Hotel Monopol (Braunschweig)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
overall view

The Hotel Monopol is a listed building in the old town of Braunschweig in the city center district . The building was designed by Constantin Uhde and built in the historicist style in 1889 .

location

The hotel is located on the east side of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz 4, at the corner of Bruchtorwall 1, directly opposite the head building of the old station , which was restored and preserved after the destruction of the Second World War , on the other side of the Oker .

description

View of the south facade (1898)

Court carpenter C. Gerecke commissioned the well-known Brunswick architect Uhde to build a hotel in February 1889. The building was initially controversial because of its size compared to the surrounding buildings, but was nevertheless planned as a brick building with plaster structure in the neo-renaissance style. The monopoly is an almost symmetrical, four-story corner building. The ground floor is structured with ashlar and clearly separated from the vertically structured upper floors with brick walls with large, high, round arched windows . The corner location of the house was originally emphasized by a tower-crowned bay window . After being destroyed in the war , it is now significantly reduced in height. The four mezzanines on the risalite side and the mansard roof were also destroyed. The two facades each have five window axes and two risalits each. The three upper floors are each designed differently and varied with their plastering elements and window frames. This multiple structure and diversity of different facade design elements soon caused criticism, as the art historian Karl Steinacker described the hotel building in 1906 as "otherwise not flawless".

history

The hotel was originally called Metropol . It was sold in 1912 and the new owner renamed it Monopoly and had three shops built on the ground floor so that the hotel could run. For 70 years it was located directly opposite the Braunschweig terminus and was therefore a well-known, direct contact point for travelers. During the Second World War, the area around the hotel, especially the train station, was badly damaged by Allied bombing raids. On March 28, 1945, the hotel was badly damaged in a bombing raid when an incendiary bomb almost destroyed the building. But it could be obtained in a slightly different design. On the one hand, the station was badly damaged by bombing; on the other hand, traffic planners were of the opinion that a terminus station was out of date. The station was closed in 1960 and the new Braunschweig main station opened about one kilometer further on October 1, 1960 in the south-east of the city.

With the relocation of the station, the entire area around Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz suddenly lost its economic importance, as commuter traffic decreased significantly and most of the traffic flows were diverted. The Hotel Monopol also suffered as a result, it lost its unique location advantage. The war damage had been repaired, but the business became economically unprofitable due to a lack of customers, so that the monopoly had to close in the 1970s. After many changing tenants, the house was finally almost in ruins. In 1986 the last hotel owner was able to sell it to the city of Braunschweig.

After extensive renovation work in 1989/1990, it was used as an office and commercial building. After further renovations, the building is to be reopened as a luxury hotel in the near future (as of May 2018).

Trivia

The writer Ricarda Huch lived in the neighboring house on the Bruchtorwall from 1907 to 1910 . In the 1950s Uwe Seeler , soccer player for Hamburger SV , occasionally stayed in a monopoly. In 1974, the then hotel owner was murdered by two young people who needed money to travel to France. The booty was 90 DM . The Braunschweig author Alexander Wallasch published his first novel Hotel Monopol as "Alexander Wall" in 2006 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hotel Monopoly  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kimpflinger: monuments in Lower Saxony. Volume 1.1 .: City of Braunschweig , part 1, p. 236.
  2. ↑ quoted from: Christina Krafczyk: Constantin Uhde. Building in Braunschweig. P. 296.
  3. ↑ a b c d Ann Claire Richter: A hotel with history - and Uwe Seeler as an overnight guest.

Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 35.4 "  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 11.2"  E