Tempelhofer Feld 


1910 | Hermann Jansen
“[...] with complete renunciation of transverse and rear buildings." Hermann Jansen

Before the First World War, there was a heyday of private urban planning. At that time, so-called terrain societies developed entire city districts from a single source, even very dense, urban urban expansions. This urban development was extremely controversial in terms of sponsorship as well as the product. At the center of the disputes at that time was a large-scale project that has become topical again today: the development of the Tempelhofer Feld, a huge parade owned by the military fiscus of a relatively central location within the Ringbahn. 

When the intention of the military treasury to sell the western part of the field, an area of 145 hectares, became known and thus to enable development there, a prime example of private urban planning started, in which the different roles were distributed as in a drama. After a state-imposed amendment to the building code in 1907, a five-story construction method was made possible on the Tempelhofer Feld, while until then only a four-story one was permitted. The Prussian state had thus greatly increased the value of its property. For the establishment of a development plan - an important basis for sales negotiations - a closer competition was organized by the military administration. Friedrich Gerlach, Josef Stübben and Theodor Goecke were invited to participate. The proposals for a new bourgeois residential quarter of Gerlach and Stübben included a share of open space (streets, squares and parking areas) of a good 40 percent. Finally, after a revision, Gerlach's draft was selected by the military treasury, which in fact represented a mixture of the first proposals of Stübben and Gerlach. 

In the context of the famous competition Greater Berlin 1908-10, Tempelhofer Feld played a prominent role. Hermann Jansen (1869-1945), well-known city builder in Berlin and winner of the competition Groß-Berlin 1908-10, also dealt with the development of the Tempelhofer Feld. He designed a new district with partly picturesquely curved, hierarchical streets and a crossing green train, which conveyed to Kreuzberg.
 
Of the overall urban planning composition and controlled with regard to the facade design. The buildings had five floors - a compelling consequence of the changed building code. But such pictures did not play a role in practical urban planning. Initially, the military treasury negotiated with the city of Berlin about the sale of the area. However, the municipality of Tempelhof wanted to acquire the western part of the Tempelhofer Feld itself and in 1909 asked Deutsche Bank to take over the financing of the development of the field for the municipality. Deutsche Bank, for its part, offered Georg Haberland the management of the company. 

As director of the Berlinische Boden-Gesellschaft, Haberland was one of the most prominent representatives of private urban planning. The now created constellation had sked a competition that drove up the purchase price. On the 31st. In October 1910, the municipality of Tempelhof was able to successfully conclude its purchase contract negotiations with the Ministry of War. With this biggest terrain conclusion "since time immemorial", the "fight for the Tempelhofer Feld" seemed decisive. Tempelhof had to pay 72 million marks for the western part of the field. For the preparation of the development plan, another competition was held, to which - in addition to the participants of the first competition - Bodo Ebhardt, Bruno Möhring, Bruno Schmitz and Heinrich Schweitzer were also invited. Hermann Jansen also offered himself as a planner at that time, according to Georg Haberland, but soon withdrew again. "He then went ahead on 31 of his own, made development plans for the Tempelhofer Feld himself and also found believers in the press for them." Finally, a revised proposal by Friedrich Gerlach was finally adopted. 

This plan had an open space share of 44 percent and enabled about 900 building plots for around 60,000 people. Residential and traffic roads were different, the roads themselves should be greened. The Terraingesellschaft reserved the approval of the facades. As early as 1911, the compact urban development began with five-storey buildings in the northeast of the site. The apartments had a high standard and were up to 240 square meters in size. Before the First World War, however, only a small part of the urban expansion could be built. After the First World War, private urban planning and compact construction were abandoned. A suburban "medium-sized class colony was created, which we must at least welcome as a significant advance in home culture." & This interpretation must be marked with a big question mark today. Wouldn't a development according to Hermann Jansen's proposal at this central location have been far more appropriate? 

Adapted and Translated from Harald Bodenschatz 




Hermann Jansen

Hermann Jansen (1869–1945) was an architect and urban planner who had studied architecture under Karl Henrici at the Technical University of Aachen and continued his professional life in Berlin between 1898 and 1945. In 1920 he was appointed as a professor of town planning at the Technical University of Berlin. Following the plan for Berlin, Jansen prepared countless urban plans for German and European cities, and won the competition for the master plan of Ankara in 1928.




Hermann Jansen 1910
Land Areas from the Greater Berlin Competition 1910
Green areas forest and meadow belts
Straubeplan
Development plan for the Tempelhofer Feld
Development plan for the Tempelhofer Feld
Development plan for the Tempelhofer Feld
Development plan for the Tempelhofer Feld
Development plan for the Tempelhofer Feld

Bibliography
Architekturmuseum der TU Berlin. (2024, April 15). Architekturmuseum Berlin. https://architekturmuseum.ub.tu-berlin.de, Inv. Nr. 20541-42, 20547-48, 20553-54, 20556, 20559, 20562

Borsi, K. (2015). Drawing the region: Hermann Jansen’s vision of Greater Berlin in 1910. The Journal of Architecture, 20(1), 47–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2015.1004619

Krohn, C. (2010). Das ungebaute Berlin: Stadtkonzepte im 20. Jahrhundert (Pre-Published Exhibition Catalog). DOM; University of Santa Barbara.

Reuther, Hans, "Jansen, Hermann" in: New German Biography 10 (1974), p. 340-341 [Online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd117082066.html#ndbcontent