Stern garages
The Stern Garages , also called Garagenhof Chemnitz , were built in 1928 and are a historic multi- storey car park in the Kapellenberg district of Chemnitz . In addition to the Großgarage Süd in Halle (1929) and the Kant-Garagenpalast in Berlin (1930), the Stern-Garagen are one of the most important preserved multi-storey car parks from the interwar period in Germany.
history
In the 1920s, the volume of traffic in the industrial metropolis of Chemnitz increased rapidly. The narrow streets of the historic city center could not accommodate the increasing number of automobiles, and there was next to no parking in the center. The streets in the residential areas had hardly any space for automobiles. Therefore a suitable location for the garage construction was sought. The decision was made in favor of the Carl Wiesel coal wholesaler on Zwickauer Strasse in the Nikolaivorstadt . Even then, Zwickauer Strasse was one of the city's busiest streets. On the one hand, the site was close to the center, on the other hand, the Kaßberg was right next to it , a residential area in which well-heeled citizens lived at the time, who could afford cars.
In the run-up to construction, there were massive complaints from the owners of the neighboring properties. Many factories near the planned garage courtyard feared that the multi-storey multi-storey car park would not get enough sunlight into their production rooms. At the beginning of 1928, the building permit was granted for the garage yard designed by Luderer & Schröder (Chemnitz) together with government architect Hans Schindler . The construction was carried out by the Chemnitz construction and haulage contractor Ernst Wiesel . The building was completed in October 1928. The six-storey building, built in the New Objectivity style, with its partially glazed facade was an extremely representative structure that offered space for around 300 vehicles.
In the local press it was said at the time:
“The high-rise garage will not only serve motorists, it will also beautify the streetscape. This colossal building with its ten-window front will further consolidate Chemnitz's reputation as an industrial metropolis of Saxony and an up-and-coming city that can cope with all the demands of our turbulent times [...] And this high-rise will triumph over all the houses and houses in its vicinity. "
Master builder Ernst Wiesel also made a similar statement:
"Garagenhof Chemnitz is a business that is probably the only one of its kind in Germany."
The Star-garage yard was after its completion, although the modern large garage in Chemnitz, but by no means the first building of the building project large garage in the city. As early as 1927, next to the main fire station at Schadestrasse 14-18, the two-storey facility of the Großgaragen-Gesellschaft mbH was built , which could already hold around 150 automobiles. Other large garages at this time were the Solfs Autogaragen GmbH (Bernhardstr. 32), the Großgarage Albert Bäßler (Zwickauer Str. 100), the Autoreparatur- und Garagen-Gesellschaft mbH (Freiberger Str. 2), the Chemnitzer Garagen GmbH (Annaberger Str. 59) etc.
Originally it was planned to relocate the street layout after the garage yard was completed so that the main street runs on the other side of the building. However, these plans were never implemented, which is why the side of the house, once planned as a representative front view of the building, faces away from the street today. In the following years the name was changed to Stern-Garagen Chemnitz .
In 1940/41 the garage was closed. During the Second World War , the building served as a warehouse for the Navy . During the Allied bombing raids in February and March 1945, the building was hardly destroyed and only damaged by an indirect hit. After the war it was again used as a storage area. The first floor was used as a garage and workshop by the on- call service of the Karl-Marx-Stadt district council until the mid-1980s. For this purpose, a ramp was installed on the side of the building facing away from the street. The rest of the building was used by the household goods wholesaler as a warehouse for plastic and rubber products.
After the fall of the Wall , it was transferred back to the original owner. It was planned to turn the Stern-Garagen into a large Edeka store, but this project was not implemented. Individual floors were used as storage space for a nearby car repair shop. The Museum of Saxon Vehicles moved to the ground floor in 2008 , and a furniture shop is located on the second to fourth floors, which uses the original parking boxes as furnished rooms for its sales exhibition.
Construction of the building and usage concept
The Garagenhof Chemnitz has six floors over which 300 parking boxes are distributed. 120 of these parking boxes could originally be closed with metal roller doors . Most of the 300 parking boxes were permanently leased, and the free spaces could be rented for a fee of RM 15 per month (around € 50 today). The Chemnitz mortgage and real estate institute was commissioned to rent the boxes .
As with most of the other multi- storey car parks that were built in Germany by the end of the Weimar Republic , the vehicles did not reach the upper floors via ramps, but via automobile elevators . With a width of 2.60 m and a depth of almost 6 m, the three elevators in the garage yard could each lift a weight of up to 3 tons and are still in use today. There were separate elevators and stairwells for people, the vehicles were taken to the floors by the personnel and parked in the boxes. The concept of the Garagenhof was strongly service-oriented from the beginning and was primarily aimed at the wealthy middle-class upper class. At that time, workers in Germany could not financially support an automobile. In these, the individual motorization was carried out by the motorcycle .
In addition to the garage parking space, an extensive range of services could also be used in the Stern garages, as was customary in many large garages from the interwar period.
“In addition to the usual mix of uses, there was a large filling station with 6 pumps with 24-hour service and a“ repair shop ”on the 6th floor. Car washrooms that were supplied with compressed air and running cold and warm water were located on each floor; there were a total of 15 washrooms in the garage. Each floor was also equipped with washrooms (including showers) for the driver. The large garage finally included spare parts shops, battery service, vulcanization workshops, lounges and cloakrooms as well as rooms for chauffeurs. "
The garage yard also offered a hotel and casino for business travelers. In the repair shop, spray guns were available to repair paint damage immediately. The staff could also lubricate the up to 30 lubrication points on an automobile at that time, as well as cleaning the vehicle. The service company employed around 30 people.
The partially glazed rear of the building and the partially glazed roof made the garage courtyard an extremely well-lit and ventilated accommodation space for vehicles for the time.
See also
literature
- Ernst Wiesel: Garagenhof Chemnitz. In: Council of the City of Chemnitz (ed.): Chemnitz. (= Germany's urban development ) DARI-Verlag, Berlin-Halensee 1929, p. 140 f.
- Hans-Christian Schink , Tilo Richter: Industrial architecture in Chemnitz 1890–1930. Leipzig 1995, p. 71 and Fig. 22.
- Jens Kassner : Chemnitz in the "Golden Twenties". Chemnitz 2000, p. 88.
- Jürgen Hasse: Overlooked rooms. On the cultural history and heterotopology of the parking garage. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-89942-775-2 , pp. 97-101.
- Museum for Saxon Vehicles Chemnitz (Hrsg.): Exhibition catalog. (= Series of publications by the Museum for Saxon Vehicles ) Chemnitz undated, pp. 10–12.
- René Hartmann: Architecture for automobiles. Multi-storey car parks and multi-storey car parks in Germany. A car [mobile] vision in the 20th century. Dissertation, Institute for Art History and Historical Urban Studies, Technical University Berlin , Berlin 2015.
Web links
- The historic multi-storey car park , side of the Museum for Saxon Vehicles above the multi-storey car park with historical photos
- From the multi-storey car park to the furniture store , side of the Chemnitz furniture store via the multi-storey car park, photo of the parking box with roller shutter
- welt.de: Where cars used to drive a long time ago
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Jürgen Hasse : Overlooked spaces: On the cultural history and heterotopology of the parking garage. transcript Verlag , 2007, ISBN 978-3-89942-775-2 ( preview on Google Books )
- ↑ See Heidrun Edelmann: From luxury goods to everyday objects. The history of the spread of passenger cars in Germany , Frankfurt a. M. 1989
- ^ Frank Steinbeck: The motorcycle. A German special route into the automotive society , Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-515-10074-8
Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 34.4 " N , 12 ° 54 ′ 29.8" E