Old Town School (Celle)

Old town school

The Old Town School , also known as the Old Town Elementary School or Glass School , is a listed school building in Celle that houses a primary school . The school building was planned by the architect Otto Haesler and built from 1927 to 1928. The functional building is an outstanding example of the classic modern style .

architecture

Side wing with horizontal and vertical ribbon windows

The school building is a three-storey building with a flat roof , which consists of two higher side wings with classrooms and a lower middle section as a hall construction. Originally, the girls 'classrooms were in the west side wing and the boys' classrooms in the east side wing. The hall construction in the middle part is a 25 meter long and 14 meter wide multifunctional sports and festival hall that forms the center of the school. Originally it was illuminated through a skylight made of Luxfer glass prisms that let in daylight.

The school is oriented north-south. The classrooms in the side wings, between 40 and 48 m² in size, are intended for about 20 students and are generously lit. The outside windows in the classrooms are horizontal ribbon windows . The hall partition walls of the classrooms have a high-lying horizontal ribbon window to illuminate the hallways. The ribbon windows in the four stairwells are aligned vertically. Because of the distinctive ribbon windows with over 3000 panes, the school building is also called the “Glass School”. The school was designed in terms of color by the painter Karl Völker . In the original color scheme, the colors of the hall building were found in the classrooms in the form of light gray wall surfaces, blue curtains and red doors. The main entrance on the simple facade was given a color accent with the red canopy.

In the southwest corner of the school property, the Rector's residence was built from 1926 to 1928 as a three-storey flat-roof building made up of several joined-together cubes, also according to plans by the architect Otto Haesler .

history

Entrance with a red canopy

In 1926 the city of Celle decided to build a primary school with 18 classes, which was advertised as a two-week architectural competition. The competition court decided in favor of Otto Haesler's draft “A healthy mind must live in a healthy body”. It is assumed that Haesler was informed in advance, as he submitted three proposals within the two-week period. The construction price including the sports hall and festival hall as well as the Rector's residence was estimated at 400,000 Reichsmarks , in fact it was 485,000 Reichsmarks. Comparative calculations showed that the construction was very inexpensive compared to other primary school buildings. The small classrooms, which met with criticism because of their small size, contributed to this. Construction work began in 1927 and the school was inaugurated on May 18, 1928. After completion, the school building attracted national and international attention from architects, politicians and school planners. He became known through publications in specialist journals, which led to a high number of visitors from specialists. In 1928 over 9,000 visitors came. With the seizure of power in 1933, the rejection of the school building as a representative of the new building increased and no special care was given to it. During the National Socialist era , the school housed a military unit, a hospital and a women's camp. After the Second World War , the building was used as a school again. In the 1980s, the original three-part wooden windows were replaced by metal windows with double glazing . The spatial impression of the sports and festival hall was lost due to wooden paneling and a suspended ceiling.

Nowadays the school is in a poor technical condition, as there are significant deficiencies in the facade and flat roof. The cost of a renovation and restoration of the building in line with listed buildings is estimated at almost seven million euros. For this purpose, over 10 million euros in federal funds were made available in 2018, with which parts of the Blumläger Feld estate built by Otto Haesler in Celle are to be repaired.

literature

The new elementary school in Celle . In: Die Form, Vol. 3, 1928, pp. 154-160 ( digitized version ).
Simone Oelker: "A healthy mind must live in a healthy body" - the Celle elementary school in: Otto Haesler. A career as an architect in the Weimar Republic. Munich, 2002, pp. 102–117.
Cellesche Zeitung (ed.): Shoe box with ribbon windows in: 100 Years of Bauhaus , 2018, pp. 68–73.
Oskar Spital-Frenking: The old town school in Celle. A “jewel” by Otto Haesler in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 1/2019, pp. 32–37.