Breite Strasse (Cologne)

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Arnold Mercator's Cologne city view from 1570 - Breite Strasse ("die breide straiß") and Glockengasse ("klockergaß") at the height of today's Schwertnergasse ("swadergaß")

Breite Straße is the name of a historic street in the north of Cologne's old town . It extends from Kolpingplatz to Apostelnstrasse and runs in an east-west direction.

History of origin

Today's Breite Straße can look back on a history that goes back to Roman times .

Roman times

The Breite Straße was originally the widest street within the city ​​wall of Cologne and is of Roman origin. It served as a Roman military road that led from the Rhine through the gate of honor "porta Herae" to Gaul and was initially called "In lata platea" or "Platea lata". It was 50 Roman feet (14.80 meters) wide and has retained its original lines. From Breite Straße to Schildergasse, however, relatively few traces of Roman buildings could be detected, and pits with traces of the Augustan road network were occasionally found . This suggests an application of the “lata platea” between 31 BC and 14 AD. A channel that was excavated in 1954 in today's no. 100 and running west-east was 22.50 meters wide.

The Breite Straße was next to the main axes - the cardo maximus (the north-south axis, today's Hohe Straße ) and the decumanus maximus (the east-west axis, today's Schildergasse ) - one of the oldest streets of the ancient CCAA and the original "Ehrenstraße" of this time, named after the Ehrenpforte . The street only lost its name in the Middle Ages when it was extended to the west and out of town, today's Ehrenstraße. But today's streets Unter Sachsenhausen (between 1183 and 1233), Severinstraße (document from 1261) and Marzellenstraße were called "lata platea" back then.

middle Ages

Poor Clare Monastery of Saint Clara

In the Middle Ages , the “lata platea” was literally translated as “Breiderstraissen”, “breidere straissin” or “up der breyderstraissen”, which began on the Berlich and led to the east. Some citizens named themselves after the street, such as the brewer ("braxator") E (c) kbert de lata platea (he lived before 1302), a Gerhard on Breiderstrassen (lived between May 1st, 1289 and February 26th 1302) or the citizen of Cologne mentioned in 1324 "Hermann von der Breite Strasse". Between 1165 and 1452 one of about two dozen public bathing rooms (baitstoven), such as the “Krele” (1392), was located on Breite Straße .

The house "de Coggone" (zur Kogge or "de Kocgen") of Teodericus Sapiens was located in today's Breite Strasse 6. It was later summarized by 3 houses built side by side in No. 4-8 under the name "House Troya" (Troien or Troyen). The large property was taken over by the cloth merchant Heinrich von Gozelin (1250–1311) in 1294 for 1/3 and in 1295 entirely from the married couple Heinrich and Aleyd (Adelheid) Schalle for an annual hereditary interest of 6 marks in inheritance. Immediately next to it (No. 10) was the house "Ichendorp" (Ychendorp), which belonged to Matthias von Schaf (Thijs vanme Schaiffe). A house "Zum Esel" (ad Asinum; "zum Eysell") has been the property of the heiress Godelivis vom Esel (de Asino) since 1297 in no. 126, which in 1435 in a municipal decree as a hop brewery "zum Esel on Ehrenstrasse “Showed up; this is where today's Bier-Esel inn derives its origin. The house "Ad amplum hostium" ("to the great enemy") Breite Straße / Auf dem Berlich appeared in the shrine books on August 9, 1379. The "House Denmark" in No. 37 belonged to the wealthy Gertrud of Denmark, a house "zome Schatzavel ”(“ zome schaitzauwel ”) is mentioned around 1499. The house Kronenberg (Cronemberch) in No. 101 belonged to Tilmann Kronenberg, "zo der steinen Kemenaden" (de Cemenata) was in No. 159 / corner of Schwertnergasse. The “Brauhaus zum Palast” was on the Breite Strasse between Langgasse and Röhrengasse. In Arnold Mercator's Cologne cityscape from 1570 it was finally called “breide straiss”.

There were three convents on Breite Strasse . The beguinage convent Graloch (or Grauloch), located to the west not far from the Roman wall (No. 76), was built in 1323 by priest Hermann Kneiart for 12 beguines and was given different names over the years, from 1416 “St. Anna zum Obersten Lammchen ”(“ zom Lempgen ”). In 1484 he received the Franciscan rule of third orders . To distinguish it, the Sebrecht Begin Convent to the east was called “St. Anna zum Untersten Lämmchen ”and was founded in 1288 by priest Hermann Bischof as Hospital Heiligkreuz (“ hospitalis sti. Joannis Baptistae in platea lata Coloniae ”) in nos. 123–127. Through the intercession of Archbishop Maximilian Heinrich von Bayern , the Ursulines under Anna Maria de Heers obtained permission in 1640 to purchase the house "Landscron" in Breite Straße 164. Their house "Landscron" was later dilapidated, so that it was in 1650 Domhof moved. The Klarissenkloster Sankt Clara was occupied in 1306 and was located in the area Auf dem Berlich ("off dem beerlich") / Zeughausstrasse / St. Apernstrasse / Breite Strasse.

From the early days to the Second World War

  • Breite Straße 36 - "Kaiserlicher Hof", painting by Wilhelm Hoffmann (1843)

  • Breite Straße 70 - DuMont-Setzersaal (around 1860–1870)

  • Breite Straße 17 - Zur Zweipann (around 1900)

  • Breite Straße 62–78 / corner of Langgasse - publishing house of the "Kölnische Zeitung" (1906)

  • Breite Strasse 92 - Geyr'sches Palais (1910)

  • Breite Straße 106–114 - Kolpinghaus (postcard around 1910)

  • Breite Strasse - Looking East (1912)

Pointed gable houses were built here around 1720, such as the “Zur Zweipann” brewery at no. 17, the name of which refers to the double brewing pan of a brewery . In 1763 a breeding and work house was established in Breite Straße, but only stayed here until July 1767.

The three-storey Geyr'sche Palais-Hotel of Cornelius Joseph von Geyr zu Schweppenburg (1754-1832) in No. 92 was considered the most elegant city palace in Cologne, built in 1754 in the French style by Nikolaus Krakamp together with the architect Johann Georg Leydel . In addition to numerous rooms, it had two halls (Gobelinsaal “zum Hürtchen”), a servant's apartment, coach houses and stables as well as a garden that was partly laid out in the English style. During the French era it housed the French generals, such as the last governor of Cologne, General Horace-François Sébastiani (who received the order to withdraw on January 11, 1814). Napoleon's youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte , King of Westphalia, stayed here for one night on November 2, 1813 while retreating from the Battle of Leipzig . Prince Metternich stayed here on September 27, 1818, and the Tsar's family of Alexander I on September 28, 1818 . The magnificent palace was demolished in 1911.

The Imperial Court (No. 36–38) was created in 1794 through the renovation of the court by Bruno Schoeneweder (or Schönwedder). The builder of this previous building "zur Lucht" was Johann von der Lucht (van der Lüycht). Celebrities stayed in the “Imperial Court”, for example in March 1806 Napoleon's brother-in-law Joachim Murat . In October 1814, the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm stayed here and learned about the further construction of Cologne Cathedral , on September 27, 1818 Emperor Franz of Austria stayed here on the way to the Aachen Peace Congress. The carnival reformers gathered on Shrove Monday 1823 in the "Imperial Court" and marched through Apostelnstrasse to form the first Rose Monday procession to Neumarkt . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed here in February 1824 during the carnival season, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff came in October 1825 during her journey through the Rhine, which lasted until April 1826. At that time, Hermann Disch was the owner of the “Imperial Court”. The "Cour Impérial" was described in an English travel book from 1839 as "by far the best accommodation in Cologne".

Breite Straße 103-135 - Carl Peters department store (1914)
Breite Straße 132 - “Master baker Blumacher” residential and commercial building (1878)

According to the " Itinéraire de Cologne " designed by Ferdinand Franz Wallraf , from January 1, 1813, Breite Strasse bore the translated French name "rue largeur". The property at no. 110 was acquired by Adolph Kolping on August 14, 1852 and the building erected on it was inaugurated as a "journeyman's hospital" on May 8, 1853; Kolping died here on April 12, 1845. Since December 17, 1865, it has been a single home for 120 people and has been called the "Kolping House" since then. Architect Josef Seché built in No. 132 / St. Apernstrasse the residential and commercial building "Master Baker Blumacher".

The department store named after the entrepreneur Carl Peters began on September 26, 1891 at Breite Straße 52 with 9 salespeople and expanded in 1895 by taking over two floors of the “Neue Welt” restaurant. On June 20, 1895, the Kölner Stadtanzeiger reported that the “New World” had been converted into a “Cologne commercial building of the first order”. Peters acquired three neighboring properties on Breite Strasse in 1909 and had the Carl Peters department store (KCP) built in three phases by the Cologne architect Carl Moritz from 1910 onwards, which bordered five streets (Breite Strasse / Richmodstrasse / Zeppelinstrasse / Streitzeuggasse / Hämergasse) and was inaugurated in 1914. Louis Blériot exhibited his aircraft here in October 1909 after the flight week in Weidenpescher Park . With 28,000 m² of retail space and 100 shop windows, it was the largest department store in West Germany at the time. The Carl Peters department store burned down on March 2, 1945, but was able to reopen in June 1948. On January 14, 1926, the first store of the Tietz Group's uniform price trading company opened at 4 Breite Strasse under the name "Ehape" with 2,000 articles, from which Kaufhalle AG later emerged.

Cornelius Joseph Freiherr von Geyr sold his city palace in No. 92 to the tax authorities in 1829, which moved the Cologne main tax office (provincial tax office) here. Since 1834 the higher customs directorate for the Rhine Province was housed in No. 92. Publisher Joseph DuMont , who lived at No. 70, acquired the property at No. 76-78 with a size of 2,584 m² in March 1846, and in September 1847 his company moved here from Hohe Strasse . In 1923 the publishing house printed paper money under police protection in the building on Breite Strasse, and on May 31, 1942, the plant fire brigade was able to put out war-related fires. DuMont resumed operations on February 20, 1946.

Modern times

  • Breite Straße 2–4 - residential and commercial building (built in 1960)

  • Breite Strasse 80–90 - DuMont Carré (May 2016)

  • Breite Straße 90 - DuMont-Brunnen (July 2008)

  • Breite Straße 92–98 - WDR "Haus Berlich" (August 2015)

  • Breite Straße 114 - "Bier-Esel" inn

  • Breite Strasse 132 (September 2011)

  • Breite Straße 103-135 - Karstadt (June 2010)

Around 1902, Hermann Eberhard Pflaume built the Büscher office building in No. 21, and in 1906 DuMont and the Kölnische Zeitung moved into the administration building at the corner of Neue Langgasse 3 (today Neven-DuMont-Straße), which was built by Heinrich Müller-Erkelenz . From 1911 the breakthrough began for Zeppelinstrasse, which enabled direct access to Neumarkt. The breakthrough resulted in a completely new commercial building district, the corner development of which on the Breite Straße represented the block development “ Olivandenhof ” by Hermann Eberhard Pflaume (Zeppelinstraße 9) and opposite the Carl Peters department store.

The Kino Modernes Theater (No. 21; opened on October 31, 1912 with 1,400 seats) and the Agrippina-Lichtspiele on the site of the Geyr'schen Palais (No. 92–98; 1913) were located in Breite Straße . The latter was in a building that was built on behalf of the eponymous Agrippina-Versicherung AG. The Agrippina light plays were very popular and were considered to be on the highest artistic level. In November 1921, of all places, another cinema was planned in the neighboring building at Breite Straße 90, which was supposed to surpass the 925-seat audience for the Agrippina-Lichtspiele. It was the Schauburg , which opened on April 12, 1922 with 1,868 seats at Breite Straße 90; It was the largest cinema in Germany at the time.

1927 a house on the corner Richmodstraße and width road was cut a Mithrasheiligtum in new buildings, remains of walls indicate a Mithraeum out. On September 27, 1944, bombing raids destroyed, among other things, the Kolping House, where President General Theodor Hürth was killed. In 1950, the architect Hermann von Berg built the "Mevissenhaus" in No. 161–167 for Kölnische Rückversicherung . In July 1960, Karstadt took over the Carl Peters department store, which was provisionally rebuilt in November 1945; the original stone facade is only preserved on the front of Breite Straße. After extensive modernization work, the Karstadt branch opened on October 29, 1963. Across from No. 92-98, the WDR built “Haus Berlich” between 1965 and 1967, in which the WDR building management is housed. With the construction of the north-south route (section Tunisstrasse) at the level of Breite Strasse in March 1964, its small initial section was separated from the rest.

During the hostage-taking of Gladbeck , the hostage-takers reached Breite Straße on August 18, 1988 at around 10:53 a.m. and stopped the getaway car with hostages in the pedestrian zone near the former Swiss shopping center , where it was besieged by passers-by and journalists. Around 12:00 pm, the last leg of the hostage-taking began through the exit onto A3 .

Other buildings and sights

The well-preserved residential and commercial building from 1878 still stands at Breite Straße 132, the structure of which is marked by two raised, pointed gables and is characterized by the structure of stone and brick bonds. The only large-scale provider with 27,000 m² of retail space on 6 floors is Karstadt (“Premium-Karstadt”; No. 103–135), otherwise there are small retail stores with a focus on outdoor clothing . The Opern Passagen in No. 29 / Schwertnergasse 1 opened on October 17, 1964, the WDR Arkaden in No. 6–26 on October 22, 1996. The "Pressehaus" DuMont Schauberg was located in No. 70–72 until the move in April 1998 on Amsterdamer Straße 192, the remaining “studio dumont” is now part of the DuMont Carrée shopping mall at no. 80–90. The DuMont Carrée, built at a cost of 150 million euros, opened on October 25, 2001; On a sales area of ​​19,100 m² there are 46 shops and also 126 apartments. Theo Heiermann designed the ornate DuMont fountain on Hans-Hartmann-Platz at No. 90 in 1986. Cologne's oldest and largest mussel restaurant “Bier-Esel” at No. 114 seats 180 people. On March 1, 1912, Fritz Austermühle took over the restaurant, who established today's gastronomic reputation by specializing in fresh mussels . The small square at the transition to Ehrenstrasse has been called Willy-Millowitsch-Platz since October 8, 2013, the Willy Millowitsch monument was moved here from the Eisenmarkt and unveiled on April 25, 2014.

Location and importance

The 660-meter-long Breite Strasse connects the north-south route with the Kölner Ringen via the 407-meter-long Ehrenstrasse . The Breite Straße is an important shopping area in Cologne and is a continuous pedestrian zone up to Willy-Millowitsch-Platz. This is where the Ehrenstraße begins to the west, named after the former Ehrenpforte at the height of the Hohenstaufenring. Zeppelinstraße creates a direct connection to Neumarkt via Richmodstraße. Important crossroads are Neven-DuMont-Straße / Neue Langgasse, Richmodstraße / Auf dem Berlich and Apostelnstraße / Albertusstraße. The Breite Straße is served by the Cologne city railway through the Appellhofplatz underground station .

Linguistic

Like the Alter Markt or the Hohe Strasse , Breite Strasse is not inflected , contrary to the common language . The street name is pronounced with an emphasis on "width".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Curdes / Markus Ulrich, The development of the Cologne urban space , 1997, p. 78
  2. ^ Ferdinand Franz Wallraf / JH Richartz, Selected Writings , 1861, p. 125
  3. ^ Carl von Veith, Das roman Köln , 2013, p. 13
  4. ↑ Hermann Keussen ( inter alia), Cologne: Werden, Wesen, Wollen einer deutscher Stadt , 1928, p. 6
  5. ↑ Konrad Kraft / Maria R. Alföldi, Die Fundmünzen der Romanzeit in Deutschland , 1984, p. 252
  6. ↑ Kurt Keyser / Theodor Kraus, Cologne and the Rhineland, 1961, p. 71
  7. ^ Heinz Heineberg, Grundriss Allgemeine Geographie, Part X, Stadtgeographie / Geographische Stadtforschung, 1989, p. 63
  8. ↑ Kölnischer Geschichtsverein, Jahrbuch , Volumes 46-48, 1975, p. 147
  9. ↑ In the Middle Ages there were no house numbers in Cologne , but the houses were named after their owners or residents
  10. ^ Hermann Keussen, Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages , Volume 1, 1910, p. 289, b 5-7
  11. ↑ Toni Diederich, Regesta on the documents of the St. Columba Office Archives in Cologne , 2009, p. 376
  12. ^ Annals of the historical association for the Lower Rhine , issues 21-22, 1870, p. 107 FN 1
  13. ↑ In this section the Breite Straße was formerly called Ehrenstraße
  14. ^ Hugo Stehkämper, Citizens and Churches in Cologne in the High Middle Ages , 2007, p. 158
  15. ↑ Kemenade was a room that could be heated by a fireplace
  16. ^ Hermann Keussen, Cologne: Werden, Wesen, Wollen einer Deutschen Stadt , Volume 2, 1928, p. 436
  17. ^ Eduard Hegel, The medieval parish system and its church infrastructure in Cologne around 1500 , 1992, p. 19
  18. ↑ Toni Diederich, Regesta on the documents of the St. Columba Office Archives in Cologne , 2009, p. 329
  19. ↑ Andreas Rutz, Education, Confession, Gender , 2006, p. 248
  20. ↑ Joachim Kermann, Rheinisches Archiv , issue 82, 1972, p. 95
  21. ^ Hugo Stehkämper, History of the City of Cologne , Volume 8, 2005, p. 257
  22. ↑ Helmut Signon , How was it in Cologne before ...: History and stories from two millennia on the Rhine , 1972, p. 290
  23. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.), Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 120
  24. ↑ Helene Klauser, Cologne Carnival between Uniform and Lifestyle , 2007, p. 200
  25. ↑ Allgemeine Bauzeitung, Volume 56, Vienna 1891, p. 16 ff.
  26. ↑ Barbara Kirschbaum, "The new Citroën - all German!" , 2002, p. 91
  27. ↑ Barbara Kirschbaum, "The new Citroën - all German!" , 2002, p. 91
  28. ↑ Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 32nd year 1912, p. 41.
  29. ↑ Manfred Pohl, DuMont Schauberg , 2009, p. 30
  30. ^ Kurt Weinhold: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg Cologne. 1969, p. 122.
  31. ^ Peter Fuchs (ed.), Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln , Volume 2, 1991, p. 176 f.
  32. ↑ Der Kinematograph, No. 771 of November 27, 1921
  33. ↑ The Cinematograph No. 790 of April 8, 1922
  34. ^ Elmar Schwertheim, The Monuments of Oriental Deities in Roman Germany , 1974, p. 15
  35. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.), Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln , Volume 2, 1991, p. 300
  36. ↑ The Sünner Brothers Brewery & Distillery has been the lessor since 1892
  37. ↑ Langgasse was renamed Neven-DuMont-Straße in November 1976

Web links

Commons : Breite Straße  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 19.9 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 46.3 ″  E