Wanna See Wannsee?
The Wannsee lido and its eventful history are well known to many. For over 95 years, the iconic bathing complex has attracted all of Berlin to the Wannsee Bay. What many people don't know is that today more than half of the listed complex stands empty and unused. While up to 10,000 bathers enjoy the sandy beach every summer, a unique architectural monument is falling into disrepair just a few meters behind it - and with it a spatial resource with great potential.
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 relaxation where all social classes are welcome. He opened the baths to everyone, organized food distribution and holiday camps for children from the tenements of the working-class districts. City architect Martin Wagner and municipal chief architect Richard Ermisch created an iconic building in the New Objectivity style between 1929 and 1931. A spacious "cosmopolitan bathing area" for the modern physical culture of the Weimar Republic, with light, air and sun for everyone. With its 1.3 km long and 80 meter wide beach and over a million bathers every year, it was the largest inland outdoor pool in Europe at the time. Clajus, who was threatened with dismissal and persecution after the Nazis came to power, committed suicide in March 1933.
Even today, shops, kiosks, snack bars and a café, a rescue station, changing rooms and shower and sanitary facilities line the 500 meter long walkway of the lido. The four changing rooms and sun terraces above are, however, dilapidated and no longer accessible. At the end of the promenade is the weathered Lido beach restaurant. Its curved guest room with bar and terrace, embedded in a huge roundabout with a circular walkway, were once the focal point of the lido. Its capacity of 2,500 seats was used intensively all year round - as a beer garden, excursion restaurant and ice skating rink.
The initiative of Professor Carsten Gerhards from the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences now proposes saving the monument by continuing to build and giving it a meaningful future. Based on the former workshops for the maintenance of the lido, a "construction hut" could be built on the Wannsee, which would enable young people to receive training in various trades in the building trade, in the catering trade, in gardening, as a lifeguard, lifeguard, fitness coach and park ranger. In this way, the existing building can be gradually renovated under the guidance of professionals in accordance with the monument's requirements and operated by apprentices and teachers all year round. This would make the monument fit for the future and the social idea of the lido and its founding director Clajus would be brought to life again in the 21st century.
From August 31st. From 11 to 15 September, the exhibition 'Wanna See Wannsee?' shows how architecture and history can be combined with a sustainable continued use - in order to save the monument and in doing so take up the social idea of the lido and its founder Hermann Clajus.
Opening: 30.8.2024, 6:30 pm (Entry on invitation only)
Former Restaurant Lido at the Wannsee Beach
Speakers:
Representative of the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport
Representative of the Berlin Bäder-Betriebe
Prof. Carsten Gerhards, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences