Shell house
The Shell House is a five- to ten-storey building on the Landwehr Canal in the Tiergarten district of Berlin at Reichpietschufer 60–62, not far from the Kulturforum . The under monument protection standing office building was designed by the architect Emil Fahrenkamp 1930-1932 at the former Queen Augusta Street (from 1933: Tirpitzufer, since 1947: Reichpietschufer) for the Hamburg Rhenania Ossag Mineralölwerke AG (1947: German Shell AG ) established. In 1929 Fahrenkamp won first place in the competition to build the house, in which five architects took part. Since 2012 it has been part of the second headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Defense alongside the Bendlerblock .
architecture
The steel frame building, erected on an area of 2700 m², is stylistically assigned to the New Objectivity and is one of the most important office buildings of the Weimar Republic . The distinctive design is determined by vertical wave forms of different heights and a consistently horizontal structure with ribbon windows, which are also guided over the exterior curves. The facade was lined with aerated concrete blocks and clad with slabs of Roman travertine from Tivoli . A technical innovation was intended to reduce the vibrations from road traffic: air slots under the sidewalks around the building kept the vibrations away from the steel frame.
history
The naval command (from 1935: High Command of the Navy ), which until then had been housed in the nearby " Bendlerblock ", occupied the building from 1934. During the Second World War , a military hospital was set up in the basement of the building . In the last days of the war, the building suffered severe damage to the upper floors during the Battle of Berlin . In 1946, the central administration of the Bewag energy supply company moved into the building and bought it after the war damage had been repaired in 1952. From 1965 to 1967, two extensions were built on the area north of Sigismundstrasse, also in steel frame construction based on designs by Paul Baumgarten .
The Shell house has been a listed building since 1958 . The adjoining extensions from the 1960s, however, were never listed; a corresponding application was rejected in 1995.
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There was a dispute about the renovation of the Shell house in the 1980s and 1990s because the Bewag renovation was too expensive. The courtyard facade was refurbished as early as the early 1980s, but not in keeping with the monument. In 1997, Bewag finally began the renovation, for which costs of 50 million marks were estimated. The renovation work was completed in February 2000; the cost had risen to 80 million marks. Among other things, all travertine panels on the facade were renewed. The quarry near Rome , which had already been closed, was reopened especially for this purpose . Following the renovation work, the energy supply company Gasag moved into the Shell house as a new tenant in March 2000 .
In June 2000, Bewag sold the entire 15,700 m² site with Shell house and extensions to Viterra Gewerbeimmobilien GmbH (part of Deutsche Annington since 2005 ). This had the extension buildings demolished and a business and conference hotel of the Maritim chain with 500 rooms built for around 300 million marks . The Maritim Hotel Berlin opened in August 2005 .
In 2000, Bewag received the Berlin Monument Preservation Prize, the Ferdinand von Quast Medal, for the renovation of the Shell house .
In an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost , the architect Meinhard von Gerkan described the Shell House as the most beautiful building in Berlin for him.
Gasag's lease ended in March 2011. She moved into the newly rented main building near Hackescher Markt at Henriette-Herz-Platz 4.
The Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA) signed a lease for the Shell house with Deutsche Annington on May 4, 2012 on behalf of the Ministry of Defense . This enabled the Ministry of Defense to relocate a total of 360 posts from its headquarters in Bonn to the Berlin headquarters in autumn 2012 . The rental period is five years with an option to terminate after three years. The rent agreed in the contract is almost 20 million euros over five years, and around twelve million euros if canceled after three years. The lease began on September 1, 2012.
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Richard Gessner : Shell house under construction . 1930, oil on panel
- Nikolaus Bernau: American Baroque as an advertising symbol - Super GAU or model case of monument preservation? The renovated Shell house in Berlin . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 9, 2000; detailed article on the renovation of the house
- Nikolaus Bernau: Throwaway culture in urban planning - The Berlin monument preservation debate continues with the Bewag high-rise buildings . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 20, 2000; detailed article on the demolition of the extension building
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bewag renovates Shell house . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 11, 1997
- ↑ Bonjour, Shell House . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 5, 2000
- ↑ A hotel is being built at the Shell House . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 12, 2001
- ^ List of the winners of the Ferdinand von Quast Medal ( Memento from December 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Senate Department for Urban Development
- ↑ Interview on welt.de , January 3, 2007
- ↑ Big plans on Hackescher Markt . In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 30, 2008
- ↑ Ministry of Defense uses Shell House in Berlin . Department of Defense website, May 4, 2012
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 22 " N , 13 ° 21 ′ 48" E