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The Moltkeviertel (Moltke Quarter) is a district of the German city of
Essen. It is located near the centre of the town, as the crow flies just over a kilometre to the south-east of the Essen main railway station. It is bounded by the thoroughfares Kronprinzenstrasse, Ruhrallee, Töpferstrasse and Rellinghauserstasse and by the railway line from Essen Main Station to
Essen-Werden
Werden is a southern borough of the city of Essen in Germany. It belongs to the city district ''IX Werden/Kettwig/Bredeney'' and has 9,998 inhabitants as of June 30, 2006. The borough occupies a space of and is situated at a median height of .
__ ...
(S6 rapid transit link to Düsseldorf and Cologne). Administratively, it belongs to the urban districts of Essen-Südostviertel and Essen-Huttrop. The centre point of the Moltkeviertel is the Robert-Schmidt-Berufskolleg (vocational college), formerly the Königliche Baugewerkschule (Royal Building College) Essen, at the corner of Moltkestrasse and Robert-Schmidt-Strasse.
Town planning
In terms of town planning, the Moltkeviertel was conceived at the beginning of the 20th century as a single unit. As a response to the lack of high-quality residential housing in the up-and-coming and prosperous city of Essen, it was planned by the visionary town planner and city councillor Professor Robert Schmidt following principles which are partly still relevant today and were at that time revolutionary. This included, among other things, the creation of broad urban ventilation lanes in the form of wide streets and cohesive green zones. The notions behind these extended parks in the immediate vicinity of the houses, sometimes with large playing and sporting areas – the tennis courts were planned as early as 1908 – were essentially reformative in character and these facilities are still very much in use today. The naming of the quarter's streets after great master builders such as
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...
,
Gottfried Semper,
Joseph Maria Olbrich
Joseph Maria Olbrich (22 December 1867 – 8 August 1908) was an Austrian architect and one of the Vienna Secession founders.
Early life
Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia (now Czech Republic), the third child of Edmund and Aloisia O ...
and others testifies to the great esteem in which architecture was held. On the other hand, the idea of giving the quarter's largest street and largest square the name of the Prussian field marshal
Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke is more a reflection of the prevailing ''
zeitgeist
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. ...
'' between the turn of the century and the First World War.
Reform architecture
From 1908 on, the roughly half a square kilometre site purchased by the city was developed: splendid mansions were constructed, as were semi-detached and terraced houses and company head offices, built according to individual plans and to suit the respective owner's finances – in the style of Reform Architecture (German:
Reformarchitektur) throughout. With a clock tower towering above everything, the Königliche Baugewerkschule (Royal Building College) Essen, the centrepiece of the quarter, was constructed between 1908 and 1911.
[Memorial plaque at the building] The Staatliche Ingenieurschule für Bauwesen (State Civil Engineering College) later occupied the building, and this was succeeded by the Kaufmännische Schule III der Stadt Essen (Commercial College III of the City of Essen) on 30 August 1982. This was renamed to Robert-Schmidt-Berufskolleg (Robert Schmidt Vocational College) in August 2000.
Website of the Robert-Schmidt-Berufskollegs, Geschichte/History
Georg Metzendorf, Edmund Körner
Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings and ...
and other prominent architects created in the immediate vicinity architecture for the prosperous middle classes, architecture which at that time provided residences of a high, sometimes the highest standard – especially in the form of prestigious mansions. Even after a hundred years, they constitute a desirable residential quarter. At Moltkeplatz, Otto Bartning
Otto Bartning (12 April 1883 in Karlsruhe – 20 February 1959 in Darmstadt) was a Modernist German architect, architectural theorist and teacher. In his early career he developed plans with Walter Gropius for the establishment of the Bauhaus. H ...
built his first church in Germany (consecrated in 1910) for the Old Lutheran parish (now SELK – Independent Lutheran Church). Subsequently, he designed the nearby Church of the Resurrection ( Auferstehungskirche), built in 1929, which is one of the most important models for modern church construction in central Europe. At the corner of Moltkestrasse and Camillo-Sitte-Platz, the building housing the residence and studio (subsequently only the studio) of Edmund Körner was constructed in 1928/29, exhibiting both elements of the Neues Bauen movement and industrial structures, such as at the mine site Zeche Zollverein
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took pla ...
. Many of the old buildings and the Moltke Bridge are listed monuments. A major portion of the quarter has been subject to a preservation statute since 1983, something to which the quarter's "traditionally self-confident residents" are highly committed.
file:Moltkebruecke_1910.jpg, Moltke Bridge; picture taken in 1910
file:Moltkebruecke_1480_A.jpg, Moltke Bridge; today
file:Moltkebrücke_Putte_2449.JPG, Sculptures on the Moltke Bridge over the S-Bahn rapid transit line
file:Moltkebrücke_2137_E.jpg, Art nouveau railings next to the Moltke Bridge
file:Moltkeviertel_1429_2.jpg, Robert Schmidt Vocational College (formerly the Royal Building College)
file:Kirche am Moltkeplatz.jpg, Independent Lutheran Church SELK at Moltkeplatz
file:Villa_Koppers_1502.JPG, Moltkeplatz; former residence of the Heinrich Koppers family
file:Moltkeviertel_1442_2.jpg, Moltkestrasse; former administrative building of the Heinrich Koppers
Heinrich Koppers (November 23, 1872 – September 5, 1941) was a German engineer. Koppers developed a new type of coke oven that economically recovered the byproduct chemicals of the coking process. The design of these ovens was superior to other ...
company
file:Moltkeviertel_1444_2.jpg, Upper Schinkelstrasse
file:Moltkeviertel_1500_N.JPG, Private houses: Messelstrasse
file:Moltkeviertel_1445_2.jpg, Residence and studio of the architect Edmund Körner
file:Moltkeviertel_1463_2.jpg, Essen was once a mining town: hammer and pick emblem over the entrance to a house in Schinkelstrasse
file:Moltkeviertel_1470_2.jpg, Residence at junction Semperstrasse/Dammannstrasse
file:Moltkeviertel_1459_2.jpg, Lower Ruhrallee
file:Moltkeviertel_1478_2.jpg, The northern Moltkeplatz; with stele by Jo Schöpfer and exterior work ''Blue Pigment'' by Katja Hajek
Green spaces
Alongside the parks and the many old trees, the large front gardens provided for in Robert Schmidt's plans for the houses help make the Moltkeviertel into a garden city, especially when seen from above. But in contrast to a garden city in the original form, in the Moltkeviertel there is no spatial separation of working and living areas. Rather the workplaces – primarily educational, medical, administrative, engineering consulting and legal practices – are cheek by jowl with residential buildings. In a publication of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (German Architects' Federation) and the city of Essen dated 2004 (see below) it is stated that the Moltkeviertel was originally planned for approximately 4,000 residents and approximately 3,000 workplaces.
In the southern part of the Moltkeviertel, work started in 1925 on creating an unusual park in the form of the so-called Wiebe-Anlage – the first of its kind in Germany. This public park is located in an area enclosed by a block of houses. The back gardens of the individual houses border directly on the park with its children's playground and green areas.
Contemporary art
Offering a sharp visual contrast to the adjacent terrace of old houses in the northern section of Moltkeplatz, the Essen gallery owner Jochen Krüper (died 2002) together with Uwe Rüth (formerly director of the Glaskasten Sculpture Museum Marl), began in 1981 to assemble on the Moltkeplatz green a high quality ensemble of contemporary sculptures (see Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
). It includes major works by Heinz Breloh, Christa Feuerberg, Hannes Forster, Gloria Friedmann, Lutz Fritsch, Friedrich Gräsel, Ansgar Nierhoff, and Ulrich Rückriem
Ulrich Rückriem (born 30 September 1938) is a German sculptor notable for his monumental stone sculptures. He lives and works in Cologne and London.
His abstract works of art are often assigned to the style of minimalism and process art.
Lif ...
. These are now preserved and cared for under a sponsorship agreement by the association Kunst am Moltkeplatz e.V., which was formed by local residents. Alongside these permanent exhibits, the project "junge Kunst am Moltkeplatz" (young Art at Moltkeplatz) was started in 2010 which presents, for a fixed period in each case, a selected work of a young artist. At other locations in the Moltkeviertel, it is also possible to see contemporary art works in an external setting – for example at the corner of Moltkestrasse and Schinkelstrasse, sometimes on private land such as in the central section of Semperstrasse, and at the northern end of Moltkeplatz.
file:Moltkeviertel_1241_2.jpg, ... Heinz Breloh, Friedrich Gräsel and Hannes Forster under 100-year-old plane trees
file:Moltkeviertel_0096_2.jpg, ... Hannes Forster aligned towards the Lutheran Church (SELK), the first church building built by the architect Otto Bartning
Otto Bartning (12 April 1883 in Karlsruhe – 20 February 1959 in Darmstadt) was a Modernist German architect, architectural theorist and teacher. In his early career he developed plans with Walter Gropius for the establishment of the Bauhaus. H ...
in Germany
file:Moltkeviertel_1262_2.jpg, ... Ansgar Nierhoff and Hannes Forster
file:Moltkeviertel_0741_2.jpg, ... Friedrich Gräsel and Gloria Friedmann
Significant buildings
At Schinkelstrasse No. 34, there stands the former residence of Gustav Heinemann
Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Mini ...
, Essen's first elected mayor after the Second World War and the third President of the Federal Republic of Germany.[Plaque by the house] Moltkestrasse No. 31 is the Essen branch of the Deutsche Bundesbank (German Federal Bank). The hospital of the Huyssens Foundation on Henricistrasse and the Elisabeth Hospital on the opposite side of the Ruhrallee, together with their neighbouring medical facilities, constitute a major medical welfare and treatment complex. The Villa Koppers, Moltkeplatz No. 61, the former residence of the industrialist Heinrich Koppers
Heinrich Koppers (November 23, 1872 – September 5, 1941) was a German engineer. Koppers developed a new type of coke oven that economically recovered the byproduct chemicals of the coking process. The design of these ovens was superior to other ...
, now houses the International School Ruhr.
In the year of the RUHR.2010
Ruhr.2010 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas was the name of the campaign in Germany's Ruhr region that earned it recognition as a European Capital of Culture in 2010. This was the first time a region was considered, as Essen represented all 53 towns ...
European Capital of Culture, the Independent Lutheran Church SELK parish celebrated the 100th anniversary of its listed church building designed by Otto Bartning
Otto Bartning (12 April 1883 in Karlsruhe – 20 February 1959 in Darmstadt) was a Modernist German architect, architectural theorist and teacher. In his early career he developed plans with Walter Gropius for the establishment of the Bauhaus. H ...
. Later in the same year the residents at Moltkeplatz commemorated the naming of the square 100 years ago. The former Royal Building College Essen, built by Edmund Körner (now the Robert Schmidt Vocational College), will be 100 years old in 2011.
Literature
*Tankred Stachelhaus: "Das Essener Moltkeviertel – Weltweit einzigartige RaumKunst", in ''Rheinische Kunststätten'', vol. 521. Cologne 2010,
*Silke Lück: "Das Moltkeviertel in Essen" in ''Rheinische Kunststätten'', vol. 449. Cologne 2000, (This booklet is out of print; further information can be obtained from the association Kunst am Moltkeplatz; see weblinks)
*Bund Deutscher Architekten (German Architects' Federation) and City of Essen – Amt für Stadtplanung und Bauordnung (Office for Urban Planning and Construction Policy) (Ed.): ''Visionäres Essen – Von der Industriestadt zur Dienstleistungs-Metropole.'' (Catalogue for the exhibition of the same name (Part 1) on the occasion, among other things, of the city jubilee "1150 Years of the City and Foundation of Essen" in 2002 and in the Vienna Planning Workshop of the Municipality of the City of Vienna, MA 18 17 March, 6 April 2005, V.i.S.d.P. Ernst Kurz.) Essen 2004 (2nd, supplemented edition).
*Uwe Rüth (ed.): ''Material und Raum, Installationen + Projekte, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum.'' Galerie Heimeshoff Jochen Krüper, Essen 1990/1991, (This book is out of print; further information can be obtained from the association Kunst am Moltkeplatz; see weblinks).
References
External links
Article on the Moltkeviertel by the regional NRW Architects´ Federation
Website relating to the Moltkeviertel
Website of the association Kunst am Moltkeplatz KaM e.V. (Art at the Moltkeplatz)
International School Ruhr
Independent Lutheran Church SELK at Moltkeplatz
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Essen
Landmarks in Germany