Werderscher market

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Werderscher market
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Place in Berlin
Werderscher market
View on a painting by Carl Daniel Freydanck , 1839
Basic data
place Berlin
District center
Created 1658
Newly designed last in the 21st century
Confluent streets Falkoniergasse, Niederlagstraße, Schinkelplatz (north);
Schloßplatz , Unterwasserstraße (east);
Jägerstrasse, Kurstrasse (south);
French street, Oberwallstraße (west)
Buildings Friedrichswerder Church ,
former building academy ,
Foreign Office
use
User groups Road traffic
Space design Bear fountain
Technical specifications
Square area 2070 m²

The Werdersche market is a rectangular square in the Berlin district of Mitte . It was laid out in 1658 by Johann Gregor Memhardt and named after the historic Friedrichswerder district in 1835 . The most important sights of the Werderschen Markt include the Friedrichswerder Church , the former building academy , the Foreign Office and the Bear Fountain .

history

In the 17th century a new “residential town” was built with its own center

In order to develop the residential city of Friedrichswerder , which was laid out at the instigation of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , streets and squares were laid out in 1635 according to plans by Johann Gregor Memhardt . Under his leadership, the new citizens built a town hall and a simultaneous church for the German and French communities in their center by 1672 . The adjacent market square was partially planted with linden trees.

Werderscher Markt with surrounding buildings in 1690, view from the northeast

To the west and north of the market, members of the Prussian royal family and the court had residential and utility buildings built. On the drawing by Johann Stridbeck from 1690, the “Prospect of the Werterisches Rath House (left) sampt Mr. v. Danckelman's dwelling (right building) ”. The town hall also gave its name to the market square, which was named Werderscher Markt by decision of the councilors. The name Werder goes back to the Spree island on which the new quarter was built.

From the 17th century onwards, cargo sailors brought their goods into the growing city via a branch of the Spree and a lock, making the Packhof an important transshipment point near Werderscher Markt. It was connected to the Schleusenbrücke via the Am Packhof street .

Werderscher Markt based on a sketch of the location in the Berlin address book from 1799

Redesign of the Werder center between the 18th century and 1945

After the Memhardt fortifications were finally laid down in this area around 1740 , the surrounding streets were relocated several times, and new buildings changed the entire situation of the market. In 1798 the foundation stone was laid for a new building on the site of the town hall, the building of which was burned down in 1794 and then relocated. Friedrich Wilhelm III. ordered that “a new building be erected here for the benefit of the state and for the decoration of the city. The king determined the same for workshops of the mint and for the storage of the minerals , models, books, maps and cracks which the mining and smelting department collects. ”The royal mint was created .

Seen from Kurstrasse to Werderschen Markt with the Old Mint and the first Friedrichswerder Church (back left), 1798, aquatint by Friedrich August Calau

In 1822 the Berlin address book describes the market as follows: "Located in Friedrichswerder, between the old Packhof and Jägerstrasse, has 9 houses, is 110 steps long, and belongs to the 5th police station". This year the following owners and buildings of the Werderschen Markt are shown: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 - houses for one to four families, number 5 is a "Spahrkasse" set up by the banker CWJ Schulze for merchants and manufacturers, number 7 is the entrance to the war college and number 9 is the main entrance to the new mint building with the rear entrance number 8. The streets Am Packhof and the westward market street were given the name Werderstraße before 1830 because of their location in the former Werder district.

Over the centuries, the initially clear urban structure has been around more and more destroyed by the market, new bigger houses were built as the Modewaaren magazine Herrmann Gerson 1847/1848 (Plot 5/6), the first clothing store in Old Berlin applies . The originally independent city of Friedrichswerder was thus integrated into the growing city of Berlin. The first church was replaced by a new building in 1824 and is still in its original place as Friedrichswerder Church .

The address Werderscher Markt number 1 was transferred to the newly created Schinkelplatz in 1837 , where Karl Friedrich Schinkel's house stood, next to the building school, which later became the building academy . The building of the “Ob. War colleges ”became Werder or Friedrichswerder high school in the 1840s .

Werderscher Markt 1-9 was the postal address for the following institutions around 1850: Number 1 housed an inn, numbers 3 and 4 were residential buildings in which a bookstore and a printer were housed, number 6 was owned by the merchant Gerson, number 7 was the address of the Werder-Gymnasium (the director, a teacher and two school clerks lived in this house) and numbers 9/10 belonged to the royal (old) coin. In 1886 the old mint was demolished and a building for the Deutsche Industriebank was erected in its place.

The houses Werderscher Markt 2, 3 and 4 were also demolished around 1880 and according to plans by Alfred Messel , residential and commercial buildings ( Werder houses ) were built under the master builders Friedrich & Sonnenthal , which also included Werderstrasse and Kurstrasse. The Aktien-Bauverein Werderscher Markt , which had its office on Markt 9, was founded to finance the construction work and the subsequent marketing . A police station was also located in this house from 1870 onwards . The address book then shows a wealth of companies in these houses, including wine merchants and the fur trader Abraham B. Citroen, owner of the fur manufacture and fur store " AB Citroen " at Werderscher Markt 7. His successor was Hendrik Citroen (1865–1932), father of Painter, draftsman and photographer Paul Citroen There was also a factory for nickel and alfenide goods and a manufacturer of feather fur and feather fur goods , to name just a few more unusual offers. But three banking companies, a post office and many lawyers also took up residence here.

View of part of the Werderscher Markt with the Gerson department store, 1902

Subsequently, a kiosk, an advertising column and an octagonal urinal were located in the open space in front of the main church portal , but their small architecture destroyed the overall impression of an urban square.

Colored picture postcard of the Werderscher Markt, around 1910

The Gerson department store (renamed Modebasar Gerson & Co around 1900 ) was a flourishing fashion house owned by the Jewish entrepreneurial family Freudenberg until 1933 , after which the family emigrated. Therefore, the building and the associated land were foreclosed in 1937, and in 1939 the Reich Criminal Police Office moved into the former department store. A publication in the Jüdischen Allgemeine from 2013 shows that the technology for the mass extermination of people with Zyklon B was developed in the courtyard of this house . In the opinion of the critics , the rebuilding of the property with townhouses , which began in the 2010s, means that all indications of the disastrous history of this square have disappeared.

Sketch of the Werderscher Markt, 1933

In preparation for the 1936 Summer Olympics , which took place in Berlin, renovation and cleaning work was carried out throughout the city center. An architect involved ( Gerhard Dörge ) took a closer look at the situation at Werderschen Markt, which he described as one of the “most attractive places in Berlin”, “which, apart from its urban charm, is characterized by two excellent buildings by Schinkel, the consecration building the Werder church and the functional building of the building academy. […] The Bauakademie […] together with the Werderscher Kirche form an excellent townscape, which unfortunately, due to a few neglects and ingredients, no longer comes into its own as it would correspond to its intrinsic value. ”He criticized the type of street layout, the location of the Traffic islands, the masts and the "excessive number of ugly lanterns". Finally, he made some suggestions as to how the situation could be improved: from a more uniform cornice height, a "thorough cleaning up" with the removal of the small trees that had just been planted next to the bear fountain , which has been here since 1928 , the removal of masts, the advertising column, the tram column, The telephone booth, a sandpit and the fire alarm were mentioned. Dörge also found that the only two-meter-wide footpath in front of the church portal is far too narrow. The most radical solution for the Werderscher Markt is, from an “architectural point of view”, the elimination of the continuous over-wide traffic route, because the traffic flow is not that strong here. The result would be “a large paved square, the only adornment being the bear fountain, which is particularly popular with school children and is therefore so lively; the lights are arranged in the context of the whole and thus become a further design element of the square. "After a lot of detailed information about changing windows, colors and building decoration, Dörge turned to the south side and came to the conclusion" The now downright devastating south side of the Werderscher market should In some time, as is currently planned, it will be replaced by a north block of the Reichsbank that has been detached from the main new building, which would have the advantage of a quiet design on its south side for Werder's market. ”His ideas were not implemented, however.

The consequences of the war lead to the total redesign of the marketplace

Building of the Central Committee of the SED in 1966 on Werderscher Markt, almost free-standing

After the end of the Second World War , all the earlier buildings except for the ruins of the church and the bank building around Werderscher Markt were demolished due to their severe destruction . The heavily damaged Reichsbank building (instead of the Werderhaus) on the southern edge of the market was rebuilt and served as the seat of various government agencies in the GDR before the SED Central Committee moved here until the fall of the Wall in 1959 . Today there is the seat of the Foreign Office ( house on Werderschen Markt ).

The church ruin remained as a structurally secured structure until the 1980s, and it was only in connection with the 750th anniversary of the city of Berlin in 1987 that it began to be gradually restored in accordance with the requirements of listed buildings. The church building is the last dominant feature of the former market square.

With the reconstruction of Berlin's city center , Werderstrasse was also re-established as a continuous, wide driveway across the former market square, which finally removed the southern half of the market area. The small church forecourt and the area with the plane trees around the bear fountain remain from the original Werderschen Markt. The location of this fountain marks the historical market cross , on which a market fountain often had its place when German cities were founded .

Location and area over the centuries

The almost square market square was initially surrounded on three sides by residential buildings; The Niederlage-Wall-Straße, Niederlagstraße, Am Packhof, Kurstraße and Marktstraße ran towards him (around 1799). The north-eastern boundary was formed by the bank of the Spree, on which the lock bridge established the connection to the old Berlin center, which later became the Nikolaiviertel . One corner was the actual marketplace, especially for the bonecutters with their paws .

In the 21st century, Werdersche Markt continues to the west as French Street . Here the rebuilt Falkoniergasse meets the former market square along the west side of the Friedrichswerder Church, to the north is Niederlagstrasse and to the south the Werderstrasse formed the border. However, on February 1, 1999, this street was included in the Werderschen Markt. In this context, the house numbers were changed, which have since started southeast with the Foreign Office and extend to number 15 in orientation numbering .

The supplementary building of the Foreign Office with its large mirrored facade (see picture in the info box) and its inner courtyards, which was completed in 1999, is completely on the southern surface of the historic market, but the atrium facing Werderscher Markt is open to the public.

The “new” Werdersche Markt is therefore more of a street, the western borders of which form the corners of Kurstraße (with a new hotel and the Quadriga conference center) and Oberwallstraße / Werderscher Markt (with a new office building). The eastern border is at the lock bridge and the underwater road.

Remodeling planning

As part of an invitation competition by the Berlin Senate, the question of the extent to which the remaining open space of 1300 m² in the historic Werderscher Markt could be made more visible again. The construction activities for the construction of the new residential buildings to the west and east along the nave have been in full swing since 2011, and Schinkelplatz has also been restored since 2008. A space concept was desired that would make the green area around the bear fountain with the two well-grown plane trees and the small church forecourt more attractive. Specifically, it said in the tender: “The development of the Werderscher Markt through the urban development and open space planning measures that have already taken place and are still pending is an essential element in regaining the historic center of Berlin. Here, the former role of Werderscher Markt as the center of Friedrichswerder, the first urban expansion of Berlin- Cölln , can be made visible. ”The specified time schedule that the winning design should be implemented in 2010 has not been achieved due to the long-term other construction work in the area been. The Senate is providing a sum of 140,000 euros for the renovation.

The winning design by the landscape architects TH Treibhaus Landschaftsarchitektur from Berlin and Hamburg provides for an optical elevation of the church location as well as an emphasis on the fountain and the surrounding area. The surface of the square should be designed with small paving (granite, shell limestone, marble imitations) with a "joint image that is clearly laid diagonally to the square frame". The material colors range from monochrome to light gray to multi-colored and white. The result is a colorful stone carpet that is bordered with dark plaster bands. Individual, restrained seating furniture and lighting embedded in the floor should invite strollers and future residents to linger. Another plan for redesigning the Rest-Werder market is shown by the design by Guba & Sgard, which the jury did not shortlist.

In the spring of 2015 there were still construction site containers on the areas in front of the church, which is why the design was not expected to be implemented for the time being. The renovation plan that was awarded the winner has not yet been implemented to this day (as of early 2020).

traffic

A tram line opened up the Werderscher Markt as early as the beginning of the 20th century . Since 1991 the bus route 147 of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe has been running through the Werderscher Markt - Französische Strasse street .

literature

  • Arwed Messmer (Ed.): Anonymous Mitte Berlin. ISBN 978-3-941185-66-1 , 184 pages.
  • Hans Wilderotter: The house on Werderscher Markt. From the Reichsbank to the Foreign Office. In: Beate Binder: Dispute in the city center: Berlin's Schlossplatz . Verlag Boehlau, ISBN 978-3-412-20040-4 .
  • Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Capital Berlin-I . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 132 . : Werderscher Markt / Werderstrasse.
  • Eberhard Fensch: Secret files Werderscher market . Homilius-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-937943-24-2 .

Web links

Commons : Werderscher Markt (Berlin-Mitte)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Explanation of the name in the Berlin address book from 1901.
  2. Old coin in the archive of the Architekturmuseum der Technische Universität Berlin
  3. Werdersche Markt . In: CF Wegener: House and General Address Book of the Royal. Capital and residence city of Berlin , 1822, part II, p. 388 (residents of the same).
  4. Timeline. Berlin Historic Center Association; Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  5. Werderscher Markt . In: General housing gazette for Berlin, Charlottenburg and surroundings , 1848, part II, p. 685.
  6. Werderscher Markt . In: General housing indicator for Berlin, Charlottenburg and surroundings , 1852, II, p. 167.
  7. project Werder houses the archives of the Museum of Architecture of the Technical University of Berlin
  8. ^ Ministry of the Interior . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1876, Part IV, p. 37. “2. Pol.-Rev. ".
  9. ^ Werderscher Markt 5/6 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, Part IV, p. 943. “Reichskriminalpolizeiamt”.
  10. ^ Sigrid Hoff: Robbed Center , exhibition in the Ephraim-Palais 2013/2014. In: Jüdische Allgemeine , September 9, 2013.
  11. ^ Gerhard Dörge: A suggestion for the Werderscher market . (PDF) In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , 1935, issue 42
  12. Werderscher Markt . In: Karl Neander von Petersheiden: Illustrative Tables , 1799, street representations and residents, p. 185 (progress sketch).
  13. ^ Extension of the Foreign Office in Berlin based on plans by the architects Thomas Müller and Ivan Reimann. Retrieved May 26, 2019 .
  14. ^ The stations of the Garden Culture Path Berlin, Unter den Linden-Route E. ( Memento from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on gartenkulturpfad-berlin.de; Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  15. ^ Hotel John F, Werderscher Markt 11
  16. Homepage of the Quadriga Conference Center (PDF) accessed on February 6, 2015.
  17. ^ Office building Werderscher Markt 15. architekten24.de; accessed on February 6, 2015.
  18. Expert procedure for the open space design of the Werderscher Markt from September 2009 (PDF) accessed on February 3, 2015.
  19. Expert review, detailed views on competititon-online.de; Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  20. Homepage Guba & Sgard , accessed on February 6, 2015.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '56.2 "  N , 13 ° 23' 53.6"  E