Main warehouse of the Gutehoffnungshütte

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Former GHH main warehouse in Oberhausen, rear view
General arrangement drawing, front view

The former main warehouse of Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen was built between 1921 and 1925 on Essener Strasse according to a design by the architect Peter Behrens . Today it serves as the central depot of the LVR industrial museum .

history

The Gutehoffnungshütte , which was converted into a stock corporation in 1873 , had around 30,000 employees at the beginning of the 20th century and was still an expanding company in the coal and steel industry . Under the direction of the Chairman of the Board of Management Paul Reusch , modernization and rationalization measures were targeted, including the establishment of a central warehouse for consumer goods. The realization of this project was delayed by the First World War , but was soon taken up again after its end. Several well-known architects, among them Peter Behrens and Bruno Möhring , were asked in 1920 to submit designs for the central warehouse and an administration building as part of a competition. The design by Behrens was awarded the contract primarily because of its aesthetic qualities; the functional requirement profile of GHH was more in line with Möhring's submission. With the award of the contract, Behrens was therefore required to adapt its concept accordingly in various points. This decision-making process and the visual impact of the resulting building indicate that the corporate management was interested in both a functional and a representative building.

Evening view of main warehouse with gasometer in the background

The warehouse was built between 1921 and 1925. A 90 cm thick concrete slab with expansion joints was poured as a foundation to protect the building from possible damage from the mountains. The load-bearing structure consists of a steel frame, for which around 1,000 tonnes of steel were used, which GHH's own bridge construction department produced. The facade is a relatively straightforward brickwork. The bricks or facing clinker selected by Behrens, however, led to additional costs of around 400,000 marks due to their special format ( monastery format ). The elongated main body of the building is divided into two equally large side wings and a wider middle section by two stair and elevator towers. The dominant architectural form is the cube, which is underlined by the predominantly square windows that are flush with the facade. The approximately 86 m wide and 25 m high building has six or seven floors, which taper towards the top in several steps, as the load-bearing capacity of the individual floors decreases towards the top. In contrast to the ones below, the two upper floors have plastered masonry and step back in steps. A seventh floor is only hinted at at the top of the elevator tower. The building is extended on the front and back by covered ramps, which were designed for the delivery and onward transport of the goods by freight cars. White plaster strips, rows of windows, cornices and canopies, which, in addition to the elongated line shape, give the building a strongly horizontal shape, reveal the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture .

The warehouse was designed and realized as an ensemble of buildings: an administration building was planned from the outset to complement it; Central Administration III was supposed to complement the two existing administration buildings of the corporate headquarters . Behrens has also designed and implemented a single-storey special warehouse for oils and fats attached to the rear . The complex is rounded off by a gate system with a gatehouse.

present

The main warehouse survived the Second World War without any major damage. Due to the subsequent break-up of the GHH Group and the subsequent structural change that led to the extensive abandonment of the steel industry in Oberhausen, the building gradually lost its original function. In 1989 it was declared an industrial monument and therefore not demolished when the former steelworks site was cleared in the early 1990s in order to create an open space for the planned Neue Mitte Oberhausen . In 1993, the Behrens building was acquired by the Rhineland Regional Council and has functioned as the central depot and partly as an exhibition room for the LVR industrial museum since 1998 . It is one of the stops on the Route of Industrial Culture .

  • Detailed view with outdoor exhibits

  • Entrance area

  • back

  • Krupp-Ardelt truck-mounted crane on a Faun chassis

literature

  • Claudia Bruch: The Peter Behrens main warehouse. In: Forum Industrial Monument Preservation and History Culture, year 2001, issue 2, pp. 34–39.
  • Claudia Bruch: The Gutehoffnungshütte warehouse in Oberhausen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2002. (= DKV Art Guide , No. 608/2.)

Web links

Commons : Lagerhaus Gutehoffnungshütte, Oberhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '17.9 "  N , 6 ° 52' 14.8"  E