Aquadrom (Bochum)

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The Aquadrom was a privately owned swimming pool designed as a fun pool in Bochum . It was opened in 1987 in the Ruhrpark . It was one of the first baths of its kind in Germany. It has been a sauna area since 2003.

history

The Pforzheim banker Heinz Steinhart is considered the inventor. The client was the Aquadrom am Ruhrpark Verwaltungsgesellschaft Steinhart KG , Pforzheim , and the executing company was the Complete Construction Planning and Development Company , Rengsdorf . The bath was opened in 1987.

Steinhart announced that he would build 30 more “Aquadromes” with a financial volume of 2 to 3 billion DM . The project was welcomed by politicians. Lutz Stavenhagen , Minister of State and Member of the Bundestag from Pforzheim , wrote to Steinhart on June 1, 1987: “The Federal Chancellor welcomes it extremely when entrepreneurs like you tackle future-oriented investment projects. (...) The Chancellor would ... welcome if you put your investment projects into practice as quickly as possible and wishes you every success in doing so. "

However, there were irregularities in the financing of the Bochum pool. The auditing company DWT noticed this as early as the 1986 balance sheet audit and informed the supervisory authority. Bankhaus Steinhart was closed on July 28, 1988 by the Federal Banking Supervisory Office . The Mannheim public prosecutor accused Steinhart of having caused financial losses of 124.5 million DM. In 1990 the Mannheim Regional Court sentenced Steinhart to six years and nine months imprisonment for fraud and infidelity , of which he served four and a half years. He later headed the company Kristall Bäder AG, which operates, among other things, Aqualand in Cologne and at least ten other fun pools; he was chairman of the supervisory board there until his death on July 5, 2016; He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2014 . The ARD described the case as "one of the greatest fraud affairs of the post-war period".

The Aquadrom in Bochum had high numbers of guests. The water slides were very popular. However, there were also around 100 emergency medical calls per year. Two people died on the water slides (including an 18-year-old who drowned in October 1999) and one case of paraplegia . At the end of 2000 there was a need for renovation, including decaying, wooden ceiling beams. The total renovation was estimated at 6.5 million DM. On January 23, 2001, Hartmut Brinkmann, managing director of the shareholders of the Aquadrom, announced the renovation and reopening. On January 25, 2001, it was announced that the company was in bankruptcy. The majority of the 670 shareholders were no longer willing to participate in further investments. They had only received a profit distribution twice in the years of operation. The bankruptcy affected 43 full-time employees and other mini- job workers .

Today, after the renovation in 2003, the Medi Therme sauna facility is located in the facility of the former Bochum Aquadrom. It has 13 different saunas and various indoor and outdoor pools. During the renovation work, only the old tower remained of the water slides. Medi Spa GmbH is the operator of the Medi Therme.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Affair: In full confidence. In: DER SPIEGEL 33/1993. August 16, 1993. Retrieved April 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Meditherme Bochum (formerly: Aquadrom am Ruhrpark). In: ruhr-bauten.de. October 28, 2011, accessed April 19, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c Inquiry in the Bundestag. (PDF; 339 kB) by Stratmann u. a. In: dipbt.bundestag.de. July 2, 2012, Retrieved April 19, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Banks: watched sleepily. In: DER SPIEGEL 3/1990. January 15, 1990. Retrieved April 19, 2017 .
  5. ↑ History in NRW ( online )
  6. ↑ Ex-banker Heinz Steinhart: No trust in the spa king. STERN , October 17, 2012, accessed April 19, 2017 .
  7. ^ My Bochum ( Memento from December 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Ulrike Maas: The fun is over for good: Aquadrom files for bankruptcy. In: Westline 25./26. January 2001 ( Memento from February 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Leisure pools in Bochum: MediTherme. (No longer available online.) In: bochum.de. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017 ; Retrieved April 19, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bochum.de

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 32 ″  N , 7 ° 16 ′ 44 ″  E