Old plenary hall (Bundeshaus Bonn)
The old plenary hall of the Bundeshaus in Bonn was the meeting place for the plenary sessions of the German Bundestag from 1949 to 1987 . It has been redesigned several times. Despite its status as a cultural monument , it was demolished in 1987.
Emergence
The German Bundestag used the buildings of the Pedagogical Academy in Bonn from its first legislative period .
In 1949 the new plenary hall was built here as a self-supporting steel structure. A windowless outer wall was originally planned on the Rhine side . However, the hall was eventually given glass facades on both sides. It was attached to the former gymnasium of the Pedagogical Academy, which was converted into a lobby ("lobby") and a gallery around it. The new meeting room was set up for 420 members and could be furnished with special seating (e.g. for the Federal Assembly ) for 850 seats. First on one side and on the back wall there were galleries for press and visitors.
At the front there was initially a white velor curtain with the coats of arms of the then 12 countries in gold applications. In 1953, the plenary hall on the Rhine side was extended by 6 m, with half of the glass walls being dismantled and a side stand for diplomats was installed. The grandstands now offered a total of 400 visitors. The front of the plenary hall also received a federal eagle , a plaster relief by Ludwig Gies, instead of the national coats of arms . Glazed lobby halls were now built on both narrow sides so that a direct view of the plenary hall was only possible to a limited extent. In a next expansion, the so-called ministerial wing was added as an office wing to the front of the plenary hall, a horseshoe-shaped extension placed on supports. The plenary hall existed in this form for the next few decades.
Monument property
In the course of its use, the plenary hall was classified as a cultural monument for historical reasons, even as a “first-class cultural monument”, “most important monument in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany” or “absolutely original evidence of the history of the Federal Republic of Germany”. Here the course was set for the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the first Federal President , Theodor Heuss , and the first Federal Chancellor , Konrad Adenauer , elected. Due to the television coverage, the hall was the visual background of this event and "significant bearer of meaning in liberal Germany". The responsible monument authority , the Rhenish Office for the Preservation of Monuments , established the monument status in 1984. The head of the authority, Udo Mainzer , informed the German Bundestag of this in a letter to the President of the Bundestag.
Decision to demolish and rebuild
Initially, a monumental new building for the Bundestag was planned at the end of the 1970s, a project that was abandoned in 1981 for cost reasons. The old plenary hall was still used. In 1983 construction and fire protection defects were discovered. This was countered in 1984 with the establishment of the monument status by the monument authority. Proponents of a new building opposed this, including the Behnisch & Partner office, which had been planning the new building for a long time . At the turn of 1986/87 the Federal Building Administration had the situation assessed in terms of building conservation and statics . The result was that maintaining it was 1.5 million DM cheaper than demolishing and building a new one, but preserving it was not justifiable because of the remaining inadequacies. Nevertheless, the Federal Building Administration continued to strive to preserve the plenary hall and presented a concept in which a considerable part of the building fabric could have been preserved.
In the run-up to the debate in the Bundestag on the new building project, the minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia responsible for the preservation of monuments , Christoph Zöpel , intervened in the debate and declared that his approval as the highest monument protection authority for a demolition was not to be expected. Monument law is state law in Germany and, due to the cultural sovereignty of the states, is beyond the reach of the federal government - including the federal legislature.
On June 5, 1987, the German Bundestag (as the client ) decided with 314 votes to 361 to demolish the plenary hall in favor of a new building. The main aim of the Bundestag was to improve its work situation and to convert the previous row seating to a segment of a circle, which required more space. On June 23, 1987, he applied for approval of the demolition under monument law. In the late summer of 1987, the highest monument protection authority had it checked whether the parliamentary wishes could not also be implemented in the historic building. The expert opinion answered the question in the affirmative. The decisive question was therefore whether the German Bundestag, as a constitutional organ, should be given a prerogative over state law. In order to clarify this question, the responsible state minister and the President of the German Bundestag, Philipp Jenninger , agreed to submit to a neutral opinion. Jürgen Salzwedel from the University of Bonn was named as the reviewer by mutual agreement . This spoke out in favor of the prerogative of the Bundestag, a not undisputed result.
On September 24, 1987, the minister instructed the competent authority, the Cologne Regional Council responsible for federal buildings, to issue the demolition permit. The plenary hall was demolished in October 1987.
literature
in alphabetical order by authors / editors
- Agatha Buslei-Wuppermann, Andreas Zeising: Hans Schwippert's parliament building in Bonn. Architectural modernity and a democratic spirit . Grupello, Bonn 2009. ISBN 978-3-89978-111-3
- Gisbert Knopp, Angela Schumacher: The Federal Palace in Bonn. From the Pedagogical Academy to the Parliament building of the Federal Republic of Germany . In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter , 35, 1984, pp. 251–284.
- Gisbert Knopp: The plenary hall of the German Bundestag: Hans Schwippert and his planning ideas for the world's first “modern” parliament building . In: Federal Minister for Spatial Planning, Building and Urban Development (Ed.): Forty Years Federal Capital Bonn 1949–1989 . Müller, Karlsruhe 1989, ISBN 3-7880-9780-9 , pp. 44-66.
- Udo Mainzer: The end of the plenary hall. The fall of a unique monument . In: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland , 5 (1/1988), pp. 1–7.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knopp: Das Bundeshaus , p. 271.
- ↑ Buslei-Wuppermann, Zeising: Das Bundeshaus , p. 52.
- ↑ Knopp: The Plenary Hall , p. 55f.
- ↑ Buslei-Wuppermann, Zeising: Das Bundeshaus , p. 72.
- ↑ in Bonn: Pedagogical Academy and Bundeshaus ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , German Bundestag
- ↑ Knopp: Das Bundeshaus , p. 274.Buslei-Wuppermann, Zeising: Das Bundeshaus , p. 72.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 1. German Bundestag (Ed.): Stenographic report . 17th meeting, June 5, 1987, Item 22.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 7.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 7.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 2.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 2.
- ↑ Mainzer, S. 2. Günter Behnisch : Planning for the plenary and presidential area of the German Bundestag . In: Bauwelt , 78, 1987, pp. 147–157. Peter Conradi : The Federal Palace as a memorial? . In: Bauwelt , 78, 1987, p. 158 f.
- ↑ Mainzer, pp. 2, 4.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 3.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 1; German Bundestag (ed.): Stenographic report . 17th meeting, June 5, 1987, Item 22.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 4.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 3.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 4 f.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 5.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 6.
- ↑ Mainzer, p. 6.
Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 7.8 ″ N , 7 ° 7 ′ 32.6 ″ E