Langer Eugene

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Langer Eugene
Langer Eugene
Langer Eugene
Basic data
Place: Bonn
Construction time : 1966-1969
Architect : Egon Eiermann
Use / legal
Usage : office
Owner : federal agency for Real Estate tasks
Main tenant: United Nations
Client : Federal Republic of Germany
Technical specifications
Height : 115.0 m
Height to the roof: 115.0 m
Floors : 30th
Elevators : 13
Building material : steel
Building-costs: 50 million DM
Height comparison
Bonn : 2. ( list )
Germany : 43. ( list )
address
City: Bonn
Country: Germany

The Lange Eugen is a skyscraper in the Gronau district of Bonn , which was built from 1966 to 1969 according to plans by the architect Professor Egon Eiermann from Karlsruhe.

Since 2006 it has housed United Nations organizations . Until the move of the German Bundestag to Berlin in 1999, the building as the “new high-rise building” was the main location for the offices of the members of the German Bundestag . After the renovation was completed, eleven United Nations organizations moved into it from April 2006 and is part of the UN campus that opened in July 2006 . The Langer Eugen stands as a monument under monument protection and is a station of the historical round path towards democracy .

history

The Bundestag, which in since 1949 Federal Parliament met had, in 1951, a 160 offices to house its comprehensive deputies Abgeordnetenhochhaus built, which joined at the Houses of Parliament. He also rented some office space. A joint accommodation of other MPs, for whom the construction of a new office building was necessary, failed because of a construction freeze issued in 1956. This requirement, which was made due to the officially provisional character of the capital Bonn, was only relaxed when the lack of space at the beginning of the 1960s became more and more urgent. Therefore, plans were started for the construction of a new high-rise for members of the parliament.

The area between the Bundeshaus and the former Bonn sports facilities in the "Gronau", which were relocated to the new North Sports Park, was ideal for this purpose. In March 1965 Egon Eiermann received the order for the creation of the draft and the artistic direction; The project manager was the Eiermann student Georg Pollich . The foundation stone for the 115 meter high building was laid on August 29, 1966 , the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on May 10, 1968 and the inauguration on February 19, 1969; the members of the Bundestag and the committees of the Bundestag could refer to it until November 1, 1969. Lange Eugen got its name as an ironic, tongue-in-cheek allusion to the small height of the former Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier , on the basis of whose personal initiative - and also during his tenure - the building was built. The construction costs amounted to 50 million Deutschmarks . In 1975 the high-rise got glass doors on all office floors and an emergency landing platform on the roof for fire protection reasons . A stair tower serving as an escape route on the Rhine side was added by the Federal Building Department in 1979 , based on a design by Georg Pollich ( Stieldorf planning group ) . With the completion of the Lange Eugen , every member of the German Bundestag had their own 17 square meter office for the first time - open-plan offices were available for typists. The restaurant on the top floor offers an impressive view of the Siebengebirge , in good weather you can see Cologne Cathedral on the horizon .

Relatively early - almost 30 years after completion - the building was listed on November 26, 1997. The procedure was operated by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The conservationists justified their decision u. a. with the fact that the building, with its renunciation of hierarchical elements in the facade design, is a “vivid example of the understanding of democratic building in the young Federal Republic”. Due to the construction of the nearby and significantly higher Post Tower (2000-02), Lange Eugen lost its solitary character, which was regarded by the art historian Angelika Schyma as worth preserving, to mark the former parliamentary and government district and as a prelude to the Bonn city skyline.

After the Bundestag had moved to Berlin in the summer of 1999 as the seat of parliament and government was relocated, the "Lange Eugen" was initially used by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training and various national and international educational institutions. On May 28, 2003, the federal cabinet decided to give the building to the United Nations for permanent use. The necessary renovation was in the hands of the construction and property company NRW and took up estimated costs of 54.7 million euros. It was only associated with a few modifications in order to ensure that Eiermann's architecture was largely preserved. On March 31, 2006, the property was handed over to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety .

With the exception of the largest secretariat, that of the Framework Convention on Climate Change , all UN facilities in Bonn were relocated to the former landmark of the federal capital from April 2006. On July 11, 2006, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan inaugurated the UN campus in Langen Eugen. After the organizations moved in, some floors remained unoccupied and were kept free for the further settlement of UN institutions. After the renovation, the Lange Eugen offers space for around 675 employees. With the arrival of the UN organizations, it became an extra- territorial area. In the run-up to the opening of the UN campus, a 700 m long fence made of 5,600 bars was erected around the Lange Eugen in March / April 2006 for security reasons, and the mayor of Bonn, Bärbel Dieckmann, consented to its construction after long resistance. When the United Nations took over the building, the adjacent Hermann-Ehlers-Strasse was closed to traffic. To complete the UN campus, the south wing of the Federal Palace and the “ old high-rise building ” were rebuilt from 2009 to 2013 and the security-relevant facilities in the basement of the Langen Eugen were also expanded. Since then, the security fence has run across the middle of the street. Since July 2010, part of the climate secretariat has also been based in Langen Eugen.

Since the beginning of May 2006, three large illuminated emblems have been shining on the roof of the Langen Eugen and indicate the new headquarters of the UN in Bonn. For technical reasons, no UN emblem could be affixed to the side facing the Rhine. With the UN emblems, the Lange Eugen now stands for international Bonn, while it was previously associated with Bonn as the federal capital, and thus represents the structural change that has taken place in Bonn.

architecture

Depending on the information, the building is between 114 and 117 meters high - existing since the installation of a new air-conditioning system on the roof in September 2003 - is spread over 30 floors, and there are also three basement floors. At the time of use by the Bundestag, upper floors 3 to 17 each housed 30 office rooms for 446 members of parliament. The other floors 19 to 28 were used by the committees , which worked there in meeting rooms, offices and conference rooms. Technical facilities for building operations were or are located on floors 18 and 30, while the 29th and thus the top floor offered space for a restaurant .

The structure of the high-rise consists entirely of steel . This is a special feature for (Central) European conditions, because in this country buildings are usually made of concrete . For this reason, the Lange Eugen is also the tallest steel building in Germany, although it only ranks 44th in the list of all skyscrapers in Germany . A total of 410 office rooms have been available since the modernization. 36 meeting rooms and 4 conference rooms are available for smaller meetings. There is also a library .

  • Bonn-1249, Langer Eugen.jpg
  • Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F025360-0006, Bonn, view from the high-rise in the Tulpenfeld.jpg
  • Bonn-UN.jpg
  • Bonn Langer Eugen Rhine page 2009-06-01.JPG
  • Langer Eugen - Deutsche Welle UN Campus.jpg
  • Langer Eugen, Bonn, June 2018.jpg

Architect's comment

When the contract was awarded, the architect himself emphatically warned:

“It stands in isolation like an embarrassing finger in the area. That is out of the question, that would be a torso. "

- Egon Eiermann

So it came about that the high-rise building from 1969 dominated the silhouette of the city monolithically on the banks of the Rhine for the entire era of Bonn as the federal capital. Only with the Post Tower in 2002 did the Lange Eugen get a second vertical counterpart.

reception

“It was the most obvious gesture to suddenly point out of the stretched-out landscape of the banks of the Rhine in Bonn and send a signal with the banally claimed vertical: Attention, capital! (...) In the meantime, the "Lange Eugen" stands unrivaled in the Rheinuferpark, as a pure symbol, free from the hardships of the plot. Where floor speculative arbitrariness is not sufficient, such building freedom easily comes into the smell of formalistic arbitrariness, which secured the "Tall Eugen" the autocratic outline. "

- Heinrich Klotz (1978)

“Finely proportioned and carefully subdivided, the shape of the facade of the exterior is particularly evident, which is surrounded by corridors on all floors. (...) All of this was artistically successful and does the architect credit. Nevertheless, the lonely high-rise giant, similar to the new Bonn town hall , offers a prime example of what one shouldn't do: In the wake of the expansion of the capital, the cityscape of Bonn was overwhelmed by grafting high-rise giants of cosmopolitan proportions onto it regardless of the landscape and urban development (...). "

- Frank-Lothar Kroll (1989)

"A raised box with an elegant base on which the box seems to float, so it looks light, with a pleasantly differentiated, if strictly grid-like facade, useful and trying to control space in a somewhat awkward manner."

- Mathias Schreiber (1992)

“The high-rise building points like a finger at the government district. (...) Structurally, this high-rise, like the townhouse, is a violation of the Bonn urban landscape that unfolds in the Rheinbogen. "

- Jan Thorn-Prikker (1992)

“The structure made of steel and glass rises in perfect harmony (...). Horizontal panels and vertical support rods give the building a liveliness and organic structure without adopting the form of " organic building ". Skeleton and shell, Eiermann combines both here in such a way that both elements remain visible and effective and complement each other harmoniously. The mass dissolves into a structure of lines without foregoing physicality. The architect's intention to dispense with symbols reduces the structure in its simple clarity to its pure form. The fact that this "form", as it were a "built consideration" ( Pehnt ), nevertheless became a symbol for the Federal Republic speaks for its artistically pronounced ambition. The non-hierarchical division clearly symbolizes a piece of democratic building. "

- Angelika Schyma (1996)

“The 'Lange Eugen' remained a foreign body for many, despite its national symbolism, which had grown over the decades. But what would have happened if his architect Egon Eiermann had laid it flat, as was an alternative thought at the time? The skyscraper on the Rhine was by no means a spontaneous dream, but rather the product of careful considerations in terms of location and shape (...). "

- Friedrich Busmann (2004)

architectural art

The Lange Eugen is equipped with some works by visual artists installed as art in buildings , which were directly commissioned by the Federal Building Department at the time. For one of the lintels above the double doors of boardrooms of the artist created Günther Uecker an illuminable nail object as kinetic art . The painter Georg Meistermann designed two additional over-portals and three wall sides in the large conference room with his chronicle of honor for democratic behavior , which lists the names of politicians, scientists and artists associated with democracy and humanitarian values ​​on 69 surrounding glass panels. The over-port of the former meeting room of the Defense Committee shows the thematically related work Weltgericht (Inferno of War) by the artist HAP Grieshaber , designed as a triptych . A relief work by the sculptor Fritz Koenig made of aluminum, the Large Ball Relief II , can be seen as the overhang of another conference room; also a painting by Emil Schumacher placed on a metal plate , a plastic relief by the sculptor Günter Ferdinand Ris and, as a tapestry, a woolen carpet by the weaver Woty Werner . The glass mosaic stones (1970) by Hans Kaiser, originally installed in the entrance hall, are located in the corridor on the 27th floor .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Langer Eugen  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UN high-rise at CTBUH
  2. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 25, number A 3349
  3. ↑ a b Entry on the former high-rise building "Langer Eugen" in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association (with description of the LVR Office for Monument Preservation in the Rhineland , 1996/2005/2015)
  4. ↑ Everybody crazy - because the "Lange Eugen" is flammable, Bonn's parliamentarians want to rebuild it. In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 1972 ( online - Feb. 28, 1972 ).
  5. ↑ Langer Eugen - Employees of the United Nations , General-Anzeiger (Bonn), Freizeitguide online ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) work in the former high-rise building.
  6. ↑ Angelika Schyma: The "Lange Eugen" - the "high house" as a monument , p. 159.
  7. ↑ Bernd Leyendecker: Langer Eugen is being renovated for 81 million marks , General-Anzeiger , September 26, 2001
  8. ^ UN Campus Bonn , Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning
  9. ↑ a b The security fence is taking shape , General-Anzeiger , March 30, 2006
  10. ↑ 2.50 meter high fence is being built for the United Nations , General-Anzeiger , March 4, 2006
  11. ↑ Renovation of the high-rise building , UN Campus Bonn , e-TGA Fellner
  12. ↑ Maps & Directions ( memento of October 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), UNFCCC
  13. ↑ Langer Eugen becomes higher , Kölnische Rundschau , September 13, 2003
  14. ↑ There is a crane in front of the tower , Kölnische Rundschau , September 16, 2003
  15. ^ Karl Gutzmer et al., In: Chronik der Stadt Bonn, Chronik-Verlag, Dortmund 1988, ISBN 3-611-00032-9 , p. 243
  16. ^ Heinrich Klotz: Iconology of a Capital - Bonn State Architecture . In: Ders .: Designing a new environment. Critical essays on contemporary architecture . CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1978, ISBN 978-3-7658-0280-5 , pp. 45-55; Martin Warnke (Hrsg.): Political architecture in Europe from the Middle Ages to today: Representation and community . DuMont, Cologne 1984, ISBN 978-3-7701-1532-7 , pp. 399-416 (here: p. 402).
  17. ^ Frank-Lothar Kroll: Federal capital Bonn. A Danaer present? In: Federal Ministry for Building, Regional Planning and Urban Development (Ed.): Forty Years Federal Capital Bonn 1949–1989 . CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1989, ISBN 3-7880-9780-9 , pp. 92-115 (here: p. 105).
  18. ^ Mathias Schreiber: Self-representation of the Federal Republic of Germany: Representation of the state in buildings and memorials . Jörg-Dieter Gauger , Justin Stagl : State Representation (= writings on cultural sociology , volume 12). Reimer, Berlin 1992, ISBN 978-3-496-00429-5 , pp. 191-204 (here: p. 196).
  19. ↑ Jan Thorn-Prikker: No experiments - everyday things on the edge of state architecture . In: Ingeborg Flagge, Wolfgang Jean Stock (Hrsg.): Architecture and Democracy . Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-7757-0402-7 , pp. 246-259 (here: p. 256).
  20. ↑ Angelika Schyma: The "Lange Eugen" - the "high house" as a monument , pp. 155, 158.
  21. ↑ The Lord Mayor of Bonn (Ed.); Friedrich Busmann : From the parliament and government district to the federal district. A Bonn development measure 1974-2004 . Bonn, June 2004, p. 55.
  22. ↑ Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development (ed.); Claudia Büttner: History of Art in Architecture in Germany . Berlin 2011, pp. 75-77. ( online PDF )
  23. ↑ Günther Uecker: o. T. , Museum of 1000 Places ( Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning )
  24. ↑ Georg Meistermann: Chronicle of Honor for Democratic Behavior , Museum of 1000 Places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  25. ↑ HAP Grieshaber: Last Judgment (Inferno of War) , Museum of 1000 Places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  26. ↑ Fritz Koenig: Big Ball Relief II , Museum of the 1,000 places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  27. ^ Emil Schumacher: o. T. , Museum of 1000 Places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  28. ↑ Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development : Short documentation of 200 works of art on building on behalf of the federal government since 1950 , BMVBS online publication No. 25/2012, December 2012, pp. 147–149. ( online PDF )
  29. ^ Woty Werner: o. T. , Museum of 1000 Places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  30. ↑ Hans Kaiser: Stones , Museum of 1000 Places (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
  31. ↑ Angelika Schyma: The "Lange Eugen" - the "high house" as a monument , p. 156.
  32. ↑ The Federal Minister for Spatial Planning, Building and Urban Development (ed.); Wolfgang Leuschner: Federal Buildings 1965–1980 . CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1980, ISBN 3-7880-9650-0 , pp. 208-215.


Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 6 ″  N , 7 ° 7 ′ 39 ″  E