Schwanenwerder

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File:Klare Lanke.jpg
The Klare Lanke seen from Schwanenwerder

Schwanenwerder (English: "swan ait") is an island in the Havel river in Berlin, Germany. It is in the locality of Nikolassee in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and is located in a wider stretch of the river, close to the eastern shore. On the opposite side, on the western bank, lies Kladow, to the south, the Wannsee. Schwanenwerder is an expensive residential area, despite a summer camp for children being located on the island.

History

Column from Tuileries Palace, Paris, re-erected on Schwanenwerder

Schwanenwerder was originally known as Sandwerder ("sand ait") or Cladower Sandwerder. In the 19th century, it was a deserted place, overgrown with shrubs and a few trees. In 1882, the island was bought by Wilhelm Wessel, a wealthy industrialist. He ordered extensive landscaping, subdivided the area and offered the lots for sale. The intention was for wealthy buyers like himself to build cottages with access to the river. He himself had a mansion, called Swan Court, erected in the center of the isle. Its continued existence makes it the oldest building on the island. For convenient access, a small bridge was built. It remains the only way onto the island.

In 1896, a charter was drafted that banned inhabitants from setting up disturbing venues like factories and shops. Even a pier for river steamers was inhibited. In 1901, Emperor Wilhelm II. granted the official use of "Schwanenwerder", a more illustrious name than the old "sand ait". The colony on Schwanenwerder was favoured by the wealthiest Jewish elite, the Israels, Karstadts, Schlitters, Goldschmidts, Salomonsohns, Sobernheims and Monheims. Schwanenwerder was the most expensive street in the interwar German version of Monopoly. After the elections of March 1933, SA officers from nearby Zehlendorf swarmed over the island, and a Nazi flag was hoisted prominently over the water tower.[1]

In the years after 1933, many of the Jewish property owners were driven off or forced to sell their real estate because of the racial policy of Nazi Germany. Among those who profited from these events were Joseph Goebbels, who bought the villa owned by the banker Schlitter for a very modest sum,[2] Hitler's personal physician Theodor Morell, Reich's Women's Leader Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, and Albert Speer, who bought the property of one of the baronesses Goldschmidt-Rothschild for only 150,000 marks, only to sell it in 1943 at a hefty premium to the Reichsbahn. After WWII, properties were returned to their rightful owners, if those could be found, but due to loss of wealth, buildings stood empty and derelict. Property was sold, mostly to the community of Berlin, which at times owned up to 40% of the land. As early as the late 1940s, it was used for summer camps for children.

In the second half of the 20th century, old houses were torn down to be replaced with new private buildings.[3] A ringroad circles the island, and near the bridge was a station of the Wasserschutzpolizei of Berlin. A column of the Tuileries in Paris was bought by Wessel and placed on Schwanenwerder as part of a mock ruin, typical of the spirit of Romanticism in late 19th-century Germany. It is still on the island and protected as a historic monument.[4]

See also

References

  1. Fabrice d'Almeida, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, Oxford, 2006: (details noted in Christopher Clark, on-line review
  2. Fabrice d'Almeida, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, Oxford, 2006: (details noted in Christopher Clark, on-line review
  3. (German) Villenkolonie Schwanenwerder (ghwk.de)
  4. Säule des Tuilerienschlosses

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

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