Hessian State Trade Exhibition 1879
The Hessian State Trade Exhibition in 1879 took place in Offenbach am Main and was the second state trade exhibition in the Grand Duchy of Hesse .
preparation
In the summer of 1878 a business delegation from China visited Germany. In order to save the visitors the effort of visiting the companies individually, an impromptu exhibition of the products of 80 companies was organized. This was so successful that a well-prepared trade exhibition was held the following year. The first step was to set up an organizing committee headed by Carl Theodor Wecker , President of the Offenbach Chamber of Commerce . The project was supported by the Offenbach trade association, the state trade association in Darmstadt and the central office for trade in Darmstadt. The government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and Grand DukeLudwig IV expressly welcomed the project.
Most of the costs were borne by the traders, who contributed 160,000 marks. The city of Offenbach provided 20,000 marks as well as the area with 75,000 m² on the western edge of the city (today: Dreieich Park ). It belonged to the historic Biebelsmühle, which Prince Carl von Isenburg left to his honored Minister Wolfgang von Goldner in 1807 . Parts of the area were designed as horticultural facilities for the exhibition by the garden architect Andreas Weber . Following the trend at the time, the area was planted with native and many exotic trees. Curved paths, several ponds and small bridges, light meadows alternating with darker squares and groups of trees as well as small hills created the impression of a varied, spacious and enchanted park landscape. Rose beds with 800 plants and fountains were created.
The form of the presentation was based on the model of the world exhibitions . The efficiency of the local economy should be presented in a brilliant setting. By January 1879, 400 exhibiting companies had registered, in April there were already 660. The required exhibition buildings were erected in a great hurry under the direction of city architect Friedrich Raupp . The main hall was built in half-timbered houses and clad with yellow bricks . The machine hall turned out to be too small and had to be rescheduled. In addition, a show hall, a restaurant hall and a music pavilion were built. A prince's room was built for the expected high attendance. In addition, three cigarette stands and two beverage stands were built in the outdoor area. Exhibits were also a pavilion and an arch made of - not yet reinforced - concrete from the Feege and Gotthardt cement factory , a very innovative material in Germany at the time. At the exhibition, the first electrical lighting in Offenbach shone in the form of carbon arc lamps from Siemens & Halske .
exhibition
The entrance fee for the exhibition was one mark for a single entry and ten marks for the season ticket (15 marks for married couples and 20 marks for families including the servants). The Main-Neckar-Eisenbahn offered tickets for the exhibition at half price.
The exhibition was attended by 632 companies from all over the Grand Duchy (including 238 companies from Offenbach). It was divided into ten sections. The most important section was agriculture, followed by mechanical engineering, locksmithing, belting, textile industry, bookbinding (this also included the Offenbach leather industry), furniture industry, manufactured chaise lounges and luxury cars, faience and stoves, pianos and other musical instruments and paints, varnishes and soaps. Special exhibitions showed surgery and teaching aids.
On July 2, 1879, the exhibition was opened by the Grand Duke. He combined that with his inaugural visit to the city. The Grand Duke visited the exhibition for two hours. Despite a rainy summer, it was well attended. After a cautious start, the number of visitors rose sharply. An average of 2,500 interested people attended the event every day. The success was so great that it was extended until October 6th. An accompanying program with music events also contributed to the success of the exhibition (the largest was a double concert on Sedan Day ). At the beginning of August, the XI. Middle Rhine gymnastics festival with over 4000 visitors took place in Offenbach and also led visitors to the exhibition. It received further attention from prominent visitors: Archduke Karl of Austria , Grand Duke Sergius , Prince Karl zu Isenburg-Birstein , Prince Bruno zu Ysenburg and Büdingen , Grand Duke Adolph von Nassau, Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt , Prince Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg , the Count von Erbach and the Baroness von Rothschild the exhibition.
The event achieved a surplus of around 50,000 marks.
After the exhibition
At the end of the event, the exhibition halls were removed again, the plantings, ponds and bridges as well as the music pavilion on the exhibition grounds remained standing and thus adorned the first public park in Offenbach. In the style of historicism , it enabled the creation of an upscale residential area in the west end of the city.
The concrete samples from the Feege and Gotthardt cement factories have also been preserved . These almost 140-year-old components, a pavilion and a vaulted concrete girder, which still spans a path like a bridge, are unique, at least in Germany. It is an exhibition architecture that has rarely been preserved. They are probably the oldest surviving concrete relics in Germany. Today they are cultural monuments due to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .
With the surplus from the exhibition, the city built a new building for the arts and crafts school, today's Offenbach am Main University of Design, for 40,000 marks on Mathildenplatz . 7,500 marks were made available to the economic development agency and 2,500 marks to the city church for a new bell. The main organizers, Kommerzienrat Wecker, manufacturer Weintraud and mechanical engineering manufacturer Engelhard received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Philip from the Grand Duke for their services to the exhibition .
See also
literature
- Otto Schlander: A city in transition - Offenbach between 1860 and 1900; Chapter “Splendid Days - The State Trade Exhibition 1879”, pp. 72–82.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lothar R. Braun: 1900: The dream of a beach promenade (sic!). From: Offenbach-Post . In: offenbach.de. May 9, 2008, accessed April 29, 2016 (original title: The dream of a city promenade ).
- ↑ Lis schoolmaster: Hessian state trade show laid the foundation stone for Dreieichpark. In: op-online.de. June 15, 2009, accessed July 24, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Lothar R. Braun: 1879: This is how electricity came to Offenbach. In: Offenbach-Post , on offenbach.de , from January 2, 2009, accessed on November 19, 2015.
- ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Parkstrasse 60 In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
- ↑ Ferdinand Werner : The long way to new building . Volume 1: Concrete: 43 men invent the future . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2016. ISBN 978-3-88462-372-5 , pp. 259f.
- ↑ denkxweb ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Keywords: Offenbach, system ring, complete system I.
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 4.9 ″ N , 8 ° 44 ′ 49.8 ″ E