Bleichröderpark

View of the garden behind the summer house in Pankow, ca. 1910

The public park and playground, newly designed in 2002/2003, was renamed in April 2003 in memory of the Bleichröder family, who generously supported educational and social work and lived on the property at Breite Straße 33/33A for over a century.

BLEICHRÖDERPARK

The Bleichröder family owned the property Breite Straße 33, which was part of a former cotter house, from around 1818. The banker Julius Bleichröder (1828 – 1907) extended the property in 1855 by purchasing part of the old parish rectory. He and his family used the house for recreation during the summer months. A large part of the former garden has been integrated into today’s park. Julius Bleichröder established his namesake foundation to support the needy, and his will, as well as that of his widow Adelheid, endowed a number of charitable organizations.

His son, Fritz Bleichröder (1875 – 1938), decided to pursue a medical education. In 1909, he had the “Bleichröder Villa”, Breite Straße 33A, built for himself and his family. As a successful doctor and Pankow resident, he carried on the legacy of his parents’ social commitment. He worked for the well-known Pankow neurologist Professor Emanuel Mendel, and as an internist and heart specialist, later ran the municipal hospital in Gitschiner Strasse in Kreuzberg. After his dismissal in 1933 and the occupational ban enforced by the National Socialists, he supported his wife Elli (1882 – 1965) in preparing Jewish youths for emigration to Palestine by giving them practical instruction in home economics and horticulture in the fruit and vegetable garden on the Bleichröder property.

In 1933, the National Socialists occupied the older Bleichröder house. Fritz and Elli Bleichröder were still allowed to stay in the villa with their three children. By Fritz Bleichröder’s death on November 8, 1938, the children had already emigrated; Elli left Germany only after his death. Both the villa and the adjacent park were used by a youth club beginning in 1965 (1976 Walter Husemann Youth Club) before, after a long period of vacancy, the house had to be demolished in 2002. The property was integrated into the new commercial building on Breite Straße. It was only through a land exchange between the Pankow district office and the heirs of Fritz and Elli Bleichröder that the park could be developed in its current form.

The park was financed with funds from the Senate’s “Citywide Measures” initiative by the North Employment Office and the district of Pankow’s redevelopment funding. Gratitude is due to all who have contributed to the park’s completion.

Renewal and addition of the memorial plaque 2022.

Photos:

1 _ The summer house of the Julius Bleichröder family in Pankow [Betty Wolff, oil on wood, ca.1890, source: Jewish Museum Berlin, inv. no. 2002/15/6, photo: Jens Ziehe, courtesy of Hans and Therese Ramseier].

2 _ Group picture in front of a tennis net in the garden of the summer house in Pankow, ca.1910 [source: Jewish Museum Berlin, inv. no. 2002/119/11]

3 _ Fritz Bleichröder’s residence, view from the garden, Breite Straße 33 [source: Max Landsberg: Das Wohnhaus des Fritz Bleichröder in Berlin-Pankow, in: Moderne Bauformen, Monatshefte für Architektur und Raumkunst, 20/1921, p.166, table 35]

4 _ Fritz Bleichröder (right) with his father Julius and governess Anna Cahen. [source: Klaus Arons/Archiv Lammel, in: Jüdisches in Pankow, Berlin 2013, p. 87]

5 and reverse _ View of the garden behind the summer house in Pankow, ca. 1910 [source: Jewish Museum Berlin, inv. no. 2002/119/4, courtesy of Klaus Arons].