2014
- ↑ Café Schwartzsche Villa. Retrieved on August 12, 2019 (German).
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 '24.9 " N , 13 ° 19' 9.8" E