Jahnplatz
| Jahnplatz | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Jahnplatz with Alcinauhr |
|
| Basic data | |
| place | Bielefeld |
| District | Bielefeld center |
| Confluent streets |
Alfred-Bozi-Strasse, Bahnhofstrasse, Friedrich-Verleger-Strasse, Herford Strasse, Niedernstrasse, Niederwall, Wilhelm-Verleger-Strasse |
| Buildings | Alcinauhr, House of Technology |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic |
The Jahnplatz is a central place in the city of North Rhine-Westphalian city of Bielefeld . It is the most important junction for the light rail (underground stop for all four lines) and all buses serving the city center, as well as the meeting point for the night buses . It is named after the "gymnastics father" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn . At Jahnplatz, the traffic routes Herford Strasse, Friedrich-Verleger-Strasse, Niederwall and Alfred-Bozi-Strasse / Oberntorwall intersect (clockwise). The Bahnhofstrasse shopping area begins in the northwest. The pedestrian zone of the old town connects to the southwest . The center of the square is a pavilion that houses a fast-food restaurant , as well as the so-called "Alcinauhr", a foundation of the Bielefeld-based pharmaceutical company Dr. Wolff Medicines . The House of Technology , today part of Bielefelder Stadtwerke , was built in 1929 according to plans by the Berlin architect Heinrich Tischer in the New Objectivity style. It was the first skyscraper in Bielefeld.
history
Until the 19th century, the square was outside the city in front of the Niederntor. Here the roads to Herford, Schildesche and Heepen split. It received its name on October 18, 1861. In the same year, the Bielefeld gymnastics club planted an oak tree on the largely undeveloped site. In 1883 the Bielefeld gymnastics community donated a bust of Jahn , this monument was erected on October 21, 1883. In the following decades, the first development with a post office, hotel, banks and a textile house took place. In terms of transport, the square gained importance through the construction of the tram in 1900/02.
In the course of the Second World War, the Jahnplatz was badly damaged, and the Jahn bust was also lost. In 1955/57 the square was fundamentally redesigned. Apart from the trams and light rail vehicles that have been running underground since the early 1990s, essential elements of this conversion are still in place today. The redesign initially affected the route and the location of the trams. Up to now there was a central stop in the middle of the square, this was replaced by two stops moved to the edge at the beginning of Alfred-Bozi-Straße (line 1) and Niederwall (line 2). Access to these new holding islands should be through an underground connection. This was made possible by removing the train from Bahnhofstrasse. In addition, the Stadtwerke decided in 1955 for a new route for line 3 from Kesselbrink no longer through Wilhelm-, but Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. Berliner-Platz (today Willy-Brandt-Platz) was to be the new tram meeting point. The bus stops came on the roadsides between junctions and exits.
The pedestrian tunnel
The underpass below Jahnplatz was opened as one of the first pedestrian tunnels on July 19, 1957, with nationwide attention. It connects Bahnhofstrasse with Niedernstrasse and Niederwall as well as with the tram stops that were newly built at the time. The tunnel was provided with escalators and contained a newspaper kiosk, a sales point for the municipal utilities, toilets and information boards for events, cinema, etc.
This was preceded by a discussion about the traffic-friendly design of downtown Bielefeld. Increasing motorized traffic - the 19,000 vehicles counted daily in 1952 rose to 25,000 vehicles counted within a year - represented an increasing obstacle for pedestrians. The removal of a kiosk and a public speaker system did not bring any relief. At that time, the traffic planners in the sense of the car-friendly city thought primarily of car traffic. A fundamental renovation was made easier by the fact that large parts of the adjacent buildings had been in ruins since the war bombing. The ring road around the old town, which previously consisted of two parallel streets, was redesigned by removing one row of buildings into wide four-lane and multi-lane streets with a separate tram body on the wide median, which for example meant that the neighboring Schillerplatz in front of the town hall lost its square character. For Jahnplatz, it was finally preferred to move pedestrian traffic underground. Considerations about building a car tunnel were rejected for financial reasons. The planned costs for an "upper deck for traffic vehicles" and a pedestrian tunnel were put at 3.7 million marks .
In May 1956, construction work began on the “Jahnplatzspinne”, as the Bielefeld daily newspapers soon called the structure. The central island of the square, previously a large triangular island with stops on all sides, a common platform for all trams, became a triangle with a small lawn. After fourteen months of construction, the 86 meter long tunnel with 11 entrances and exits was finally opened.
1960 to 2020
In the 1970s, the tunnel project, which was celebrated as progressive in terms of urban planning, increasingly faded, the walls were smeared with graffiti and the tunnel was felt to be inhospitable, especially in the evening hours. The space and tunnel were only upgraded again with the construction of the underground light rail system. This construction work dragged on for a long time due to financial problems, for a few years until 1977 there was even a construction freeze.
In May 1983 the tram was removed from Alfred-Bozi-Straße. The entrances to the Jahnplatz tunnel to the stops that were no longer needed lost their meaning. From October 1986, after the relocation of line 3 from Kesselbrink to the town hall, all tram lines again ran across the square. The underground station Jahnplatz could finally be opened together with the stations Hauptbahnhof , Wittekindstrasse and Nordpark on April 28, 1991, which was also the starting point of the "Stadtbahn Bielefeld".
The Ostwestfalendamm bypass, which was built similar to a motorway in the 1980s, eased traffic . However, the pedestrian-friendly design promised at the time could not be achieved. The roofs of the bus stops that were newly erected during the redesign in the early 1990s received a lot of criticism.
The pedestrian tunnel was expanded to include additional sales areas and reopened as Forum Jahnplatz . It has thus become a shopping arcade that is no longer accessible in the evening and at night. The new bust of Jahn, donated in March 1994, is also in this shopping arcade. A fast-food restaurant was built on the site of the former tram stop on Niederwall.
Renovation 2020
In July 2020, extensive renovation work began on Jahnplatz. The renovation is a central project of the mobility strategy, which was approved by the Bielefeld City Council. The main goals of the project are climate protection and promoting the traffic turnaround through more attractive bicycle and public transport offers. Two years of construction are planned for the construction work. During this time, Jahnplatz is completely closed to through traffic and will be rerouted. This also applies to the numerous bus routes that go to Jahnplatz. Lines were adapted here and stops were temporarily relocated.
The redesign is funded by the state and the European Union from the "Emission-Free Inner City" program with 18 million euros.
The platform jahnplatz-bielefeld.de was set up to provide information to the public , where a webcam can be accessed in addition to plans and news.
Light rail and bus transport
The underground tram stop Jahnplatz represents a central transfer point in the tram network in addition to the main train station and town hall stops . Here, all lines stop at a platform on the same level. There are six entrances and exits, some of which have escalators and elevators. A moBiel service center is located on the central middle level , and there is also a connection to the “Forum Jahnplatz” with some shops.
The bus stops of the city lines and some bus lines operating in the surrounding area are under the bus platform roofing directly at the tunnel exits. There are other bus stops in Herford and Friedrich-Verleger-Straße. Since August 2005, the above-ground stop area has also been under video surveillance.
future
The Jahnplatz, which has remained largely unchanged for around fifty years and is heavily influenced by post-war architecture, has long been a controversial point of discussion, similar to the nearby Kesselbrink before its redesign. In particular, it is intended to relieve traffic and thus to concentrate more on pedestrian traffic. A continuous low-floor urban railway from Heepen to Sennestadt has been planned since 2012 . This should cross the square above ground and thus bring a tram back into the cityscape. However, this planning was abandoned after a public survey in 2014. The plans even extend to a complete block for car traffic as a pedestrian zone. On the other hand, there are also voices that emphasize the need to preserve the 1950s architecture.
literature
- Hey, Bernd ua (Ed.): History processes. Historical walks through Bielefeld , Bielefeld 1990/92, ISBN 3-921680-81-6
Web links
- July 19, 1957: The Jahnplatz tunnel is opened to the public. Bielefeld City Archives
Individual evidence
- ↑ July 19, 1957: "The Jahnplatztunnel is opened to the public". Bielefeld City Archives, accessed July 2, 2007
- ^ Bielefeld Jahnplatz moves - redesign of the lively center of Bielefeld. Retrieved on July 13, 2020 (German).
- ↑ moBiel starts video systems on Jahnplatz. In: webwecker-bielefeld.de , accessed April 22, 2007
- ↑ Return of the hurried pedestrians. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 14, 2002
- ↑ Urban design. In: Citizens' proximity voter community for Bielefeld eV , accessed April 22, 2007
Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 23.7 ″ N , 8 ° 32 ′ 0 ″ E