The station re-opened in August 2019 as an events centre. Photo / Supplied
The station re-opened in August 2019 as an events centre. Photo / Supplied
A New Zealand writer, historic building enthusiast and retired lawyer will this week win an award in Germany for the restoration of a Kaiserbahnhof, or royal railway station, near Berlin.
Peter Macky, of Auckland, has won a Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur (Ministry of Science, Research and Culture) award,the Brandenburg Monument Preservation Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of building and monument preservation.
"My 10-year labour of love has been working on a commercial building in Brandenburg State, about 50km south of Berlin in the little town of Halbe. The restoration won a first prize which is quite an accolade," he said today from Auckland.
Macky is at the Grand Millenium Auckland on Mayoral Dr where he has two weeks of enforced isolation, having just returned to New Zealand from Germany.
He lives seven months of every year in Auckland and the rest in Germany, and said when he started the work, the building had been seriously neglected but still looked impressive; the most obvious evidence of decay was trees growing out of four-storey ornamental towers at each corner.
The station on a line which provides direct access to Berlin dates back to 1865 was the kaisers' private train station where royalty and their families would stop on their way to a hunting lodge.
The building pre-restoration, in an extremely run-down state. Photo / File
It was re-opened on August 18 last year by the mayor of Halbe, Michael Schnieke, and the Deputy Ambassador of New Zealand, Alexandra Smithyman.
Macky said the building won because the judges said it was the best restoration in Brandenburg State this year, was to such a high standard, saved a famous building, and had pleased the community.
The poor interior condition before Macky's work started. Photo / Supplied
It is now an events centre, used for weddings, art shows, recitals, anniversaries and small conferences.
The awards ceremony is being held in Brandenburg an der Havel. Macky said he was sorry he could not attend, but friends would.
The restored heritage building is now a function centre. Photo / supplied
The total restoration cost of the 420sq m building was €1.6 million ($2.8m), he said. Some of the costs were funded by the German Government, the local municipality and a European Union entity Leader (Liason entre Actions de Developpement de l' Economie Rural).
The inside of the building before Macky's work. Photo / Supplied
"To put this figure into perspective, this works out at about €3800/sq m. Yet the restoration of the Kaiserbahnhof in Hoppegarten, a smaller building also in Brandenburg State, completed at about the same time in the summer of 2019, cost €2.5m," he said.
Macky said a new apartment in Berlin cost around €10,000/sq m "so this makes my restoration, which included the cost of the building and land, at less than half this cost seem cheap".
The town where the building stands is in the former East Germany.
Kaiserbahnhof in its restored state. Photo / Supplied
Macky discovered it when he cycling with friends "primarily because no one other than the most intrepid went from Berlin to the GDR unless they'd been brought up there. Being a foreigner, I knew none of this bias or even whether it was warranted. For me, the Spreewald represented virgin territory, somewhere new to be investigated," he said.
He recalls being immediately drawn to the building and cycled around it from its street frontage to its rear which looked out over a platform and the adjacent train tracks.
The building dates back to the 1800s. Photo / Supplied
Deutsche Bahn, the railway company, was selling many of its old station buildings after Germany's reunification in 1990. The many staff who worked in these stations provided all sorts of services, from ticket sales, to lost property, to maintaining the station, its buildings and platforms. They had since been replaced with a single conductor on each train, Macky said.
Vegetation against the intricate exterior brickwork was rampant and damaging, he remembers. Windows and shutters were broken and graffiti was apparent.
An historic photo of the railway station. Photo / Supplied
"Yet this failing structure held a fascination and magnetism. At that time, I knew nothing of its astonishing history, its architect or purpose, or anything about the town itself, even its name. That was simple enough to find out: Halbe in standard Deutsche Bahn script, announced its name on the platform. Everything else, which I soon discovered, was to be a revelation, including for example the reason for the many bullet holes in the building's façade. And since my purchase of this building and its restoration, the process has been a wonderful, if often fraught experience."
Peter Macky at the restored building. Photo / supplied
He is now writing a book about the project, "of all the challenges and accomplishments, pitfalls and my mistakes but also about the many people who have helped me, the few who have been less helpful and of the many wonderful friendships".
Macky's maternal great-grandparents built the once-stately Remuera mansion Coolangatta. He was appalled when it was destroyed and produced a book on its history.
Knowing what he does now about the German project, would he have still gone ahead?
"You'll have to read on for the answer," Macky says, referring to his next book.
