Rosengarten Congress Center
The Kongresshaus Rosengarten is a congress and event center in Coburg , it is located at Berliner Platz 1. The name of the building is based on its location. It is located on the edge of Coburg's old town, on the north side of the historic rose garden , between Ketschendorfer Strasse and Alexandrinenstrasse. Completed in 1962, the Kongresshaus Rosengarten has a ballroom for concerts , celebrations or trade fairs and, since its renovation in 1987, has a further nine rooms for seminars and conferences . The building owner is the Coburg City Economic Development Corporation. The premises of the building are rented out for events by the management of the local authority's "Kongresshaus Rosengarten".
history
There were plans for a congress center in Coburg since the mid-1950s. Large dance events and multi-day congresses with many guests from all over Germany should help the city to gain more tourism. However, the financing of the building and its planned location in the popular rose garden were heatedly debated by the citizens of the city for several years. It was finally agreed on an inexpensive variant on the northern edge of the park. On June 13, 1955, the city council initially approved the construction of a “congress hall”. Instead of hiring a freelance architect, the city council decided in 1959 to implement the construction according to the plans of Oberstadtbaurat Behrens and city planning inspector Adolf Schneider. The industrial development company of the City of Coburg (now Coburg City of Coburg's Economic Development Corporation) acted as the building owner.
First construction
The first congress center cost 2.1 million DM; it was inaugurated on October 25, 1962 by the then mayor Walter Langer . The centerpiece was the large hall for around 750 visitors. In addition, there were two further conference rooms and various business rooms. The restaurant was on the upper floor and had a large roof terrace designed for 360 seats. Via the cantilevered "elephant staircase", as it was called by the population, guests could stylishly get into the rose garden and the water features that were set up after the redesign of the rose garden in August 1963 or up to the restaurant, to which it was equally accessible. Not every citizen of Coburg could appreciate the architecture with the cold, repellent-looking walls facing the city and the monstrous stairs into the park. The filigree glass building on the south side, which provided a lot of openness and allowed both insights and views, did not suit everyone's taste. The construction was also almost a million more expensive than planned. It soon became apparent that the necessary rooms were missing in the house and that the ballroom was too small. Nevertheless, many large, multi-day events took place in the 1960s and 1970s. State and federal associations of various institutions met here, and international guests appeared at balls, which were the social highlights of the city at the time. Since the mid-1970s, rock and pop artists as well as cabaret artists have increasingly come to the stage of the Kongresshaus Rosengarten.
Conversion or new construction
In the 1970s, the first building became increasingly exposed to construction defects that impaired operation. In February 1979, new plans for redesigning the congress center were therefore discussed in the Coburg city council. On July 5, 1984, after long discussions, the Coburg city council decided to renovate the congress center; on November 5, 1985, the renovation work began with the demolition of the elephant staircase. The building operator and owner was still the industrial development company of the city of Coburg with the chairman, mayor Karl-Heinz Höhn and the managing directors Wolfgang Gawin and Manfred Galda. They supervised the renovation and were also responsible for the further management of the house. The contract for the renovation was awarded to the award-winning Munich architect Hans-Busso von Busse (1930–2009) . He convinced those responsible by the fact that, although he had originally pleaded for a new building, he submitted ad hoc plans for the renovation that were within budget and creative and could give the building more flexibility. The renovation took a total of 24 months and cost 22.1 million DM. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs supported the city with loans and grants amounting to 13 million DM. On November 5, 1987, the Rosengarten Congress Center opened for the second time. Since then, it has had a floor space of 2571 square meters.
architecture
During the renovation, the architect Busse attached particular importance to the fact that the Coburg Congress House should stand out from the “conference bunkers” of other cities. There are therefore few rooms with right angles . Rather, the elongated building with its light and filigree steel-and-glass construction is an extraordinary but also timeless building that fascinates with its simple elegance and clarity.
Brightness, emphasized by a lot of white material, light and incidence of light was a central theme for the architect Hans-Busso von Busse . The glass fronts not only let in a lot of light, inside the building it is also broken several times by artistic influences or duplicated with mirrors in the lighting system.
North and west side
The facades appear closed with high walls on the north and west side facing the street. The building only opens up to the viewer via window niches and the distinctive entrance with its large roof. However, the closedness has the advantage that noises are excluded from the busy Berlin intersection. This structure was laid out in 1962 and was retained after the renovation in 1987.
South side
As early as 1962, the architects opted for an open construction with large window fronts on the south side, in the direction of the rose garden. The building was laid out asymmetrically. The large straight concrete staircase on the west side was opposed to a round glass stair tower in the east. In 1987 the south side was broken up, expanded and supplemented by a large semicircular extension instead of the staircase. This made it possible to create the space required for smaller meetings and seminars. A round stair tower marks the striking end point on the western side of the street (Ketschendorfer Straße). The glass extension now houses the Rosengarten restaurant on the ground floor with a direct connection to the large hall and the conference rooms on the floor above. The large hall extends over a middle part of the building on the ground floor with a direct view and exit to the rose garden. The already existing light-flooded staircase in the eastern foyer was also given a round winter garden as a porch in 1987. The conference rooms all face south, which is why they are very bright, quiet and have a unique view of the greenery, which can also be enjoyed from the roof terrace . The administrative rooms face north.
Art in architecture: glass, porcelain, painting
An important part of the Rosengarten Congress Center are its numerous art elements in the building . Sophisticated glass and porcelain art was made during the renovation in 1987 for the Rosengarten Congress Center by some of today's well-known artists from Germany and the Czech Republic. The Upper Franconian city has a firm name in the glass art scene thanks to the International Glass Prize of the Art Collections of the Veste Coburg . From the tradition of Thuringian porcelain, the Goebel-Galerie Rödental began a promising revival of porcelain sculpture in collaboration with contemporary sculptors. The art in building in the Kongresshaus Rosengarten is not imposing, it is simple and blends in. Only those who walk through the congress center with their eyes open will recognize the objects. Unusual for the time is the amount and variety of art that has been incorporated into the building's architecture. Light, light refraction and play of light, as well as the theme of “encounter”, which is characteristic of the location, were given to the artists and thus appear again and again. Some of the commissioned work has very individual features.
Foyer ground floor
- Wall balls (porcelain) on pillars in the main foyer (entrance area) by the sculptor Michael Schoenholtz and the painter Barbara Keidel.
- Glass carvings by glass artist Renato Santarossa (born 1943) in the winter garden (garden foyer).
- “Friendly encounters between people”, relief columns (porcelain) at the hall entrance, by sculptor Thomas Duttenhoefer .
Ballroom
- Glass sculpture “Wanderer between land and sea” by Renato Santarossa (born 1943).
restaurant
- In the restaurant and in the adjoining room, prism glasses by René Roubiček from Prague adorn the windows. When exposed to sunlight, these prismatic glasses - which are polished armored glass - throw rainbow-colored light rays into the rooms.
Coburg room / council room
- "The meal of Diana" - painting by the painter Gyorgy Stefula (1913–1999). The builders and the architect are immortalized in it.
- A chandelier (glass) by the Czech glass artist René Roubiček (one of the luminaries of glass art) from Prague hangs above the large round table .
- Porcelain balls as a wall element in the foyer in front of the council room of Michael Schoenholtz and Barbara Keidel.
- Relief columns (porcelain) by Thomas Duttenhoefer in the council room with the zodiac signs of the Coburg city council members from 1987.
Small Hall
Two cones with sculptures by Prof. Joachim Schmettau , Berlin. Material: porcelain with fireclay .
- “The Discussion”, in Kleiner Saal 1, and
- "The Dialog" in the Small Hall 3
First floor foyer
- "Porcelain island" - circular floor ceramic by Franz Denk (born 1942), ceramist from Coburg.
Western stair tower
- The tower is crowned by the "wind chimes with glass prisms" ( glass and metal ) by glass artist Florian Lechner (born 1938, from Nussdorf / Inn).
Rosengarten restaurant
- “Coburg Motifs”, 18 watercolors by the artist Ingrid M. Schmeck, show a special view of Coburg's sights.
Furnishing
Nine conference rooms of different sizes allow 16 variable room combinations for a wide variety of purposes. Whether a small hall or a conference room: daylight is mandatory in all rooms, from most of which you have a wide and unique view of the romantic rose garden. The roof terrace is a very popular meeting place during the seminar breaks. The large ballroom can accommodate up to a thousand guests and has modern conference and stage technology. The Rosengarten restaurant has been located on the ground floor with a terrace in the rose garden since 1987. As a useful addition to the congress and festival operations, it can be entered directly from Ketschendorfer Straße, but also has a direct connection to the Great Hall. Concert and event agencies will find suitable rooms for their tour events in the Kongresshaus Rosengarten, with extensive stage technology and technical staff. Behind the stage, in the “backstage area”, there are several artist cloakrooms in various sizes for artists. The Rosengarten Congress Center is also barrier-free .
Current
The Rosengarten Congress Center in Coburg not only fulfills the tasks of a congress and conference center, but also functions as a town hall . It is part of the infrastructure of the city of Coburg and enriches - in addition to the Landestheater Coburg - the cultural offerings, enlivens the event scene and stands for the quality of life and popularity of the city. Nevertheless, the building is repeatedly criticized, also because of its idiosyncratic architecture. Plans to rebuild or demolish the Kongresshaus Rosengarten in favor of a new building ensemble have repeatedly been considered, but are currently not ready for implementation.
swell
- New press Coburg v. Nov. 4, 1961, Coburg City Archives
- New press Coburg v. Oct. 25, 1962 and v. October 26, 1962, Coburg City Archives
- Coburger Tageblatt v. Nov. 6, 1987, Coburg City Archives
- New press Coburg v. Nov. 6, 1987, Coburg City Archives
- Bavarian State Newspaper v. Nov 13, 1987, Coburg City Archives
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′ 14.9 ″ N , 10 ° 57 ′ 55.5 ″ E