Sports and recreation center

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Opening of the SEZ on March 20, 1981
In the SEZ (1981)
In the SEZ (1987)
1 mark - block of the GDR post 1981 for the opening of the SEZ

The sports and recreation center (SEZ) was a multifunctional building complex for sports and entertainment in Berlin-Friedrichshain , which was unique in its size when it opened in 1981. In the GDR it was a public object of prestige for the party and state leadership. The entrance and restaurant prices were highly subsidized. It is located at the Landsberger Allee / Danziger Strasse intersection .

history

1981 to 1991

The sports and recreation center was completed on March 20, 1981 according to plans by a Swedish team of architects by the construction management for the special project in Berlin under the direction of Erhardt Gißke and opened after a construction period of 27 months. It already attracted 16 million visitors in the first five years of its existence. The modern and open architecture with over 15,000 m² of glass also emphasized the inviting character of the house from the outside. The entire complex was designed for up to 22,000 visitors per day. For the residents of East Berlin and many GDR citizens, the SEZ was as important as the Palace of the Republic . Long queues in front of the entrances were not uncommon. In order to limit the rush, entrance fees between 20 and 50 pfennigs were charged even for those visitors who did not want to do sports.

The SEZ became known and appreciated not only for its many modern sports facilities, but also for its event program. There were sporting events, variety shows, cabaret, small theaters, entertainment shows, dance events, folklore events, culturally and artistically stocky themed restaurants, concerts and large events. The “SEZ-Complete” held four times a year was particularly popular with up to 15,000 visitors. For this two-day event, the whole house was lavishly decorated and converted into 15 different venues.

The building housed among other things:

  • A swimming pool and fun pool with seven pools, some of which run into one another, with a waterfall and additionally heated (including a sauna area, a wave pool , a diving tower pool , a cascade pool, a 400 m² heated outdoor pool and integrated tanning areas ) The latter were somewhat problematic because they were more remote Islands that were on a staircase, on different levels, were also more likely to have consensual sexual contacts. A large outdoor pool with a water slide was accessible from the inside through an underpass or an approx. 2 cm rubber wall through which you had to dive.
  • an ice or roller skating rink (winter / summer operation), where the only skateboard produced in the GDR, the Germina Speeder , could be borrowed
  • Sports halls
  • Fitness studios ("conditioning and self-test rooms")
  • a modern bowling facility with 16 lanes
  • a table tennis hall
  • Gym and ballet halls
  • several multifunctional event rooms including stage, light and sound technology
  • a martial arts school
  • Large billiards and open-air sports facilities ( tennis , table tennis , boules , mini golf , badminton )
  • a chess club
  • a "children's sports garden" (where visitors with entrance tickets for the facilities could have their toddlers looked after free of charge for a maximum of 4 hours)
  • a hair salon
  • a sports medicine practice

Ten different gastronomic facilities were integrated in the building complex (including beer restaurant “Zur Molle”, restaurant “Kristall”, “Kaskade”, “Foyertreff”, “Polariumtreff”, ice-milk bar “Wellentreff”).

The GDR fitness sports program “ Medicine according to notes ” was filmed in the large sports hall of the SEZ .

1991 until today

After the end of the GDR in 1990, there were years of uncertainty about the continuation of the property. Gradually, the sports facilities and events were stopped and almost the entire workforce was laid off. The costs were too high for the Berlin Senate as the new owner and the SEZ was closed in December 2002. The workforce was transferred to other Senate institutions. The building complex was then sold to a Leipzig investor. Immediately afterwards, the gray building was given a new coat of paint. In November 2003 the renovated bowling alley as well as the badminton and table tennis hall were again available to visitors for sporting activities. In the following years, extensive gutting and maintenance work was carried out. The SEZ park was extensively redesigned, more than 5000 plants were replanted.

In 2004 a day open air took place as part of Love Week (replacement event of the Love Parade). In 2009, a multifunctional sports area was opened, in which ball sports fields, fitness, water areas and a sauna area with an outdoor pool area are accessible. Part of the actual building area is still unused.

For the Long Night of the Museums, the SEZ was opened as a public art venue for the first time in August 2011. Johannes Heisig showed there his series of pictures Krähe (Crow) , which refers to the cycle of poems by Ted Hughes of the same name .

A large street art exhibition took place in the former foyer from June 28 to September 30, 2012 .

For several years now, the two-day psytrance and art festival “Odyssey” has been taking place in a large part of the building complex at the beginning of each new year .

Conflict over further use of the complex

Since the investor has not yet put the SEZ's swimming pool into operation for economic reasons, it is increasingly subject to public criticism. The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district administration and the district mayor Dr. Schulz complained that the investor had not fully complied with its contractual obligations. In its 41st Black Book in 2013, the Taxpayers Association criticized the behavior of the Berlin Senate, whose Finance Senator had made the sale of the area to the public subject to the fixed condition that the investor converts the swimming pool into a modern, family-friendly water park within five years. At the time, critics of the sale were reassured by the fact that a contractual penalty and a right of repurchase were agreed in the event that the investor did not meet the deadline for resuming swimming operations. To date, swimming in the sense of a fun pool has not been started, nor has the Senate enforced the contractual provisions or made use of the contractual penalty. The Association of Taxpayers therefore filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of particularly serious, communal infidelity at the expense of the State of Berlin. However, this was rejected by the Berlin public prosecutor's office, with regard to the sale at a price of one euro due to the statute of limitations that has now come into effect after five years.

The core of the conflict is above all the extent of the investor's contractual obligations to continue using the complex. In the course of the discussion in the Berlin press, the investor published the purchase agreement and excerpts of the accompanying correspondence on the SEZ website. According to the contract, the investor had undertaken to continue to use the property for an unlimited period as a sports and recreation center with sauna, bowling, sports hall and fitness facilities, which had to be implemented in this order. The indoor swimming pool operation should be started by the end of 2007, provided that an energy and economic concept to be coordinated comes to the conclusion that the indoor swimming pool operation can be opened on this date. Senate and Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin assumed that the investor would have fulfilled these contractual obligations with the commissioning of some water areas, including the renovated outdoor pool. According to the investor, the legally vague term "indoor swimming pool", which is not defined in size and shape, was deliberately used in order to be able to meet the subsequent demand for water surfaces without breaking the contract.

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg does not consider further plans of the entrepreneur, such as setting up a parking space for mobile homes on the SEZ outdoor area, adding to the gutted administration wing and expanding it to a hostel, or building five town villas with holiday apartments behind the building, as not approvable. An alternative project of the investor envisages tearing down the SEZ and building a modern sports facility with wellness, hostel and apartments. According to the investor's interpretation, the structural status of the building is not secured by the purchase agreement.

literature

The SEZ as an art location:

Web links

Commons : SEZ (Berlin)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Neuendorff: SEZ in Friedrichshain is threatened with demolition
  2. Eva Kalva: sports center SEZ is the art venue in: Der Tagesspiegel , August 6, 2011
  3. Christiane Meixner: In the valley of colors . In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 23, 2011, accessed on December 20, 2017
  4. silence is a lie . urban art exhibition.
  5. Odyssey - Berlin | Berlin's New Years Eve Electronic Music & Arts Festival / New Years Eve Party. In: odyssee-berlin.de
  6. Association of Taxpayers: State-owned property unconditionally given away ( Memento from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: 41st Black Book of the Association of Taxpayers, Public Waste 2013 , September 2013
  7. Contract publication on the SEZ website ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. published documents from correspondence with the investor. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 10, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.sez-berlin.com
  9. Presentation of the processes by the investor ( Memento from February 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  10. a b Karin Schmidl: Holiday club, city villas - or demolition? . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 2, 2013, accessed on December 20, 2017

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '36 "  N , 13 ° 26' 44"  E