Grugahalle
The Grugahalle is an established in 1958, multifunctional conference hall in Essen district Rüttenscheid that up to 10,000 visitors accommodate and on 26 October 2000 under monument protection was provided. It is part of the Gruga complex, which also includes Grugapark , Grugabad and Messe Essen .
architecture
The Grugahalle was built in the striking butterfly shape of steel and concrete by an architectural association of the Hanoverian Ernst Friedrich Brockmann and Gerd Lichtenhahn . The steel roof structure spans a free area of 80 by 80 meters. The hall has around 7,700 seats with seating and around 10,000 without seating. The actual hall with auditorium and stage is around 2800 square meters and is structurally located directly above the 2600 square meter foyer. The enclosed space of the entire building comprises around 165,000 cubic meters.
history
The City Council of Essen decided in 1955 to build the Grugahalle on the foundations of the previous building. This was exhibition hall V , which was destroyed in the Second World War and was built in 1927 by the head of the building department at Friedrich Krupp AG in Essen, Josef Rings . This hall had 8,000 square meters, was around 40 meters wide, 98 meters long and 20 meters high. The reason given for reusing the foundation was the unsound subsoil, which would have required a new foundation that was at least ten meters deep and thus too expensive. Only the east and west extensions as well as the asymmetrical reinforced concrete stands that rise up to the side received new foundations. The construction of the Grugahalle by the city of Essen as the client began in October 1956. It was then handed over to the then head of the hall, Heinrich Spies, in September 1958, and officially opened on October 25, 1958 by the Lord Mayor of Essen, Wilhelm Nieswandt . In 1988, and again in 1995, the Grugahalle was modernized.
In the 1990s the Grugahalle got into an existential crisis. Although it had a certain history up to that point and enjoyed a good international reputation, people in Essen discussed its demolition. People thought about their capacity utilization when new event halls were built in the area, such as the Kölnarena , the Oberhausen-Arena and newly roofed football stadiums. In combination with the halls of Messe Essen , however, the Grugahalle found its niche and is still in operation today.
In the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018, the Grugahalle received the Big beautiful building award . It was officially awarded on October 29, 2018 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Excerpt from previous events
Musical events
Three days after the hall opened, on October 28, 1958, Bill Haley and His Comets played in the Grugahalle, accompanied by over 200 police officers. The concert began with jazz by Kurt Edelhagen and his big band from Herne , which upset the rock 'n' roll audience. At the time, full seating in the hall with no standing room was the custom, but when Bill Haley was playing, several spectators stood up and began to dance. However, the police tried to prevent this and sent people back to their places. Despite a few smashed chairs and broken windows, the Grugahalle had passed its first test.
In April 1959, in 1960, and most recently in 1961, the Essen Jazz Days took place in the Grugahalle. Among others were Ella Fitzgerald , Oscar Peterson , Bud Powell , Oscar Pettiford , Kenny Clarke , Coleman Hawkins , the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Quincy Jones Big Band on.
On September 12, 1965, the Rolling Stones , at that time still with Brian Jones , performed in the hall.
The American folk singer Joan Baez played on April 9, 1966. Two months later, on June 25, 1966, The Beatles gave two of their few concerts in Germany as part of their BRAVO Beatles blitz tour . The Beach Boys performed here in October 1966.
In September 1968, several concerts took place in the Grugahalle as part of the Essen International Song Days , including Die City Preachers , The Fugs and Julie Felix . There was also the first appearance in Germany by Frank Zappa and the group The Mothers of Invention in front of more than 13,000 spectators. Also in September 1968, Tangerine Dream performed . In 1969 Fleetwood Mac had an appearance at a pop and blues festival.
In October 1973 the Rolling Stones performed in the hall on three consecutive evenings as part of their European tour. From the concert of the hard rock band Led Zeppelin in the same year, some newspapers reported that higher decibel values were measured than when starting a jet.
Well known were the Rockpalast Nights , which were broadcast live on radio and television by ARD and WDR between July 23, 1977 and March 15, 1986 on the Rockpalast program . Many artists who shaped the 1980s performed in the hall, including Paul Simon , Al Jarreau , Depeche Mode , ZZ Top , Frankie Goes to Hollywood , Johnny Winter , Santana , Chris de Burgh , Saga , Grateful Dead , The Who , Barclay James Harvest , Gilbert Bécaud and Prince .
Comedy events
Since the 2000s and 2010s, the Grugahalle has also been increasingly used for comedy events. Mario Barth , Carolin Kebekus , Dieter Nuhr , Paul Panzer , Atze Schröder , Otto Waalkes and Kaya Yanar performed several times , among others .
Sporting events
From September 10th to 19th, 1971, the Grugahalle was the venue for most of the games of the 1971 European Basketball Championship . The Soviet Union won the final with 69:64 points against Yugoslavia .
From October 3rd to 5th, 1986 men's tennis games of the Davis Cup took place in Essen for the first time. Here defeated Boris Becker and Eric Jelen the team of Ecuador in the Grugahalle with 5: 0th
In November 1987 the 14th Judo World Championships took place in the Grugahalle .
The two sports clubs TUSEM Essen and SC Phönix Essen played the majority of their home games in the handball Bundesliga in the hall from 1970 to 2005 .
It was used for public viewing at major sporting events such as the 2010 and 2014 World Cups .
Political events
On August 5, 1959, the mining industry union called for a protest against the colliery closings that were widespread in the Ruhr area at the time. Its chairman, Heinrich Gutermuth , spoke to around 3,000 buddies in the Grugahalle .
The then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer spoke on July 10, 1961 in the Grugahalle and promoted his party for the 4th federal election on September 17, 1961 .
The Extraordinary FDP Federal Party Congress 1965 took place on September 2, 1965 , at which the 1965 Bundestag election was prepared.
The 82nd German Catholic Day took place from September 4th to 8th, 1968 with the first Bishop of Essen, Franz Hengsbach , in the Grugahalle. The organizing committee was headed by Hans Kirchhoff , who was also the police chief.
On April 12th and 13th, 1969, a DKP party conference took place in the Grugahalle in order to win new members, especially in the Ruhr area. At the start of the Bundestag election campaign in 1969 , Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt also came to the hall, which was also used by Franz Josef Strauss shortly afterwards .
In 1994 the Grugahalle was the venue for an EU summit .
In April 2000, Angela Merkel was elected party chairman at the CDU party conference in the Grugahalle.
On December 6th and 7th, 2016 the party conference of the CDU of Germany took place.
Other Events
The best-known film produced with the Cinemiracle technology is the documentary film Windjammer ( Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich ) from 1958. For the German premiere on May 22, 1959 in the Grugahalle, a screen with a width of 32 meters and a 17 Meters high, the largest screen in the world at the time. The film was shown in the Grugahalle in 1959 and then in 1962 and 1965 and was seen by a total of around 650,000 viewers.
The ice revue Holiday on Ice has been taking place since 1960 until today, at the end of each year .
Grugahalle today
Today the Grugahalle is used for concerts, sporting events, political meetings and general meetings of large corporations.
literature
- Michael Köster: 50 years of the Grugahalle Essen (1958–2008) . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0049-3 .
- TV documentary by WDR 2010, by Claus Bredenbrock and Pagonis Pagonakis : Beatles, Bible, Rockpalast - Die Grugahalle Essen
Web links
- Entry on Grugahalle in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association
- Homepage of the Grugahalle
- Photo of the Grugahalle shortly after the opening (digit.wdr.de)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Excerpt from the list of monuments of the city of Essen ; accessed on October 13, 2016
- ↑ Excellent! Grugahalle ; In: Landesinitiative StadtBauKultur NRW 2020; accessed on October 26, 2018
- ^ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 19, 2008: From Ella to Helge
- ↑ Detlev Mahnert: Take a Trip to Hashnidi. Retrieved October 10, 2014 .
- ↑ Klaus Wisotzky: From the imperial visit to the euro summit. 100 years of Essen history at a glance. Klartext, Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-497-6 .
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of April 9, 2000: After the carefree ; accessed on January 20, 2016
- ↑ CDU.de: 29th CDU party congress in Essen ; accessed on September 1, 2017
- ↑ Michael Köster: 50 years Grugahalle , Klartext-Verlag (2008), ISBN 978-3-8375-0049-3 , p. 49
Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 52 " N , 6 ° 59 ′ 52" E