Casino to Coblenz
The Casino zu Coblenz is a casino company in Koblenz . The civic club was founded in 1808 in the spirit of the freedoms that were introduced by the French Revolution with the conquest of the left bank of the Rhine . The Casino zu Coblenz today has around 400 members. It is committed to cultural and social life in Koblenz with a variety of events, for example it organizes an annual casino ball. The director of the casino company is Hans-Jörg Assenmacher.
history
After the conquest of Koblenz in October 1794 by the French revolutionary army, the citizens came to terms with the occupying power. After the nobility and clergy had been disempowered , it was now up to the bourgeoisie to run the city. In December 1807 some citizens met to found an association for the maintenance of customs and sociability. The statutes of the Casino zu Coblenz were adopted on January 6, 1808 in Koblenz. The star in the casino company's logo refers to the day it was founded: Epiphany . The principles laid down in the statutes are “freedom, urbanity and harmony”. The founding members were 84 Germans and six French, including 49 merchants and private individuals, 29 lawyers, doctors and teachers, ten administrative officials and two clerics. The first director of the casino company was Franz Georg Joseph von Lassaulx , the first honorary member of the Prefect of the Rhin-et-Moselle Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia . The French authorities approved the establishment in 1811. One of the most famous members of the casino society in the early years was the Koblenz journalist Joseph Görres .
In the period that followed, the casino company provided important impulses for the development of the city of Koblenz. This did not change with the takeover of the city of Koblenz by the Prussians in 1814 . In the 19th century, members of the Prussian royal family regularly took part in casino society events. To this day she keeps a portrait of Empress Augusta , which she gave to society in memory of her frequent visits to the casino.
In 1828 the casino company moved into a building built by the architect Ferdinand Nebel in the area of today's central square ( 50 ° 21 ′ 30 ″ N , 7 ° 35 ′ 49.2 ″ E ). The classicist building was 73 meters long and was equipped with event rooms, reading rooms and a wine cellar . There was also a garden with old trees and a fountain . In the common rooms, the members discussed current topics at many round tables . The casino building has been expanded and rebuilt several times over time. Technically it was always at the cutting edge. It had electric light as early as 1888 and produced the electricity it needed with its own gas engines. The street by the former building is still called Casinostraße today.
After the end of the First World War and the subsequent occupation of the Rhineland , the casino building was acquired first by the Americans and then by the French until 1929. During the Nazi era , the bourgeois free spirit was a thorn in the side of the new rulers. The Gauleiter Gustav Simon pursued the goal of closing the society. Despite the resistance of the members , it was brought into line and the statutes were suspended. The casino building was completely destroyed in the air raids on Koblenz in 1944. In the attack on September 25, 1944, 43 people died in the basement of the casino building.
The first general meeting after the Second World War took place on June 24, 1946 , at which the old statutes were put into effect again. Instead of the old casino building, which had been destroyed and demolished by 1956, a modern, functional building in the style of the 1950s was built by Koblenz architect Martin Ufer in 1956–1957 . However, due to social changes, the casino company was unable to maintain the new building economically. So it was decided to give it up; After the demolition in 1967, a department store with an underground car park was built on the newly created central square by 1968. The eastern part of the Middle Rhine Forum has been located here since 2012 . The casino company continues to exist without its own building and participates in the cultural and social life in Koblenz with a variety of events.
literature
- Werner Wilhelm Weichelt: Casino Coblenz 1808 - 1908. A memorial book for the centenary celebration . Koblenz 1908. Digitized
- Casino zu Coblenz: Through all times - 200 years of Casino zu Coblenz . Garwain, Koblenz 2009, ISBN 978-3-936436-13-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 200 years of Casino zu Coblenz (PDF; 4.5 MB), special publication in the Rhein-Zeitung , January 12, 2008