Böttcherstraße
Encyclopedia
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Only about 100 m (330 ft) long, it is famous for its unusual architecture and ranks among the city's main cultural landmarks and visitor attractions. Most of its buildings were erected between 1922 and 1931, primarily as a result of the initiative of Ludwig Roselius
Ludwig Roselius
Ludwig Roselius was a German coffee merchant and founder of the company KAFFEE HAG. He was born in Bremen and is credited with the development of commercial decaffeination of coffee...
, a Bremen-based coffee-trader, who charged Bernhard Hoetger with the artistic supervision over the project. The street and its buildings are a rare example of an architectural ensemble belonging to a variant of the expressionist style
Expressionist architecture
Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts....
. Several of the houses can be classed as Brick Expressionism
Brick Expressionism
The term Brick Expressionism describes a specific variant of expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material...
.
Roselius, a sympathiser of National Socialism pursued Völkisch
Völkisch movement
The volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...
-Nordic cultural ideas influenced by the ideologists Julius Langbehn
Julius Langbehn
Julius Langbehn was a German conservative art historian and philosopher. He was born in Hadersleben, Schleswig .-Work:* Rembrandt als Erzieher * 40 Lieder von einem Deutschen...
and Herman Wirth, involving a belief in the irreplaceable value of the Nordic race. He aimed to have these ideas materialise in Böttcherstraße (Roselius: "The re-erection of Böttcherstraße is an attempt to think in a German way" - "I want, and that is the deepest aim of what was created in Böttcherstraße, to break the spell of the banishment the ill-informed Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
sentenced our people to, which still weighs upon us..."). Although Roselius and Hoetger paid tribute to Hitler as the "Bringer of Light" on a relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
at the entrance, the Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
rejected this variant of völkisch art in a Reichsparteitag
Nuremberg Rally
The Nuremberg Rally was the annual rally of the NSDAP in Germany, held from 1923 to 1938. Especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, they were large Nazi propaganda events...
speech on 10 September 1936, in which he dismissively referred to Böttcherstraßenkunst ("Böttcherstraße art"). On the one hand the NSDAP dressed Böttcherstraße down as reflecting a "divergent view of culture", on the other hand, the street was listed
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
as an architectural monument on 7 May 1937, as an "example of the degenerate art
Degenerate art
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
of the Weimar period
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
".
History
The history of Böttcherstraße goes back to the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. It constituted an important link between the market square
Market square
The market square is a feature of many European and colonial towns. It is an open area where market stalls are traditionally set out for trading, commonly on one particular day of the week known as market day....
and the Weser river. It was traditionally inhabited by cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
s (Northern German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Böttcher). When the harbour was relocated in the mid-19th century, Böttcherstraße's importance began to fade.
In 1902 (some sources say 1906), Ludwig Roselius, under pressure from the previous owners, bought the house at 6 Böttcherstraße (today's Museum im Roselius-Haus) and made it the headquarters of his company (which would later produce the HAG coffee brand). He bought other lots in the street throughout the following years. In the years after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, further offices, the HAG-Haus and the Haus St. Petrus. The houses were built of the then typical materials, brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
.
In contrast to these buildings, in 1926, Ludwig Roselius had the Paula-Becker-Modersohn-Haus
Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum
The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen, Germany, is the first museum in the world devoted to a female artist. Modersohn-Becker was one of the most important early Expressionists, and the museum features key works from each of her creative periods.Construction of the museum was commissioned...
built, to serve as a museum dedicated to the painter Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. In a brief career, cut short by an embolism at the age of 31, she created a number of groundbreaking images of great intensity.-Life and work:Paula Becker was born and grew up in...
. The building's external walls have relief-like decorations, its internal rooms follow principles of organic architecture
Organic architecture
Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated...
.
In 1931 the Haus Atlantis was completed. Its distinctive style and materials (glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
, steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
) produced a further striking contrast to the other structures. The Robinson-Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
-Haus was also erected in 1931.
In 1944, large proportions of Böttcherstraße were destroyed
Aerial warfare
Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift...
. By 1954, the Kaffee HAG company had restored most of the facades to their original state.
In 1979, Ludwig Roselius jr. sold the Kaffee HAG company, along with Böttcherstraße, to General Foods
General Foods
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...
. Two years later, he bought Böttcherstraße back. Since then, it has been privately owned.
In 1989 renewed severe damage to the building fabric was noticed. The Sparkasse Bremen bank bought the whole street and all its buildings, except Haus Atlantis. restoration
Architectural conservation
Architectural conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of mankind's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator...
was completed by 1999.
In 2004 ownership passed to a foundation (Stiftung Bremer Sparer Dank). It is now administrated by Böttcherstraße GmbH, a limited company and subsidiary of Sparkasse Bremen.
Present
Today, Böttcherstraße is one of the major tourist attractionTourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
s of Bremen. It contains several art museums (Kunstsammlungen Böttcherstraße), Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
workshops, bars, restaurants and shops, Bremen casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
and a hotel. Nearly all buildings and plots are owned by the foundation.