Schweidnitzer Strasse (Breslau)

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View into Schweidnitzer Straße with the tram in south direction

The Schweidnitzer road ( Polish : Ulica Świdnicka , breslauisch : Schwo ) is one of the main streets of Breslau , of the southeast corner of Great Boulevard runs south.

history

The former Schweidnitzer gate
View in south direction with the opera and the Hotel Monopol

Development until the end of the 19th century

The street that was created during the medieval city's foundation belongs to the orthogonal street grid of the old town of Wroclaw . Already in 1303 the street was mentioned as platea swidnicensis and in 1345 as Swidnian gassin . Later the street was named Schweidnitzer Gasse and finally Schweidnitzer Straße because it leads in the direction of Schweidnitz ( Świdnica ).

After the ramparts had been razed in 1807, the road was extended to the south as Neue Schweidnitzer Strasse around 1820 . Since the middle of the 19th century, the city theater, numerous hotels (of which only two have remained until today) and department stores and shops have been built along Schweidnitzer Strasse since the end of the 19th century. The last late Gothic town houses and numerous Renaissance houses have given way to new commercial and rental residential buildings. For example, a Gothic town house had to give way to the extension of Heinrich von Korn's city ​​palace .

In 1877 the second horse-drawn tram line in Breslau was built along the entire length of the street - in 1901 the tram became electric. In 1896 the Kaiser Wilhelm I monument was built on the site of the former Schweidnitzer city gate .

Main shopping street of the city

Schweidnitzer Strasse around 1900

At the beginning of the 20th century, Schweidnitzer Strasse became the city's main shopping street. Before the Second World War , it was considered the most elegant street in the city center and was casually affectionately referred to as Schwo . Around 1930 three department stores of classical modernism ( Bielschowsky , Wertheim and Wilhelm Knittel ) were built on the street , a fourth ( Leonhard Tietz according to the plans of Hans Poelzig ) was not implemented due to the global economic crisis . No further commercial buildings were built after 1933. At the end of the 1930s, most of the department stores on Schweidnitzer Strasse were expropriated in the course of the persecution of the Jews or their Jewish owners were forced to sell for a fraction of their actual value. Most of the expropriated buildings were converted into office or production buildings before the war, with the retail space only being retained on the ground floor.

In the last days of the war, numerous, above all, Wilhelminian-style and older residential buildings with wooden roof trusses and ceilings were destroyed, while the commercial buildings with jacketed steel structures or reinforced concrete survived the war well - at least as shell structures. Plots of some burned-out houses were not rebuilt until the 1990s. The property to the south of the opera house, where the General Command was located until 1945 , and the property at the southeast corner of the intersection with ulica Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego, are still undeveloped .

Development after the Second World War until today

The north side of the street with apartment buildings from the 1950s (right)
The pedestrian underpass built in the 1970s

After the war, the name of Schweidnitzer Strasse was literally translated into ulica Świdnicka , the southern section (New Schweidnitzer Strasse) became ulica Aleksandra Fredry ( Aleksander-Fredro- Strasse ). In 1951, the entire course of the street was renamed ulica Stalingradzka ( Stalingrader Street ) (in the course of this the historical plot numbering was changed and standardized for the two street sections) and in 1956 ( de-Stalinization ) back to ulica Świdnicka .

In the 1960s, the tram was removed from the section north of Zwingerplatz (today plac Teatralny ) and the tram lines were relocated to the parallel street Siehdichfür / Schuhbrücke . In the 1970s, Schweidnitzer Strasse was cut through by Ost-West-Strasse along the former inner city moat. Since then, a pedestrian underpass has connected the two sections of the street - because of the unergonomically designed steps, it is known as schody śmiesznych kroków (or literally, the stairs of the strange steps or the stairs of the silly passages ). The staircase also became famous as the site of the political protests of the Orange Alternative in the 1980s. A dwarf monument at the north entrance of the underpass reminds of this today (an orange dwarf was the symbol of the orange alternative). The northern sections between the Großer Ring and the Zwingerplatz were converted into a pedestrian zone from 1997 to 2004 . Some historical department stores were rebuilt to such, with no restitution of the property.

The street these days is a metropolitan street with a mixed function - it serves both retail and culture. Two large former monastery churches, which are local dominants in the middle section of the street, are considered particularly interesting in their context.

Course of the road and important structures

The road runs approximately in the north-south direction and has a total length of approx. 1050 m. It is divided into three sections with regard to the history of its origins and the current spatial forms, with the inner and outer city moats and the corresponding former city gates marking the boundaries.

Northern section

The northern section of the road heading north
The house at 5 Świdnicka Street

In early modern times as Innere or Innerste , known in the 18th century as Große Schweidnitzer Straße , the northern section leads from the Großer Ring to the former inner city ​​moat (Black Ohle) and to the Innere Schweidnitzer Tor (now a pedestrian underpass of Ost-West-Straße ). This originally very narrow street section was widened considerably after the Second World War, the eastern street line was shifted by about 20 meters and has been a pedestrian zone since 1997.

  • Goldener Becher department store (No. 1, corner of Ring No. 28), eclecticism, architect Karl Grosser, 1900. After the war, the burned-out building was significantly rebuilt by removing the bay window, removing the 4th floor and adding an arcade to the corner has been. Since then there has been a post office on the ground floor of the house.
  • Residential buildings (No. 3 and 5), post-war buildings from 1955–1957 based on historical models of the Renaissance
  • Paul Schottländer department store (No. 7, before the war No. 5, on the corner of Junkernstrasse, today Hennes & Mauritz , now Merkury ), historicism , 1897, architect Karl Grosser; Façade cladding made of colored sandstone, original large glazing reduced in size in the course of temporary use.
  • Investment Wilhelm Knittel (no. 13 / pre-war number 8b, on the corner of. Ul Kazimierza Wielkiego. (East-west road)), Modern , 1929, architect Max Strasbourg; Until the end of the 19th century, the city stables stood here, mentioned as early as 1346
  • Residential and commercial building from approx. 1956 (No. 2–8, the entire east side of this street section), architects W. Czerechowski, Anna and Jerzy Tarnawski, Ryszard Natusiewicz, Ryszard Jędrak; Moderately modern, based on the neighboring historical building forms of the Great Ring with a sloping roof and accentuated triangular gables, at the same time with the almost completely glazed facade of the shops on the ground floor and the pilotis on the bridge of the intersecting ulica Ofiar Oświęcimskich (formerly Junkernstraße ) . Because of the sloping terrain towards the south, the building was placed on a kind of crepe .
  • Monument to the Orange Alternative, 2001, sculptor Olaf Brzeski. The bronze monument depicts a dwarf standing on the oversized fingertip.

Middle section

The middle section with the Hotel Monopol , the church of St. Dorothea, Wenzel and Stanislaus and the
Solpol department store behind
Sachs interest rate palace
The old main guard

As far as the outer Schweidnitzer Tor and the outer city moat , the road leads through the area that was probably incorporated as early as 1261. This section is very inhomogeneous in terms of use and design . As far as Theaterplatz, the street was converted into a pedestrian zone; south of Theaterplatz, where the tram stop of the same name is located, there are two tram tracks in the middle of the street, with only the track to the north being used in regular operation.

  • M. Gerstel department store (No. 17–19, before the war 10/11, today Raport ), Art Nouveau , 1905–1912, architect Alvin Wedemann
  • Solpol 2 department store (nos. 18-20), postmodern architecture , 1999, architect Wojciech Jarząbek
  • Solpol department store (1) (No. 21–23), post-modern architecture, 1993, architect Wojciech Jarząbek
  • Church of St. Dorothea, Wenzel and Stanislaus - Gothic , 1351-1381, foundation of Emperor Charles IV. , Master builder a. a. Peter or Paul Parler . It was an Augustinian monastery church until the Reformation in 1534 , then it was used temporarily as a warehouse and from 1615 as a monastery church for the Franciscans . It has been a parish church since secularization in 1810. The three-aisled hall is face to face with a single-nave, polygonally closed presbytery with massive buttresses facing Schweidnitzer Strasse. Although the church is dominant in the street space, the entrance is in the western yoke, i.e. H. at the opposite end of the building.
  • Chamber Theater ( Teatr Kameralny , 1912 with later renovations, a stage of the Polish Theater , No. 28 in the rear building, 31 before the war; built as a chamber light theater, it was rebuilt in 1949 as the Lower Silesian Jewish Theater, but from 1950 to 1955 gradually with the Polish theaters merged)
  • Installation Ptaki ( birds ), 2010, artist Magdalena Abakanowicz
  • Department store and hotel Monopol (No. 33, before the war 20/21), neo-baroque , 1891–1892 and 1899, architect Karl Grosser. The corner tower was destroyed in the war and was not reconstructed until 2011.
  • Office and commercial building for Julius Schottländer (No. 34, before the war 28, northeast corner to Theaterplatz, originally with Café Palais on the 1st floor), stylistically with echoes of Art Nouveau and early modernism (comparable to the Viennese architecture of that time), supporting structure as a reinforced concrete frame with a 9.60 m span, sculptural jewelry by sculptor Richard Schipke, 1909–1911, architects Richard and Paul Ehrlich
  • Breslauer Oper (No. 35), Classicism , 1841, architect Carl Ferdinand Langhans , later rebuilt by Carl Johann Lüdecke and Karl Schmidt after fires ; opposite the opera opens plac Teatralny (Theaterplatz, formerly Zwingerplatz )
  • Zinspalais Sachs (No. 36, corner of plac Teatralny 1 and 2), neo-Renaissance, 1870–1873, architect Karl Schmidt. The four-storey house built for Moritz and Leopold Sachs consists of two components with a uniform facade, which is divided by three bay windows and originally had seven staircases. It was considered to be the largest apartment building in Wroclaw from the late Wilhelminian era. Today it is an institute building of the University of Wroclaw .
  • Corpus Christi Church ( ulica Bożego Ciała No. 1 , corner of Schweidnitzer Straße at No. 36) - Gothic, started in 1351, completed in 1447, neo-Gothic prefix added in 1875; former Johanniterkirche , three-aisled, five-bay basilica with high brick west gable
  • Former guard (No. 38), neo-renaissance , rebuilt from an older building in the 19th century
  • King Bolesław Monument, 2007, sculptor Dorota Korzeniewska, a modern equestrian statue ; The Kaiser Wilhelm I monument , built in 1896, stood on the same spot until 1945

Southern section

The former Martin Schneider department store, now the
Podwale department store
Installation przejście

After the French conquest of Wroclaw in 1806, the city fortifications were razed. From 1810 the magistrate redesigned the suburbs and in the course of this the Schweidnitzer Straße was extended to the south by straightening a former field path. The section laid out in the 1820s from the city moat to the then city limits or today's Stadtbahn Viadukt was first known as Neue Schweidnitzer Strasse , after the war it was briefly known as Aleksander-Fredro-Strasse. At the intersection with Marschall-J.-Piłsudski- Strasse there is the only bend in the course of Schweidnitzer Strasse, which here adapts to the direction of the former road to Schweidnitz.

  • Martin Schneider department store (No. 37, before the war Neue Schweidnitzer Straße No. 1, today Podwale department store ), historicism , 1896, modern extension , 1907/1908, architects Höniger & Sedelmeier Berlin; Execution (1908) Construction business Simon & Halfpaap master mason in Breslau according to a given design.

The building was converted from a residential building, the origins of which date back to the first half of the 19th century, in 1896, with only the ground floor and first floor being used as retail space. The building was expanded in 1908 along the cross street Podwale No. 37-38 (formerly Schweidnitzer Stadtgraben No. 11, location of the former Liebich'schen garden and hall establishment ), this time with four storeys.

  • Wertheim department store (No. 40, today Renoma ), Neues Bauen , 1929, architect Hermann Dernburg . In 1937 the house was expropriated as Jewish property by the National Socialists and after it was renamed AWAG it kept its function as one of the few department stores in Wroclaw. It burned down in March 1945 and was gradually reopened as a state department store from 1948 after the war. The building, which was privatized in the 1990s, was fundamentally renovated at the beginning of the 21st century according to a design by Zbigniew Maćków and expanded into plac Czysty (formerly Salvatorplatz ) on the side facing away from Schweidnitzer Straße.
  • Plac Tadeusza Kościuszki (German: Tadeusz-Kościuszko-Platz , formerly Tauentzienplatz ), laid out after the demolition of the city fortifications after 1807, square with a side length of 150 meters with four streets that open in the middle (south and north of Schweidnitzer Straße, to the west and east of the Tadeusza Kościuszki street , formerly Tauentzienstrasse ). The inspiration for the location was the French urban planning of classicism. Until the end of the Second World War, the grave monument of Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentziens dominated the center of the square, now there is a memorial stone for the fighters for freedom and independence .
  • Housing ensemble Kościuszko-Wohnviertel ( Kościuszkowska Dzielnica Mieszkaniowa , shorter KDM or casual arcades ), socialist realism of the 1950s (1952–1956), built as a replacement for the war-torn apartment buildings, architect Roman Tunikowski; in the section south of plac Tadeusza Kościuszki , the street is lined on both sides by two- story arcades , known as Arkady .
  • Installation Przejście ( Passage or Crossing ) at the intersection with Marshal J. Piłsudski Street, 2005, by artist Jerzy Kalina

At the railway overpass, ulica Świdnicka turns into ulica Powstańców Śląskich (formerly SA Street , before Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße and even earlier Kleinburger Chaussee ).

literature

  • Jan Harasimowicz (ed.): Atlas architektury Wrocławia . tape 1 . Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Breslau 1997, ISBN 83-7023-592-1 , p. 33, 35, 125, 199, 239-241, 297, 251-255, 257 .
  • Jan Harasimowicz (ed.): Atlas architektury Wrocławia . tape 2 . Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Breslau 1998, ISBN 83-7023-679-0 , p. 69, 93, 209 .
  • Hermann Markgraf: The streets of Wroclaw according to their history and their names . In: Communications from the City Archives and the City Library of Wroclaw . tape 2 . G. Morgenstern, Breslau 1896, p. 191–193 ( jbc.jelenia-gora.pl [accessed August 8, 2012]).
  • Zofia Ostrowska-Kębłowska u. a .: Ulica Świdnicka we Wrocławiu . VIA-Wydawnictwo, Breslau 1995, ISBN 83-8664203-3 .
  • Maria Zwierz: Banki i hotele przy ulicy Świdnickiej we Wrocławiu . In: Jerzy Rozpędowski (ed.): Architektura Wrocławia . tape 4 : Gmach . Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wrocławskiej, Wrocław 1998, ISBN 83-7085-393-5 , p. 329-354 .

Web links

Commons : Schweidnitzer Straße (Breslau)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The architecture of the XX. Century. Born in 1913, plate 90.
  2. Construction business advertisement Simon & Halfpaap, master mason ( fotopolska.eu ).
  3. Supplement to No. 31 of the Kladderaddadatsch, No. 31 of July 7, 1867 ( books.google.fr ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 16.4 "  N , 17 ° 1 ′ 51.1"  E