Kaiserbahnhof Halbe - The Station Master

Kaiserbahnhof Halbe

THE STATION MASTER – Kaiserbahnhof
Reprint of an article by Owen Scott in NZ Herald Viva Magazine
with permission of Peter Macky











Asked whether madness runs in his family, Peter Macky laughs. The lawyer and heritage champion has just bought a railway station...in Germany...as you do.  “Anything exciting and worthwhile requires a bit of madness,” says Macky.

What caused a well-known and established Auckland lawyer to indulge in such seeming folly? A passion for architecture, a bicycle, a bit of breaking and entering, and an element of serendipity is the answer.

There was evidence of the passion last year with the launch of Macky’s sumptuous and erudite book, ‘Coolangatta, A Homage’. It told the tale of one of Auckland’s most famous Arts and Crafts buildings, unceremoniously pulled down in 2006 through a process Hamish Keith eloquently describes as, ‘old and elegant Auckland falling to the bulldozers of greed’. The book raised the profile of the heritage debate, reads like a thriller and has been greatly lauded. Unsurprisingly, it has also drawn the ire of the town-planning burghers it criticised. Macky is not one to shy away from controversial or difficult projects.

Interest in a house in Auckland is one thing, but a railway station in Germany? And not just any station, but one built exclusively for royalty – a Kaiserbahnhof , used only by the Kaiser (or Emperor) and his family.

Macky is no stranger to Europe having lived for periods in both London and Paris. Now Berlin is under his skin. He says there is something different about the city, the cafés and the arts scene. “Berlin handles individuals very well. Life is very civilised.”

In the best European tradition, Macky has become re-acquainted with something he hasn’t touched since school – the bicycle. “I almost live on one now. There are cycling paths everywhere. The weather’s predictable, the traffic courteous, and it’s flat. I would never cycle in Auckland, cars aim at you here!” He says he is now a serious cyclist without being part of the Lycra brigade. “I ride something you might see in a pre-war movie.”

It was thanks to this new mode of transport that Macky found his Bahnhoff.  “I organised a trip for friends into the Spreewald area, to the south east of Berlin, full of lakes, forests and cycle paths. It was a week in August with no itinerary, staying in villages I didn’t even know the names of. These were not big places; it was like arriving in Te Kuiti for instance.”

In a small town called Halbe, Macky decided to go exploring while his friends looked through a bric-a-brac shop. He came across a red brick building adorned with four decorative towers and a ‘For Sale’ sign. Something about the building charmed him, even though it was derelict. “At the time I thought, ‘that could be interesting’. But my friends were waiting and I decided the idea was maybe a bit nutty.”  Macky did not at first realise that the building he was looking at was a small Kaiserbahnhof , with its once-royal connection.

‘Nutty’ as the idea may have been, it stayed with him. A few weeks later Macky returned to Halbe to have a closer look, this time knowing he had to somehow get inside. Unlawyer-like ingenuity was required – a spot of ‘breaking and entering’. “It wasn’t very difficult,” smiles the enterprising Macky.  What he found was 20 years of dust and rubbish. The station had been unoccupied since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Macky returned to New Zealand, armed with photos and the phone number of the real estate agent. “I then did a huge amount of research into the building, its heritage, and what would be required to restore it.” A deal was concluded in December 2009. Macky’s Christmas present to himself was freehold title to half a German acre of land with a train station on top of it.

HISTORY OF THE KAISERBAHNHOF:
The Kaiser had several private train stations. The one in Halbe, was designed and built in 1866 by the celebrated Berlin architect, August Orth. As Kaiserbahnhofs went, it was relatively modest – a five-roomed stopping-off point en route to one of the Kaiser’s hunting lodges. He would get off the train and walk straight into a private domed salon with attached bathroom. His attendants would wait upon him in a large, vaulted vestibule next door.

The Halbe Bahnhof was seldom used and in 1912 was converted into three apartments for railway workers. In 1941 it was turned into offices for the German Railways just as Germany was about to invade Russia. Thirteen rooms were created out of the original five. The alterations were substantial but not structural. Fortuitously, they had the effect, to some degree, of preserving the columns and art work behind false walls and false ceilings. “The gilding work and frescoes can now be exposed and restored,” says Macky. “They’re badly damaged, but you can still see exactly what was there.”

With access to the architect’s original drawings and plans, Macky intends to restore Orth’s configuration of rooms. “I’m looking to create a museum in the vaulted area that was once used by the Kaiser’s attendants. The King’s salon will become a cafe and bathroom. On the second floor an apartment will be created which I will use.” As a German newspaper quipped, a New Zealander has become the new Emperor of a Kaiser’s Bahnhof.

THE RESTORATION:
Restoration work started in earnest in the summer of 2010. Buoyed by excitement, and a certain amount of naivety, things started off smoothly. Macky employed a German project manager before discovering how difficult the building process in Germany could be. “You would think master craftsmen were available, but they’re not. Far from it,” he says ruefully.

Trouble started with the roof. Half of the 48 solid rafters needed replacing. But once the tongue and groove had been laid on top of them, Macky’s keen eye picked up that the new rafters had not been put down evenly. “The first thing you or I would do would be to check levels with a piece of string.  But nothing like that was done. I said to the contractors they had to stop.”

Incredulously for Macky, the project manager said he didn’t think the work was so bad; that an old roof could not be expected to be flat. Macky pointed to one of the similar vintage nearby that was perfectly flat. “The new roof has to come off,” he said resolutely. “The workmanship just isn’t good enough. You have to start again and this time the beams have to be packed to the right heights.”

The workmen argued with him for 3 weeks before backing down. Macky’s patrician exterior belies his tenacity. He counts himself lucky to have been on site at the time. The Kaiserbahnhof now has a flat new roof and a new project manager, this time hailing from Spain. Macky says, with his Latin temperament, the new man is almost more passionate about the project than he is. The priority now is to find suitably skilled crafts people before restoration work begins again in the European summer. Otherwise Macky has vowed to complete the work with New Zealand builders and bricklayers instead.

FUTURE PLANS:
“My aim is for the station to eventually become a starting point for bicycle tours. I’ve secured funding from the German State for the setting up a tourist operation from the Bahnhof, around the Spreewald area. Bicycle tours have become a big thing.”

These are the early days of a wildly ambitious project. A ‘commoner’, with a passion for urban design, has gone from writing about the subject to actually doing something. He may not have been able to save Coolangatta, but his Kiwi hands-on/can-do attitude is breathing new life into another building of charm and historical importance. That it is situated in a country which had such a huge effect on the consciousness of a generation of New Zealanders is one of life’s marvellous ironies.

By Owen Scott

More information available on the Kaiserbahnhof Halbe in Wikipedia