Appellhofplatz

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The Appellhofplatz is a place steeped in history in Cologne's old town north . The street around it called “Appellhofplatz” is 268 meters long and surrounds the square - with the exception of part of the Burgmauer street .

History of origin

The Rhenish Court of Appeal in Cologne (1826)

The name can be traced back to the "Rhenish Court of Appeal in Cologne" established by Johann Peter Weyer , which was handed over to its destination on November 6, 1826. In 1824, construction work began on this judicial building in the vineyard of the former Mariengarten monastery on Mariengartengasse, which was laid down before 1820 as part of the secularization , and where Roman stone monuments were discovered during excavation work. In the vernacular, the building of the Court of Appeal was soon shortened to “Appellhof”, the name also prevailed for the square to the south and was finally adopted as the official street name.

A Roman gate tower previously stood on the site of the Court of Appeal. It is considered to be the early side gate of the north gate of the Roman city ​​wall and possibly opened a street in the direction of today's Subbelrather Straße. It had a 4.40 meter wide passage that narrowed to 3.78 meters at the top. Even older research assumed a gate here; From here a Roman road ran in a north-west direction to Longerich , Bocklemünd and Stommeln , which are known as Roman settlements. The building lost its importance as a gate at the end of Roman times. It was named "Aldenwich (h) us" in 1292 and was owned by Heinrich vom Cusin (Henricus de Cusino) and his wife Benigna at the beginning of the 14th century, who owned the "Cusin-Wich (h) us" on the 18th century. November (“octava sancti Martini”) 1316 intended to receive two Beguines . From this first “cell” in the tower, the monastery of the cell was built in 1334, which was laid down before 1824 for the construction of the justice building. A Diana altar dedicated between AD 89 and AD 120 was found here in 1828. Due to the secularization , the chapel belonging to the Brauweiler Hof on the castle wall No. 9 (formerly No. 4312; attested since 1255) had to be closed, was demolished in 1890 and the city merged the area with the area on Appellhofplatz to enlarge it. The soil examinations carried out on the area between Burgmauer, Mariengartengasse, Röhrergasse and Appellhofplatz already in 1887 revealed otherwise "no significant traces of Roman houses and building remains, let alone of monumental buildings".

Buildings

Court of Appeal, Main Front (1898)

The Court of Appeal housed all of Cologne's courts, including the General Public Prosecutor's Office and Public Prosecutor's Office, with the exception of the courts of justice ( Cologne District Court ). Regional and commercial courts were housed in the new single-storey building on the site of the former Mariengarten monastery. A garden in front of the courthouse was laid out in 1855 by Anton Strauss .

As a result of the sudden population growth in Cologne in the course of the industrial revolution and the Reich Justice Acts of 1879, the space requirements of the judicial facilities had increased significantly, so that a larger new building was necessary. From 1883, a new building by Paul Thoemer / Rudolf Mönnich was built at the same place (Appellhofplatz No. 1) . The inauguration of the northern wing of the building in September 1887 was followed by a southern wing, which alone cost 1.48 million marks. The concave courthouse, built in the Dutch Renaissance style, was opened in July 1893. But in the year it opened it was again too small. Therefore, in October 1911 , the Cologne Higher Regional Court moved into a new judicial building on Reichenspergerplatz in Neustadt-Nord .

South facade of the justice building (2011)

During the Second World War , the building on Appellhofplatz was hit by bombs and, in 1945, rebuilt in a simplified manner. Up until March 1981, the criminal justice department and the Cologne Regional Court were housed here, and they moved into a building complex on Luxemburger Strasse . The Cologne Administrative Court and the Cologne Finance Court moved into the vacant parts of the building . On March 17, 1981, the premises previously used by the Regional Court were handed over to the Cologne Administrative Court. The Cologne Finance Court initially only used the building with a few arbitration bodies before it moved its headquarters to the Appellhof when it officially moved in in November 1995. For this use by the two new specialized courts, the justice building underwent its most extensive expansion, renovation and renovation work to date from 1988 to 1995 after lengthy preliminary planning taking into account the preservation of monuments.

WDR film house

It was above all the criminal proceedings of the pre-war and post-war years that shaped the image of “their roll call court” for the Cologne population. Spectacular trials in which, in particular before the jury, accused murderers, poisoners or robbers were found guilty or innocent, attracted masses of spectators into the large conference rooms. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, so-called “ special courts ” met in the Appellhof until 1945 . They judged practically without obligation to law and order in the sense of the Nazi terror and passed at least 123 politically motivated death sentences in the Appellhof by the end of the war, partly for trivial reasons with the sole aim of deterrence. The occasional thesis that an underground corridor connected the justice building with the Gestapo headquarters opposite in the EL-DE building is not supported by any verifiable sources. In particular, as far as can be seen, there are no publications indicating that traces of the alleged corridor were found in one of these two buildings. Such traces should have been found, for example in the cellar renovations that have taken place in the two buildings in recent years or in the construction of the subway on Neven-DuMont-Strasse.

In June 1963, the WDR published its structural expansion plans, which provided for building between Wallrafplatz , Appellhofplatz and the north-south route . The planned high-rise buildings were hotly contested. The six- to nine-storey four - pane house, which went into operation on June 27, 1970, was finally built at No. 1 from 1966 . It was originally planned as a high-rise, but had to be downsized because of the "prospective competition with the cathedral". It consists of four building panes placed side by side, all four of which can only be seen from the top. The most dominant of all WDR buildings is at the official address of the WDR, namely Appellhofplatz 1, 50667 Cologne. The WDR-Filmhaus followed in 1974 in No. 2. The eleven-story film house was built in 1974 as an office and production complex and has a gross area of ​​25,600 m².

history

The all over Cologne famous tailor Lupus (1802-1887) lived in the house at Langgasse No. 18. In 1905 the Kölner Bürgergesellschaft AG bought house No. 28. The EL-DE house (No. 23-25) was built against the Will of its owner Leopold Dahmen, Gestapo headquarters on December 1, 1935 (until March 1945). The building, which was not yet completed, was not expropriated, but confiscated. The Gestapo had prison and torture rooms and a gallows set up in the basement. Up to 33 prisoners were housed in rooms of 4–9 m² each. The bombing raids of July 8, 1941 caused severe damage in Langgasse and Appellhofplatz up to No. 21.

Appellhofplatz 31: Hotel Europäische Hof

On May 7, 1949, the last death sentence was pronounced at the “Appellhof” , but it was no longer carried out in the Klingelpütz - like the at least 123 previous ones . The criminal proceedings against those responsible at the Herstatt Bank (in particular Iwan David Herstatt and Dany Dattel ) also took place - in the first instance - before the Cologne Regional Court. It was exemplary for the provocation of procedural obstacles through the power struggles between defense, public prosecutor and court. The public prosecutor's investigation took 5 years before the trial could begin on March 23, 1979. The best-known Cologne Nazi trial of the post-war period took place on October 23, 1979 in the regional court on Appellhofplatz against SS officers Kurt Lischka , Herbert Hagen and Ernst Heinrichsohn for aiding and abetting the murder of French Jews. The three defendants were sentenced on February 11, 1980 to 10, 12 and 6 years in prison, respectively.

On December 4, 1981, a memorial was opened in the basement of the EL-DE building, and the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne moved here on September 19, 1988. In front of today's courthouse, the deserter monument by the Swiss graphic designer Ruedi Baur has stood since September 2009 , honoring the victims of Nazi military justice, deserters and conscientious objectors.

Renaming plans

The Appellhofplatz is representative of the extent that a discussion about a street renaming can take on. After Heinrich Böll died on July 16, 1985, a street was to be named after the honorary citizen of Cologne . Between July 1985 and January 1986 there were violent, public disputes about this. First, the Hülchrather Straße ( Neustadt-Nord district in the Agnesviertel ) was discussed, where Böll had lived for a long time. After further proposals, the city administration finally took up the Appellhofplatz, about which a public dispute broke out in September 1985. In the name of the Appellhofplatz, however, the entire memory that is linked to the former Court of Appeal was and is stored. The renaming plans ultimately failed in the city council. The choice finally fell in September 1986 on a - as yet unnamed - square paved with red stones at the Museum Ludwig , under which the Cologne Philharmonic is located. The “Central Street Name Archive” of the city keeps three files just by naming a street after Heinrich Böll.

location

The street on Appellhofplatz that surrounds the courthouse is close to the Appellhofplatz underground station and near the north-south route (Turiner Straße) and the pedestrian zone on Breite Straße . The Cologne City Museum is located on the edge of the square (Zeughausstraße 1–3).

Web links

Commons : Appellhofplatz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Klinkenberg , in Johannes Krudewig: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln , 1906, pp. 172, 192.
  2. ↑ Konrad Kraft / Marie R. Alföldi, Die Fundmünzen der Alttrömischen Zeit in Germany , 1984, p. 390.
  3. ^ Joseph Klinkenberg, in Johannes Krudewig: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln , 1906, p. 192.
  4. ↑ the smaller tower behind the entrance gate of a castle leading to the second gate in the courtyard, which can be locked by a portcullis; after Otto Piper, Burgenkunde , 1895, p. 279
  5. ^ Paul Clemen: Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , Volume 6, 1906, p. 172.
  6. ↑ Stephanie Habeth-Allhorn: 175 years of Cellitinnen zur St. Maria in der Kupfergasse, Cologne , 2003, p. 128.
  7. ^ Paul Clemen: Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , Volume, Volume 6, 1906, p. 225.
  8. ^ Helmut Siegner: The Romans in Cologne: Antiquities between Eifel and Rhine , 1977, p. 104.
  9. ↑ Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Volume 13, No. 28, 1893, p. 295
  10. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.): Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 318.
  11. ^ State Building Authority Cologne II: Extension, reconstruction and restoration of the Cologne Administrative and Finance Court - Appellhofplatz , brochure on the occasion of the completion, Cologne 1996
  12. ^ Adolf Klein: Hundred Years of Files - Hundred Years of Facts , in: Justitia Coloniensis , 1981, pp. 89–194.
  13. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.): Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 300.
  14. ^ Fritz Pleitgen , in: Turbulente Ecke , in: WDR-Arkaden office and business building , ed. from Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, 1997, p. 7.
  15. ↑ Ursula Nelle-Rublack, The modern criminal process , 1999, p. 104
  16. ↑ Marion Werner: From Adolf-Hitler-Platz to Ebertplatz , 2008, p. 2 f.
  17. ^ Marion Werner: From Adolf-Hitler-Platz to Ebertplatz , 2008, p. 4
  18. ^ Resolution of the Council of the City of Cologne of January 28, 1986, in: Kölnische Rundschau of October 25, 1986, quoted from Dieter Strauch / Joachim Arntz / Jürgen Schmidt-Troje, Der Appellhof zu Köln , 2002, p. 123

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 28 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 5 ″  E