Birker bath
The Birker Bad in Solingen is a listed former swimming pool , designed by the architect Knie and the city architect Rauprich. It was added to the list of architectural monuments on January 31, 1991 under the number 895 .
history
At the end of the 19th century, there were only privately initiated public bathing facilities in Solingen, such as the Kaiserbad , which opened in 1887, but the prices of which were not affordable for the common people. In 1896 the city council refused to open a bathing establishment. In 1900 the decision was made to build an indoor swimming pool. In addition to swimming lessons and swimming opportunities, the aim was to ensure the hygiene of the population, as Oskar Lassar formulated as the motto of the Berlin Association for Public Baths : Every German a week a bath . The old slaughterhouse buildings were converted into a swimming pool for 280,000 marks . Construction of the swimming pool began in the autumn of 1902. The pool was built according to classifying historicism , the interior, however, also shows motifs from Art Nouveau . At the same time the Sengbach dam was built. Both structures were completed in 1903. May 8, 1903, first the dam and then the swimming pool on the Birkenweiher and the former Schillerplatz were inaugurated.
The pool consisted of a large indoor swimming pool with a pool measuring 23.67 m × 11 m with a water depth of 1.20 to 3.20 m, eight 1st and 2nd class baths, 24 changing rooms and twelve shower baths as well as a Roman bath . Cleaning rooms, a laundry, a flattening shop and a drying room were also available.
Every day around 1.5 tons of coal were burned in the two steam boilers to heat the water.
Shortly before the First World War , there were considerations to integrate a wave pool and a water slide into the pool , after the outbreak of war these plans could not be pursued any further. During this time there were massive leaks in the swimming pool which led to the closure, the reopening could only take place in 1920/1921.
In 1927, the “Planschetarium” was opened on the northern outside areas behind the swimming pool as a pure children's open-air pool for children up to 14 years of age, the name of which was borrowed from the swimming pool at the GeSoLei in Düsseldorf.
In 1928/1930, the Sauerbreystraße bathing establishment was opened as a second swimming pool in Ohligs .
In the 1930s the number of visitors was 250,000 visitors per year.
In 1944 the swimming pool was badly damaged during the Second World War and the “Planschetarium” was completely destroyed.
In 1949, the then sports committee and the management of the later Federal President Walter Scheel decided to rebuild with a 25-meter track suitable for competitions. The swimming pool and the shower baths were put back into operation on May 2, 1951 after less than 18 months of construction for 670,000 DM, but the Roman bath was not repaired. The indoor pool itself was extended to a 25-meter lane as planned. There was also a shower bath for the unemployed . In 1959 there were plans to repair the Roman bath as well, but they were not implemented.
In the 1960s, modernization measures were carried out again. With the new construction of the indoor pool at Vogelsang in 1974 and the Klingenhallen sports pool at Weyersberg in 1975, the Birker pool lost its importance. Since the 1980s, consideration has been given to closure.
For Heritage Day on 14 September 2008, the bathroom could be visited on guided tours. The facilities of the Roman bath, which are otherwise no longer accessible, and the technical facilities were also shown.
A Europe-wide tender for transfer to a private provider has been considered since 2009 . The first considerations for the handover to the Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe were examined. Costs of 5 million euros were involved, of which 3 million were to be borne by the country, one million by the city and the rest by Lebenshilfe. Numerous other questions about the taxes to be assessed and possible uses led to the negotiations being broken off. The talks were resumed afterwards but finally ended in April 2011. The indoor pool has been closed since July 23, 2011. In April 2012, the bath was completely decommissioned.
In February 2013 it became known that the Turkish-Muslim DITIB community wanted to take over the old indoor swimming pool and that it was considering converting it into a mosque . These statements were revoked a few days later.
The swimming pool could be visited for the last time on the day of the open monument on September 9, 2018, before renovation and conversion by an investor began. An organic shop with an area of 850 m² in the area of the swimming pool as well as a café of 148 m² in the area of the Roman bath, a wine depot in the entrance area with 246 m² over two floors and a flight simulator from Aerotask are planned. The structure itself will be preserved, facilities from renovations and extensions in the 1960s will be dismantled.
Swimming in Solingen
The Wald-Solingen swimming club was founded as early as 1897. To mark the opening of the swimming pool, the Solingen swimming club, Schwimmsport Solingen 02, was founded in 1902 . Another swimming club was founded by 1910. The number of members rose permanently.
Initially, the swimming pool was only open to women for a few hours in the morning or afternoon. Working women could not swim as. It was not until 1910 that the women's departments were given some evening hours. As a result, the first Solingen women's swimming club was founded.
In 1931 Christel Rupke was discovered by the trainer of the Ohligser swimming club Ohlicher SV 04 Ewald Licht as a natural valley of swimming. After a few talks with her father, the trainer was able to start active promotion, which he did in secret for two years. Her first competition was the international swimming competition in 1933 in Düsseldorf, where she won against the reigning German champion Anni Stolte .
In 1945, at the age of 15, she was third in the German championship over 100 m back. In Plauen in 1935 and in Halberstadt in 1936, she won both competitions as part of the Olympic preparations. This qualified her to take part in the Olympics. She also improved the German record four times.
On April 1, 1936, she began commercial training at the Bremshey company . Nevertheless, she trained 3–4 times a week at 1,000 to 1,500 m, sometimes even daily.
She was the first Solingen participant in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. She swam the sixth best time and reached 5th place, which did not qualify for the final run. Their time was better than the record times of previous gold medalists.
In 1937 she reached 2 of the 4 records over 200 m and 400 m back and became German champion for the third time. She swam the 200 m back as the first German swimmer under 3 minutes. She was also a fighting game master.
In 1935 she received the honorary award of the city of Solingen and was allowed to enter herself in the city's golden book. The West German Swimming Association awarded her the silver badge of honor in 1954 .
In 1938 she ended her swimming career and married Albert Hüseken. However, he died in 1939. In her second marriage, she was married to Werner Schaufuss who, however, died in Russia during World War II . At the age of 27 she was widowed for the second time and had to look after three children.
Afterwards she worked as a swimming instructor for the Solingen schools in the pool on Sauerbreystraße. She retired in 1979 and died on November 16, 1998.
Individual evidence
- ↑ City Bathing establishment Birkerstraße
- ↑ Flight simulator in Birker Bad is delayed. In: Solinger Tageblatt of October 5, 2018
- ↑ Extensive documents from the city archive
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 0 ″ N , 7 ° 5 ′ 11.9 ″ E