Bathhouse (Museum Island)
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The so-called Welpersche Badehaus on Museum Island in Berlin was a private bathing establishment that existed from around 1805 to 1865. The building was designed by the Berlin City Physician and "Secret Senior Medical Officer" Dr. Georg Adolph Welper (1762–1842), who became the founder of modern bathing in Berlin.
Georg Adolph Welper
Georg Adolph Welper (born May 1, 1762 in Kandern / Baden, † May 29, 1842 in Berlin) settled in Berlin after studying medicine at the University of Jena . In 1803 he became senior medical councilor and city physician, and in 1810 he became a secret senior medical officer. In 1840 he went into retirement.
The Badeschiff
Around 1800 there were only a few private baths in Germany that also had showers or rooms for steam baths. And there were no large bathing establishments such as the Vauxhall bathhouse in Paris or the Dianabad in Vienna. The Berlin doctor Georg Adolph Welper, who was convinced of the benefits of swimming and thorough washing, therefore did pioneering work when he had a swimming bathhouse in the classic style anchored in Berlin on the Long Bridge in the Spree in 1802 , in order to do so too The bathing needs of the average Berliners who could not afford to travel to distant, sophisticated bathing resorts could not be accommodated.
By the highest cabinet order of October 2, 1801, Welper had been approved to set up such a swimming bathing establishment - in the form of a bathing ship - on the Spree between Lange Brücke and the mills, at the end of Burgstrasse.
The bathing ship was open at the bottom in the middle and not designed as a closed basin, so that bathers were directly in the water of the Spree. Bath cells were installed in the middle. These were connected on the broad and narrow sides of the ship by a walkway that was adorned by Doric-Ionic columns facing the water. The bathrooms were divided into four classes. The first class offered the luxury of paper wallpaper and painted ceilings, alabaster lamps, and floor mirrors. Bath tubs with warm water were also possible in individual cabins.
The bathhouse on Museum Island
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Graphics by Laurens and Dietrich based on a model by Friedrich August Calau, 1830
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After the success of the bathing ship, Welper set up a larger bathing establishment on the land at Friedrichsbrücke on the Spree island (later referred to as "Museum Island") north of Berlin's Lustgarten . For this, Welper had an existing house - as the old city maps show - converted by the architect Ludwig Catel , who came from a Huguenot family. The Welpersche Badehaus was directly on the Spree next to the Friedrichsbrücke.
Building description
The entire system consisted of a main building and a separate auxiliary building next to it. Both buildings were massive and covered with a zinc roof. The main building was decorated with columns in the Ionic style. On the front gable of the main building, above the arched window enclosed with four Ionic columns, there was the advertising inscription: “in balneis salus” (bathing is healthy). An exposed staircase at the end of the building led between two Ionic wall columns to the entrance and into a corridor decorated with flowers , from which one could go on into a small garden between the Spree and the house. From the corridor to the right one stepped into the drawing room, where the visitor could receive the card for the particular bathroom. The main building consisted of a cellar and two floors above ground. The outbuilding, which - as old engravings show - was initially one-story, was later given two more floors.
Bath life and service of the bath house
The Welpersche Badehaus offered its customers different types of baths, including Russian steam baths. Simple Spree water was used for these baths. The men's baths were on the first floor and those of the women on the second floor; the fourth grade baths were in the basement. From these various classes also associated conveniences oriented, as the ruling in the rooms elegance of the furniture, such as sofas, mirrors, etc. Likewise, were the baths first class of glazed clay, from the Berlin Feilnerschen stove factory , the second grade were made of zinc , those of the other price ranges made of plain wood. There were eleven baths in each of the two upper floors, but twelve in the lower. On the lower floor, three baths were intended exclusively for the poor, which could be used free of charge. In the adjoining building there were four sulfur baths, one sulfur steam bath and water steam baths.
All the rooms on both floors of the main building were papered; In winter they were warmed in a pleasant and even way by the steam engine in the basement ; the warmth spread through the interior of the whole institution. (This was not always the case in other institutions that were established later.) It was particularly pleasant for the visitor that not only every floor, but also every side of it could be heated to a greater or lesser extent as desired. There was an entry room for both men and women; where refreshments could be enjoyed. The small garden on the Spree was used for walking before or after the bath. Under the roof of the main building there were two large water tanks for the water pumped up from the Spree. For this purpose, tubes were led under the bed of the river to under the third arch of the Friedrichsbrücke into the main stream. "People with a dubious reputation" were not allowed to enter the house or take baths.
Model for other bathhouses
The Welpersche bath house on Friedrichsbrücke became the model for other facilities of the same kind in Berlin. Soon there were “in almost all parts of the city similar institutions for simple and artificial bathtubs, and then also for Russian steam baths”. So those residents of Berlin who could afford the entrance fees were soon allowed to go to the Welperschen Badehaus on Friedrichsbrücke in Pochhammer Mariannenbad, in Carlsbad or Albertinenbad clean or in the Neander's mud baths indulge. Most of the approximately 265,000 Berliners of that time, like the vast majority of residents of other German cities, had to get by with a simple washbowl.
Demolished in the 1870s
Photography by Friedrich Albert Schwartz
The Welpersche Badehaus on Cantianstrasse on Museum Island was demolished in 1871 or a little later because the site was needed for the construction of the Spree-side colonnades.
literature
- W. Mila: Berlin or history of the origin, the gradual development and the current state of this capital. Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Berlin and Stettin 1829.
- JD Rumpf: Berlin and Potsdam. A description of all the peculiarities of these cities and their surroundings. 5th edition. Berlin 1833.
- J.Welke, R. Steeg: History of the Spree baths. ( PDF file ).
- Udo Wiesmann: Historical impressions during a trip through Berlin on the Spree. Acatech materials - No. 2., Water History Shipping on November 16, 2009, acatech project georesource water - the challenge of global change. ( PDF file )
Web links
- Spreeufer in Nikolaiviertel (Burgstrasse) on the website of the Association for the History of Berlin eV
Individual evidence
- ↑ Horst Wagner: The Welpersche Badeschiff is approved. October 2, 1802 In: Berlin monthly journal. 10/1997, p. 84 f.
- ↑ a b Mila, p. 474 ff.
- ↑ The description follows the illustration in: JDF Rumpf: Berlin and Potsdam. A description of all the peculiarities of these cities and their surroundings. 5th edition. Berlin 1833.
- ^ Zedlitz, quoted in: Rahel Levin Varnhagen: Familienbriefe. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009. There: Note No. 93, p. 1359. cf. also there letter from Marcus Theodor to Rahel Varnhagen of May 4, 1819, p. 881.
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '14 " N , 13 ° 23' 58" E