Breslauer Platz (Cologne)

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Breslauer Platz after the redesign in 2014

Breslauer Platz is the name of a square in Cologne's old town north on the north side of Cologne Central Station .

History of origin

The Breslauer Platz has only existed since 1945. Before the Second World War , the houses in the Kunibertsviertel extended to the northern entrance of the main train station. In 1942 the architect Wilhelm Riphahn built a bunker on Altenberger Strasse 1a / Domstrasse on behalf of the city. The architect had already planned the construction of the bunker for later conversion as a parking garage, but this was not implemented. Instead, since 1953, the Raiffeisen-Waren-Zentrale (RWZ) has been using the building, which is no longer recognizable from the outside as a bunker, which marks the north corner of the square.

After the occupation of Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine by American troops on March 6, 1945, the square was to serve as a second forecourt to the main station next to the main entrance on the south side. This function was facilitated by the fact that the square had access roads through the Eigelstein , Goldgasse (connection to the Rhine), Johannisstrasse and from 1970 north-south route (section Turiner Strasse). Its establishment was one of the major interventions in the city center, although the severe war damage in the area on November 3, 1943 made its construction easier.

The place remained nameless for more than a decade. The square was only given a name in 1959 as part of the sponsorship of the city of Cologne with Wroclaw, which was taken over in 1956, as a “symbol for all Germans who became homeless as a result of the expulsion”.

Long before the square was built, there was the Goldgasse leading to the Rhine, which was already mentioned in 1232 as "Goltgazze". In Arnold Mercator's Cologne cityscape from 1570 it is called “die golt gaß”, during the French period it was called “rue de la Tête d'Or” (Goldkopfgasse) in the Itinéraire de Cologne in 1813.

Buildings and facilities in the vicinity of the square

Breslauer Platz 2 - former Four Points Hotel Central (March 2010)
Breslauer Platz 2, 2a-c, 4 - from right to left, building about to be demolished (February 2015)

With the expansion of the north-south route, traffic has been flowing on four levels since 1968: the lowest level is the subway, above is the north-south route, and above the plaza level, which in turn is crossed by the railway line. After the original underground station opened on October 19, 1970, road traffic on the square flowed unobstructed.

In addition to the former RWZ bunker building for the eleven-story Hotel Baseler Hof built by Georg Schneider in No. 2 (1956; expanded in 1962) and the West German Cooperative Central Bank in No. 4 (1972), significant new buildings were built on Breslauer Platz . This was the legal successor to the Rheinische Landesgenossenschaftskasse Cologne, which emerged in January 1950 from the Deutsche Zentralgenossenschaftskasse branch Cologne. The striking 18-meter-high wall sculpture made of stainless steel by Wolfgang Göddertz in 1972 on the bank building was dismantled in March 2015. In 1975 the S-Bahn line was expanded by 2 tracks (10 and 11) to reduce the size of the square. Between 1978 and 1980 Peter Busmann and Godfrid Haberer - the architects of what would later become the Cologne Philharmonic - created the Kommerz-Hotel (Johannisstraße 30–34) for hotelier Gerhard Günnewig , a building that was criticized for its coloring in red (until 2010 orange) aluminum panels on the northeast corner, which dominates the square due to its location.

East side with hotel, bus station, musical dome and taxi waiting area
Entrance to the subway station Breslauer Platz / Hauptbahnhof
Altenberger Straße 1a - headquarters of the Raiffeisen goods headquarters Rhein-Main

In July 2007 the city of Cologne lost a lawsuit before the Higher Administrative Court of Münster , which allowed the RWZ (meanwhile the third largest main cooperative in the agricultural trade in Germany) to increase its administrative building by three to eleven floors (38.35 meters). The urban height concept adopted in May 2007 did not provide for such a high construction near the cathedral, but the city lost the process because the building permit had already been granted before May 2007 and therefore this case was not affected by the height concept.

The central bus station at "Breslauer Berg" was only moved to its current location in 1986 when the Philharmonie (opening September 14, 1986) and the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud / Museum Ludwig (both September 6, 1986) were rebuilt. There is a two-story underground car park with 400 parking spaces under the bus station. To the west it borders the Musical Dome, which opened in October 1996 . The membrane construction in glass and steel construction, which was completed after only 6 months, has a floor area of ​​4,500 m² and seats 1,769 spectators; it is the largest theater building in the city. The construction, originally built only for the musical " Gaudí ", is likely to fall victim to future construction plans - after several demolition plans. Due to the construction of the north-south light rail , the subway station Breslauer Platz was closed between August 2007 and December 2011, which led to considerable construction-related traffic obstructions on the square. The Wyndham Hotel at No. 2, which was renovated in 2011, is now the fourth hotel in the building and has 131 rooms.

Traffic function

In addition to the southern station forecourt at Cologne Cathedral, Breslauer Platz performs the main access function of Cologne Central Station with two central entrances. In addition to taxi ranks, Cologne's central bus station and driveways for individual traffic, the subway transfer station “Breslauer Platz / Hauptbahnhof” was built below the square as part of the construction of Cologne's north-south light rail . The station went into operation when the timetable changed in December 2011. On the east side of the square there is a ferry dock on the Rhine with connections to the Cologne trade fair on the right bank of the Rhine . The 438 meter long connecting road between Eigelstein / Nord-Süd-Fahrt and Goldgasse is also called Breslauer Platz.

The roundabout leading past the Wyndham Hotel has been adorned since July 2017 by the 9.6 meter (including base) high Obelisk of Tutankhamun made of steel with a carbon fiber coating by the artist Rita McBride . It is a gift from the Art, Culture and Social Foundation of Sparda-Bank West to the city of Cologne.

Planning

The roughly triangular square in its basic shape has, in addition to the construction of the main train station, a closed, almost exclusive development from the post-war period , primarily on its north side.

In January 2015, the laying down of an approximately 2,300 m² area of ​​No. 2a, b, c and No. 4 began; Here, on an area of ​​14,000 m² (mainly offices with 12,500 m² area), a structured building with a metal and glass facade construction under the name "Coeur Cologne" is to be built, which the HRS Group moved into in autumn 2017 as the new company headquarters .

The western surface of the square will be redesigned in the course of the construction of the city railway. The east side - in the area of ​​the bus station and the Musical Dome located here - is also to be rearranged in accordance with the specifications of an urban design ideas competition. Several high-rise buildings in the direction of the Rhine are being discussed here and would relocate the space to the east. The Musical Dome is again up for grabs; Among other things, the construction of a new, permanent musical theater is preferred at the location. As part of the over-planning of the east side, the commercial hotel is also up for discussion in the current urban development discussion. The long-distance bus station was relocated to Cologne / Bonn Airport in October 2015 due to a renewed expansion of the tracks in the main train station by tracks 12 and 13, as well as due to safety concerns .

Web links

Commons : Breslauer Platz (Cologne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Look into the past: buildings up to the train station . Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from April 21, 2008, accessed on September 28, 2015
  2. ↑ Helmut Signon / Klaus Schmidt, all roads led through Cologne , 2006, p 109
  3. ↑ Gerhard Curdes / Markus Ulrich, The development of the Cologne urban space: the influence of models and innovations on the shape of the city , 1997, p. 46
  4. ↑ Marion Werner, From Adolf-Hitler-Platz to Ebertplatz: a cultural history of Cologne street names since 1933 , 2008, p. 213.
  5. ^ Leonhard Ennen, Sources for the History of the City of Cologne , Volume II, 1863, pp. 138, 198.
  6. ↑ OVG Münster, judgment of July 21, 2013, Az .: 2 K 177/11 and 2 K 1342/12
  7. ↑ Obelisk on Breslauer Platz: Criticism of the location - only advertising space for the Spardabank? In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . July 10, 2017 ( ksta.de [accessed October 6, 2017]).
  8. ^ Sculptural city marking - Obelisk erected by Rita McBride in Cologne. Art, Culture and Social Foundation of Sparda -Bank West, July 2017, accessed on October 6, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Cologne City Council, meeting on March 27, 2012, agenda item 3.1.11

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 37 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 35 ″  E