100 years Townhall Köpenick

On November, 20th 1896, nine years before the official inauguration of the town hall (October, 7th 1906), the 58-year-old Mayor Gustav Borgmann presented his programme for the new town hall in Köpenick to the members of the Borough Council.
For the construction of this building, which estimated costs totalled 375.000 Marks (land acquisition, interior decoration and construction management costs not included), the city fathers called the master builder Hans Schütte from Bonn to the Spree river, who convinced the town hall commission with his project plans on the 12th April 1901. After the retirement of the master builder, the Charlottenburger architect Hugo Kinzer continued working on the project, but Hans Schütte was consulted in important questions. Although architect Joseph Schewe and two site managers, Paul Herzfeldt and Albert Eveking worked on the construction, it was the appreciation of art and detail of Hugo Kinzer we have to thank for this masterpiece.
The architect’s plan was the construction of a three-floor corner building with a 54 meter-tall tower as a pillar stone. The experts suggested using the brick gothic style, which the city fathers considered “worthy and appropriate” and being a representative city centre. The building ground was where the old town hall, a simple two-floor building (built in 1763), a couple of private buildings and a Police station stood.
The construction took place in two periods of time, as the old town hall as well as the police station nearby had to remain in use during the building period.
After 13 months the building commission handed over the first part of the building (at the Rosenstr. / Böttcherstr.) to the administrative department on 15th August 1902, while on 20th October the old town hall building was completely demolished and the construction of the main building on the corner at Schlossstr. / Rosenstr. started.

The laying of the foundation stone for that part took place on 8th December 1902 and the foundation stone can still be seen in the Ratskeller - Restaurant, the cellar of the town hall. On 30th June 1903 was the alignment of the roof truss of the city council assembly hall and the whole new building could register for the acceptance of the shell form.
In December 1904 the front part of the town hall was completed apart from the assembly hall. Therefore offices in the main building and the official residences of the Mayor, police inspector and concierge were ready for occupancy. On 1st April 1905 the opening of the cellar restaurant took place, and in September the construction of the assembly hall was completed.
Besides the 375.000 Marks for the shell construction, the interior decoration accounted for 135.000 Marks, the purchase of the building site came to 122.000 Marks and 1.500 Marks for the paving of the sideway. Altogether the city fathers paid 632.500 marks for the construction of the new town hall.
After Köpenick became in 1920 the 16th borough of the City of Berlin and after the population rose from 35.000 to 63.000, some further extension were required. The mayor Ludwig Behnke decided in August 1923 to turn eight prison cells, that were located in the courtyard, into offices. This accounted for 2.8 billion marks because of the high inflation. Four years later, under the successor Robert Kohl, the first expansion of the building along the Böttcherstr. was built, its architecture and design quality was not distinguishable from the old town hall building.
On the 17th December 1936 a new building project of the engineering administration was proposed. It included the largest expansion of the town hall with the impressive gain of 122 bureaus, a second conference room and new business premises for the Berlin City Bank. To implement this project, the authorities planned a further extension of the building along the Böttcherstr. and an expansion of the old building along the Schlossstr., today Alt-Köpenick. A curved corridor connected the two building complexes at the city hall courtyard.

In preparation of this about 900.000 Marks expensive construction measure, it was unavoidable to demolish some dwelling houses in the Böttcherstr. and Schlosstr. as well as the second staircase at the south gable of the historic town hall.
On 19th April 1938 the Berliner construction company (under the charge of Dr. Rundschmidt and building officer Hennings) started working on the implementation of the plan, which was suspended due to WW2 and could only be completed in 1949. The number of offices in the town hall increased to 320. Since 1990, with the construction of the roof floors on both sides of the road Alt-Köpenick and in the connection wing at Böttcherstr., the number of bureaus increased to 340.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the town hall in 2005 the historical assembly hall, along with the town hall stairs, has a brand new splendour. For an entire year preservationists, painters, carpenters and upholsterers have worked hard to give the room a “dignified but in the same time comfortable impression”, the same impression the hall had when it was used during the first meeting of the Köpenick Assembly on 10th October 1905.

Author: Claus-Dieter Sprink, Director of the Museum of local history Köpenick.