ULAP

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The ULAP exhibition palace on the left between the tracks. In the middle of the Lehrter train station , 1910.
The later ULAP site north of the Lehrter freight yard, before the construction of the light rail, in 1875
Map section in Berlin-Moabit with the Landes-Exposition-Park, 1915

ULAP denotes the former U niverse L andes- A usstellungs- P ark in Berlin district Moabit in the district center . The park was in a triangle made up of Invalidenstrasse , Alt-Moabit and today's main train station . It was cut through by the light rail system in the first few years of its existence .

history

18th and 19th centuries

The ULAP exhibition palace, around 1885

Up until the beginning of the 18th century, the area was unpopulated, barren heather at the gates of the city. From 1717 Huguenot families who practiced horticulture and silkworm breeding settled here . This is where the civilian use of Moabit land began. Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Peter Joseph Lenné were entrusted with the drafting of development plans for the vacated area. Due to urban changes and the development of the transport network, these plans were never implemented.

The Lehrter Bahnhof was opened nearby in 1868 , the freight yard of which bordered the area to the south. On May 15, 1882, the Stadtbahn started operating with the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof , which cut the area in the north. This favored the construction of an exhibition site. In 1879 the ULAP was opened for the trade exhibition on the triangle between Invalidenstraße, Alt-Moabit and Lehrter Bahnhof. After a fire on May 12, 1882, an exhibition palace made of glass and steel was built in 1883, which was opened with the " German Hygiene Exhibition ". Until the construction of the exhibition grounds from 1925 on the radio tower , which opened in 1926, exhibitions were held here.

20th century

In 1919, murdered Spartacists from the Lehrter Strasse cell prison , the Moabit barracks and the criminal court were buried on the site . In 1927, 126 bodies were found during electrification work on the tram.

From 1936 the German Aviation Collection Berlin with the largest commercial flying boat in the world, the Dornier Do X , was shown on the site . Remnants of this aircraft were still on the ULAP site in the 1960s.

In February 1933, the SA set up a torture chamber under the restaurant of the exhibition building. Here in March 1933 the lawyer Günther Joachim was tortured so cruelly that after a few days he succumbed to the abuse.

On the night of April 23, 1945, 16 political prisoners from the Lehrter Strasse prison in Moab, most of them involved in the conspiracy of July 20, 1944 , including Albrecht Haushofer , were taken into the park by an SS troop and murdered, except for one who survived seriously injured.

A week later, the two fugitive Nazi leaders Martin Bormann and the SS doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger were found dead on the railway bridge above the ULAP site. They were buried on the site.

Due to the war , only a few remains of the ULAP have survived. The old gatekeeper's house stood in the way of the railway line of the new central station and was demolished. The house on the opposite side of the street, in which the Paris – Moscow restaurant can be found today, is often confused with the gatekeeper's house; but it had nothing to do with the ULAP.

In 1961, when the Wall was built, the site moved to the edge of West Berlin . It was used as a storage area, for allotment gardens and by the railway. After 1990, part of the site was used for the new route for the main train station.

Current development

The second international sand sculpture festival took place on some areas of the site in 2004 . Ten international artists took part in this event under the theme of "Elements" and presented sand sculptures up to twelve meters high to the public.

The street at ULAP was reminiscent of this park, which was located between today's Stadtbahntrasse and Alt-Moabit street; In 2005, however, it was renamed after Clara Jaschke , one of the first Berlin railway officials. The newly laid streets on the site bear the names of Bertha Benz , Katharina Paulus , Ilse Schaeffer , Ella Trebe and Agnes von Zahn-Harnack . As an exception to the rule of naming new streets in the district only after women, the promenade behind the site was named after Magnus Hirschfeld on May 6, 2008 .

The rest of the area with the overgrown staircase and an old stock of trees was converted into a park in 2005, which was opened to the public on June 25, 2008.

Southwest of the site facing the Spree , bounded by the S-Bahn route and the Alt-Moabit street, is the new building for the Federal Ministry of the Interior , which was occupied in April 2015 .

park

The staircase of the ULAP exhibition park leading down from the embankment of the Alt-Moabit street , 2010

The remainder of the ULAP site with 1.4 hectares was redesigned between 2007 and 2008 according to plans by Rehwaldt Landschaftsarchitekten from Dresden into a simple city park, which is to serve as a multifunctional area and resting point.

The large open staircase that had been preserved to the former exhibition site was included in the redesign: only a narrow part of the staircase was made accessible again, the overgrown larger part with the trees growing through the steps was preserved. The slope is densely overgrown with ground-covering grasses and perennials.

The small triangular square at the foot of the stairs is characterized by a loose wood, which has been supplemented by further tree plantings. There are over 30 protected trees here, mainly maple , locust and elm , which are between 30 and 80 years old. There are also individual linden trees that go back to the design of the exhibition grounds more than a hundred years ago. A “green roof” is to be created according to the park concept through a high set of branches in the trees, reminiscent of the ULAP exhibition halls. Plain wooden benches are distributed across the square in loose parallel rows, some of which glow from inside at night, giving the place an urban character.

Web links

Commons : Universum Landes-Exposition-Park (ULAP, Berlin-Moabit)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Introduction to the general German exhibition for hygiene and rescue services (1883) ( Wikisource )
  2. ↑ books.google.de
  3. ^ Inauguration "ULAP - Universum-Landes-Exhibition Park at the Central Station". Press release from June 20, 2008, Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, Berlin.
  4. ↑ Universum-Landes-Exposition-Park (ULAP). Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, Berlin.
  5. ↑ Claim. (PDF) Landscape planning invitation competition for the ULAP site, April 2005, Senate Department for Urban Development, Berlin, p. 44.
  6. ↑ ULAP-Platz, Berlin-Mitte. Rehwaldt landscape architects.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '23.2 "  N , 13 ° 21' 54.3"  E