Stadtbad Charlottenburg

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Stadtbad Charlottenburg
Street view of the Stadtbad, to the right of it a histor. City Elementary school

Street view of the Stadtbad, to the
right of it a histor. City Elementary school

data
location Berlin-Charlottenburg
builder Paul Bratring and Otto Peters
Construction year 1896-1899
Coordinates 52 ° 30 '52.1 "  N , 13 ° 18' 31.8"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '52.1 "  N , 13 ° 18' 31.8"  E
particularities
Conversions and extensions in the 1920s and 1980s

The Stadtbad Charlottenburg is a listed architectural monument from the 1880s. It is the second public bath to be built in the later municipality of Greater Berlin .

location

The Volksbad , with its narrow eastern side at Krumme (n) Straße 9/10, forms a solid structural unit with the new swimming pool added in 1974. The long northern facade adjoins the park by the swimming pool . The visitor entrance is in the courtyard.

During its construction and the opening of the public swimming pool, the street belonged to the Charlottenburg district 13a in the area of ​​responsibility of the district and school director H. Rossin.

description

The Stadtbad is a three-storey brick building in Art Nouveau style , which also has some elements of historicism . Including the vestibule, it is around 49 meters deep and 20 meters wide.

It has a 25 meter long tiled swimming pool with an integrated non-swimmer area.

A barefoot area runs around the swimming pool, from which individual changing rooms were accessible. Visitors wearing street clothes were accessed from the rear of the cabins via a boot walkway . The cabins were removed during the renovation work in the 1980s.

In the beginning there was the cash desk area in a vestibule, where the guests could buy tickets as well as small bars of soap.

architecture

Entrance area with the lettering “Staedt. Volksbad ”and figurative jewelry

Large round windows in the form of portholes are incorporated on the ground floor of the Stadtbad , the other windows are arched , some are also rectangular. Glazed bricks, clay reliefs and ironwork form the decoration of the house. The topic refers to the use.

The main portal is a brick arch with a wrought iron grille in between. The external dimensions (for both swimming pools together) are around 83 meters by 44 meters.

Scorpionfish (glazed pottery) and plant ornaments (copper)

The decorative elements on the facade of the old hall show ornaments that are derived from plant shapes (herbs, reeds, foliage, tendrils, twigs, some with the proper names of the plants), as well as some overdrawn aquatic animals (fish as mythical animals).

View of the old swimming pool, 2017

Inside, the five-part wall painting on one gable side is striking, presenting bathing scenes based on ancient models. Inside, too, some decorative elements from the facade return.

The open metal construction as a monopitch roof is covered over a large area with glass and lets a lot of daylight into the hall.

story

With the rapid increase in the number of residents in Berlin and the neighboring communities and cities, it was urgently necessary to offer the new residents cleaning and exercise opportunities. Most of the apartments had neither showers nor their own bathtubs. The respective municipal administrations had renowned architects plan and build public bathing establishments with swimming pools in their locations on municipal building land .

After three years of construction, carried out by the Berlin company Cementbaugeschäft O. Schmidt and Co. , the first such facility was opened in the city ​​of Charlottenburg . An even earlier public bathing establishment was built in Moabit near Berlin , but it was dismantled in 1985. The former head of the municipal office, Mr. Schilling, was the first administrator of the Charlottenburg bathing and swimming facility. This was followed by a major a. D. as administrator.

The original swimming pool was soon expanded step by step and its use continuously adapted. In 1924/25 it was given an additional civil servants' residence, designed by Rudolf Walter . In the 1920s, there were also small rooms with large enamelled bathtubs . For hygienic reasons, a chlorination plant was installed in 1923 .

After several years of intensive use and damage from shell fire shortly before the end of the Second World War , the municipal swimming pool was reopened in 1946.

A big change took place in the early 1970s, because by 1974 the new Stadtbad Charlottenburg was built, which directly adjoins the historic building (Krumme Straße 9). It has a 50 meter long swimming pool. A possible demolition of the old hall was now discussed, but this was not carried out. The Charlottenburg administration, however, decided to thoroughly renovate and modernize the first hall, which took place from 1974 to 1976. It was placed under monument protection in 1982.

Between 1985 and 1987, the building was extensively changed, especially on the outside: it was given back its partially plastered facade with exposed brick surfaces, the entrance hall and the stairwells were also given a listed appearance.

Information board about the Charlottenburger Stadtbad

A memorial plaque for the Charlottenburg old town path refers to the building history of the Stadtbad and shows two historical photos (see picture).

use

The swimming pool was initially used by all visitors. However, the communal operators alternately regulated the use either by women or by men on different days, as was the propriety until the 1920s. The persons employed in the facilities were initially according to the sex of visitors in bathing women and bathing men or lifeguard distinguished and served the bathers on the assignment.

A steam boiler was used to heat the water, and two more were added in 1925. However, when district heating lines were soon laid (1926), the steam boilers could be shut down and dismantled.

The municipality lifted the gender segregation in 1933, since then there have been family bathing days.

The old and the new hall are also used in the 21st century for all those interested in their leisure activities. The bathtubs could, however, be dispensed with due to increasing living comfort. The spaces freed up in the Stadtbad are used for gymnastics, physiotherapy or other small services.

Web links

Commons : Stadtbad Charlottenburg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments. Berlin. Deutscher Kunstverlag, third edition, 2006, p. 224.
  2. ^ A b Charlottenburg> Administration> Head of the Building Department> Volksbadeanstalt Charlottenburg . In: Address book for Berlin and its suburbs , 1900, V, p. 17.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g swimming pool homepage.
  4. ↑ Brief information on www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de , with a small series of photos; accessed on August 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Charlottenburg> Streets . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1905, I (Administrator (V) Volksbadeanstalt Charlottenburg, Krummestr. (!) 4: Major ret. H. von Hayn).
  6. ^ Authorities> Bathing establishments, public and private> Städtische Badeanstalt Charlottenburg . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1946, p. 29 (Krumme Strasse 10).