Hohenstaufenbad

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Hohenstaufenbad in 1910

The Hohenstaufenbad was the largest public swimming pool in the city of Cologne . The magnificent building, which opened in 1885, was located on the Hohenstaufenring , which gave it its name , part of the Cologne rings . The bathroom was destroyed in World War II.

history

Urban baths were important in the 19th century for reasons of hygiene; in 1883, only 3% of all Cologne apartments had a bathroom. The Cologne city planner and city architect Josef Stübben began building the Hohenstaufen baths in March 1883, based on a design by architects de Voss & Alfred Müller. The complex extended over the whole block between the Ringstrasse, Badstrasse (today's Schaevenstrasse), Mauritiuswall and Rubensstrasse. The main building on the street side was designed as a two-storey rectangular building with a high base, two single-axis side wings and a three-axis central projection. The external appearance was emphasized by a flight of stairs, a three-arch entrance and an open loggia on the first floor. A print and a "memorandum for the construction of the Hohenstaufenbad" served as a template for the city council to decide whether to approve the draft statute.

Stübben caused enormous publicity, because his article “The bathing system in old and new times with a special relationship to the Hohenstaufenbad to be built in Cologne” appeared several times in the Kölnische Zeitung . On May 12, 1883, the AG Hohenstaufenbad was founded, whose constituent general assembly approved a capital of 600,000 marks. The proceeds from the shares were used to finance the pool; AG Hohenstaufenbad acted as operator after it opened. Technical and financial problems arose during the construction phase. This results from the correspondence between the city architect Stübben and architects, supervisory board members and entrepreneurs. A civil law dispute was also pending, as evidenced by a ruling by the civil chamber of the royal district court in Cologne on January 21, 1885 in the case of building contractor Friedrich Linskens against AG Hohenstaufenbad.

After a two-year construction phase, the brick building designed by Alfred Müller-Grah with ashlar elements was officially opened on July 1, 1885, one year before the inauguration of the Ringstrasse on June 11, 1886. The economic difficulties of AG Hohenstaufenbad remained, so that the city of Cologne became the operating company took over on October 10, 1887 and on April 1, 1889, after the liquidation was completed, the city of Cologne took over the final management of operations and households.

Purpose and use

As one of the most magnificent, representative secular buildings in the city, the bathroom was aimed at the upper class as guests. It introduced a completely new bathing culture in Cologne. In the tradition of the Roman thermal baths, the city now offered its citizens, who had previously only been able to use the Rheinbadeanstalten, a place of personal hygiene. However, it turned out that the bath could not be operated economically in this form. As early as October 1, 1887, the AG was transferred to the city of Cologne under municipal sponsorship. From April 1, 1889, after the liquidation was completed, the city of Cologne undertook the final management of the business and the budget. And from 1892, the “Prince's Bath” was no longer allowed to be used by three people at the same time, but only by one person.

On March 27, 1913, the child Elly Grünheck was welcomed as the 1,000,000th visitor to the Hohenstaufenbad. According to statistics from the city of Cologne, the Hohenstaufenbad was the largest in the city with 316,576 "baths" in 1916, but had to be closed in February and March 1917 and again between December 25, 1920 and February 9, 1921 due to a lack of coal. This fate also met the Neptunbad and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Bad , 3 of a total of 18 public baths in the city in 1916.

destruction

Of the five municipal indoor swimming pools that were built between 1885 and 1914, only the Neptunbad in Ehrenfeld survived the Second World War largely undamaged. The Hohenstaufenbad and the two public baths in Fleischmengergasse and Achterstraße were completely destroyed in an air raid on June 30, 1943. The remains of the Hohenstaufenbad were demolished in 1958.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Dietmar / Werner Jung, Small illustrated history of the city of Cologne , 2002, p. 194 f.
  2. ↑ Kölnische Zeitung of April 5, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12, 1883
  3. ^ "All-rounder wanted: Leonard Ennen, the first Cologne city archivist", p. 55 (PDF; 3.2 MB)
  4. ^ Archives NRW
  5. ↑ Klara van Eyll, Old address books tell , 1993, p. 158
  6. ↑ Municipal Statistics, page 65 (PDF; 1.8 MB)
  7. ↑ Gabi Langen, "Sport and Leisure Policy in Cologne 1945 to 1975", Dissertation Cologne, February 2006, p. 192

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 59.1 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 25 ″  E