Zwingerbauhütte

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Zwingerbauhütte (1948)

The Zwingerbauhütte is a construction hut whose task is the restoration and maintenance of the Dresden Zwinger . Efforts to preserve the Zwinger go back to the 18th century, but it was only with the founding of the Zwingerbauhütte in 1924 that the decline of the Elbe sandstone building complex was halted. The management as master builder was transferred to Hubert Georg Ermisch . This first phase of the building works lasted until 1936. In the autumn of 1945 the construction hut was re-established as the Zwinger construction department in order to be able to start rebuilding the kennel. After its restoration, it was converted into the building department for cultural and historical buildings in Dresden in 1968 and re-established as a Zwingerbauhütte in 1991 .

The kennel

Zwingerhof, view of the wall pavilion

The Zwinger is a building complex with gardens in the inner old town of Dresden . The total work of art of architecture, sculpture and painting, built under the direction of the architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann and the sculptor Balthasar Permoser , is one of the most important baroque buildings and one of the most famous sights of the Saxon state capital. The Zwinger was built from 1709 as an orangery and garden as well as a representative festival area. Its richly decorated pavilions and the galleries lined with balustrades, figures and vases bear witness to the magnificence during the reign of Elector Friedrich August I and the claim to power he expressed through it. After his death in 1733 and with the departure from the baroque, the Zwinger lost its importance.

prehistory

First maintenance work in the 18th and 19th centuries

As early as 1768, inspections revealed innumerable cracks in the walls and ceilings, which allowed the rainwater to run away. The structural condition deteriorated considerably and demolition became likely. Count Camillo Marcolini was appointed Lord Chamberlain and General Director of the Arts and Art Academies in 1778, with all of the electoral collections being subordinate to him. He campaigned for the security and renovation of the building complex. During this work, which began in 1783, the ceiling surfaces exposed on their upper side were relocated with a gradient, because the permanent seepage water problem in the building had become a major burden. This change did not result in any significant improvement because the technical possibilities at the time were not sufficient.

Renovation and renovation work at the beginning of the 19th century aimed to use the Zwinger as the central location for the electoral collections. For this, wall surfaces were required as storage space and therefore some windows and doors were bricked up. Marcolini's committed intervention against decay created the idea of ​​a museum in the Zwinger, but only caused major damage to the structure of the building that came to the fore much later and that he could not have foreseen. The repairs made to the sandstone with a kind of hard stucco ("Massa") as well as the coating of the sandstone with oil paint later had a disastrous effect.

After completion of the Sempergalerie in 1855, the Zwinger buildings found themselves in an aesthetic disharmony. The new and fresh-looking wing was faced with aged long galleries and a nymph bath overgrown with trees and herbs. In the process, the empirical experience of existing expertise fell from the field of view of those responsible, while considerable damage was caused by unhindered spreading of the root network and a water-storing vegetation cover on the structures. In order to match the color to the new Sempergalerie, the entire old building fabric was painted with an oil varnish. This covered the numerous repairs from the Marcolini period and more recent fillings, some of which were already weathered. The condensation, capillary and rainwater circulating under the paint layer promoted an initially invisible increasing destruction of sandstone surfaces; It was not until much later that significant salinity and flaking (frost and salt bursts) became noticeable. In the period after 1849, many additions were made to the newly invented Portland cement . In this way, regardless of the interactions with the capillary water, further salts got into the sandstone of the figures and the architectural jewelry as well as into the masonry. The consequential damage culminated in fatal preservation problems around 1900. Some structural security measures, such as ceiling sealing, had an effect elsewhere and contributed to the further preservation of individual masonry areas. A confusion of competencies with three ministries made the work more difficult, which lasted until 1863.

As a result, other questionable treatments contributed to the rapid deterioration of the kennel. A sculptor offered a "special procedure" to protect the stone surfaces from further weathering. The nymph bath was treated according to this method in 1894/95. This surface impregnation , later assessed as the fluate process, initially led to the solidification of the upper sandstone layers, which however, after a few years, flaked out in layers and ultimately led to major damage. Further repair work from 1880 to 1898 was also carried out without any deeper knowledge of the behavior of the different types of Elbe sandstone in open weather. Because the same methods were used in Vienna and Würzburg , all those involved considered these procedures to be correct. The various colors of sandstone and cement supplements should be balanced out with wax paint over a coat of hot linseed oil varnish. The stone parts were heated with blowtorches. However, these procedures aroused critical monitoring by external preservationists, because the ongoing decline was evidently spreading more and more.

The many small chimneys on the roof testify to the fact that the kennel was heated with countless small stoves; this led to a constant and considerable drop in the pH value of rain and condensation water. The acidic water contributed significantly to the damage to the building fabric. A reduction in these influences only occurred when the Zwinger was connected to the neighboring district heating plant , which went into operation in 1898. Due to the massively widespread furnace firing in the urban area at that time, further influence of the acid rain could not be averted from the building.

Extensive restoration work in the first half of the 20th century

That of Cornelius Gurlitt and Robert Dohme written work , the architecture and the decorative arts of the XVII. and XVIII. Century, including further related publications between 1884 and 1889 promoted a new view and accepting attitudes to the existing baroque buildings in Dresden. On October 29, 1898, a meeting of the Commission for the Preservation of Art Monuments took place, which dealt with the previous restoration work on the Zwinger. Despite all the work that had been done, the state of construction had continued to deteriorate. It is especially thanks to the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt and the then assistant director Jean Louis Sponsel that the commission put a stop to the artistic and structural threats to the Zwinger. Among other things, it was decided not to paint any more with immediate effect and to only use crossings made of the best Elbe sandstone. The government master builder Hermann Muthesius , then a technical attaché at the German Embassy in London , supported this departure and credibly demonstrated that the premises set in Dresden had been in use in England for a long time.

Due to insufficient funding, the restoration with gentle procedures did not begin until 1911 and was given a secure basis after the First World War from 1924. The necessary internal administrative decisions were made in 1910 by Hans Erlwein , a member of the commission. Georg Wrba , professor at the Dresden Art Academy , who was given control over the restoration of destroyed sculptures, strengthened his views .

Before the beginning of the First World War , the problems with the restoration work increased rapidly despite this reorientation. Its termination in 1915 aggravated the situation on the building and accelerated its decay. Several figures fell from their pedestals and lay in gutters. Larger components endangered the traffic area by detaching them from the structure. The consequences of incorrect rehabilitation methods and the use of substances that are dangerous for the stone turned out to be threatening effects.

history

Foundation of the Zwingerbauhütte

In 1920, employees of the Saxon Chamber of Accounts suggested to the responsible ministry of culture that they plan to plan considerable financial resources to secure and long-term restoration of the kennel. Work then began in 1921, but came to a standstill again after a short time due to the currency decline during the inflationary period . In view of the dramatic preservation situation, the meeting of the Monument Council on June 29, 1922 determined that the practice of oil paints and Portland cement supplements, which had persisted since the middle of the 19th century, had "... not only not protected the kennel, but also harmed [it] fatally ...". The congregation recommended "tough action ... regardless of the high cost that will be required." In the meantime, more figures had to be removed from the structure to protect them from the threat of falling. Ministerialrat Oskar Kramer earned particular merits, aware of this situation, who initiated the establishment of the Zwingerbauhütte in 1924 and continuously and in an unusual way advocated ministerial support for the project. Hubert Georg Ermisch was appointed head of this restoration workshop, which initially operated comprehensively until 1936, from October 15, 1924 . The work program drawn up under the supervision of Georg Wrba had two main objectives: the technical rescue of the Zwinger and the artistic reawakening of its architecture. During this period, the professional exchange with the Dresden stonemasons' guild intensified, and systematic research into petrographic as well as chemical-physical aspects on questions of stone conservation was started. In the course of this work, the sculptor's workshop reassembled the baroque monument Chronos and the mourner , which came from Kötzschenbroda , had been dismantled and damaged in two parts , whereupon it was re-erected in the Saxon state winery Hoflößnitz in 1928 .

The work of the Zwingerbauhütte provided for a comprehensive program. The entire outer facade of the Zwinger was freed from the layers of oil paint using a lye-like substance and all cement and stucco additions as well as heavily weathered sandstone areas were replaced by crossings. Furthermore, the drainage system in the entire kennel complex was subjected to a thorough revision and change. Based on the knowledge at the time, a comprehensive waterproofing of the terrace was carried out against moisture. The basis for questions of art historical design was a copperplate engraving commissioned by Pöppelmann, which, with its illustrations, offered documentation for many components and thus supported the claim to a restoration true to the original. Later modifications and additions were removed in the course of the work. About 100 specialists were busy with the tasks. The originally planned budget turned out to be insufficient; the Ministry of Finance met the increased need for funds after lengthy negotiations. In order to acquire sufficient and suitable building material, experts examined active and disused quarries in Saxon Switzerland . The samples taken beforehand were examined and evaluated by the materials testing office of the Dresden University of Technology .

These gardens in front of the Kronentor had to give way to the re-construction of the Zwingergraben.

The Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon reopened on March 20, 1929. Parts of the trench at the Zwinger, which had been filled in since the 19th century, were also restored. Work on the exterior facade ended in 1936, and restoration work on the interior followed. The course and progress of this long-lasting work on the Zwinger have been closely followed by interested parties in Dresden and far beyond the city limits. This led to controversies between the representatives of different views about the right way to go. Understandably, the contemporary reporting in the newspapers reflected this dispute very intensely. Prophecies like the “erring monument preservation” or “... the gigantic examples of their aberrations ...” are examples of the polemics of that time. The impact of the Zwinger complex and its museums after the work was completed silenced the press attacks.

Reconstruction after the Second World War

Destroyed kennel (1948)
Elimination of war damage in the Zwinger (1948)

A few years later the tangible results of the experts who had been fighting to save the kennel since 1924 were a victim of destruction. During the Second World War , the Zwinger suffered severe damage from the bombing raids on February 13 and 14, 1945 . Hans Nadler described it as follows: “The following have been preserved: the nymph bath, the surrounding walls of the 4 corner pavilions, the long galleries, the city pavilion and the crown gate. The wall pavilion was destroyed except for the wall shafts, which were out of alignment, and the adjoining Elbe-sided arched gallery was also badly damaged by direct explosive bombs. ”The picture gallery suffered considerable damage only on the northern side. All the buildings and their roofs were burned out. The sometimes laborious copper driving work on the roof coverings lay torn from the bomb splinters on the terraces and in the Zwingerhof. Flames broke out of some windows and irreversibly damaged the sandstone above the effects of fire through heat bursts and structural changes in the mineral structure. Some facade elements fell down as a result of material stresses and broke. Many parts of the building were no longer in equilibrium.

In the days immediately after the destruction, a small group led by Hubert Ermisch secured and recovered valuable architectural parts that could be preserved and created a damage file. The first damage assessment showed that out of 850 individual objects such as figures, vases or individual decorative elements, around 300 are to be restored or newly manufactured. In view of the renewed security and restoration effort, which this time exceeded all previous dimensions, Ermisch wrote a memorandum dated June 17, 1945 with the title Is the rescue of the kennel possible? . In it he succeeded in awakening the hope of reconstruction in a phase of barely tangible destruction of large parts of the Dresden city area, referring to the static studies and the subsequent installation of reinforced concrete ceilings from the time of the Zwingerbauhütte. Otherwise, in his opinion, the Zwinger would have collapsed like a house of cards as an originally unstable structure.

On August 14, 1945, important Dresden officials took part in an initial consultation on the coordination of the reconstruction. The Soviet military administration immediately approved the release of timber on August 18, demonstratively supporting the Dresdeners' intention to rebuild. In two cultural orders of the Soviet military administration, the protection and the reconstruction of cultural buildings were ordered. On this basis, the newly formed Saxon State Administration approved the first budget funds for the reconstruction of the Zwinger in September 1945.

Since many people were committed to the building, reconstruction began as early as 1945 by the “Zwinger Construction Department”, which was founded in autumn this year, under the direction of the Dresden architect Hubert Georg Ermisch . The first contributors included the sculptor Albert Braun (1899–1962), the architects Max Zimmermann (1881–1962) and Arthur Frenzel (1899–1975) and, for the sheet copper work, Master Jagy. Instead of the official name "Bauabteilung Zwinger", however , the traditional name Zwingerbauhütte was still used.

The structural damage caused by the impacts of bombs and incendiary ammunition was not only significant, but also unknown to the kennel in the past. For example, an arched gallery in the southwestern kennel area was deformed by 22 centimeters in depth. They were restored to their original position by lifting with pulley blocks in the summer of 1947. The wall shafts on the upper floor of the wall pavilion showed an almost similar directional deformation. Pulley blocks were also used here and then a reinforced concrete ring anchor was placed at the height of the main cornice.

The first public presentation took place in May 1951, when part of the inner courtyard became accessible to visitors and the Kronentor was completed in July 1951. In the same year the Zwingergraben was extended and a common water area was created with the Zwingerteich.

After the death of Hubert Georg Ermisch, Arthur Frenzel took over the rebuilding in 1951. In June 1952 he completed the construction of the mathematical-physical salon , in 1954 three gables of the wall pavilion and in 1955 the glockenspiel pavilion were completed. The cost of their reconstruction amounted to 7.9 million German marks . In 1960 the French pavilion was completed in a simplified version. The preserved valuable stucco and marble elements were salvaged for later reconstruction. It was not until 1963 that the Wall Pavilion was opened to the public. Up to this year the interiors had been furnished with a provisional design for use as a museum. Since around 1963, the exterior of the Zwinger has largely been in the same structural condition as it was before the war. Hans Nadler , then state curator and later honorary citizen of Dresden , put the total financial expenditure for the restoration of the kennel after the Second World War at 11.8 million marks by 1965 . This did not mean that the reconstructions and the interior design were completed, but the employees of the Zwingerbauhütte increasingly took on tasks on other structures and in 1968 the Zwingerbauhütte was converted into the "Building Department for Cultural and Historical Buildings Dresden". At the beginning of the 1980s, the construction department devoted itself to the renovation of balustrades and special work on building drainage.

New establishment of the Zwingerbauhütte

After the fall of the Wall, the Zwingerbauhütte was re-established on June 18, 1991 as part of the State Building Construction Office, today's state enterprise of Saxon real estate and construction management. The architect and monument curator Ulrich Aust , who had already been appointed master builder of the Zwinger in 1983, acted as director, and the restorers, sculptors, stonemasons and masons from the building department of the Dresden State Art Collections, who had worked at the Zwinger until then, were taken over into the newly founded Zwingerbauhütte. After Aust's death in 1992, Karl Schöppner held the office of master builder.

In addition to the restoration of the Zwinger, the Zwingerbauhütte also performs tasks on other sandstone buildings in Dresden. In 2005 work on the figures and facades of the Nymphenbad in the Zwinger, but also the Johanneum .

The workshop of the Zwingerbauhütte was for a long time on the ramparts of the Dresden Zwinger. Due to restrictions due to visitor traffic, time-consuming stone transport and a lack of space, the workshop moved to new rooms in 2004 on Kleine Packhofstrasse not far from the kennel. In addition to the new workshop area, the Staatsbetrieb Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement built a new depot on behalf of the Free State of Saxony by March 2006 for around 190,000 euros. There the Zwingerbauhütte stores special architectural parts, pieces of jewelery, figures and vases made of sandstone as well as its collection of stone and mold material.

The largest construction measures of the new millennium so far are the conversion and restoration of the Mathematical-Physical Salon from 2008 to 2013. Employees of the Zwingerbauhütte restore all 98 sculptures in the salon or make copies and partial copies. In addition, the balustrades and pedestals are refurbished.

Ten employees were employed in the Zwingerbauhütte for the 20th anniversary in 2011: In addition to the master builder, there was one foreman, one stonemason / stone sculptor, journeyman stonemason, restorer and five apprentices. For the 25th anniversary of Bauhütten in 2016, there were seven restorers, stone sculptors and stonemasons as well as two trainees.

On the recommendation of the independent expert committee of the German UNESCO Commission, the 13 German building huts, including the Zwingerbauhütte, the only building hut not affiliated to the church, were included in the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage .

Kennel builder

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hubert Georg Ermisch: The Dresden Zwinger. Sachsenverlag, Dresden 1953, p. 86.
  2. ↑ Ermisch: Zwinger, 1953, pp. 86–87.
  3. ↑ Ermisch: Zwinger, 1953, pp. 93–94.
  4. ↑ Hans Nadler: Data on the reconstruction of the kennel after the destruction in 1945 . In: Harald Marx: Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. 1990, p. 175.
  5. ↑ Ermisch: Zwinger, 1953, p. 95.
  6. ↑ Ermisch: Zwinger, 1953, p. 96.
  7. ↑ a b c Institution with a leading function. Eventful history of the Zwingerbauhütte , in: Dresdner Latest News , January 2, 2012, p. 17.
  8. ↑ Hans Nadler: Data on the reconstruction of the kennel after the destruction in 1945 . In: Harald Marx: Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. 1990, pp. 176-177.
  9. ^ The cultural life of our city , in: Dresdner Stadt-Nachrichten, Volume I, No. 13; 2nd July 1957.
  10. ↑ Corina Glaser: “With respect for what is available”. Zwingerbauhütte was founded 80 years ago , in: Dresdner Latest News, March 1, 2005, p. 23.
  11. ↑ kennel Wall cleared , Media Service Saxony, January 10 of 2006.
  12. ↑ Valuable pieces find their way , press release 18/2006 of the Staatsbetrieb Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement from March 8, 2006 (PDF; 90 kB).
  13. ↑ a b Genia Bleier: Shrunken team receives gem. The Zwingerbauhütte was re-established 20 years ago , in: Dresdner Latest News, June 23, 2011, p. 15.
  14. ↑ Dominik Brüggemann: These people keep our kennel alive , Dresdner Morgenpost, June 17, 2016
  15. ↑ Zwingerbauhütte now in the cultural heritage , Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden, April 5, 2019
  16. ↑ My life in the Dresden Zwinger , Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden, April 3, 2019
  17. ↑ Peter Hilbert: This is Dresden's new master builder , Wirtschaft in Sachsen, Dresden, May 13, 2019