Kaulsdorf waterworks

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View of the hall complex from Mieltschiner Straße, 2012

The Kaulsdorf waterworks is a system for supplying drinking water to the residents of the former Lichtenberg district of Kaulsdorf in Berlin . The waterworks at the Mieltschiner road was taken in March 1916 in operation, multiple technically renewed and stands since the 1980s under monument protection .

history

A waterworks for Kaulsdorf is built

For the city ​​of Lichtenberg , which was growing rapidly at the beginning of the 20th century, it was necessary to build another waterworks for the Kaulsdorf area in addition to the existing Triftweg I, II and III waterworks to ensure a safe drinking water supply . The city administration bought an area of ​​around 60 hectares in the Kaulsdorfer Busch as a water catchment area, which includes the Habermannsee and the Butzsee. The engineers and builders from the technical office of the city of Lichtenberg designed the new plant together. The execution was the responsibility of the master mason and carpenter Gottlieb Gädicke from Lichtenberg.

Construction began in the spring of 1915 and the ceremonial commissioning took place in March 1916. In contrast to the earlier municipal water systems, which consisted of individual buildings for pumps, storage tanks and drives, a compact multi-aisle hall structure was created in which all the technology and offices were located. The first diesel engines were installed to drive the pumps . A connection to the Lichtenberg intermediate pumping station ensured that water was supplied to the city as evenly as possible.

Reorganization through the formation of Greater Berlin

With the merger of old Berlin and its former suburbs to form the municipality of Greater Berlin in 1920, the new city now had 25 functioning waterworks that supplied around 27,500 house connections via a pipe network with a length of 200 kilometers and an annual flow rate of 200,000  m³ .

The city administration of Berlin founded the three joint-stock companies Berliner Städtische Gaswerke, Berliner Städtische Elektrizitätswerke and Berliner Städtische Wasserwerke AG from the works taken over . Technical and organizational changes were the result: initially nothing changed at the Kaulsdorf waterworks. In the years 1926–1928 the first renovation work took place: Wells, machines and treatment plants were partly renewed or added, so that the capacity doubled.

At the end of 1930, the modernization work for the whole of Berlin was largely complete, ten remaining waterworks supplied the approximately four million inhabitants. The drives of the Kaulsdorf waterworks had been converted to electric pumps.

Water supply in the 1940s

When the events of the Second World War led to more and more frequent destruction of the pipes and supply facilities around 1943 , the administration of the waterworks increasingly used forced labor from the Soviet Union or Poland for repair purposes . These around 150 workers were  housed in a special barracks camp at Landsberger Allee 76/77 (in the area of ​​the intersection with Thaerstrasse, which later became Storkower Strasse). Conscripted women were also used for this work. In addition, another 163 wells were built and existing ones were cleaned. In 1944 and 1945 even breweries were commissioned to hold drinking water in large enamelled kettles, including the car delivery services. The Berlin civil engineering department ensured that the hand wells, which existed as independent street pumps, worked.

On April 28, 1945, the Soviet city command, initially responsible for the whole of Berlin, issued Order No. 1, according to which "all municipal operations, such as power and waterworks [...] must resume their work to supply the population". There was a reorganization of the waterworks groupings, numerous pipe network damage had to be repaired, which required pipes in particular, but also coal (for the steam-powered systems), vehicles and food. From 1948 onwards, the Berliners had an adequate amount of drinking water at their disposal, except for times of the power failure.

The split of the city as a result of the four-power status led to the formation of separate East and West Berlin waterworks administrations, but the pipeline network was not so easy to separate. Three waterworks in the Soviet sector (Johannisthal, Wuhlheide and Stolpe) supplied the districts of Neukölln , Tempelhof , Britz , Buckow , Steglitz , Schöneberg and Frohnau - Reinickendorf to the west for a few years .

Refurbishments, conversions and new buildings in East Berlin from the 1950s

The new administration had prepared detailed reports on the situation of the individual waterworks, according to which most of the wells, the technology and the pipeline system had to be replaced. Due to a lack of investment funds, this work was only initiated with the housing construction program of the 1970s. The trade embargo of the western countries against the GDR meant that pipes had to be bought partly from Yugoslavia or made of prestressed concrete, wider routes were the result.

The main focus of the renovation work was the Friedrichshagen waterworks and the Johannisthal plant.

The Kaulsdorf waterworks had not suffered major war damage, nor did the installed technology show any major problems. In 1982 the administration replaced the last diesel engine with an electric submersible pump.

Water supply reunited from 1990

Numerous structural and organizational measures took place from the summer of 1990 and led to the merger of the East and West Berlin drinking water supply and wastewater disposal under the roof of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe . 16 waterworks, three intermediate pumping stations, three overpumping stations with 1,228 vertical and three horizontal wells and a pipeline network of 7,642 kilometers were available for drinking water preparation. The new municipal water company employed around 7,300 people and managed assets of almost eight billion marks . Around 2000, Berlin founded Berlinwasser Holding with interested investors, but due to a referendum, the city bought back most of the shares in the 2010s.

In the years 1997-2000 the Kaulsdorf plant was modernized:

Twelve six-meter high stainless steel filters replaced the filter system in the large hall from the 1910s, which is automatically and meteredly enriched with technical oxygen from a tank on the factory premises using a modern ventilation process. The filters are connected via a work platform for maintenance and cleaning.

Occasionally two people are on site to operate the waterworks in Kaulsdorf, but it is largely remote-controlled by the Friedrichshagen waterworks.

Almost nothing is left of the original equipment. Only the actual hall with its historical facades , small water taps and the windows between the filter hall and the former diesel pump room have been preserved from the construction period.

Biannual chemical analyzes ensure the drinking water quality of the Kaulsdorf plant.

The Senate Administration has given the water companies permission to extract groundwater in the Kaulsdorfer Busch until 2044.

architecture

The core of the two-storey building complex is the two-aisled hall for water treatment and a machine hall in front of it. The use of multi-part, large-format windows (in the machine hall also in a semicircular shape) and pilaster strips to emphasize and loosen up the structure is based on classicism in the architectural style . The facades are gray and softly plastered . Large-window caterpillars are placed on all parts of the building, letting in plenty of daylight into the factory complex. Construction experts value the waterworks (together with the Heinersdorf water tower and the Stolpe waterworks ) as the "beginning of modernity in Berlin waterworks architecture".

There was and is no separate water tower and no pure water tank in Kaulsdorf.

In the late 1990s, the building complex was renovated in accordance with the preservation order.

technical description

Operation began with 14 wells that pumped groundwater from a depth of between 35 and 65 meters and distributed it to the generously dimensioned pipeline network via a siphon line through four oxidizers for oxygen enrichment and 16 quick filters for iron removal and manganese removal . This required a consumption-dependent control. There were two sludge settling basins for the removed iron. The capacity at the start of operations was 16,000 m³ per day.

Because of its generous dimensions, the Kaulsdorf waterworks also supplied drinking water to the community of Steglitz near Berlin. A 22-kilometer pipeline with an inside diameter of 800 millimeters, laid from 1914, also began operation in 1916. Through the connection with the Lichtenberg intermediate pumping station, it guaranteed a constant amount of drinking water throughout the day.

16 deep wells are currently pumping the groundwater, which can provide a maximum daily output of 30,000 m³ of water. Around 160,000 households in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf districts of Kaulsdorf , Biesdorf , Hellersdorf and Mahlsdorf as well as in Lichtenberg are supplied .

Literature and main sources

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Berlin and its buildings ; P. 85.
  2. ↑ Berlin and its buildings ; P. 86.
  3. ↑ a b c Berlin and its buildings ; Pp. 89-91.
  4. ↑ Mieltschiner Street> Berlin Municipal Water Works AG, factory Kaulsdorf . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1938, IV, p. 2189 (after parcel 37 follows arable land and then (without number) the reference to the Kaulsdorf waterworks).
  5. ↑ Landsberger Allee 77-91 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, IV, p. 478 (E (owner) City of Berlin, storage area, construction sites).
  6. ↑ Berlin and its buildings ; P. 93.
  7. ↑ From the Kaulsdorfer Busch straight to the tap. In: Bezirks-Journal Marzahn-Hellersdorf , February 2016. p. 4
  8. ↑ Birgitt Etzel: Problems with groundwater remain. In: Bezirksjournal Lichtenberg Marzahn + (online) , accessed on March 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ Kaulsdorf waterworks supplies 160,000 households with drinking water. In: Berliner Woche , July 20, 2016

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 36.4 "  N , 13 ° 35 ′ 12.6"  E