Sigrid Kressmann-Zschach

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Sigrid Kressmann-Zschach (born July 27, 1929 in Leipzig , † October 28, 1990 in Berlin ) was a German architect and building contractor . In Berlin she designed the Ku'damm-Karree and the Steglitzer Kreisel .

Life

Kressmann-Zschach's largest construction project, the Steglitz roundabout

She was born as the daughter of the Leipzig master builder Friedrich Zschach, studied architecture in Dresden and graduated as a qualified engineer. In the 1950s she moved to West Berlin .

After her marriage to the Kreuzberg district mayor Willy Kressmann ( SPD ) in 1960, she became part of Berlin society and was always one of the first to have information on building projects by the Berlin state government. The divorce took place two years later. In the years to come, with around 300 employees, she became the city's most successful building contractor and was also respected by her political opponents. She moved into a villa on Halensee and a penthouse in Schöneberg . In the tabloids she made headlines with changing society lovers, which she commented with brisk slogans: "You can never have enough men, houses and money" .

Various major Berlin projects were linked to her name. In the sub-center on Schloßstraße in Steglitz , she built the Steglitzer Kreisel from 1968 to 1974 , a shopping center with a parking garage, underground and bus station and a 27-storey office tower. From 1969 to 1974 she built the Ku'damm-Karree in Berlin's city center on Kurfürstendamm , a shopping arcade with two theaters ( Theater am Kurfürstendamm , Komödie ), a parking garage and a 20-storey office building.

In 1972 Kressmann-Zschach's construction company Avalon GmbH & Co. KG got into financial difficulties due to rising construction costs and a lack of tenants for the roundabout . In 1973 she went bankrupt and had to file for bankruptcy in April 1974. The Berlin state government was liable for a guarantee of 42 million DM. Even the Ku'damm-Karree did not pay off. The Berlin Senate acquired it shortly after its completion in 1974 for 22.7 million DM. As a result, the Berlin House of Representatives set up a committee of inquiry into the involvement of the building and finance authorities in the Kreisel affair . This determined a "negligent breach of duty" on the part of the building senator Rolf Schwedler (SPD). Furthermore, the head of the regional finance office in Berlin, Klaus Arlt, who helped Kressmann-Zschach professionally and was also personally close to her, was suspended from office.

Kressmann-Zschach was in his second marriage from 1960 to 1962 with the district mayor of Berlin-Kreuzberg Willy Kressmann, in his third marriage with the artist and businessman Donatello Losito and had a daughter from his first marriage. As a supporting member of the Bauhaus Archive , the Friends of the National Gallery, the Kulturkreis Deutsche Industrie and the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Berlin Museum , she donated large parts of her fortune for charitable purposes.

Sigrid Kressmann-Zschach died in Berlin in 1990 at the age of 61. Her grave is in the Zehlendorf forest cemetery . Losito established the Losito • Kressmann-Zschach Foundation in his will in 2008 .

Works

literature

  • Harry Balkow-Gölitzer , Rüdiger Reitmeier: On new shores. The story of the celebrities in Wannsee and Nikolassee . Project agency Domain Dahlem, Berlin 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WERNER VAN BEBBER: Felt has a long tradition in Berlin. March 20, 2016, archived from the original on September 9, 2016 ; accessed on September 9, 2016 (German).
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 635.
  3. ↑ http://www.lkzf.de
personal data
SURNAME Kressmann-Zschach, Sigrid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kressmann-Zschach-Losito, Sigrid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and building contractor
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1990
Place of death Berlin