Page 67 - AIT1019_E-Paper

Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filmemacher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heft-
thema auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik
Architektur in Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die
Arbeit an ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen.

I magine that somewhere in Germany there was the government palace of a French then travertine clad exterior walls, precious wood veneer at the entrance doors, bronze
doorknobs. All this was designed by an architect, right down to the bell button! The
president, with a resistance fighter as commissioner and first residents, built in the
style of Le Corbusier and French Modernism of the 1950s, with an office tower resting building as a unique piece, as a total work of art, as a beacon of French culture. My
on pilotis, a staircase made of Alsatian marble and a ballroom almost as long as the third visit to Saarbrücken didn't need any other reason, I only came because of the Pin-
one in Versailles. So, a building as unique as the Zwinger in Dresden and St. Paul’s in gusson Building. It hosted an exhibition: Architecture of the Saarland from 1945 to 1965.
London! And this building is to be demolished. French is spoken in Berlin-Neukölln. My first chance to see this "cette pierre française à la Sarre", as architect Pingusson cal-
Of course, also Arabic and Turkish and English, American, Australian and New Zealand led his building, from the inside. "Oh, là, là, quelle pierre!" The dignified, heavy, self-
English, but also, and more and more often, French. I can hear people speak French confident splendour of a building of power prevailed, from the mosaic floors to the
on my way to the subway station, in the cafés, pubs, restaurants, and in summer on crystal chandeliers to the murals, preserved in situ and in toto! The architecture exhi-
the terraces in front of it. French students, exchange students, art scene, IT industry! bition was almost dainty, almost small between seven-metre-high windows and four-
Recently, I heard French being spoken again on my way to that mysterious building. metre-wide stairs. Of course, theatres, museums, residential high-rises and churches
It's in Saarbrücken. This city does not rank at the top of the must-see lists of modern were also built in the Saarland and the exhibition presented them in great detail, but
tourists travelling through Germany, yet it is rough and as trendy and unstylish as Ber- something different, something bigger was shown by the plans and models, one may
lin’s Neukölln district. When I first visited the city, I drove past the "palace", on my se- call it something "spiritual". I encountered an occupying power that first feared the
cond visit I looked through the windows, on my third visit I entered it. At the first visit, Germans and mistrusted the Saarlanders; then created a Saarland under French pro-
the occasion was a film festival. We travelled in the official Mercedes of the Prime Mi- tection; then appointed the Jewish resistance fighter Gilbert Grandval as "Haute com-
nister on one of the many urban motorways, and the Prime Minister, who knew his missaire", who in the middle of the war, between all the fights and the dead, got to
country well, told me how after 1945 the French urban planners wanted to radically know and appreciate Jean Prouvé and his modern architecture; then appointed Henri
reconstruct and rebuild the heavily demolished Pingusson, brought in from Paris, as urban
city of Saarbrücken so that instead of a nar- planner of Saarbrücken, who, in turn, packed it
rowly built-up old town eight gigantic skyscra- all in after being unnerved in 1949 when the Fe-
pers would have been built. "But only this one deral Republic of Germany solidified nearby,
was built." And he pointed to a gleaming white making a radically modern sweep through
high-rise building on the banks of the river Saarbrücken seem no longer possible; then, as
Saar, saying that this was the "Pingusson Buil- a kind of consolation, was awarded the com-
ding". He said it in the same way as you would mission for the construction of the presidential
say "King's Cross" or "Trafalgar Square" or "Big palace now known as the "Ambassade". During
Ben", in other words, the listener is expected to the construction of the shell, a rapprochement
be familiar with what has been said. But I had between De Gaulle and Adenauer emerged,
never heard of a Pingusson Building. From a di- which made it possible to draft a Saar statute,
stance, it didn't look that impressive, but rat- which envisaged the Saarland as an indepen-
her like a typical 1950s office tower with a grid dent, autonomous state and Saarbrücken as the
façade and a flying roof. "That was the official capital of a united Europe, and which, contrary
residence of the French High Commissioner, so to all expectations, was then fiercely rejected
to speak the president of the Saarland until during the vote, because the Saarlanders' de-
1949, Gilbert Grandval, a former resistance sire to belong to the Economic Miracle of West
fighter. But when the building was completed Germany was stronger than any European lon-
in 1955, the Saarlanders had decided against Foto: Dr. Uwe Bresan, Stuttgart ging. Thus, a building was finished that had sur-
an independent Saar State and in favour of the vived in the reality of a growing, genuine friend-
Federal Republic. So, actually the building was ship between Germans and French, a far too
never put into operation. Now it accommoda- big, stiff cloak for a true, warm feeling. On the
tes the Ministry of Culture." Then the Prime Minister's Mercedes turned the next con- train back to Berlin, I read that the necessary asbestos removal of the Pingusson Buil-
crete corner and the white high-rise disappeared. On my second visit, the building was ding would cost several million euros and many people thought: Too expensive! And I
closed, the Ministry had moved out because of asbestos contamination and the buil- thought, well, maybe they are right, saving the building is too expensive, too exclusive,
ding's fate was uncertain. I was asked to say something clever about youth and vio- just a symbol to be preserved. In the subway to Neukölln, I listened to the students
lence at a panel discussion. I tried it with a deliberately simple, somehow youthful rhe- from Lille, Nantes, Paris, Lyon and Marseille speaking French on the seats next to me
toric. But it didn't seem easy or youthful, it seemed mindless. Afterwards, I went for a and thought of the cities that have demolished many unique buildings, from the
frustrated walk! Through the old town, across the river Saar, and finally I ended up in people in Dessau and their Bauhaus Masters’ Houses to the people in Berlin and Pots-
front of the tower. Covered in ivy and weeds, like Manderley Castle in Hitchcock's Re- dam and their city palaces, and are now desperately rebuilding them, with the shame
becca. It smelled of boxwood and lilac blossoms and it was quiet here, despite the of concealing an outrage. Then I thought, yes, that it would be right, even absolutely
urban motorway. This time I understood why the locals know the "Pingusson Buil- necessary to preserve this strange Pingusson Building, not only as a symbol of the in-
ding", just as people in Dresden know their Frauenkirche or people in Berlin know itially bumpy but then genuine friendship between Germans and French, but also as
their Brandenburg Gate. The office tower was only a small segment of the overall com- a sign of what the European Community, beyond all economic interests, should be: a
plex. Here I stood in front of the offices and the residence of the "Haute Commissaires", community of friends who bury the hatchet once and for all. Some Saarlanders just re-
the president of the Saar State, that never materialised. A driveway of crunching gravel, member this and shout "Vive le Pingu!". And I'm shouting with them now.

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