May
19th Mini Task
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| Outside view of Die Wiesenburg |
Today we were lucky enough to get what may be the last
tour of Die Wiesenburg in Wedding. This unique space, which is
currently being used by numerous artists and has been the set for several movies,
is now in the hands of urban developers. The remains of the historic
building surrounded by overgrowth, trees and even bees may not exist as we saw
it today for much longer.
The building was built in 1896 as a much needed homeless shelter. It was not a religious shelter and was
funded privately. People who entered did not need to give their name, but were
allowed to remain anonymous. However, there were house rules. They consisted of things
such as: no smoking tobacco, no gambling with cards and no hanging around in
the house during the day. The shelter provided beds for 700 males in 10 halls
and also had areas for them to bath and clean up. There was also shelter for
women. A private road exists on the building property because people in the neighbourhood preferred the people using the shelter to not be on their streets.
Much of the building was damaged in
WW2 and has not been fixed up, but left to be overgrown and has become to be used as a creative
area. Personally, I do not believe the current use is a waste of space and hope
it can remain as is. Artists make good use of this space and I found exploring
the ruins to be a rather interesting way to look into Berlin’s past.
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| House Rules |
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| View of what is remaining of the roof in the bathing area |
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| One of the halls |
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| Bees currently kept on the property |
6 comments:
Die Wiesenburg is definitely an interesting place to visit. Do you have any ideas of what you think should be done with the place? For example, do you think it should perhaps be renovated to ensure the structure is sound and opened to the public for tours or do you think it should be left alone and continue to be a hidden ruin closed to the public due to safety issues?
I like that you commented about your opinion on the spaces current space. I think that as is it is kind of a wasted space. But thats mostly because they truly can't use the space anymore. I imagine that when it was used for weddings, had that bar,campfire etc. then it would have been a really amazing space.
It really does seem like the city will loose a really cool piece of history when/ if they tear down the remains of that building.
In response to Brooklyn's question. I do think tours like the one we had today should continue and it should be allowed to continue to be used for artistic purposes. Perhaps it is "a threat to human life", but I did not feel unsafe at all today. Yes the structures are old, but in most areas there was no roof over our heads to fall on us or anything. The scariest thing we saw was a cat (haha). People should should be warned about possible hazards and allowed to enter at their own risk like we did today.
I agree with everyone! I really enjoyed this place, I thought it was really informative and was definitely something we haven't really seen before yet. I think it would be a shame to tear it down and replace it was a building such as an office building.
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