Yenidze is a former cigarette factory building in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
built between 1907 and 1909. Today it is used as an office building. It is notable for its
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...
exterior design which borrows design elements from
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s and the
Alhambra
The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...
in Spain.
The Yenidze Tobacco and Cigarette Factory (german: Orientalische Tabak- und Zigarettenfabrik Yenidze) was a tobacco company started by the Jewish entrepreneur Hugo Zietz, which imported tobacco from
Ottoman Yenidze
Yenidze is a former cigarette factory building in Dresden, Saxony, Germany built between 1907 and 1909. Today it is used as an office building. It is notable for its Moorish Revival exterior design which borrows design elements from mosques and ...
,
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...
(modern Genisea, Greece). The "Oriental" style of architecture recalled the exotic origins of the
Oriental tobacco
Turkish tobacco, or Oriental tobacco, is a highly aromatic, small-leafed variety of tobacco which is sun-cured.
Turkish tobacco plants usually have a greater number and smaller size leaves. These differences can be attributed to climate, soil, cu ...
s it processed and functioned as advertising for the firm.
[Annemarie Jaeggi, ''Fagus: Industrial Culture from Werkbund to Bauhaus'', 2000, , p. 41] It has 600 windows of various styles; the dome is 20 metres (65') high. It makes great use of tiles for decoration: both complex colour patterns and unusual three-dimensional forms.
The architect (the second husband of
Angela Hitler
Angela Franziska Johanna Hammitzsch (née Hitler; 28 July 1883 – 30 October 1949) was the elder half-sister of Adolf Hitler. She was the mother of Geli Raubal by her first husband, Leo Raubal Sr.
Life
Angela Hitler was born in Braunau, A ...
) designed the building in 1907. It has large, colored dome chimneys which resemble
minaret
A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گلدسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...
s. It was sometimes referred to as the "tobacco mosque" (german: Tabakmoschee), a term which is no longer officially used as the building is not a mosque. It is a unique historical feature of the city of Dresden.
In the
carpet bombing
Carpet bombing, also known as saturation bombing, is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in th ...
of Dresden on 14/15 February 1945 most of the surrounding buildings were obliterated, but Yenidze escaped relatively unharmed, other than some loss of coloured glass in the dome. However, the building sat in isolation for several decades, and only the regrowth of Dresden in the 1990s allowed a viable restoration, once the surrounding area was also redeveloped.
The building was restored in 1996 and is now an office building.
References
External links
*
* http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=50776
Tourist attractions in Dresden
Buildings and structures in Dresden
Moorish Revival architecture in Germany
Tobacco buildings
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