ARAG terrace house

The ARAG terrace house (also stepped house ) at Brehmstraße 110 in the Düsseldorf district of Düsseltal was a three-part building complex consisting of a twelve-storey high-rise building, a transverse, three-storey low-rise building and a single-storey shop. The building complex was built from 1963 to 1966 on the site of the former Dankeskirche , expanded from 1975 to 1979 and demolished in 1991/1992 despite plans for expansion and violent protests from experts and citizens. Today the ARAG Tower stands in place of the step house .

Location and surroundings

The building was one of three structures from the 1950s and 1960s by ARAG insurance on Mörsenbroicher Ei in the north of Düsseldorf. With a round high-rise and an ordinary high-rise, it formed an ensemble that housed the headquarters of the ARAG insurance company. The buildings were each positioned at three different corner positions at the Brehmstrasse-Heinrichstrasse intersection. Today the listed main administration building still stands .

description

The site was triangular, the building complex consisted of high-rise and low-rise buildings as well as a single-storey shop building.

Step high-rise

The twelve-story high-rise was stepped up to a three-story low-rise building. Towards the south, the floor tapered on each of the upper floors by three window widths compared to the floor below. Horizontal concrete slats were supported on the protruding beams. The surrounding concrete parapets consisted of prefabricated parts made of white carrara gravel . The individual offices were in the stepped high-rise, the open break rooms were on the south terraces with the main staircase.

Low building

The transverse, three-storey low-rise building also accommodated the casino, above it the large office rooms and a data center. The low-rise building was connected to the high-rise building on the second floor. In the entrance hall there were special armchairs and tables that were specially made for the entrance hall according to the architect's designs.

Store

In front of the main building there were five mushroom constructions that were of different heights and widths. They overlapped in such a way that a contiguous, single-storey shop was formed.

history

Construction of the step high-rise (1964/1967)

The building was built from 1964 to 1967 based on designs by Paul Schneider-Esleben for Allgemeine Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs AG (ARAG). The foundation stone was laid on December 4, 1964, and a certificate with ancient ink writing was placed in the foundation stone: “ This certificate was embedded in the foundation on December 4, 1964 after the birth of Christ. At the time of the walling in, Heinrich Lübke was the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Chancellor was Prof. Dr. rer. pole. Ludwig Erhard… “On June 30, 1967, the high-rise was inaugurated with chamber music by Johann Christian Friedrich Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Spindel staircase and extension (1975/1979)

In 1975 the step high-rise was extended again. However, the building authorities asked for an additional staircase that was placed in front of it as a concrete spindle . An expansion of the building took place from 1976 to 1979.

"Piggyback solution" and demolition (1991/1992)

In the 1990s the building was to be enlarged. In 1991, Schneider-Esleben made the first proposal to enlarge the old stepped high-rise office building: the so-called “piggyback solution” - “by putting a steel frame structure with long external steel supports around the old building. Plexiglass pipe corridors connect the two components on the steps through the open air. The client wrote of his own enthusiasm for this solution ... "

Heinrich Klotz describes the lengthy, unsuccessful attempts to expand the step high-rise - “They obey a given typology and at the same time had to correspond to some uncertain ideas of the project manager in charge. It has become stages in a path of suffering, the individual steps of which were driven by ever new hopes until the well-to-do client abandoned the project without further ado ”.

Klotz found the first proposed solution for saddling remarkable: "The supplementary part would have been saddled onto the stepped house as a glass volume, so that the stepped building would ultimately have become a classic high-rise building again, the two-part structure of which would expressively indicate two different construction phases".

Klotz admires the construction and compares the planned saddle architecture with the ramp and tube architecture already shown by the architect: “Such a succinct directness of the approach clearly shows a basic character of the architect: Schneider von Esleben has had the large Haniel garage and the tube facade of Mannesmann since the ramp architecture -High-rise building in a wide variety of ways and with a wide variety of results repeatedly searched for straightforward answers; his solutions are often striking and uncompromisingly direct, which only promoted the originality and freshness of the designs ”.

Eight days after the architect proposed the first extension, the plan to demolish the building was announced. Asbestos findings were put forward as the reason . In February 1991 ARAG applied for the demolition; On May 7, 1991, the ARAG city administration granted the official demolition permit (No. 3-1055 / 91). After an unsuccessful attempt at blasting, parts of the building had to be laboriously crushed with a five-ton wrecking ball until the end of January 1992.

The architect Martin Großmann describes the failed demolition as a tragic comedy :

“In the demolition as in life, many a shot goes wrong ... as a spectator of the tragedy, one would like to say 'Der Arag-Haus demolition', as the last act went on Sunday morning with a clap of thunder - to which, strangely enough, there was no reaction - across the stage . The tragedy becomes a tragic comedy! I stick to my (very personal) statement in the RP of July 27th, 91 that the decision of our city fathers and economic bosses to break off was an 'evil act'. Now those responsible have to live with the curse of the evil deed ... "

- Architect Martin Großmann, Immermannstrasse 55, Düsseldorf

Awards, art historical significance and reception

Before it was built, the building was awarded first prize in a competition. The main criterion was its urban planning function: "The 1st prize in a competition related to the idea of the then urban planner and the then board of the insurance company to create an urban planning fixed point in the chaotic maze of streets around the entire Mörsenbroich egg with an unmistakable dominant."

Heinrich Klotz describes the positive corner in the professional world and in urban planning: “Indeed, the professional world agreed that the architect Paul Schneider-Esleben had succeeded in an original approach with the staircase-shaped building. The 'wish of the city planner [ Tamms ] for a tower-like dominant at the town entrance' was happily fulfilled. "

Even during the construction phase, the news magazine Der Spiegel commented on the staircase-shaped building and its internal division into levels, which were stratified upwards according to the rank of the employees in the company hierarchy, as the deliberate embodiment of a "new German guiding symbol", the "stairs to success". Der Spiegel also mentioned that the GDR newspaper Freie Wort had rated the building as proof that “West German class society had also optically found its way into architecture” . The magazine also found it remarkable that the building included one of the largest nuclear bunkers in the Federal Republic with a capacity of almost 3,000 people.

Jürgen Wiener paid tribute to the architecture and said that the building "would have been included in the architecture guide in 1985". Unfortunately, the building is one of the many architecturally remarkable buildings that have "meanwhile disappeared or have been disfigured beyond recognition", and that is why it would not have found its way into an architecture guide.

Michael Brockerhof notes in particular the building material concrete: "The material concrete, whose diverse possibilities were increasingly used for buildings from the end of the 1960s, is consciously used as a visible design element."

Heinrich Klotz describes how in the 1960s the building material concrete, just like granite in the 1930s, gave the impression of eternity and sustainability: “The building was made of exposed concrete and a third of a century ago it was associated with a thousand-year durability: 'at least like granite ', so the' experts', specialists and engineers of the specialist companies. The building physicists and chemists at the time, as well as the concrete industries, did not yet think of the immissions or emissions to be expected from the toxic kitchen of our highly developed industry that has now developed. "

The demolition of the house was very controversial. Citizens, architects, monument protection authorities deal with the demolition of the step high-rise. Heinrich Klotz describes the outrage over the destruction of the building

“This drew four citizens' initiatives, outrage in the professional world and the angry monument protection authorities. To the public, the media and journalists the reason for the demolition was the more than bizarre hint that the building was asbestos - an absolute nonsense. Every house had and has asbestos relics, which could have been removed with ease and at no special expense if one had absolutely wanted to. Specialist companies for asbestos removal are en masse everywhere. But the press naively fell for it and the public was reassured that they were now protected from cancer, AIDS, heart attack, cholera, typhus and lice through the demolition. In addition, the now much smaller computers should no longer fit in the offices and similar excuses to cover up the real reason for the waging of an internal family dispute, in which it was only the work of the opposing party, this 'hostile' high-rise building, as soon as possible possible to finally eliminate. "

Klotz particularly notices the uniqueness of the citizens' initiative and the distinctive urban design feature of the building:

“After a long planning period and after many attempts to save, supplement and expand the old building, and finally to renew it, the final result was complete destruction. The insurance building, erected in 1963, stood upright until 1991 and was blown up in protest of the monument protection authorities and against violent objections from four citizens' initiatives. When ever had there been citizens' initiatives to save a high-rise, especially made of concrete ?! The characterful silhouette had become a distinctive urban development identity feature in an exposed location: a positive point of orientation. However, the destruction of the building without replacement points not only to the expected fate of many new buildings of today's commercial architecture , but even more to the irresponsibility of an uncomprehending builder. In ever new attempts and for ever new reasons, the owner caused the architect to keep developing new proposals and to maintain the appearance of new buildings with a long series of plans - up to and including the termination of the project. "

At the urging of the founded citizens' initiative ARAG-Haus , the director of the LVR office for the preservation of monuments in the Rhineland and state curator of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) Prof. Udo Mainzer issued a statement on the planned demolition. Its report was published on July 8, 1991. Heinrich Klotz cites Mainzer's report that it “certifies that the Schneider Esleben building is 'unique in North Rhine-Westphalia'.” Even after a “mysterious fire” broke out in September 1991, Prof. . Mainzer firmly believes that the building is worth a monument: "As long as a monument still stands, I believe that it will be preserved." Klotz underpinned Mainzer on the basis of the Monument Protection Act: "According to the law, by the way, it can still be listed if it is up to 60 percent destroyed".

The citizens even campaigned for the now burned-out ruin. In early November 1991, the citizens' initiative submitted a new application: "At least the characteristic outline of the facade should be protected and incorporated into a future urban development solution."

Ulrich Stevens from the Office for the Preservation of Monuments wrote on April 16, 1991 to the citizens' initiative, which has now been founded - “He would consider a demolition to be 'highly regrettable'; this would 'lead to a noticeable gap in the Düsseldorf architectural landscape'. According to Stevens, this appeared to him, 'all the more incomprehensible as the city likes to refer to the outstanding new buildings and new building plans within its own walls'. ”According to current law on monument protection issues, the independent municipality, i. H. the lower monument authority, the ARAG house as "significant and worth preserving"

swell

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Oaf Cless: The ARAG high-rise demolition show . In: Overview . JG No. December 12 , 1991. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 174.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 86.

^ ^A ^b Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern bei Stuttgart 1996, p. 172 (enlargement of the step high-rise building on Brehmstrasse in Düsseldorf as a piggyback solution and subsequent sudden destruction).

↑ ^a ^b ^c

“Compared to… the fate of the renovation of another early work by the architect, the step high-rise on Brehmstrasse in Düsseldorf, was extremely unfortunate. After a long planning period and after many attempts to save, supplement and expand the old building, finally to renew it, the final result was complete destruction ... The owner kept prompting the architect with new attempts and new reasons to develop new proposals and to maintain the appearance of new development with a long series of plans - up to and including the termination of the project. The architect never tired of playing through an abundance of high-rise variants in order to satisfy the client in many attempts. Without a doubt, the first suggested solution would have been the most surprising, or at least the most interesting. The supplementary part would have been saddled onto the stepped house as a glass volume, so that the stepped building would ultimately have become a classic high-rise building again, the two-part structure of which would expressively indicate two different construction phases. A basic character of the architect becomes clear from such succinct directness of the approach: Since the ramp architecture of the large Haniel garage and the tubular facade of the Mannesmann high-rise building, Schneider von Esleben has been looking for straightforward answers in a wide variety of ways and with a wide variety of results; his solutions are often striking and uncompromisingly direct, which only promoted the originality and freshness of the designs. Compared to the first thought of saddling up, the variants turn out to be less immediate. They rather obey a given typology and at the same time had to correspond to some uncertain ideas of the commissioned project manager. It has become stages of a path of suffering, the individual steps of which were driven by ever new hopes, until the well-to-do client abandoned the project without further ado. "

- Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider from Esleben. Drafts and buildings , Gerd Hatje publishing house, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 25 (supplement to the introduction 1987–1997 by Heinrich Klotz).

↑ Constant knocking crashes the building. After an unsuccessful demolition, the Arag house is laboriously crushed. In: Düsseldorfer Zeitung . January 21, 1992. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions . Publisher Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 175.

↑ Martin Grossmann: Demolition of the Arag House. Tragic comedy . In: Rheinische Post . January 23, 1992. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Publisher Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 175.

↑ way up . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1966 ( online ).

↑ ^a ^b Jürgen Vienna: Introduction to architectural history of Düsseldorf. In: Roland Kanz, Jürgen Wiener (eds.): Architectural guide Düsseldorf. 1st edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2001, pp. XI – XXII, on this p. XXII.

↑ Michael Brockerhof: Düsseldorf as it was. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-1277-0 , p. 49.

^ Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 25 (supplement to the introduction 1987–1997 by Heinrich Klotz).

Web links and literature

Architecture database NRW
City Archives Düsseldorf
Paul Ernst Wentz: Architecture Guide Düsseldorf. A guide to 95 selected buildings. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1975, No. 50.
Gretl Hoffmann: Travel Guide to Modern Architecture: Germany: Federal Republic and West Berlin. Dates and addresses of around 1000 buildings from 1900 to today. J. Hoffmann, 1968, p. 46.
Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider from Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, pp. 86-89.
Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider from Esleben. Designs and constructions. Gerd Hatje publishing house, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, pp. 172–176.

51.249399 6.801052Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 57.8 " N , 6 ° 48 ′ 3.8" E

[Klotz_174-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Oaf Cless: The ARAG high-rise demolition show . In: Overview . JG No. December 12 , 1991. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 174.

[Klotz_86-2] Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 86.

[Klotz_172-3] A ^b Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern bei Stuttgart 1996, p. 172 (enlargement of the step high-rise building on Brehmstrasse in Düsseldorf as a piggyback solution and subsequent sudden destruction).

[Klotz_25_a-4] 

“Compared to… the fate of the renovation of another early work by the architect, the step high-rise on Brehmstrasse in Düsseldorf, was extremely unfortunate. After a long planning period and after many attempts to save, supplement and expand the old building, finally to renew it, the final result was complete destruction ... The owner kept prompting the architect with new attempts and new reasons to develop new proposals and to maintain the appearance of new development with a long series of plans - up to and including the termination of the project. The architect never tired of playing through an abundance of high-rise variants in order to satisfy the client in many attempts. Without a doubt, the first suggested solution would have been the most surprising, or at least the most interesting. The supplementary part would have been saddled onto the stepped house as a glass volume, so that the stepped building would ultimately have become a classic high-rise building again, the two-part structure of which would expressively indicate two different construction phases. A basic character of the architect becomes clear from such succinct directness of the approach: Since the ramp architecture of the large Haniel garage and the tubular facade of the Mannesmann high-rise building, Schneider von Esleben has been looking for straightforward answers in a wide variety of ways and with a wide variety of results; his solutions are often striking and uncompromisingly direct, which only promoted the originality and freshness of the designs. Compared to the first thought of saddling up, the variants turn out to be less immediate. They rather obey a given typology and at the same time had to correspond to some uncertain ideas of the commissioned project manager. It has become stages of a path of suffering, the individual steps of which were driven by ever new hopes, until the well-to-do client abandoned the project without further ado. "

- Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider from Esleben. Drafts and buildings , Gerd Hatje publishing house, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 25 (supplement to the introduction 1987–1997 by Heinrich Klotz).

[5] Constant knocking crashes the building. After an unsuccessful demolition, the Arag house is laboriously crushed. In: Düsseldorfer Zeitung . January 21, 1992. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions . Publisher Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 175.

[6] Martin Grossmann: Demolition of the Arag House. Tragic comedy . In: Rheinische Post . January 23, 1992. In: Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Publisher Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 175.

[7] way up . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1966 ( online ).

[Wiener-8] Jürgen Vienna: Introduction to architectural history of Düsseldorf. In: Roland Kanz, Jürgen Wiener (eds.): Architectural guide Düsseldorf. 1st edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2001, pp. XI – XXII, on this p. XXII.

[9] Michael Brockerhof: Düsseldorf as it was. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-1277-0 , p. 49.

[10] Heinrich Klotz: Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 1996, p. 25 (supplement to the introduction 1987–1997 by Heinrich Klotz).