
Café Achteck (Octagon Café) is a common local slang for certain
public urinals in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. These urinals consist of seven ornamentally decorated, green-painted
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...
wall segments, arranged onto an octagonal floor plan, provide standing room for seven men, and the eighth side is the entrance. The roof is crowned by an eight-sided ventilation hood. In front of the entrance, there is a privacy screen of at least three segments. The design for these urinals came from the city councillor
Carl Theodor Rospatt in 1878. In 1920 there were about 142 of these urinals in Greater Berlin, and today about a dozen preserved specimens can be found.
History
The predecessor of this design, whose formation was prompted by the then police chief
Guido von Madai
Guido is a given name Latinised from the Old High German name Wido. It originated in Medieval Italy. Guido later became a male first name in Austria, Germany, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Switzerland. The mea ...
in the early 1870s and had to give way to the Café Achteck, had the colloquial name "Madai-Tempel". The emerging competition in 1889 was a rounder, but still octagonal, model from the entrepreneurial group Asten and Hirschberg, known locally as "Rotunde" because of the similarity to a
rotunda.
The first two Rospatt-type plants were erected in 1879 on
Weddingplatz and
Arminiusplatz. The officially named Waidmannslust-type soon took over the neighbouring regions of Berlin. Initially, public toilets were male-only, and it was only around the year 1900 that there were women's toilets in public. The design from 1878 continued to be manufactured into the 1900s, for instance, the Cafe Achteck at
Stephanplatz in
Stephankiez was erected in 1899. By 1900, there were at least a hundred across Berlin.
Until 1997, all facilities were the responsibility of
Berliner Stadtreinigung, and since then the street furniture supplier
Wall AG
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...
. Since the early 1990s, some copies have been renovated and are back in operation, including, since 2000, the unit at Stephanplatz. The historically appropriate restoration of a Café Achteck cost about 250,000
DM. Some of the facilities have been rebuilt differently, with separate male and female modern-style toilets set up within the old ironworks.
There are now only about a dozen remaining, as well as two much larger rectangular examples.
The large rectangular example at
Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station has been repurposed as a hamburger bar.
Berlin Cafe Achteck.jpg, At Gendarmenmarkt
The Gendarmenmarkt ( en, Gut Market) is a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble including the Berlin concert hall and the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of poet Fri ...
Berlin CafeAchteck RuedesheimerPl asv2021-03.jpg, At Rüdesheimer Platz
Berlin.CafeAchteck.8601.jpg, At the Senefelderplatz subway station
Berlin CafeAchteck Stephanplatz asv2021-03.jpg, In Stephankiez
Berlin CafeAchteck LeuthenerPl asv2021-03.jpg, At Leuthener Platz
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Café Achteck
1878 establishments in Germany
19th century in Berlin
Culture in Berlin
History of Berlin
Urinals
Cast-iron architecture