Gendarmenmarkt

The Gendarmenmarkt is a square in the historical center of Berlin and is widely regarded as "the most beautiful square in Berlin ". In the center is the concert hall, flanked on the south side of the Germans, and on the north side of the French Cathedral.

Location

The approximately 3.3 -acre site is situated in the created on the drawing board district Friedrichstadt. He takes three of the squares, and is bounded by the French road to the north, the Charlotte Street in the West, the Mohr Road in the south and the Markgrafenstraße in the east. The hunters and Taubenstraße be divided by the square and in the area of the place - as roads barely recognizable - designed in the form of a pedestrian zone.

Panorama of the Gendarmenmarkt square, in the center the drama or concert hall, the German left and right of the French Cathedral, 2008

Französ. Dom (Festival of Lights 2012)

History

The course was built from 1688 to plans by Johann Arnold Nehring as part of Friedrichstadt, the Elector Frederick III. , Later King Frederick I of Prussia, was to create the end of the 17th century. In this historic district, a majority of French immigrants (Huguenot ) moved to, where the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg had assured with the Edict of Potsdam in 1685 to protect their religious freedom and full citizenship.

King Friedrich I had both the Lutheran and the French-reformed church ever a place to church. Both churches arose after 1701, but without the towers added later.

The actual shape, the square was under Frederick II (Frederick the Great) with the two identical domed towers next to the churches. They were built in the years 1780-1785, designed by Carl von Gontard. As a model for the redesign is often mentioned the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, Laurenz Demps but doubts this. Since the characteristic of the square in the oversizing of the towers to many times greater than the churches, there, is called in Greenwich sometimes as a model the Old Royal Naval College (1703).

Originally a market was the place in the 17th century Linden market, in the 18th century to 1786 means market or Friedrichstädtischer market, after New Market. It received its present name in 1799 in memory of the stables of the cuirassiers of the "Gens d'armes " that the " soldier king " Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1736 was built here. Around the square were the homes of senior officials of the king, government agencies, but also major hotels including the Hotel de Brandenburg.

Frederick the Great, son of the " Soldier King", let the stables in 1773, torn down, and the place was given to plans by Georg Christian Unger uniform coupled enclosure with three -storey houses. Between the two churches, a small French comedy theater was built. It was replaced in the years 1800-1802 by a new National Theatre with 2,000 seats. This created by architect Carl Gotthard Langhans theater burned down in 1817. Karl Friedrich Schinkel provided the plans for the finished its place in 1821, Royal Theatre, today's concert hall, which is the core of this unique ensemble.

The Gendarmenmarkt was also the location of the changing political events in Berlin: The Revolution of 1848/1849 was heralded as early as 1847 on the Gendarmenmarkt by the so-called " potato revolution " in a revolt against rising food prices. The barricades in the fighting during the March Revolution of 1848 fallen were laid solemnly on the steps of the German Cathedral. From September 1848, the Prussian National Assembly met for several weeks in the Great Hall of the theater.

The monument for Friedrich Schiller in front of the playhouse is a commissioned work of Reinhold Bega. The cornerstone ceremony took place on November 10, 1859 for the 100th anniversary of the national poet Friedrich Schiller, twelve years later initiation. Between 1871 and 1936, was this part of the Gendarmenmarkt square Schiller.

In 1936, the Schiller monument was removed and eliminates the horticultural jewelry assets prior to the Schauspielhaus and replaced by the still existing large-scale pattern of square plates. The transformation of representative places in the center of Berlin during the Nazi rule - in addition to the Gendarmenmarkt this concerned the Lustgarten and the Wilhelm Platz - served mainly to create staging areas for propaganda events. On Gendarmenmarkt example, so-called ordinations of " Pimpfen " (German Young People ) for inclusion in the Hitler Youth took place.

On the bombed place took place in 1946, a concert of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the famous Soviet soldiers choir and orchestra - instead. On October 2, 1990, the eve of German reunification, the last act of state of the GDR government under Lothar de Maizière found here instead of with a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony under Kurt Masur.

The heavily damaged in World War II Square was renamed in 1950 to mark the 250 - year anniversary in 1946 refounded as German Academy of Sciences of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in place of the Academy. In 1991 he was returned to its original name.

In 1976, the City Council of Berlin awarded the contract for redesign of the square to an intellectual and cultural center, where he took on the character in its present form.

Am Gendarmenmarkt you will find numerous restaurants, shops and hotels.

Attractions in and around the square

For peripheral development of the Gendarmenmarkt include

  • A Komplexbau, built 1897-1900 by architect Alfred Messel, as Berliner trading house with later extensions, in the French 42-44
  • The Berlin- Brandenburg Academy of Sciences at the corner Markgrafen-/Jägerstraße, built in 1901 for the Royal Norwegian
  • Conceived by Josef Paul Kleihues, the Hotel The Regent Berlin
  • Bewag House of Max Dudler (1997; Markgrafenstraße 35; "Berlin simplicity " )

In the square there are some remarkable trees of which are the following as a natural monument under protection: two Japanese string trees, a shrub and a French chestnut maple.

Fixed on Gendarmenmarkt

  • Since 1992, held once a year in late summer, the Classic Open Air Concert on the square instead.
  • In December there is a Christmas market at the Gendarmenmarkt.
  • At each October 3rd the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Gendarmenmarkt eV organized on the occasion of the anniversary of German reunification, a "unity feast" on the court.
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