Uncle Tom's Hut (Berlin)
The settlement Onkel Toms Hütte or Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf , often also referred to as Onkel Tom settlement or parrot settlement , is located in the Berlin district of Zehlendorf on the edge of the Grunewald . It was named after the neighboring excursion restaurant, which opened in 1885, and whose owner Thomas named his restaurant based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Onkel Toms Hütte .
Planning the settlement
The settlement was built between 1926 and 1931. The project was financed by the non-profit Heimstätten-, Spar- und Bau-Aktiengesellschaft ( GEHAG ). This company (now a GmbH under the roof of the Deutsche Wohnen Group ) is the owner of the estate to this day. The architects Bruno Taut , Hugo Häring and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg planned 1100 apartments and 800 single-family houses. The architecture is characterized by the new building with clarity and simplicity in design. A high degree of spatial differentiation was achieved through the projections of the building structure. The tree population was also included in the planning so that a close proximity to nature and architecture could be preserved.
Creation of the settlement
Zehlendorf had developed into the most popular Berlin villa suburb since 1900. When Greater Berlin was formed in 1920, this preferred community, which has now become the 10th district of the city, had the sixth largest area with the lowest population. The entrepreneur Adolf Sommerfeld and his group of companies owned building land on the edge of the Grunewald. The southern part of the region between a planned extension of the subway - route and the Fischtal was acquired by the GEHAG 1926th
Hugo Häring (managing director of the architectural association Der Ring ), Otto Rudolf Salvisberg and Bruno Taut (chief architect of GEHAG) were commissioned to develop the development plan for this southern area . It was decided not to continue the villa construction according to the plans of the district office, but to move on to a development that should consist primarily of terraced houses with apartment buildings in the middle. The Zehlendorf district administration initially spoke out decisively against the development plan and the entire project. The original plan was revised and, with the support of Martin Wagner , was then implemented with minor changes.
The individual building areas of the first construction phase were raffled among the architects; Taut planned the northern, Salvisberg the southern and Häring the eastern part. The pine tree was included in the urban planning concept. Hans Kammler was the site manager in 1924/1925 .
At the same time as Taut's 3rd and 4th construction phases in 1927/1928, the district office approved an application from GAGFAH to build the experimental settlement on the Fischtalgrund . The 5th construction phase of the large housing estate in Zehlendorf was located north of Argentinische Allee - i.e. north of the underground line planned at the time - and essentially comprised single-family row houses. This section of the settlement has a particularly differentiated color scheme that underlines the spaciousness of the complex. The north-south rows were given a warm, red-brown tone on the west side , while the east sides were painted gray-green, a color adapted to the different positions of the sun. The color of the windows and door frames interacts with the facade.
In parallel with the 5th construction phase in 1929, the extension of the underground line was carried out. The station building was designed by Alfred Grenander , but his original design was not fully implemented. In 1931/1932 Salvisberg added the shopping arcades on both long sides of the Onkel Toms Hütte underground station .
The 6th construction phase (Bruno Taut) was built on both sides of Argentinische Allee, north of the subway. It is characterized by a three-storey peripheral development and three-storey rows perpendicular to the street. The perimeter development is a 450-meter-long, outwardly curved structure between the subway line and Argentinischer Allee and is popularly known as the “crack of the whip”. The last construction phase was north of the Argentinische Allee between Onkel-Tom - and Riemeisterstrasse .
Taut rejected the systematized row structure , i.e. living rooms facing west and bedrooms facing east. The structure of the building and a coordinated color scheme resulted in differentiated urban spaces. Despite the use of only a few house types and their ranking, a possible monotony could be avoided. It was also remarkable that every single-family house and every ground floor apartment had a garden of around 200 m².
The first four settlement sections comprise three types of floor plans: 2 1 ⁄ 2- room apartments in multi-storey buildings, as well as 3 1 ⁄ 2 and 4 1 ⁄ 2- room apartments in single houses. Due to the increased land costs, the rents for the apartments were comparatively high, so that medium- sized families moved into them. The later settlement sections showed a higher density of buildings and thus reacted to the development of the land prices in Zehlendorf.
The Onkel Toms Hütte underground station on the U3 line of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe is named after this settlement . It was put into operation in 1929.
The Nazis under Hitler and Speer defamatory called the settlement "parrot settlement" in order to brand the modern architecture and color scheme of Bruno Taut as so-called " degenerate art " and denigrate Bruno Taut and the settlement architecture .
In August 2008, the Berlin CDU called for the settlement to be proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It had been ignored in the nomination that led to the award of World Heritage status to six Berlin Modernist housing estates in July 2008 .
In the novel Jacket Potatoes and Popcorn , Evelyn Sanders describes part of her childhood that she spent in the settlement.
Prominent residents
- Alice Berend (1875–1938), writer
- Arnold Bode (1900–1977), painter, draftsman and art teacher
literature
- Maria Berning; Michael Braum; Engelbert Lütke Daldrup ; Klaus-Dieter Schulz: Berlin residential areas. A guide to 60 settlements in East and West . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-496-01260-9 .
- Winfried Brenne: Bruno Taut - master of colored building in Berlin . Verlagshaus Braun, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-935455-82-8 .
- Norbert Huse: New Building 1918–1933. Modern architecture in the Weimar Republic . Heinz Moos Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7879-0090-X .
- Norbert Huse: Four Berlin Settlements of the Weimar Republic. Britz. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Siemensstadt. White city . Berlin 1987.
- Klaus-Peter Kloß: Settlements from the 1920s . Berlin Attractions 4, Haude & Spenersche Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1982, pp. 28–41.
- Ronald Kunze: Tenant participation in social housing. Establishment and development of tenant representatives in the settlements of the non-profit housing companies . Kassel 1992.
- Christine Mengin: Guerre du toit & modernité architecturale. Loger l'employé sous la republique de Weimar . Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-85944-567-6 .
- Berlin and its buildings; Part 4, Housing Volume A: The requirements. The development of residential areas . Berlin. Munich. Düsseldorf 1970.
- Bettina Zöller-Stock: Bruno Taut - The interior designs of the Berlin architect . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-421-03034-0 .
- Unda Hörner: The architects Bruno and Max Taut. Two brothers - two paths in life . Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2012.
Web links
- Zehlendorf forest settlement
- Interesting facts about the Onkel Tom settlement in Berlin
- Neighborhood initiative parrot settlement
- Waldsiedlung Onkel Toms Hütte on the portal 100 years of landscape architecture
- Large housing estate on Uncle Tom's Cabin. In: arch INFORM .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Settlement concept (PDF) Lower Monument Protection Authority Steglitz-Zehlendorf, State Monument Authority Berlin
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 0 ″ N , 13 ° 15 ′ 10 ″ E