The Weinhaus Rheingold in Berlin, Germany, was a large restaurant of the Aschinger concern, in which up to 4,000 guests could be served simultaneously. The building near the Potsdamer Platz was severely damaged in World War II during Allied air raids and the ruins were demolished in the early 1950s.
The steel frame building, constructed from 1905 to 1907 according to plans by architect Bruno Schmitz, was intended as a concert hall with attached assembly rooms and wine restaurant to mark the Aschinger company's entry into upscale gastronomy. To avoid additional traffic at the already overloaded Potsdamer Platz, however, the use was building police restricted to pure gastronomic operations. Even the difficult construction work, associated with groundwater lowering and elaborate securing of neighboring houses, aroused the interest of the daily press.
The contemporary architectural press reported almost enthusiastically about the completed new building in 1907. Particular attention was paid to the monumental facade on Bellevuestraße with reliefs by sculptor Franz Metzner – often rated as equivalent to Alfred Messel's facade of the nearby Wertheim department store at Leipziger Platz. The luxurious interior of the fourteen halls, partly rather exotic, partly inspired by the Middle Ages, created a different atmosphere in each room and was intended to immerse visitors in various worlds.
Economically, the prestige building was a failure for Aschinger. After decades of lacking profitability, the concern finally sold the Weinhaus, which had already been closed due to the war, in 1943 to the Deutsche Reichspost. In the same year, the complex suffered severe damage during the air raids on Berlin. The ruins, classified as rebuildable, were nevertheless demolished in the early 1950s. The site of the former Weinhaus Rheingold is now largely occupied by the Bahntower, the rerouted Potsdamer Straße and the Kollhoff-Tower after the redevelopment of Potsdamer Platz.
The Aschingers – builders with visions
The company Aschinger’s Bierquelle, founded in 1892 by the brothers Carl Aschinger and August Aschinger, operated from 1900 as Aschinger’s Bierquelle AG, a public limited company in family ownership with a share capital of three million marks. Having grown successful with their "Bierquellen" – standing beer halls with inexpensive meals – the Aschingers sought entry into upscale gastronomy from 1905. The renaming of the company in December 1906 to Aschinger’s Aktien-Gesellschaft also illustrates the effort to shed the cheap beer hall image and open new business fields. With the acquisition of the old Hotel Fürstenhof at Potsdamer Platz, a first step toward this expansion was taken. After an architectural competition in 1905, a striking new building with luxurious furnishings was erected from 1906 to November 1907 in place of the predecessor, incorporating previously acquired neighboring properties.
A concert hall with attached assembly halls and restaurant was to complement the expansion. For this purpose, the company acquired several connected properties near Potsdamer Platz on Bellevuestraße and Potsdamer Straße in 1905. For the planning, the company owners won over architect Bruno Schmitz, known primarily for his monuments such as the Kyffhäuser Monument or the Deutsches Eck. With the city festival hall Rosengarten in Mannheim, he had already solved a related building task in 1903. The concert hall planned for Berlin was named after Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold, the first part of the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. The original intentions of the builders and the architect were recorded by architectural critic Hans Schliepmann in the magazine Berliner Architekturwelt: Planned was "a hall building for the most distinguished concert performances", a kind of "loge for the truly highest in Berlin society".Hans Schliepmann: Bruno Schmitz. XIII. Sonderheft der Berliner Architekturwelt mit Text von Hans Schliepmann. Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin 1913, pp. VIII. The high expectations of the builders were described by Maximilian Rapsilber in the magazine Der Profanbau: "[…] in the consideration that in Berlin the great success is only conjured up by a truly grand-scale enterprise", he demanded, "naively expressed, the most beautiful house in Berlin as his own, cost what it may."Rapsilber. In: Der Profanbau. 3 (1907), p. 95.
Location
The area around Potsdamer Platz changed in Berlin's development from a residence city to a metropolis several times within a few decades. Suburban development displaced the previous country houses from the 1820s. These gave way between 1850 and 1870 to elegant rental houses and villas, as Potsdamer Platz with its side streets became the preferred residential area for wealthy Berliners. The central location near the government district on Wilhelmstraße and the Potsdamer Bahnhof increased the attractiveness of the quarter after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, but also led to the displacement of residential space by office and administrative buildings as well as hotels and restaurants. Many of these buildings were erected between the 1890s and World War I.Müller: Der Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Zur Geschichte eines zentralen Platzes. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin 1990, , pp. 30/31.
For the construction of the Weinhaus Rheingold, the Aschinger company acquired in 1905 the properties Bellevuestraße 19, 19aBellevuestraße 19, 19a. In: Berliner Adreßbuch, 1905, Part 3, p. 52 (previous owner; 19a: construction site). and Potsdamer Straße 3, located only a few meters from Potsdamer Platz.Potsdamer Straße 3. In: Berliner Adreßbuch, 1905, Part 3, p. 565 (previous owner). Since the renumbering of Potsdamer Straße in 1938, the parcel bears the number 8Potsdamer Straße 3. In: Berliner Adreßbuch, 1937, Part 4, p. 661.
Potsdamer Straße 8. In: Berliner Adreßbuch, 1938, Part 4, p. 679. and today lies, after the rerouting of Potsdamer Straße, on Alte Potsdamer Straße. On the adjacent properties Bellevuestraße 17–18a, the Grand Hôtel Esplanade arose shortly thereafter as another grand hotel.
The three parcels together yielded an area of 5,044.67 square meters.Hinderer. In: Der Baumeister, 5, 1907, p. 73. As a result of the small-scale parcelling, the property was poorly cut and angular; only the 54 meter wide front on Bellevuestraße allowed a representative facade design, the street front on Potsdamer Straße with 21 meters was unsuitable for this. Nevertheless, Aschinger paid a considerable purchase price of four million marks in total. The property on Potsdamer Straße was built with a five-story apartment building, while the parcels on Bellevuestraße with the "Anker residence" by architect Christian August Hahnemann and the residence Bellevuestraße 19 rebuilt by the same architect, still showed the typical development of the 1850s.
Change of use due to building police concerns The capital tied up in the high purchase price of the property was to yield returns quickly, and the construction time for the new building was thus to be as short as possible. To accelerate the construction, the builder submitted two preliminary projects, which were approved by the building police within three to four weeks. The approval of the project itself took "despite the greatest and most amiable cooperation of all responsible authorities" nine months.Rapsilber. In: Der Profanbau. 3 (1907), pp. 139/140. An addendum submitted during the project's review period required another nine months – conditions that, in the opinion of the magazine Der Profanbau, demonstrated the need for reform of the Berlin building police regulations.
The approval came with a heavy condition for the Aschinger company. The building police feared a further increase in traffic at the already overloaded Potsdamer Platz due to the planned concert hall. Aggravating this was the fact that the Künstlerhaus of the Verein Berliner Künstler was already located directly opposite the planned concert hall at Bellevuestraße 3. Thus, the building police permitted only use as a restaurant. The condition mainly affected the wing intended as a concert hall on Bellevuestraße. However, the planning was already too advanced for major changes, and the original concept of Rheingold remained largely intact, even if the concert hall part now also had to be used gastronomically. Moreover, the planned extension of Voßstraße to the Tiergarten at the time gave hope to the builder and some architectural critics that the traffic relief at Potsdamer Platz would make the use restriction obsolete and the house could still serve its original purpose entirely.Rapsilber. In: Der Profanbau. 3 (1907), p. 98.Haus „Rheingold“ in Berlin. Eine Meisterschöpfung von Bruno Schmitz. In: Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration. Illustrierte Monatshefte für moderne Malerei, Plastik, Architektur, Wohnungskunst und künstlerische Frauenarbeiten. Darmstadt 1907, pp. 3.
Construction phase
Construction work began in mid-November 1905 with demolition and excavation on Bellevuestraße, followed by the creation of the foundations. Masonry work could begin there as early as February 1906.Der Neubau des Weinhauses „Rheingold“ der Aktien-Gesellschaft Aschinger in der Bellevue- und der Potsdamer Straße zu Berlin. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung. 1907, p. 110. At the same time, foundation work took place on the property at Potsdamer Straße 3, where machine foundations for the in-house power plant also had to be laid. These works were completed in May 1906.
The foundation, like the earthworks executed by the construction company Wayss & Freytag, was difficult due to the required lowering of the groundwater level and the enclosed location of the property, costing nearly 500,000 marks.Der Neubau des Weinhauses „Rheingold“ der Aktien-Gesellschaft Aschinger in der Bellevue- und der Potsdamer Straße zu Berlin. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung. 1907, p. 262. First, the excavation pit was dug to the level of the groundwater table at about 3.1 meters depth. A total of 65 four-inch (approx. 10 cm) suction wells drilled at five-meter intervals in all directions, reaching 7.5 meters deep from the pit bottom into the soil, captured the rising groundwater. The main collection pipe, located at the groundwater level with 250 millimeters diameter was connected on one side to the wells and on the other to the electrically operated centrifugal pump. This sucked the groundwater from the wells into the main collection pipe and lifted it to street level, where it flowed into the city sewer. The lowering of the groundwater level occurred in two stages: first by 3.20 meters for laying the normal basement foundations and then by 4.60 meters for the machine foundations. The lowered level included a safety reserve of about 90 centimeters so that in case of pump failure, the construction site would not be immediately flooded. Nevertheless, pump failures flooded the site several times, leading to a total loss of seven working days.Hinderer. In: Der Baumeister, 5, 1907, p. 74. The groundwater lowering system remained in operation for seven months until the concrete slab of the foundation with the enclosing walls exerted a counterpressure corresponding to the groundwater uplift.