Schwerin City Hall

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Preserved facade of the town halls as part of the Palace Park Center (2008)
Preserved facade, detail

The town halls on Marienplatz in Schwerin were an Art Nouveau building built between 1909 and 1910 and later an expanded hall structure with a restaurant. On 24./25. In January 1997 the Stadthallen building complex was demolished for the extension of a shopping center except for the historic Art Nouveau facade and the foyer.

architecture

The town halls were a solid brick building with an Art Nouveau facade. The architecture of the compact, tall and extroverted building shows a neoclassicism influenced by Art Nouveau , the facade design is possibly also based on the Lübeck Casino Theater , which was built in 1859 and demolished in 1907 . The idea, the first painted drawing and the actual design for the building of the town halls in Art Nouveau came from the client Johannes Dürkop and the execution by the Lübeck architect Rudolf Wilken.

Rudolf Wilkens designed the preserved facade in the neoclassical style with rich Art Nouveau decor. It is a portal architecture that is structured with four half-columns and with figural and plastic frieze decoration elements. Dance scenes of Greek muses with satyr in the form of the sensual seducer are shown. Another pictorial representation of the seduction of muses, especially through the art of music, had also been painted as a mural in blue in the no longer preserved large ballroom above the stage. The foyer in Art Deco style , a cinema and a cabaret with restaurants were located on the ground floor, which was lavishly designed with stucco and gilding . Two wide stairs with partly gilded neo-baroque railings led to the well-preserved, generously dimensioned, stucco-decorated upper floor foyer ( gallery ) and to the no longer preserved ballroom on the upper floor. A simple club room led to the small Neurokkoko hall and from there to the large art nouveau ballroom with a gallery, its own stage and ancillary rooms. The large ballroom had a coffered stucco ceiling and had a floor area of ​​520 m² with a height of 9 m. The protruding gallery and the balconies offered a further 315 m² of usable space. A total area of ​​around 3000 square meters was available for events in the town halls. The architectural decorations of the Schwerin town halls showed the influences of Art Nouveau .

history

The site once housed the Burmester paper shop and, since 1900, the “Marien-Halle” restaurant, which became the “Flora” concert hall . This was an entertainment venue that was opened in 1903 by the music director and innkeeper August Lau (born November 27, 1865 in Parchim; † March 16, 1939 in Schwerin), who had been in Schwerin since 1889. In the concert hall "Flora" there was theater, it was a concert hall as well as a dance hall and had a restaurant. In 1904 the first “living photographs” - moving images - were shown there with August Lau's bioscope . In 1905, the Lübeck restaurant owner ("Zum Großes Faß"), Johannes Dürkop, took over the house on Marienplatz for the purchase price of 240,000 marks. The building burned down on May 28, 1909. Dürkop had the town halls built on the same site . He commissioned the new building based on the design by Lübeck architect Rudolf Wilken, dated July 31, 1909. Construction began in 1909, completed with three entrance portals in May 1910 and opened on July 31, 1910. A first highlight in the history of the town halls was the III. Mecklenburg trade exhibition from May 21 to August 15, 1911, which attracted many foreign visitors to the city. In 1911/12 the building had electric lighting. At times the town halls had their own orchestra.

Stadthallen owner and entrepreneur Johannes Dürkop also bought the Schwerin Apollo-Lichtspiele for his son Willy Dürkop (1900–1979) in 1919, which he took over as Kino Schauburg . An extension of the town hall art nouveau hall took place around 1920. The small social hall in neo- rococo art style with ceiling and stage decorations, which could also be used as a cinema with 200 seats or a restaurant, was added. The town hall faundiele designed by architect Willy Taebel was built in 1921/1922. A third ballroom with about 700 square meters for 500 people with corresponding side rooms was built in 1927/1928 according to the plans of the architect Erich Bentrup (* 1891 in Aachen; † 1968 in Schwerin). His expressionistic interior design, also with stage decoration, showed stylistic features of Art Deco . An underground car park, also designed by Bentrup, was built under this third extension hall. This had 40 garage boxes with a forecourt, plus a repair shop and four petrol pumps. The construction work was carried out by the Schwerin construction company Otto Glatz, the iron structure was created by the Klingenbiel company.

Facade with the inscription "Дом Офицеров" (House of Officers)

The former tenant and innkeeper of the Stadthallen, August Jörg (born June 9, 1886 in Lübeck; † July 5, 1967 in Schwerin), whose family moved from Lübeck to Schwerin in 1890 and who married Dürkop's eldest daughter Clara on September 12, 1919 , describes in his memoirs from the early 1950s, a typewritten two-volume manuscript entitled Gastronomisches Allerlei , the history of the town halls - "the place for concerts, masked balls, fashion shows, assemblies and large banquets". A third volume, which he wrote in 1959, is privately owned by a host family. In the assembly and concert hall, which was very well known at the time, a general meeting took place on the occasion of the 56th District Association of the Schwerin guilds and hairdressing guilds as well as the fashion commission of both Mecklenburg states, dated June 3 and 4, 1934 . December 1957 found the III. Rural youth conference of the GDR with almost 1000 participants took place in the town halls.

From 1942 until the end of the war in 1945, the town halls served as an auxiliary hospital. The Red Army seized on October 1, 1945, the city halls including area at the Reiferbahn up to Lobedanzgang and used it as a House of officers , which also organized meetings between German and Soviet soldiers and FDJ - and Komsomol groups were held. In this culture house of the Soviet army there was a public restaurant on the ground floor, which was hardly used by the local population, who at that time only rarely had access to the town halls. In addition, the house housed a so-called " magazine ", a shop for the priority supply of the Soviet officer's families. In 1974 DEFA shot the union assembly scenes for the film From my childhood about Ernst Thälmann in the town halls . The Schwerin town halls once had a capacity of up to 2500 people. When the Soviet army withdrew from the GDR in 1993, the house was closed.

When it became known in the mid-1990s that the town halls would be demolished for the construction of a new shopping center, these plans were criticized from various sides. The Schwerin architect Bernd Klinghammer and the monument curator and later city archivist Jörg Moll, who warned of an irreplaceable loss for the monument landscape of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, campaigned for the preservation of the town halls as a monument and historical testimony. The city council of the city of Schwerin decided on October 25, 1996 at the request of the city administration to demolish the city halls (officers' house) on Marienplatz for the construction of the shopping center. A citizens' initiative called "Denkmal Stadthallen", which was launched in 1996, tried to get a referendum. As of January 13, 1997, the signature lists recorded 1,500 signatures. The demolition for the extension of a shopping center was in favor of Schwerin city representatives from local and state politics, including the then state minister for building, state development and the environment, Bärbel Nehring-Kleedehn .

As a result of the efforts to preserve the town halls, the integration of the historical Art Nouveau facade, a neo-baroque foyer railing, the foyers on the ground and upper floors, the gallery and ceiling stucco retroactively to the ECE extension remained. The demolition of the town hall ballrooms began on January 24, 1997, and the construction of the Schlossparkcenter shopping center followed immediately from 1997 to 1998.

swell

  • Historical Museum (ed.), Dagmar Weitbrecht: Old Schwerin restaurants and bars. About their history and culture. Schwerin 1989.
  • Greetings from Schwerin. Picture postcards around 1900. Koehler & Amelang, Berlin / Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-7338-0068-0 , p. 88.
  • Schwerin stories - concert hall "Flora" 1904 owner music director and innkeeper August Lau. Rühberg / Kunze SVZ D 38/85 5000 (1527) II-16-8 p. 22.
  • State Office for Culture and Monument Protection (Ed.), Bernd Klinghammer: The Schweriner Stadthallen. The former largest amusement temple in Mecklenburg is threatened with demolition. In: Monument protection and preservation of monuments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Issue 3 (1996), pp. 64–66.
  • Preservationists from town and country and a major investor are fighting for the demolition of the town halls. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper from August 28, 1996.
  • City presents schedule for ECE construction. Deputy Head: Town halls must not endanger the project. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper from October 1, 1996.
  • PDS: If necessary, compensation for town halls. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper of October 5, 1996.
  • Bernd Klinghammer The Schwerin town halls are threatened with demolition. In: Deutsches Architektenblatt , year 1996, issue 11, p. 688 f.
  • Daily vigil is supposed to save the town halls from demolition. Citizens' initiative means: Historic town halls can be integrated into the ECE. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper of December 3, 1996.
  • Demo for the preservation of the town halls. In: Schweriner Volkszeitung No. 10/52 of January 13, 1997, p. 12.
  • This groundbreaking ceremony changed the Schwerin city center. Starting shot for the Schloßparkcenter at Marienplatz. Shopping and experiencing from the end of 1998. In: Schweriner Volkszeitung from January 16, 1997, p. 13.
  • The Roaring 20's. Memories from August Jörg, tenant and landlord of the Schwerin town hall. In: Schweriner Volkszeitung from September 11, 2009, supplement Mecklenburg-Magazin No. 37.
  • Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Library, Mecklenburg Foundation 1978; 105. Page 12: Schwerin Stadthallen-Säle Owner August Jörg - "The best-known meeting and concert venue in Schwerin"
  • Deutsches Architektenblatt, 28.1996, 7–12: Floor plan of the Schwerin town halls: Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Neo-Rococo hall, foyer.
  • Marc Peschkke: Architectural styles in Germany . Art Nouveau . Merian Compass, ISBN 3-7742-0784-4 .
  • Udo Brinker: Chronicle of the City of Schwerin : Opening of the city halls. production office Tinus, Schwerin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814380-2-4 .
  • Wilhelm Jesse: History of the city of Schwerin . Volume II. 1920, page 565: May 21, 1911 - August 15, 1911 III. Mecklenburg industrial exhibition in Schwerin.
  • The Little Brockhaus . Eberhard Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1949. Expressionism p. 342, Art Nouveau p. 592.
  • Meyer's Lexicon . Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1973, publishing license No. 433/130/73. Art Nouveau p. 331.
  • Irene Henselmann, Hermann Henselmann: The big book of building . Berlin / Pößneck 1976, license no. 304-270 / 517 / 78- (35). Art Nouveau Expressionism pp. 109/110.
  • Francis DK Ching: Pictorial Lexicon of Architecture . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York. Art Nouveau - Abstract Expressionism - Artdeco, page 104/105. Translated from the English by Herbert Allgeier - Bürogemeinschaft Markgrafen and Andreas Pohlmann, 1995/96, ISBN 3-593-35579-5 .
  • Horst Zänger: The heyday of the town halls , part 1, Schweriner Express, December 17, 2016, p. 9.
  • Herbert Hunger: Lexicon of Greek and Roman Mythology. Rowohlt Verlag, Vienna 1969, ISBN 3-499-16178-8 , page 50/262.
  • Lexicon of fine arts - technical terms for architecture, sculpture, painting, graphics and handicrafts. Rowohlt Verlag, 1971, ISBN 3-499-16142-7 . Art Nouveau p. 143/144.
  • August Lau on the 150th birthday: A man causes a sensation. Schweriner Volkszeitung, November 27, 2015.
  • Hans-Joachim Falk, Hans-Werner Figura: The former town halls. In: On the trail of Schwerin's gastronomy history. 2nd Edition. Verlag Redieck & Schade GmbH, Rostock 2016, 1st edition, ISBN 978-3-942673-75-4 , pp. 51-56.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schwerin land registry office land register no.10750
  2. ↑ Memories of the town halls. svz.de, November 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Stadthallen Schwerin: Manuscript / transcript of the celebratory address - General Assembly 56th District Association Conference of the Two Mecklenburgs, June 3-4, 1934 . Schwerin State Main Archive, files 10.1-1 / 6 (guilds, hairdressers' guilds, pages 1–42 and fashion commission report June 4, 1934, pages I – V).
  4. ↑ III. Rural youth conference of the GDR in Schwerin, venue with town halls . Schweriner Volkszeitung, December 7th / 8th 1957 No. 285 - 12th year. Photography.Info, Schwerin City Archive.

Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 41.5 "  N , 11 ° 24 ′ 38.4"  E