Former Silberberg & Mayer straw hat factory

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The former straw hat factory Silberberg & Mayer is a listed factory building in Cologne-Sülz .

description

Silberberg & Mayer straw hat factory
Stumbling block for Auguste Fuchs

The four-storey four-wing complex with brick cladding at Lotharstrasse 14-18 was built in reinforced concrete frame construction between 1912 and 1913 according to plans by the architects Peter Gärtner and Jacob Berns . The individual wing structures are arranged around a white tiled skylight hall on the ground floor. The brick façades with artificial stone elements are stylistically based on the Lower Rhine-Dutch Baroque , the construction method enabled a functional and flexible use.

History and use

The building of the Jewish factory owner's family was taken over by the city of Cologne in 1938 during the National Socialist era , which in 1940 exchanged it for land in the city center (Gereonshof 6 and former Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium) of the Cologne Gymnasium and Foundation Fund, which gave the building to the Prussian State for the state Hildegardis girls' high school.

From October 1943 a forced labor camp was set up in the roof of the building. About 120 forced laborers from Ukraine were housed here. The Iron and Metal Working Group organized the retraining of foreign workers for metalworking companies who were trained in a few weeks and were later employed in various industrial companies in the Cologne area.

The building was badly damaged in the war. Nevertheless, from November 1945 it also had to accommodate the state apostle high school , which was rebuilt in August 1945 . Lessons took place in shifts with the Hildegardis School until gradually, initially in personal contribution, the number of classrooms was expanded from 8 to 16. Initially, a factory was continued in the attic and an outbuilding.

From October 1946 the State Building Department took over the reconstruction of the two schools, beginning with the renewal of the central heating system and the re-erection of the glass roof over the atrium, which could then be used by both schools as a gymnasium and auditorium. The Hildegardisschule (today Hildegard-von-Bingen-Gymnasium) used the left half, the Apostelgymnasium the right. Even after the reconstruction, the building remained a temporary solution for both schools. So there was only room for the lower and middle grades in the schoolyard. The upper levels had to spend their breaks in the hallways with the windows open. In autumn 1961, both schools were able to move into new buildings.

Parts of what would later become the Cologne University of Applied Sciences took their place . Today, among others, the Rheinische Musikschule Köln, the Regionalschule Köln-Sülz and a number of artists use the building and the studios Lichthof .

The Schiller-Gymnasium_Köln has been using the building as a branch office since February 2016 . Only high school students who use the rooms on the ground floor and on the 1st and 2nd floors are taught here. The so-called Upper School Center of the Schiller-Gymnasium currently has around 360 students.

In May 2018, a stumbling block for Auguste Fuchs was laid on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Sabine Würich : The memory of the places, traces of National Socialist crimes in Cologne. P. 91
  2. Otto Leggewie, Albert Faure: 1860–1960. 100 years of the State Apostle High School in Cologne. P. 34ff.

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 6.7 ″  N , 6 ° 55 ′ 45.3 ″  E