Speech text on the award ceremony for 3rd place for Building of the Year 2021, held by the Federal Chairman Tilo Bergmann on 8 December 2022
First of all, I would like to express my pleasure at the invitation and the joint celebration of this ceremony for the facade reconstruction of Tucholsky Strasse 40. Here and today in the community centre of the Jewish Congregation Adass Yisroel in Berlin. Thank you to the rabbinate and the board of the community who made this possible.
Stadtbild Deutschland e.V. is a non-profit civic association from the heart of the society. It is committed to the protection of historical monuments, reconstruction and classical, regionally typical building. Stadtbild Deutschland is the only association in Germany that does this in this form. And our motto “Beauty obliges” already reveals why we do this, we see ourselves as aesthetes:
But not as an end in itself, but as orientation and value, especially in architecture as a symbol of quality that gives us as citizen’s quality of life. In cities that are built for people.
Mr. Hoeniger and Mr. Sedelmeier, the architects of this wonderful building, have created a combination of Art Nouveau and Jewish ornamentation in the spirit of beauty and reverence, which we would like to honour today. Well-proportioned in high quality materials of the time.
In a time of emancipating Jewry in Germany, a story that could, indeed should, have been a success story. Unfortunately, as we stand here today, we all know how terribly things turned out differently.
All the more reason for us as an association to be pleased that the reconstruction has made it possible for us to experience it again, to see it blossom anew. The reconstruction was carried out by architect Dipl. Ing BDA Christian Dierkes of the Berlin architectural office Dierkes-Poelzig with the highest degree of authenticity. This is not something that can be taken for granted either. We would like to thank him and the office for this.
The building once again radiates a liveliness, a beauty that is an ornament to the Jewish community and has an effect on the outside as well as the inside. This radiance has persuaded our association members and the members of the Architectura pro Homine forum to vote the building into one of the top three places of the Building of the Year as the first facade reconstruction ever. As an appreciation for what has been achieved and as a contribution to our cultural heritage. As a contribution to the beauty of Berlin.