Hansa high-rise

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Hansa high-rise
Hansa high-rise
General view of the Hansa high-rise from the southwest
List of high-rise buildings in Cologne
Basic data
Place: Neustadt-North
Construction time : 1924-1925
Status : completed
Architectural style : Clinker expressionism
Architect : Jacob Koerfer
Use / legal
Usage : Office and commercial buildings
Technical specifications
Height : 65 m
Floors : 17th
Elevators : 1 + 1 paternoster
Building material : clinker
Construction: Reinforced concrete

The Hansahochhaus in Cologne's Neustadt-Nord is one of the first skyscrapers in Germany and is a listed building . As the first high-rise in Cologne, the office building was built in the Expressionist style from 1924 to 1925 based on plans by the Cologne architect Jacob Koerfer . With only 135 working days, its construction time was below that of comparable American high-rise buildings. Due to construction interruptions, they were spread over 15 months. At the time of completion, the massive 17-  storey building was 65 meters high and for a short time the tallest building in Europe.

History and location

Koerfer agreed an exchange deal with the city of Cologne for the property at Hansaring 97 . He left some of his land to the city, the value of which was offset against the price of the building plot. On January 11, 1924, Koerfer submitted his construction plans for the high-rise to the city expansion office. The Lord Mayor of Cologne Konrad Adenauer expressed his “special interest” in this building in a letter to Jacob Koerfer and expressed the hope “that your daring will be successful”. Structurally, a panel was associated with a masonry made of bricks planned that the supporting structure of reinforced concrete completely covered. The building complex called "Hansahof" has a total built-up area of ​​4,200 m², of which 2,440 m² is accounted for by the main building, 360 m² for the tower and 1,400 m² for the hall building immediately next to it. On October 25, 1924, the shell was already completed. The Cologne machine factory L. Hopmann supplied a paternoster lift , which with 26 cabins for two people each was the highest in the world. This record was only surpassed in 1965 with the construction of the Axel Springer high-rise in Berlin with 36 cabins. Despite some financing problems and construction workers' strikes, the Expressionist building was completed in June 1925 after only 15 months of construction.

The name of the building refers to its street address Hansaring 97 , the name of which is reminiscent of Cologne's membership in the Hanseatic League . The building complex of the Hansa high-rise, which also includes an attached six-story office and commercial building, is located on the inner city ring between Ritterstraße and the Hansaring S-Bahn station .

Technical details

The shell made of reinforced concrete is completely clinkered, which visually gives the impression of a solid structure built in composite masonry. The building with a facade made of dark red hard - fire bricks was designed in the style of clinker expressionism with suggested pillars, triangular lintels and Art Deco keystones , similar to the Cologne trade fair tower. Sculptures of animal and human heads were placed above each of the tapering ground floor windows on the street fronts. Until the Second World War , the facade was also provided with five slender figures, which symbolized the continents of the earth. They were placed between the window openings on the second floor . The sculptures created by Joseph Pabst (1879–1950) and Franz Albermann (1877–1959) have been lost. A stairwell , an elevator and a paternoster elevator are used to reach the floors in the high-rise building .

use

After completion, a sales exhibition of the Frankfurt automobile brand Adler was located in the house . The café-restaurant integrated into the main building was designed in the Art Deco style in collaboration between Koerfer and Prof. Richard Seewald, who was teaching at the Cologne Werkschulen . The hall building on the corner of Maybachstraße and Ritterstraße (today's multi-storey car park) was expanded into a film palace that offered space for 1200 spectators. The theater, which belongs to the Phöbus-Emelka group, was one of the first cinemas in Cologne to present sound films at the beginning of 1930. After its destruction during the Second World War, it was not rebuilt.

The third and fourth floors of the skyscraper were used between May 1944 and February 1945 as a makeshift warehouse for forced laborers who were mainly used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn .

In 1961 the married couple Anni and Fritz Waffenschmidt opened the Saturn Elektro-Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG , which sold entertainment electronics exclusively to diplomats, at Hansaring 79–81, initially on 120 square meters . From this developed under the name Saturn what it claims to be the "largest record show in the world" - with departments for photography (Hansafoto) , entertainment electronics and household technology. In November 1977, Saturn moved with most of its departments into the complex of the Hansahochhaus, where the CD and DVD department of the largest Saturn branch in Cologne is still housed today. With Media-Saturn-Holding, Saturn is now represented nationwide and in several European countries. The Hansahochhaus has had a luminous Saturn logo on the roof since 1993; For decades, however, it was provided with the widely visible trademark of Klosterfrau .

Until 2002, there was also a WDR transmission system on the roof of the Hansa high-rise. The VHF frequencies 98.6 MHz (Radio Cologne; 0.4 kW, later WDR 2 regional window Cologne) and 91.8 MHz (WDR 3 Messadio Cologne; 1.0 kW, later with 10.0 kW to the high Waiting near Engelskirchen relocated), later also Deutschlandradio Kultur with 0.03 kW, directed to the northwest at 89.9 MHz. After completion of the Kölnturm in the neighboring MediaPark , the frequencies 98.6 MHz (WDR 2) and 89.9 MHz (D-Kultur) were relocated to a new antenna mast on the higher Kölnturm, where a short time later the 87.6 MHz were also added with 0.3 kW for WDR Eins Live was activated. Despite the significantly lower antenna height and the low transmission power compared to the Colonius, the frequencies broadcast by the Hansahochhaus could be received in sufficient quality in the northern part of the city, while the southern parts of the city are usually better served by the 50.0 kW WDR basic network transmitter Bonn-Venusberg .

In the summer of 2003, the private radio station RPR1 ( Rheinland-Pfälzische Rundfunk GmbH & Co. KG ) moved its studio in Cologne from Olivandenhof on Neumarkt to the Hansa high-rise building (8th floor). In July 2007, however, RPR1 moved to the " Old Capitol Kino " building on Hohenzollernring. A 4- star hotel with 190 rooms has been located on floors 1–6 since 2008 ; for this, two additional separate elevators were installed.

literature

  • Bruno Fischli: From seeing in the dark. Cinema stories of a city . Cologne 1990. ISBN 3-922009-62-X .
  • Hiltrud Kier and Werner Schäfke : The Cologne rings: history and shine of a street , Vista-Point-Verlag, Cologne 1987. ISBN 3-88973-066-3 .
  • Klemens Klemmer: Jakob Koerfer (1875–1930) . An architect between tradition and modernity. scaneg-Verlag, Munich 1987, pp. 119-135, ISBN 3-89235013-2 .
  • The Hansahof in Cologne , in: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung. 46th century No. 30 v. July 28, 1926 pp. 357-359.
  • The Cologne skyscraper . In: Bauwarte - magazine for architecture and construction industry . Cologne January 29, 1925, p. 6–9 ( Digital Collections of the University of Cologne [accessed on August 8, 2015]).

Web links

Commons : Hansahochhaus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Hansahof in Cologne, p. 357ff
  2. ↑ a b c Werner Jung: The modern Cologne. 6th edition, JP Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1861-1 , p. 66.
  3. ^ Koerfer group on the Hansa high-rise
  4. ↑ Original of the central sheet of the building administration Cologne from July 28, 1926, Der Hansahof in Cologne
  5. ↑ Tobias Christ: The once longest paternoster in the world , Kölner Stadtanzeiger, July 18, 2019, page 26
  6. ↑ Side view of the five figures for the continents , accessed on October 6, 2012
  7. ↑ Details in the front view of three of the five figures for the continents , accessed on October 6, 2012
  8. ↑ Entry on Josef Pabst in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database , accessed on March 18, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Fischli pp. 43f, 47 and 49; Klemmer pp. 133-135
  10. ↑ sixth article: The Reichsbahn - one of the main beneficiaries of forced labor (PDF file; 4.40 MB), accessed on October 6, 2012
  11. ↑ Greven's address book 1967 p. 999
  12. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger of October 17, 2008, p. 31.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 56 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 5 ″  E