A vase for the ornamental square in Medicusstraße

The construction of a new connection from Albrechtstrasse to Moltkestrasse began in July 1900. The first eight building sites on this new ‘villa street’ were publicly auctioned off by the Ducal Finance Directorate as the owner on 12 July 1900. The municipal council decided to name this new street Medicusstraße. The magistrate looked for suitable stones to pave this and other new streets in the north of Dessau. It had test sections paved in order to make a judgement on the quality of the stones from different suppliers. The stones tested included granite stones from the company C. A. Kullgrens-Enka in Uddevalla, Sweden. According to the building commission’s report, these stones performed better under the pile driver than stones from Wildschützer and were used for the paving work. A total of 8,350 m² of paving was laid in the new residential area using granite stones from Sweden.

As a thank you for this large order (and probably also with a view to obtaining follow-up orders), the Swedish company offered the city of Dessau a large granite vase as a gift. A design drawing, which the Dessau-Roßlau city archives displayed as the archival artefact of the month for May 2025, gave a good impression of the appearance of the granite vase. At its meeting on 1 December 1900, the Dessau municipal council voted to accept this gift from the company C. A. Kullgren-Enka in Uddevalla. Various companies from Dessau were involved in the installation of the vase, which is around 3 metres high with a base, on the Schmuckplatz in Medicusstraße, but in particular the Melchert company. The costs were borne by the city of Dessau. The villas of Lord Mayor Dr Ebeling and Mr von Losch stood directly next to Schmuckplatz. An exact date of installation could not be determined.

The vase survived two world wars unscathed and still adorns Medicusstraße today. The Swedish company C. A. Kullgren-Enka in Uddevalla ceased trading in 1972.

Dessau-Roßlau city archive in the Dessau archive network
Archive of the month May 2025
Design drawing for the granite vase for the ornamental square on Medicusstraße (1900)
Signed: StadtADR, A 1.2 No. 790, fol. 5