11

Underwater World

Sea animals made of golden mosaic stones – fish, seahorses and turtles – adorn the back wall of a fountain on the Pfefferberg. It’s just a shame that the water no longer gushes out of the dragon’s head and the fountain at the exposed staircase is all covered up and hidden. Even at the time of the Great Elector, there were legislations that were supposed to protect the public urban space from careless treatment. This also included the pollution of public and private wells; such crimes were punished with prison or pillory. Later so-called street masters were even allowed to throw rubbish into houses if their owners did not keep the street area in front of the house clean.
Until well into the 18th century, each courtyard had its own draw well. With the help of a bucket attached to a rope, the residents pulled the groundwater collected in the masonry shafts upwards. Beam pumps replaced the wells in the 19th century: the dark green cast iron housings are still standing on many sidewalks. Among them is the neo-baroque “Lauchhammer pump”, in which the water poured out of either a fish’s or a dragon’s mouth. A drinking stone at the foot of the pump collected the surplus water for horses, dogs and birds.
When the houses were connected to the central water supply in 1856 after the completion of the first Berlin waterworks in front of Stralauer Tor, the pumps lost their importance, but due to their independence from the water network they are still part of the disaster control system to this day.