Bonn Center

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Bonn Center
Bonn Center
Bonn Center (2014)
Basic data
Place: Bonn , Germany
Construction time : 1968-1969
Opening: 1969
Abort : 19th March 2017
Status : demolished (demolition)
Architectural style : Modern
Architect : Friedrich Wilhelm Gerasch
Use / legal
Usage : office
Client : Peter and Philipp Bauschke, Bernd Domscheit
Technical specifications
Height : 60 m
Floors : 18th
Usable area : 25,000 m²
Aerial photograph (2013)
View over the Federal Chancellery to the Bonn Center (1979)

The Bonn-Center was a building complex in Bonn that was built in 1968/69 and served as a business center. A 60 m high-rise, the fifth highest in Bonn, belonged to it . The Bonn Center was at the intersection of Bundesstrasse 9 and Reuterstrasse ( Bundeskanzlerplatz ) in the Gronau district on the edge of the federal quarter . The building complex was dismantled from September 2016 to March 2017 and the remaining shell of the high-rise building was blown up on March 19, 2017. A new office building with a high-rise building is to be built in its place from 2019: “ Stadtquartier Neuer Kanzlerplatz ”.

history

The Bonn Center was built on a former allotment garden for the builders (Peter and) Philipp Bauschke, a textile dealer from Offenbach , and Bernd Domscheit from Beuel based on a design by the Berlin architect Friedrich Wilhelm Gerasch. The city of Bonn had sold the property to the client in early 1967, and in July 1967 the city council approved the building project. The foundation stone was laid on March 26, 1968 in the presence of the then Federal Minister of Economics, Karl Schiller . The Bonn-Center was also designed for use by members of the Bundestag and other federal institutions as the first larger business center in what was then the parliament and government district after the Allianz buildings on Tulpenfeld (1964–1969) . According to the express wish of the city of Bonn, the evening entertainment should have an invigorating effect on the quarter, which is otherwise deserted at this time of day. The name and function of the Bonn Center were analogous to the Europa Center in Berlin that had opened a few years earlier .

After its opening on November 25, 1969, the Bonn-Center housed, among other things, a Steigenberger hotel with over 300 beds, conference rooms, a restaurant ( Ambassador ) on the top floor known as a popular meeting place for top politicians , a hairdresser, a supermarket and various bank branches. A "forum" in the basement of a row of shops should provide space for cultural events. In addition to some association representations, four embassy offices (including the Japanese one until 1990 and the New Zealand one until recently ) were located in the offices . From the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s, the Bonn Information Office of the European Parliament was located here. In the spring of 1991 were up to the parliamentary and government headquarters relocation to Berlin (1999) in the 7th and 8th floor offices for parliamentary deputy of the then PDS - group - including a common meeting room - furnished.

The structure of use of the building has changed several times over the decades. In 1987 the well-known Pantheon Theater moved into the former Forum , and the Steigenberger Hotel was closed at the end of 1988. The six floors previously used by the hotel were then completely renovated in 1989 for conversion to office space, and at the same time the entire building was renovated at an estimated cost of 20 million DM. In the autumn of 1993, the television station n-tv moved its Bonn studio to the Bonn Center. In 1996 the row of shops was broken off. The building, which in the meantime belonged to the Bremer Landesbank, was owned by the Dutch Larmag and Dalag group from 2007 . In 2009 a comprehensive modernization and remodeling of the property should begin; these plans came to nothing due to the company's insolvency at the end of 2009. In 2012, a second location for the Pantheon Theater was opened in the basement of the former Steigenberger Casino . As a result of Deutsche Post moving out at the end of 2011, the Bonn Center was last 70% empty (as of October 2014). 14 of 18 floors were unused. In October 2014, the building was acquired by a Cologne real estate company, which announced that it would decide either to renovate or demolish the Bonn Center in 2015 - in both cases with commercial use of the site. At the beginning of February 2015, the owner Art-Invest Real Estate, a real estate, investment and management company, terminated the existing tenants of the property - with the exception of the Pantheon Theater - under special termination right at the end of 2015. In mid-March, he announced that the Bonn Center would be demolished or blown up from mid-2016 at the earliest. The last performance of the Pantheon Theater in the Bonn Center took place on June 24, 2016. The first demolition work on the low-rise building began at the end of September 2016. In the high-rise with several medical practices as the last remaining users of the Bonn Center, they could only begin after they moved out at the end of October.

The demolition, announced in January 2017, took place on March 19 at 11 a.m. as planned. It was carried out by demolition master Eduard Reisch from Apfeldorf near Landsberg am Lech , who had laid down the AfE tower in Frankfurt am Main in 2014, the tallest building ever blown up in Europe. According to the responsible demolition company, AWR Demolition from Urmitz near Koblenz , the Bonn Center fell precisely and without causing any collateral damage.

  • Bonn-Center in demolition (early 2017)

  • Bonn-Center, demolition (March 19, 2017)

  • Video of the demolition

  • Bonn-Center, demolition: remaining mountain of rubble, view from Reuterstraße

  • Bird's eye view of the Bonn Center after the demolition (March 24, 2017)

architecture

The Bonn-Center was divided into the 18-storey high-rise and a five-storey side wing, which was originally preceded by a single-storey row of shops. It was a reinforced concrete structure with prefabricated curtains on a triangular plot of land. Its limited area of ​​around 16,000 m² resulted in closely spaced components. The facade has been kept in an off-white tone since the renovation in 1989. The building had a usable area of around 25,000 m².

The high-rise had a central entrance hall, which, as a result of the renovation in 1989, replaced the previous hotel reception. The inner courtyard was originally equipped with a roof and stairs, which were also demolished in the course of the renovation at that time. When the Bonn Center opened, an underground car park comprised 550 parking spaces for cars and a washing facility.

The emblem of the Bonn Center, as well as the Berlin Europa Center, was the Mercedes star on the roof of the high-rise , which can be seen from afar . It rotated about twice a minute. In February 2017, the star was lifted from the roof of the building with a crane. The association of tail fin friends is trying to save the eight-meter-tall neon sign from being scrapped and to create a worthy place for it as an automobile cultural asset worth preserving on its club premises in Ornbau in Central Franconia .

"Similar to the Allianz buildings , the complex stands in complete isolation, without any internal reference to the city, without charisma or attraction to the scenic and artistic surroundings."

- Frank-Lothar Kroll : 1989

literature

  • Ingeborg flag : Architecture in Bonn after 1945: Buildings in the federal capital and its surroundings . Verlag Ludwig Röhrscheid, Bonn 1984, ISBN 3-7928-0479-4 , p. 122.
  • Ursel and Jürgen Zänker: Building in Bonn room 49–69. Attempt to take stock . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Hrsg.): Art and antiquity on the Rhine . Guide to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn . No. 21 . Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1969, p. 162/163 .

Web links

Commons : Bonn-Center  - Collection of pictures and videos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Bernd Leyendecker: Bonn Center is being renovated for 20 million marks . In: General-Anzeiger , city edition Bonn . Bonn December 28, 1988, p. 5 .
  2. ↑ a b Ursel and Jürgen Zänker: Building in Bonn room 49–69. Attempt to take stock .
  3. ↑ a b twinkle and blink . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1967 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Aiming high in little Cairo . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1969 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Construction of the Bonn Center began 50 years ago . General-Anzeiger , March 26, 2018
  6. ↑ a b Wolfgang Kaes : City history in Bonn - The Bonn Center was a symbol of the new self-confidence of the federal capital . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn April 1, 2013 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 23, 2017]).
  7. ^ A b Lisa Inhoffen: Hardly any sales. Now the lawn should grow . In: General-Anzeiger , Bonn city edition . Bonn March 25, 1996.
  8. ↑ Paperback of public life . Festland Verlag, 1987, p. 106 .
  9. ^ G. Colombo: Who's Who in Germany 1996 . 1996, p. 1492 .
  10. ↑ Bernd Leyendecker: PDS doesn't want to go to the Bonn Center after all . In: General-Anzeiger , city edition Bonn . Bonn March 8, 1991, p. 4 .
  11. ↑ a b Wolfgang Kaes : Biedermeier and an arsonist - The adventurous resurrection of the Steigenberger casino . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn March 31, 2013 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  12. ↑ Names and Messages . In: Wirtschaftswoche . tape 1993 , no. 29 , July 16, 1993, p. 52 .
  13. ↑ Row of shops torn down to the ground . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn June 11, 1996.
  14. ↑ Bernd Leyendecker: The Bonn Center is being revamped . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn October 18, 2008 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  15. ↑ Holger Willcke: Bonn Center - tenants fear auction . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn August 5, 2013 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  16. ↑ a b c Holger Willcke: Future of the Bonn Center - renovation, demolition, new construction: everything is possible . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn October 23, 2014 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  17. ↑ Nicolas Ottersbach: The Bonn-Center - sale, demolition - or will apartments be built? In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn March 24, 2014 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  18. ^ Bonn, Bonn-Center ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , Art Invest Real Estate
  19. ↑ Future of the Bonn Center / 100 visitors at the presentation of student designs and a panel discussion by the BDA Bonn-Rhein-Sieg on urban development in Bonn . promediare.wordpress.com, October 31, 2014
  20. ^ Nicolas Ottersbach: Bonn Center - The new owner has given notice to the tenants . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn April 2, 2015 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  21. ↑ Nicolas Ottersbach and Lisa Inhofen: Bonn-Center - demolition or demolition . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn March 16, 2015 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  22. ↑ Cem Akalin: Bonn Center - Pantheon moves out in June . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn April 18, 2016 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  23. ^ Richard Bongartz: Bonn Center - The demolition has begun . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn September 27, 2016 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  24. ^ Bettina Köhl: Bonn-Center - XXL waste separation in the old high-rise . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn November 6, 2016 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  25. ↑ Alexandra Mölleken: Demolition at Bundeskanzlerplatz - Bonn Center is to be blown up in March . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn January 22, 2017 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  26. ↑ Bettina Köhl: Blasting successful - "The Bonn Center fell precisely" . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonn March 19, 2017 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed on August 27, 2017]).
  27. ↑ The Bonn-Center was the symbol of the new self-confidence of the federal capital . General-Anzeiger , April 1, 2013
  28. ↑ forum.mercedesclub.de
  29. ^ Frank-Lothar Kroll: Federal capital Bonn. A Danaer present? In: Federal Ministry for Building, Regional Planning and Urban Development (Ed.): Forty Years Federal Capital Bonn 1949–1989 . CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1989, ISBN 3-7880-9780-9 , pp. 92-115 (here: p. 110).

Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 6.4 "  N , 7 ° 6 ′ 54.2"  E