The Nikolaiviertel in Berlin's Mitte district is the oldest settlement area in the capital. Almost completely destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt in 1980-1987 by architect Günter Stahn on behalf of the East Berlin magistrate on the occasion of the city's 750th anniversary. Around the reconstructed Nikolaikirche, an ensemble of historic town houses and correspondingly adapted prefabricated buildings was built on an almost medieval floor plan. The monument is now one of the sights of Berlin.
The Nikolaiviertel is one of what used to be four quarters in the
historic district of Alt-Berlin, which now belongs to the district of
Mitte. The name derived from the Nikolaikirche has existed since at
least 1727 and has been used again since the reconstruction in 1987.
In terms of urban planning, the quarter (lifeworld-oriented spaces)
belongs to the prognosis area "Center 01", which is designated 01011303
for the statistics: district region 13 (Alexanderplatz) and planning
area 3 (Alexanderplatzviertel) within it. The Spree is included in the
planning area. According to the address book, from around 1870 to 1884
the square belonged to police station 21 and to the town hall,
Stralauerstrasse and Nikolaikirchhof districts.
Bordering
streets:
Burgstrasse, since 1984: (between Rathausstrasse and
Mühlendamm Bridge) as a bank of the Spree
Königstraße, since 1951:
Rathausstraße
Spandau Street
Molkenmarkt: with the widening of the
Mühlendamm, the Molkenmarkt square moved to the east
Mühlendamm, 1984
with the expansion of the B1 between Grunerstrasse and Leipziger
Strasse, Mühlendamm was widened from 13 to 50 meters.
Pedestrian
zone within the district:
Eiergasse: entered in the regional
reference system (RBS) with 47 meters as a footpath
Molkenstraße was
called Bollengasse until 1862 and was incorporated into Poststraße in
1984.
Nikolaikirchplatz, from 1781 to 1901 Nicolaikirchhof, plus the
Nicolaikirchgasse: in the regional reference system (RBS) 60 meters are
noted as a footpath and 120 meters as a square.
Poststraße: in the
regional reference system (RBS) 113 meters are entered as a footpath.
Propststraße, until 1723 Kannegiesser-Gasse, until 1845 Probstgasse: In
the regional reference system (RBS), 290 meters are entered as footpaths
and 35 meters as squares.
Am Nussbaum, created in 1984 as a
pedestrian zone between Spandauer Strasse and Propstrasse, named after
the historic restaurant. Entered as a footpath in the regional reference
system (RBS) with 113 meters.
The reason for the founding of the two towns of Berlin and Kölln was
the Mühlendamm, built between 1220 and 1230.[7] In the center of the
Berlin settlement on the eastern bank of the Spree, the church of St.
Nikolai was completed around 1230, a late Romanesque fieldstone
basilica. At the same time, the Petrikirche was built directly opposite
on the western bank on the Spreeinsel as the center for the somewhat
smaller Kölln, which was first mentioned in a document in 1237. The year
was the basis for the city's jubilees in 1937 (700 years) and 1987 (750
years), although the only surviving confirmation document dates from
1238 and only mentions Cologne and not Berlin. More details are not
known about the beginnings of the two cities, any written evidence -
founding documents or the like - were probably destroyed in the city
fire of 1380.
The first surviving document mentioning Kölln dates
from October 28, 1237. Berlin is only mentioned in a document on January
26, 1244. Because the two cities soon grew together, 1237 is considered
the year Berlin was born, and the major city anniversaries are based on
this date. On March 20, 1307, the two towns were united to form the
double city of Berlin-Kölln, and in 1486 Elector Johann Cicero made it
his permanent residence. At that time, the settlement had grown into an
important trading center, which had also joined the Hanseatic League in
the 14th century.
Growing economic power and relative prosperity
allowed the citizens to significantly rebuild their central building,
the Nikolaikirche, as early as 1264. A Gothic hall church was built,
which was changed again and again in the following centuries. The main
feature of the church and the old Berlin city center remained the
asymmetrical medieval facade with the one, slender tower until the end
of the 19th century, which was only replaced by a neo-Gothic double
tower in the 1870s. While Berlin was constantly expanding all around and
new urban centers formed, the Nikolaiviertel hardly changed; mainly
craftsmen lived and worked in the narrow, winding streets. A
considerable part of today's Nikolaiviertel took part in the formation
of Berlin's city and was developed with commercial buildings, one of the
largest buildings from the end of the 19th century was the Nathan Israel
department store, which occupied almost the entire area between
Spandauer, Königstrasse, Poststrasse and Probststrasse.
Transformation plans in the Nazi era
In connection with the 700th
anniversary of Berlin in 1937 during the National Socialist era, plans
began to fundamentally redesign the area around the Nikolaikirche. For
this purpose, it was planned to largely demolish the buildings, which
were perceived as inferior and were in an extremely dilapidated,
ramshackle condition that was sometimes unbearable for the residents. An
open-air museum was to take its place. In this forum, facades of
valuable historic town houses would have been erected, which would have
been removed elsewhere in the city in the implementation of the plans
for the world capital Germania. In this context, the Nikolaikirche was
profaned in 1938; the public justification was "conversion as a music
dome".
World War II and post-war period
During World War II,
between 1943 and 1945, the old town was destroyed by bombs and street
fighting. After the end of the war, the remains were removed, and some
less destroyed buildings were also demolished. For decades, the area
played no role in Berlin's urban planning. The administration of East
Berlin concentrated on finding housing that was as effective as possible
and on large-scale representative building projects such as Stalinallee.
The neglect of the historic city center is clear from a planning
contribution from 1959: Instead of the Nikolaikirche and the remaining
buildings, the Spree was to be expanded into a harbor basin for pleasure
boats as part of the construction of the central government building of
the GDR.
planning and construction
The situation only changed when Berlin's
750th anniversary was due in 1987. The city administration showed a new
appreciation for the historical roots and planned to develop an
attractive and tourist-attractive district on the wasteland. A
programmatic paper called for the old town center to be "formed into a
harmonious unit in accordance with its historical significance with new,
reconstructed and reconstructed buildings, streets and squares [...] in
such a way that the living reference to the original [...] can be
experienced". The construction project was completed in the anniversary
year 1987. Like most reconstructions of destroyed buildings and
sections, the Nikolaiviertel has since been judged differently.
In the course of the reconstruction of the district, the few existing
buildings were restored and numerous new buildings were built, some with
historic facades, some in a special kind of adapted industrial prefab
construction - with gables, ornaments and wrought-iron ornaments, but
also with tilting windows and modern apartments. Of the reconstructions,
the town houses behind the Nikolaikirche are probably the most faithful
to the original. This also applies to the town houses on the
Molkenmarkt, although the composition of the houses represents a free
collage.
The Nikolaikirche, which was destroyed down to the outer
walls during the Second World War, has been restored to the form it was
in before the destruction, with the exception of the spire. A number of
small town houses, especially around the church, were completely rebuilt
in historical forms. The Ephraim Palais on Mühlendamm, which was
demolished in 1936, was rebuilt twelve meters from its original location
using original parts of the facade. The Zum Nußbaum inn, once a hangout
for prominent artists such as Heinrich Zille, Otto Nagel and Claire
Waldoff, was created as a copy on Nikolaikirchplatz; the original,
probably built in 1571, was located at Fischerstraße 21 in Alt-Kölln
until it was destroyed in 1943. Other historical buildings in the
Nikolaiviertel that have been reconstructed are the court arbor of the
old town hall, the Zur Rippe restaurant on Poststraße and Mühlendamm and
the Zum Paddenwirt inn on Nikolaikirchplatz and Eiergasse.
Special buildings
A few outstanding structures interrupted the
largely preserved medieval structures. On the southern edge of the
district, the Ephraim Palais was completed in 1766 on the Mühlendamm
property at the corner of Poststrasse. The court jeweler and financier
of Frederick the Great, Veitel Heine Ephraim, had a representative
residence built here, decorated with putti, stone vases and filigree,
gilded balcony railings. Very close by is the Knoblauchhaus, also built
around 1760 in the late baroque style, but since a conversion at the
beginning of the 19th century it has a rather early classical
appearance; Inside, many a detail still refers to the Rococo origin. It
was the home of a Hungarian immigrant family that produced busy, wealthy
and influential citizens of Berlin over several generations. Finally,
the Kurfürstenhaus is worth mentioning. It was originally a Renaissance
building made of red sandstone, rebuilt in the Baroque style in the 18th
century. It was named after Elector Johann Sigismund (1572–1619), who
fled here because he was convinced that his castle was haunted by the
White Lady.
Architectural monuments included in the Berlin
monument list for the Nikolaiviertel building ensemble:
Kurfürstenhaus, Spreeufer 5 and Poststrasse 4/5
Commercial building
Poststrasse 30
Knoblauchhaus, Poststraße 23 and Nikolaikirchplatz
Commercial building Poststraße 21/22 and Nikolaikirchplatz
Ephraim-Palais, Poststraße 16 corner Mühlendamm
Commercial building
Poststraße 13/14
Rental and commercial building Poststrasse 12 at the
corner of Spreeufer 3
The streets and alleys of the district follow the traditional floor plans and are paved according to historical models, except for the modern Am Nußbaum street. Around 2,000 residents live in around 800 apartments on an area of almost 50,000 m². 33 shops, 22 restaurants and various museums, such as the Nikolaikirche, the Knoblauchhaus and the Ephraim Palais are available to visitors (as of 2010).
The founding fountain (also known as the coat of arms fountain) is
located next to the entrance to the Nikolaikirche and was built in 1987
based on a design by Gerhard Thieme from 1928. The fountain is made of
sandstone and steel. The wrought-iron crowning was created by the
blacksmith Hans-Joachim Kunsch and the bronze chain was made by Stefan
Kuschel. Three steps lead to an octagonal fountain basin four meters in
diameter. Coats of arms are attached to the sides. In the center is a
six meter high column topped by a bear holding a coat of arms with an
eagle. The fountain erected in the oldest settlement area in Berlin is
intended to commemorate the founding of the city. There is also a
historic fountain with metal works by Hans-Joachim Kunsch in Eiergasse.
On the Nikolaikirchplatz are the bronze sculptures Allegory of
Science and Clio by Albert Wolff. They were part of the 1860-1871
created and destroyed in the post-war equestrian statue for Friedrich
Wilhelm III. in the pleasure garden. The bronze sculpture of Saint
George, created in 1849-1853, is also located on the banks of the Spree
near Propststraße. It is one of the main works by August Kiß and was
previously in the Eosanderhof of the City Palace, then in the Volkspark
Friedrichshain. At the level of the Mühlendamm there are two lions by an
unknown sculptor, which originally stood guard in front of the imperial
coin on the Molkenmarkt, as well as the sculptures Allegory of Strength
and War Science by Reinhold Begas, which were formerly in the Hall of
Fame of the Arsenal.
Critics regard the Nikolaiviertel as an unbearable mixture of the
most diverse set pieces. Proponents of the concept counter that the
alternative of providing modern buildings with traditional facades is
not more authentic.
At the beginning of 2018, the Nikolaiviertel
was included in the Berlin list of monuments. According to the State
Monuments Office in Berlin, it is the "most prominent example of a
changed building policy in the GDR in the 1980s" and represents a "phase
of return to the urban qualities of urban districts that have grown".