Hotel Kölner Hof (Cologne)

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The Hotel Kölner Hof in 1908

The Hotel Kölner Hof was one of the last large new Cologne hotel buildings of the 19th century. It was built from 1896 to 1897 vis-à-vis the Cologne main train station in Cologne 's Altstadt-Nord district in the form of the German early Renaissance based on a design by the Berlin architects Heinrich Kayser and Karl von Großheim . Badly damaged during the Second World War , it was rebuilt from 1945/1946 according to plans by the architect Peter Franz Nöcker . In 1973 it was demolished in favor of the ABC house designed by Joachim Schürmann .

history

Until the last decade of the 19th century, Cologne, as one of the largest German cities, had only a few hotels that were built exclusively for this purpose and according to a closed plan. However, none of them met the requirements of a “great modern hotel facility”. This only changed in the course of the 1890s, when new hotels such as the Dom-Hotel (also Kayser & von Großheim), the Hotel "Großer Kurfürst" (conversion of a residential building), the "Kölner Hof" and finally at the turn of the century the " Hotel Monopol “on Wallrafplatz in the vicinity of the cathedral.

The former Bahnhofstrasse and today's Dompropst- Ketzer- Strasse was not built until the 1860s to create a direct connection between the new Central Station and the shopping street “An den Dominikanern”, Unter Sachsenhausen to “Gereonstrasse”. Shortly before the turn of the century, the City Hotel was built on the northwest corner of Marzellenstrasse and the Kölner Hof on the northeast corner, directly adjacent to the Church of St. Mary's Assumption . The initiator of the Hotel Kölner Hof was the trading company “G. Meumann ”, which traded in mortgages and owned the residential building at Bahnhofstrasse 7. Was named the hotel as a throwback to the former Kölner Hof in Trankgasse  7 whose land unto the church grounds of St. Assumption handed and the ground after his termination occurred, the system of the Bahnhofstrasse. After the 25-year-old residential buildings at Bahnhofstrasse 5 and 7 had been demolished, construction of the Hotel Kölner Hof began in April 1896. The construction management up to the completion of the shell was in the hands of the Cologne architect and contractor Gustav Wieland . Only a few years after its opening on August 28, 1897, the operating company had to file for bankruptcy. The business was then continued by the "Kölner Hof GmbH" until it was discontinued in the early 1970s.

Before the Second World War, a renovation was carried out in favor of a better use of space and an increase in the number of rooms. In this, the recent hip roof, another were in place full storey and an overlying mezzanine floor mounted and finished with a flat roof to the top. The oriel tower - at the intersection with the station forecourt - was stripped of its top floor and the helmet above it . At the end of the war, the wing on Bahnhofstrasse was completely destroyed, as was the covered terrace . The rest of the building was damaged. The first makeshift restoration work began as early as 1945, during which the hotel was largely repaired. Here, the historicist exterior decorations were largely removed in accordance with the post-war taste .

View of the office and commercial building from the Marzellenstrasse / Dompropst-Ketzer-Strasse roundabout

In 1972 "ABC-Haus GmbH" and "ABC-Bank GmbH" took over the hotel area. After the demolition of the hotel building in 1973, the up to eight-storey ABC house was built on the entire north side of Bahnhofstrasse by 1975 according to a design by the Joachim Schürmann office - in front of the Church of St. Mary of the Assumption like a bolt. Deliberately neglecting the historical structures in the sense of a "progressive" building, the standards set by the church, the lower Deichmannhaus and the main train station were permanently broken. Even considering the architectural quality of the new building, a defeat for the preservation of monuments .

architecture

At the time of its construction, the hotel consisted of a four-story, two-wing main building with a high hipped roof above. Due to the layout of the plot, it had an irregular floor plan. The eight axes facing towards the station forecourt took up the restaurant on the ground floor . Single-axis, also four-storey risalits were attached to the sides , which had balconies from the first floor onwards. Both the risalites and the main building were gabled . On the corner of Bahnhofstrasse there was also a bay tower that began on the first floor and towered over the main building by one storey and was provided with a helmet. The building, richly structured in its facade design - in the style of the German early Renaissance - accommodated 60 rooms, which were equipped with the latest technical achievements. The “electric alarm clock” was highlighted. The outside terrace seated 180 guests, the main restaurant room another 200. The medieval- style hall with a cross-vaulted ceiling was picturesquely decorated on the walls. The paintings were made by the Berlin company “S. Bodenstein ”.

literature

  • Judith Breuer: The Cologne cathedral environment as a mirror of the cathedral reception in the 19th century. (= Landeskonservator Rheinland. Workbook 10.) Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7927-0569-9 , p. 156 f.
  • Wolfram Hagspiel : Cologne: Marienburg. Buildings and architects of a villa suburb. (= Stadtspuren. Monuments in Cologne. Volume 8.) 2 volumes, JP Bachem Verlag , Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7616-1147-1 , Volume 2, p. 903 f.
  • Wolfram Hagspiel: Berlin splendor in cities on the Rhine. In: polis. 11th year 2000, issue 1, pp. 44–46.
  • Hiltrud Kier : Preservation of monuments in Cologne 1928 to 1990. In: Architects and Engineers Association Cologne (Hrsg.): Cologne-seine buildings 1928–1988. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7616-10742 , pp. 494-504.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cologne court. In: Localanzeiger No. 236 of August 28, 1897.
  2. ^ Judith Breuer: The Cologne cathedral environment as a mirror of the cathedral reception in the 19th century.
  3. ↑ Address book of Cologne and the surrounding area 1904. Volume 50, 1904, Grevens Kölner Adressbuch Verlag, Cologne 1904, III. Part, p. 35.
  4. ↑ a b Wolfram Hagspiel: Cologne: Marienburg. Buildings and architects of a villa suburb.
  5. ^ Hiltrud Kier: Preservation of monuments in Cologne 1928 to 1990. P. 500.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 34 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 24.7"  E