Königsplatz (Augsburg)

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The stop triangle Königsplatz (2019)
Under the trees in the park area of ​​Königsplatz (2015)

The king place (in Augsburg shortly Koe called) is a place in the Augsburg city on the southwestern end of the pedestrian zone. Its tram and bus stop of the same name (also known as the “Haltestellendreieck”) is the central hub of Augsburg's public transport system . The Königsplatz has now largely been freed from its former role as the intersection of several main roads through traffic calming measures .

System and structure

In its current form, the Königsplatz has an irregular polygonal shape. It is sloping because its west side is higher than its east side. The Königsplatz is divided into several areas, each roughly triangular. Counterclockwise from the northeast:

  • The area east of the axis Fuggerstrasse - Konrad-Adenauer-Allee , formerly within the city. Annastrasse, Bürgermeister-Fischer-Strasse and Zeuggasse flow into it. It is paved and the Manzú fountain stands on it .
  • The northern area. Most of it is paved with demarcated "islands" of grass and trees, and the Thormann fountain stands on it . Its north side is actually the beginning of Bahnhofstrasse, but this part of Bahnhofstrasse is integrated into the square and no longer perceptible as a street.
  • The parking area along the busy Schaezlerstrasse. It is green and has a heavily shaded tree population of horse chestnut trees . At its southern tip is a crossing of four streets (Schaezlerstrasse, Halderstrasse, Hermanstrasse and Schießgrabenstrasse), the "Kaiserhofknoten".
  • The stop triangle with an associated, far cantilevered triangular building. The east side of this area is actually the beginning of Konrad-Adenauer-Allee, but this part of Konrad-Adenauer-Allee is integrated into the square and no longer perceptible as a street. The Katharinengasse flows into this area.

Stop triangle

The stop triangle has the following platforms as stops for the tram and bus routes. The bus routes are not mentioned here due to their large number:

  • Triangle side A (towards the park):
    • Steig A1: Tram line 1 (direction Lechhausen Neuer Ostfriedhof)
    • Steig A2: Tram line 1 (direction Göggingen)
    • Steig A3: Tram line 4 (direction Oberhausen Nord P + R)
    • A4: Tram line 4 (direction Augsburg Hauptbahnhof)
  • Triangle side B (east side):
    • Steig B1: Tram line 2 (direction Haunstetten Nord)
    • Step B2: tram line 2 (direction Augsburg West P + R)
  • Triangle side C (south side):
    • Steig C1: Tram line 3 (direction Stadtbergen)
    • Platform C2: tram line 3 (direction Haunstetten West P + R)
    • Steig C3: Tram line 6 (direction Augsburg Hauptbahnhof)
    • Steig C4: Tram line 6 (direction Friedberg West P + R)

There are also the pure bus platforms D and E.

history

19th century

City map of Augsburg based on the "Kilianplan" by Wolfgang Kilian . The Gögginger Tor and the Göggingerwall can be seen roughly in the middle of the upper city wall.
Demolition of the earth bastion of the Gögginger Tor , around 1860
Königsplatz on an Augsburg city map from 1905

At the place of the Königsplatz there was originally the Gögginger Tor with the bastion "Göggingerwall", city ​​wall and moats . After Augsburg Central Station was built west of the city in front of the medieval city walls in 1843 and the importance of the railroad increased significantly, the demand for better access became loud, because the connection via the Gögginger Tor was cumbersome.

Augsburg was an important military location in the Kingdom of Bavaria . Changes to the fortifications were therefore only possible with the approval of the royal government. In March 1860 King Maximilian II gave his place after years of insistence on the part of the Fuggerstadt residents. The “immediate installation of the fortress structures at Gögginger Tor” was the first to be permitted. The earth bastion was removed from the autumn of 1860 and the moat was filled in at this point. In January 1861 the concession was made to grind ramparts, ditches and city walls on both sides of the Gögginger Tor to a length of 500 paces. In June 1862 the tower built by Elias Holl at Gögginger Tor was torn down. On January 12, 1866, King Ludwig II finally lifted Augsburg's status as a fortress. As a thank you for the permission to demolish the city fortifications, the Augsburgers gave the newly created area (previously called “Gögginger-Tor-Platz”) the name “Königsplatz” on July 17, 1869.

The fact that Augsburg's fortress status was abolished also made it possible to continue demolishing the city wall north and south of the former Gögginger Tor and backfilling the associated moat. Following the example of many other European metropolises, the Kaiserstraße (south of Königsplatz, today Konrad-Adenauer-Allee ) and the 48-meter-wide Fuggerstraße boulevard (north of Königsplatz to the city ​​theater ), which was lined with the townhouses of rich citizens and various department stores, were built there . In the following years, the station district was built on parts of the open space to the west . In the generosity of the planning, the growing importance of Augsburg should become visible, in keeping with the spirit of the Gründerzeit.

A small park on the Königsplatz was to serve as a “green quiet zone” in the center of the already hectic city. Since 1880 there has been a fountain with a round, 12 meter large basin, the Thormann fountain, in its center . The fountain was created by Alfred Thormann and is considered the first concrete structure in Augsburg.

With the construction of the horse tram , the forerunner of today's Augsburg tram , in 1881 a stop was also set up at Königsplatz. At that time, however, the central traffic junction was still Ludwigsplatz (today Rathausplatz).

20th century

Königsbau building on the edge of Königsplatz

In 1897, the first plans matured to connect Königsplatz and Moritzplatz with a new street and thus better develop the city center. On October 15, 1903, the city council decided on this construction project, which triggered the demolition of a total of 30 houses. The breakthrough of the Bürgermeister-Fischer-Strasse (named after Ludwig von Fischer ) took place in 1906. New commercial buildings were built on both sides of the Bürgermeister-Fischer-Strasse, including the Landauer department store ( “ Aryanized ” as a central department store during the Nazi era ). In 1912, the Riegele-Haus , named after the Riegele brewery , was completed at the confluence of the street in Königsplatz , and the Königsbau was placed opposite it in 1913/1914 , which housed a cinema and an entertainment venue and is now mainly used by a fashion house.

With the new construction of the Bürgermeister-Fischer-Straße, the tram network in the inner stand could also be rearranged. In 1905, three lines converged at Königsplatz, which meant that Ludwigsplatz lost its importance as a central transfer point. Due to the growing number of passengers, Königsplatz was expanded in 1914 to include a pavilion with ticket sales and waiting areas , which was known by the population as the “mushroom” due to its shape.

In the years 1933 to 1945, the Königsplatz - like many central squares during the Nazi era - was called Adolf-Hitler-Platz ; after the end of the Second World War it got its original name back.

Reconstruction 1976/1977

Stop triangle with buildings from 1977

After the Königsplatz had remained structurally almost unchanged for sixty years, the city government decided in the mid-1970s, after lengthy discussions, to adapt the facilities to the traffic requirements of the time in a radical conversion measure. Between 1976 and 1977, the stop was finally relocated from its previous location to the southern end of the park and expanded into a large triangle of stops. Part of the green space had to be sacrificed for this measure. To compensate, the actual park was restored to its original shape. In addition, new trees were planted. The “mushroom” was canceled in April 1977, amid protest by the population who had valued it as a central meeting place for decades. A cafe building (roundabout) was planned as a replacement, which would have taken up the look of the earlier building with its circular shape. However, the planned building was never realized. The Manzù fountain was built in its place in the mid-1980s .

21st century

Pre-planning a new redesign

Around thirty years after the fundamental redesign, the Augsburg city administration once again announced extensive construction measures for Königsplatz as part of the planning for the Augsburg mobility hub. In addition to enlarging and modernizing the bus stop, urban development and design measures are intended to restore the identity of Königsplatz as a central meeting point for the population, which, according to proponents of the renovation, has almost been lost since the redesign in 1977 due to planning deficiencies. In fact, this Königsplatz was praised at the time for its design with a lot of green and for the public transport concept with short transfer routes. The official planning envisaged a waiver of greenery in the bus stop area. A realization competition that was also held proposed the extensive clearing of the adjacent green area (around 150 trees).

On November 25, 2007, a referendum took place on the conversion, in which the citizens of Augsburg voted on whether an ideas competition for an overall traffic concept should take place before the conversion. 53.2% of the citizens voting decided for this competition. The turnout was 25%. The city of Augsburg therefore launched an open, single-stage, interdisciplinary ideas competition on July 9, 2008. His subject was the development of an integrated concept for urban space and mobility for downtown Augsburg. Based on this concept, exemplary urban guiding ideas should be shown for important streets and squares and design approaches should be developed that are tailored to the proposed use and traffic significance of the public space. Due to the complex nature of the task, the formation of working groups of town planners / architects, transport planners and landscape architects was mandatory. The deadline for submitting the competition entries was November 21, 2008. After the preliminary examination of the work, the jury met on May 4th / 5th. February 2009.

The new city government made up of CSU and Pro Augsburg now favored a car-free Königsplatz with relocation of the main traffic axes. At first there was civil resistance to this plan. On June 12, 2010, the Augsburg city council decided on the final traffic management at Königsplatz. It was a decision of approval and interpretation for the development plan number 500 "Königsplatz and Augsburg-Boulevard (between Kennedy- and Theodor-Heuss-Platz)". A new traffic routing was defined therein. The citizens concerned could then raise objections again in the pending proceedings. Independently of this, the public vote for a referendum calling for the construction of a tunnel at Königsplatz was already running. In the referendum on November 21, 2010, the eligible voters could vote separately on a council petition (proposal 1) and on the referendum (proposal 2) as well as a ballot question. The city council alternative, which provided a precautionary “relief road” if necessary, was preferred by the voters with 73.9 percent yes votes. The construction of a tunnel not only failed due to the required quorum of 19,391 votes, but would also have been rejected by a majority with 68.1 percent of the counted valid votes. The turnout was 28.8 percent.

On December 16, 2010, the Augsburg city council passed the resolution for the development plan number 500 “Königsplatz and Augsburg-Boulevard”. The renovation should initially take place within a time frame from 2011 to 2012.

modification

The brightly lit bus stop triangle at night.

In April 2011, the preparatory measures for the Königsplatz renovation began. These included construction work on Schaezlerstrasse and Schießgrabenstrasse as well as at the Kaiserhof intersection. These were necessary in order to be able to set up the changed traffic management (cancellation of the one-way street regulation). A central information point, the so-called Infobox, was also set up during this time. In autumn 2011, in the area of ​​the dismantled Manzù fountain, the new construction of the so-called Manzù arch, a rail link between Fuggerstrasse and Bürgermeister-Fischer-Strasse. At the same time, the felling of the old trees in the park area began.

After the winter break, the old triangle of stops was taken out of service in March 2012 and a replacement timetable with replacement buses and modified tram lines was set up. The demolition of the building and the surface demolition then began. The renovation work on Schaezlerstrasse and Schießgrabenstrasse, as well as at the Kaiserhof intersection, which has been ongoing since 2011, was completed in autumn 2012 and the traffic axis will then be completely opened to traffic.

The new construction of the triangle of stops finally started in the spring of 2013. Over the summer months, in addition to the construction of the steel frame construction, the construction of the track systems and the paved surfaces were pushed ahead. The dismantling of the provisional Manzù arch was carried out according to plan in September 2013 and heralded the last major renovation phase on Königsplatz. In time for the official opening on December 15, 2013, all areas in the vicinity of Königsplatz and the adjacent parking areas were completed.

The new building at stops triangle has a striking, far in all directions cantilevered flat shed roof . Like the building itself, this has the shape of a triangle with rounded corners and is supported by columns. Its outer edge is illuminated at night.

Web links

Commons : Königsplatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Kießling: Towers - Gates - Bastions . Brigitte Settele Verlag, Augsburg 1987, p. 40 .
  2. ↑ a b “Augsburger Allgemeine” of March 23, 2006: Instead of a bastion, a “Königsplatz” .
  3. ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine from November 25, 2007: Augsburg's citizens stop quick conversion of the Kö .
  4. ^ "Inner city Augsburg" ideas competition ( Memento from September 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ City of Augsburg: Preliminary final result of the referendums Kö-Umbau 2010 ( Memento from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ City of Augsburg: Königsplatz and Augsburg-Boulevard ( memento from July 17, 2013), queried on February 4, 2011
  7. ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine from May 13, 2010: This is what Königsplatz will look like in the future . Augsburger Allgemeine from May 30, 2010: Augsburg: A city turns in circles ( Memento from June 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Augsburger Allgemeine from June 4, 2010: Mayor and speaker promote their course .

Coordinates: 48 ° 21 '56.2 "  N , 10 ° 53' 40.2"  E