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The Columbushaus ( Columbus House) was a nine-storey modernist office and shopping building in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and completed in 1932. It was an icon of progressive architecture which passed relatively unscathed through World War II but was gutted by fire in the June 1953 uprising in East Germany. The ruin was subsequently razed in 1957 because it stood in the border strip; the site where the structure once stood was occupied by activists shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Stylistically, it was "perhaps the most pronounced and rigorous example of modern office building design in Berlin."Scheer, p. 142. It was conceived as a real piece of urban progressivism, in contrast to the fantasy world epitomised by Haus Vaterland, on the opposite side of the square.
Columbus Haus serves as an object of redemption, a spatial synthesis through which the path to pure reason can be rediscovered. It is the ultimate object of negation, conceived in rejection of the degeneration that obsessive consumption has caused to the culture. Its presence attempts to break the conspiracy between architecture and the persistence of the memory of Rome, the dangerous and uncontrollable evocation of ancient gods and mysteries. It is as if architecture had become naked, shedding all deception to purify itself and the city.Alan Balfour, Berlin: The Politics of Order, 1737-1989, New York: Rizzoli, 1990, , p. 64"Dedicated to an idealist version of America", it was intentionally revolutionary, The Architects' Journal 195.25 (1992) p. 31. its height and modernity in sharp contrast to the other buildings in the square, which were predominantly classical in detailing and many of which dated to the Gründerzeit of the last quarter of the 19th century. It was to have been part of a reconfiguration of Potsdamer Platz and the adjacent Leipziger Platz as modern spaces which was planned by Stadtbaurat Martin Wagner; as a result of the Depression, the Columbushaus was the only part of the project built.Kathleen James, Erich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism, Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University, 1997, , pp. 130–31. Mendelsohn planned the Columbushaus as part of a wall of skyscrapers around the reformed square; first, in 1928, proposing to combine both squares and in a second conceptual sketch, in 1931, making an octagonal plaza separated from Potsdamer Platz proper.James, pp. 134–35, reproducing the 1928 drawing as Fig. 60, p. 136 (mislabelled 1931).Eckardt, p. 22, referring only to the 1931 concept, Plate 31. Although no other buildings were built to place it in the intended context, the "last masterpiece of Mendelsohn's German period"Bruno Zevi, Erich Mendelsohn, 1982, translated ed. New York: Rizzoli, 1985, , p. 122. was highly influential.Robert A. M. Stern, Thomas Mellins, David Fishman, New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial, New York: Monacelli, 1995, , pp. 53, 333.
Mendelsohn submitted plans to the city for a 15-storey building, stepped down at both ends.James, pp. 131–34. There was to have been a two-storey rooftop restaurant, and large letters spelling out the name of the department store around the edge of the roof, and the foyer was to have also served as a subway entrance.Arnold Whittick, Eric Mendelsohn, 2nd ed. New York: Dodge, 1956, p. 90, giving the height as 12 storeys. Erich Mendelsohn: Das Gesamtschaffen des Architekten (1930, repr. 1988), translated ed. Erich Mendelsohn: Complete Works of the Architect: Sketches, Designs, Buildings, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992, , pp. 236–37: "Project for Galeries Lafayette, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, 1928", also giving the height as 12 storeys. When approval seemed likely, the hotel was demolished late in 1928 and he had a 20-metre-tall advertising hoarding built following the contours of the old building, with shops at the base. The hoarding advertised the forthcoming department store and also carried paid advertising, which defrayed some of the landowners' costs.James, pp. 134–35. Complete Works p. 235: "Construction Barrier for Galeries Lafayette, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, 1928". However, in February 1929 the design was rejected as likely to exacerbate the traffic problems; instead, permission was given for a nine-storey structure, and in June that year, the start of construction was announced for September or October. However, in August the investors decided to build elsewhere, and then were prevented from doing so by the onset of the Depression.
Almost two years later, in August 1931, they announced that they would instead build the 10-storey Columbushaus on the Potsdamer Platz site.James, p. 135. This version of the project Mendelsohn designed for Wertheim, and it was built in 1931–32. The Bundesrat Building in the Berlin townscape from 1904 to 2004: former Columbus House, archived on 2 October 2011 (English translation); Die Gebäude des Bundesrates im Berliner Stadtbild 1904 bis 2004: Columbushaus, archived on 2 October 2011 (German original), Bundesrat of Germany, retrieved 25 June 2011.
The secret archive of the Leninist resistance organisation Neu Beginnen was in the building. Freiheitskampf, Revolution und Widerstand rund um den Potsdamer Platz at Potsdamer-Platz.org On 1 December 1939, Richard von Hegener rented three or four offices in the building for a cover organisation founded to carry out the programme of execution of the physically and mentally unfit, which became known as Action T4 after the nearby address Tiergartenstraße 4 to which its headquarters moved in the spring of 1940. Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Anstaltspflege, Tiergartenstraße 4 at Potsdamer-Platz.org Götz Aly, Aktion T4, 1939-1945: die "Euthanasie"-Zentrale in der Tiergartenstrasse 4, Stätten der Geschichte Berlins 26, Berlin: Hentrich, 1987, , p. 13 Peter Sandner, Verwaltung des Krankenmordes: der Bezirksverband Nassau im Nationalsozialismus, Historische Schriftenreihe des Landeswohlfahrtsverbandes Hessen, Hochschulschriften 2, Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 2003, , IV. "Zeit der Gasmorde" , p. 372 at Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen (pdf)
The building was damaged in the battle for Berlin in the closing days of the Second World War, but thanks to its modern steel frame construction, not destroyed.Kunstler, p. 120 says it was a mere shell and that the upper floors remained roofless.
Located in Mitte, the building was in the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin. Wertheim used some space on the ground floor for sales and on upper floors for offices. In 1948 the East Berlin council, the Magistrat, seized the property; the sales space was taken over by the national retail organisation, HO (Handelsorganisation), and the Volkspolizei opened a police station in the building.
In 1986, East German authorities arrested Wolfram Hasch there for making political graffiti on the wall.Stephan Noe, "Kalter Krieg bizarr: Über die Mauer in den Osten", Der Spiegel 18 March 2009 (with photo gallery) In March 1988, an agreement was reached to exchange 16 small pieces of land between East and West Berlin, including the Lenné triangle, to enable the building of an autobahn extension; West Berlin also paid 76 million Deutsche Mark to the East. The Lenné triangle then became part of the Tiergarten district. "Checkpoint Norbie: Auf einem Gelände diesseits der Mauer verschanzte Besetzer bringen den Berliner Senat sowie die Besatzungsmächte in West und Ost in Verlegenheit", Der Spiegel 27 June 1988 (pdf), archived on 14 March 2012 (with pictures) "Honecker 2 x klingeln", Der Spiegel 28 March 1988 discusses the land exchange and the possibility that the heirs of the Wertheim company could sue for reparations for loss of this and other buildings; in 2007 KarstadtQuelle agreed to pay 88 million to the Jewish Claims Conference as representative of the Wertheim heirs: "KarstadtQuelle: Entschädigung für Wertheim-Erben", Manager Magazin, 30 March 2007 However, before the exchange took effect on July 1, environmentalists occupied it, built an encampment, and declared it an extra-legal zone, the 'Norbert Kubat Corner', named for a young man who had taken his life in jail. Protesters were drawn to the site from all over the Federal Republic and in some cases from abroad; a radio station was established, and there was regular press coverage including foreign TV; the number occupying the site grew to about 600, and after the West Berlin Senate, having failed to obtain help from either the British or the Soviet occupying forces, tried first to fence off the area and then to have the police disperse them (playing loud music at night among other tactics), they fortified the encampment and threw stones at the police. Police responded with tear gas, the squatters with slingshots, fireworks and Molotov cocktails. Early in the morning of July 1, when the police moved in, the 180–200 people still occupying the site fled over the wall, in "the first mass flight over the wall from West to East". "Rache kalt: Freundliches Asyl gewährte die DDR autonomen Besetzern, die vor West-Polizisten über die Mauer nach Ost-Berlin geflüchtet waren - der Senat ist düpiert", Der Spiegel 4 July 1988 The East German border police assisted them over, with their dogs, bicycles and other possessions, and the authorities fed them breakfast, took them into the Friedrichstraße station at the border via the diplomatic entrance, and gave them tickets so that they could travel back to West Berlin without being caught by the West German police, who had tightened ticket checking in anticipation.Peter Pragal, "Fünf Wochen im Juni" , Berliner Zeitung magazine, 20 June 1998
Since German reunification, Potsdamer Platz has been entirely redeveloped. The Lenné triangle is now occupied by the Beisheim Center, which includes Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels among other facilities and was funded by Otto Beisheim and other investors. In preparation for construction, which began in 1995, an approximately 30-year growth of woodland on the site was felled.
The camp was closed in preparation for the extension of the airport in 1936, and the building was demolished in 1938 to make way for the never completed new airport terminal on which work took place between 1936 and 1945. The site of the prison is now part of the terminal compound. The name and its actual location fell into oblivion, and the name Columbiahaus was given again to a new office building completed in 1939 on the Columbiadamm at the corner of Platz der Luftbrücke, which now houses the Hauptzollamt Berlin (Berlin chief customs office). In post-war searches for the Columbia concentration camp this building was usually, and correctly, discarded as the location of the camp for its late date of construction. A memorial for the concentration camp was only erected in 1994, diagonally opposite the actual former site, which was within the then still operating airport (closed in 2008).
However, the striking resemblance of the names caused many to identify the Columbia-Haus with Columbushaus, thus referring the history of the concentration camp to the former building by Erich Mendelsohn. The two are often confused, especially in older publications.Balfour, p. 126.
Fire and demolition
During the East German workers' revolt on 17 June 1953, the Mayor of Kreuzberg, Willy Kressmann, urged the police to offer no resistance, and they threw their uniforms from the windows and hung out a white flag, but the enraged crowd nonetheless set the building on fire. "Kressmann: Briefe kamen nie an", Der Spiegel 6 July 1955, p. 12, picture p. 13 (pdf), archived on 14 March 2012 Photograph at Friedrich Ebert Foundation. In 1957 the ruin was demolished and the site cleared. The steel was salvaged and reused.
Aftermath
When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, it continued the line of Friedrich-Ebert-Straße and the Lenné triangle lay outside it, separated from the West only by a fence with concrete posts; this saved building materials and gave better sightlines over the waste land, but occasionally Westerners would cut the fence.Rolf Augustin, "Kalter Krieg: Eine Lücke in der Berliner Mauer!", Der Spiegel 18 March 2009
Urban myth: confusion with Columbia-Haus
The Columbushaus has often been identified with the Columbia-Haus (occasionally spelt Columbiahaus) on Columbiadamm in Tempelhof. The Columbia-Haus was a former military prison ( Militär-Arrestanstalt), opened in 1896 as the third of its kind in Berlin. It was abandoned in 1929 and fell empty.David Pascoe, Airspaces, London: Reaktion, 2001, , p. 177 After the adjacent street was renamed Columbiadamm, for Charles Lindbergh's plane WB-2 Miss Columbia (N-X-237), the empty building close to Tempelhof airport was called Columbia-Haus. As soon as the Nazi Party came to power, like many similar premises in Berlin, the Columbia-Haus was made into a so-called "wild concentration camp"; spontaneously established, with 400 inmates by September 1933, the Columbia-Haus concentration camp was later formalised as part of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate.
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