Chapter 3
In the last decades of the 19th century, Wilmersdorf grew rapidly and transformed from a village into a large city. In 1880, less than 3,000 people lived in Wilmersdorf; by 1910, the population had grown to over 100,000. Based on the plans of Berlin’s municipal building surveyor James Hobrecht, roads were built, land was sold, parceled out, resold and finally developed. Old houses were demolished and replaced by large tenement buildings. In 1906, the municipality of Wilmersdorf was granted city rights. New modes of transportation – first horse-drawn trams, then streetcars, and finally subways – connected Wilmersdorf with Berlin’s city center and neighboring towns such as Schöneberg and Charlottenburg.
Portrait of Prof. Heinrich Schoeler
Heinrich Schoeler came from Fellin in today’s Estonia. He came to Berlin to study at the end of the 1860s. From 1874, he headed a renowned eye clinic near the Charité hospital, was an associate professor at the University of Berlin, and worked as an inventor of optical devices.
Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
In 1893, the renowned Berlin ophthalmologist Heinrich Schoeler purchased the property on Wilhelmsaue. He lived here with his wife Marie Schoeler and their two children until his death in 1918. It was only during these years that the building was used as a residence throughout the year. Contemporaries described the Schoeler family as hospitable – and old-fashioned: they did not install electric lighting, a telephone, or central heating. The family became the namesake only after Heinrich Schoeler’s heirs sold the estate.
Heinrich Schoeler’s publication in the Journal of Ethnology in 1880
Upon the request of physician and politician Rudolph Virchow, Heinrich Schoeler participated in anthropological research on people who were exhibited in a so-called “human zoo” at Berlin’s Zoological Garden. Both viewing the “human zoos” and engaging in research contributed to the reinforcement of racist and colonialist prejudices.
© University Library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Historical collections: Reference number LA 7600
The living room on the ground floor around 1900
The Schoeler family’s living quarters were furnished in the Wilhelminian style, but also contained pieces from previous owners. The ceilings of the rooms were lowered, and the table was lit by a petroleum lamp. Half of the rooms could not be heated.
Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
The hallway on the upper floor around 1900
The Schoelers collected hunting trophies and old weapons, which they displayed in the hallway of their house. Heinrich Schoeler also had a collection of engravings by Albrecht Dürer.
Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
The garden, around 1913
The garden of his house was very important to Heinrich Schoeler. He was proud of his fruit trees and enjoyed going for walks by Lake Wilmersdorf.
Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
Lake Wilmersdorf, postcard after 1900
In addition to the Seebad Wilmersdorf the postcard also shows the Neo-Gothic Protestant church on Wilhelmsaue, which was inaugurated in 1897. The old village church from the 18th century had to make way for this much larger new building, which was the subject of heated debate in Wilmersdorf.
Fragment of a plate from Otto Schramm’s restaurant
The restaurant Schramm am See, located south of Lake Wilmersdorf and opposite the Schoelers garden, was known far beyond Wilmersdorf. It had a large dance hall with a coffee garden.
Map of Wilmersdorf around 1888
The development Wilmersdorf proceeded at a rapid pace: around 1870, real estate and urban developer Johann Anton Wilhelm Carstenn purchased the Deutsch-Wilmersdorf manor. There, he implemented a specific urban planning concept for the first time—the so-called Carstennfigur with four squares around a central axis (today Bundesallee).
Landesarchiv Berlin
Alignment plan from 1897
While Wilmersdorf grew rapidly, the Schoelers‘ property became smaller. When they purchased the land, they had to agree to give up some of it for road construction. Around 1912, what is now Straße am Schoelerpark was built along the Wilmersdorfer See. The lake became increasingly silted up due to construction work in the surrounding area and was filled in after 1915.
From „Wilmersdorf, Schmargendorf, Kolonie and Grunewald, depicted in maps from 1588 to 1938“, 1983, Kunstamt Wilmersdorf