Cologne Exhibition Tower
| Exhibition tower | |
|---|---|
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| List of high-rise buildings in Cologne | |
| Basic data | |
| Place: | Cologne-Deutz |
| Construction time : | 1927-1928 |
| Status : | completed |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Office building, tower restaurant |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 85 m |
| Height to the roof: | 70 m |
The 85 meter high Cologne Exhibition Tower is located on the northwest corner of the Rheinhallen in Cologne-Deutz , which was part of the Koelnmesse exhibition center .
Emergence
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On May 11, 1924, the Rheinhallen, or “exhibition halls”, opened with a spring fair. The horseshoe-shaped exhibition halls were initially not an ornament, the Cologne people disparagingly called them “Adenauer's horse stables”. Only when city architect Adolf Abel had it encased in brick between 1926 and the beginning of 1928 and added the accentuating exhibition tower to the complex did the criticism fall silent. Abel built the Cologne trade fair tower as a landmark and had the steel frame construction fitted with a curtain-type brick facade. This was the modern architecture of the time. The steel construction was built by Humboldt AG from Cologne-Kalk , one of the predecessor companies of today's Deutz AG. The brick cladding shared with the exhibition halls makes this building complex appear as a unit. The trade fair tower was also available in time for the “ Pressa ”, an international exhibition on the newspaper industry, which took place on May 12, 1928 . It is considered part of the exhibition halls, which with their expressionistic brick facade and the exhibition tower are one of the distinctive features of the Cologne Rhine panorama. The exhibition tower is now towered over by many city buildings, but it is still an important landmark in the city of Cologne. Like the Rheinhallen surrounding it, it is a listed building.
On its roof there is a sculpture of three faces, which are supposed to symbolize Hermes , the messenger of the gods and god of merchants. As the god of merchants, the sculpture represented a symbol for the trade fairs taking place in the exhibition halls. The cog wheel (back) symbolizes industry, the laurel wreath (left) art and the wing (right) trade in the form of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and the fish the nearby Rhine.
use
The exhibition tower has been used for conference purposes since its construction. A bronze plaque on the trade fair tower reminds that the trade fair was used as a satellite camp of Buchenwald concentration camp from September 1942 . The view from the Messeturm inspired Oskar Kokoschka for his painting “View of the City of Cologne from the Messeturm” (1956). Until September 2005, the exhibition tower was used by Koelnmesse as a conference and meeting location. The "Messeturm-Restaurant", which is now closed, was located on the top floor at a height of 70 meters. It is planned to use the exhibition tower as a "service apartment house". It ranks 16th on the list of high-rise buildings in Cologne .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Merian, Volume 47, 1994, p. 108
- ↑ Roland Günter, The German Werkbund and its members 1907-2007 , 2009, p. 288
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 40 " N , 6 ° 58 ′ 11.7" E