Charlottenburger Chaussee 109
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marian@ich.ms
IDEAS FOR SAVING THE WANNSEE LIDO
For over 95 years, the iconic Wannsee lido has been attracting the whole of Berlin to the Wannsee bay. Many people are familiar with the location and its eventful history. But what many don't know: Today, more than half of the listed ensemble is unused. While up to 10,000 bathers enjoy the sandy beach every summer, a unique architectural monument is falling into disrepair just a few metres behind it - and with it a spatial resource with great potential.
Image gallery
Strandbad Wannsee
Strandbad Wannsee
Strandbad Wannsee
Strandbad Wannsee
From 31 August to 15 September, the exhibition Wanna See Wannsee? will show how architecture and history can be combined with a sustainable reuse - in order to save the monument and at the same time take up the social idea of the lido and its founder Hermann Clajus.
Wannsee lido: social history icon and modernist architectural monument
When the city took over the lido exactly one hundred years ago, the social-democratic lido director Hermann Clajus had a vision: to create a place of recreation where all social classes were welcome.
He opened the baths to everyone, organised food distributions and holiday camps for children from the tenements of the working-class districts.
From 1929 to 1931, city planning officer Martin Wagner and municipal planning officer Richard Ermisch created an iconic building in the New Objectivity style.
A spacious "Weltstadtbad" for the modern physical culture of the Weimar Republic, with light, air and sun for everyone.
With its 1.3 km long and 80 metre wide beach and over one million bathers a year, it was the largest inland open-air swimming pool in Europe at the time. Clajus, who was threatened with dismissal and persecution after the National Socialists came to power, took his own life in March 1933.
Even today, shops, kiosks, snack bars and a café, a rescue station, changing rooms as well as shower and sanitary facilities are lined up along the 500 metre long walkway of the lido. However, the four changing rooms and sun terraces above are dilapidated and no longer accessible.
The weather-beaten Lido beach restaurant is located at the end of the promenade.
Its curved dining room with bar and terrace, embedded in a huge roundabout with a circular walkway, was once the hub of the lido. Its capacity of 2,500 seats was used intensively all year round - as a beer garden, excursion pub and ice rink.
Wannsee lido: a reutilisation idea for the listed building
The initiative by Professor Carsten Gerhards from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is now proposing to save the monument in the spirit of continued construction and to give it a meaningful future.
Based on the former workshops for the maintenance of the lido, a "construction hut" could be created at Wannsee, which would enable young people to train in various construction trades, catering, gardening, as lifeguards, lifeguards, fitness coaches and park rangers.
In this way, the existing building can be successively renovated under the guidance of professionals in line with its listed status and operated by trainees and teachers all year round. This would make the listed building fit for the future and revitalise the social idea of the lido and its founding director Clajus in the 21st century.
An initiative by Professor Carsten Gerhards/Hochschule Darmstadt. With the kind support of the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport and Berliner Bäder-Betriebe.
Additional information
- daily 9:00 to 19:00
