New Kurhaus Aachen
The New Kurhaus in Aachen , built between 1914 and 1916, is a neoclassical building in Aachen. The Kurhaus is located on the edge of the Aachen city garden on Monheimsallee and is named Monheimsallee 44. The building is a listed building .
history
From the second half of the 19th century, the flourishing industrial development increasingly hampered spa life in Aachen. The city spa facilities were spread across the city center and were often in the immediate vicinity of factory buildings. The consequence of this was a decline in the number of spa guests, especially from the wealthy clientele. As early as the turn of the 20th century, the city was looking for ways to revitalize the spa business. It was decided to build a new health resort near the city center on the area of what was then the hospital garden at the foot of the Wingertsberg . The Maria-Hilf-Spital had been on this site since 1855 (construction period 1848–1855), which was one of the most modern hospitals in Aachen with 386 beds at the beginning of the 20th century. At the end of 1913, the Maria-Hilf-Spital was relocated to the Josefinum on Goethestrasse. From February 1, 1914 to April 1, 1914, the hospital buildings were demolished to make way for the New Kurhaus.
To designate a new Kurhaus was decided because of the tradition of the previous episode spa buildings in Aachen. The first health resort to be used in the 18th century was the Alte Redoute at Komphausbadstrasse 11, which was replaced by the Neue Redoute - better known today as the Altes Kurhaus - from 1786 .
The city of Aachen leased the area around the city garden to the stock corporation for spa and bathing operations of the city of Aachen, which was founded in 1914 . The planning for the entire spa complex on Monheimsallee was drawn up by the Munich architect and building contractor Karl Stöhr ; the renowned architect and university professor Theodor Fischer was involved as an expert in the further elaboration of the designs .
The entire spa complex included:
- the New Kurhaus
- a foyer with a drinking fountain. This was destroyed in World War II and not rebuilt. The Eurogress Aachen congress and event center was built on this site in the 1970s and was inaugurated on September 4, 1977.
- a spa house
- the palace hotel Quellenhof
The completion of the spa complex was scheduled for May 1, 1915 as part of the centenary celebrations that the Rhine Province belonged to Prussia. Due to the outbreak of the First World War and the associated shortage of materials and labor, completion was delayed by more than a year, so that the New Kurhaus could only be opened on June 8, 1916. There were two concert halls in the newly built Kurhaus, with the large concert hall able to hold up to 850 visitors. In addition, the building had reading rooms, smoking rooms, social and play rooms as well as two women's rooms . The dining facilities included a dining room as well as a wine salon and several coffee rooms. One of them led to a two-tier, electrically lit wine and beer terrace that was open to the concert square.
The building was badly damaged during the Second World War . After the restoration, the reopening took place on February 5, 1953 with a carnival session. Since then the house has been the venue for concerts and carnival events , etc. a. the order against the seriousness of the animal until 1976 when the newly founded casino in Aachen moved in and stayed there until 2015.
When it became clear that the building had to be fundamentally renovated, the casino relocated its headquarters from the New Kurhaus to the Tivoli building on June 11, 2015 . The move was initially only planned for a temporary period until the renovation of the building was completed. In a transitional period, the New Kurhaus was to be used to accommodate refugees until summer 2017 . Showers and toilets were built in and camp beds were set up, which were no longer needed. The building is now to be gutted and renovated by 2020. As a result, the city negotiated with several potential users. At first there were plans with the variety theater operator GOP. Then, after the renovation, the EXPLORADO company planned an event museum in the right wing of the building with a copy of the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo as a multimedia installation , while the casino was to be housed again in the left wing.
In 2018 it became apparent that the renovation costs would be significantly higher than the initially calculated approx. 20 million euros. As a result, negotiations with the potential users were ended. The casino was also released from the obligation to move back into the New Kurhaus after the renovation. Since then, the city of Aachen has been following a plan that provides for the predominant use by the neighboring Eurogress congress center. The costs for the renovation and the necessary equipment were calculated at around 50 million euros in mid-2019. The investment is politically controversial because of its size. CDU, SPD, Die Linke and FDP in the city council support them, Greens and pirates reject them.
architecture
The New Kurhaus is a two-story building. Behind the pillar porch, three arched French windows serve as the main entrance. Rectangular window doors with French balconies are arranged above this on the upper floor . The wings of the building adjoining the portico each have eight window axes; the upper floor is designed like a mezzanine with smaller octagonal windows. The decoration of the lower window crowns consists alternately of ears of wheat , bird and fish motifs in pairs. A reconstruction of a stylized pair of dolphins can be seen on the last jewelry on the left .
The portico of the main entrance is supported by six columns , the front of the capital of which is adorned with a shell motif between two laterally stylized volutes . In the tympanum field of the portico, reliefs depict the enthroned Aesculapius with a staff and Aesculapian snake , flanked by two nereids , each of which let water flow down from a shell. Fischer chose the obvious theme of water for the pictorial program , personified by the creation of Greek legends . A staircase with 11 steps, a modern, centrally arranged double handrail and two ramps lead to the main entrance, which is adorned with a bearded head, the two side entrances have female heads.
Behind the gable of the portico extends a long wing of the building with a gable roof , which merges into a large apsidal hall. The large vestibule had a large barrel vault and a surrounding picture gallery, which was equipped by artists from the Düsseldorfer Kunstverein . Statues of Charlemagne and Wilhelm II were attached to the front of the barrel vault . The ballroom in this sequence of rooms had 850 seats. On the sides of the hall building are the two inner courtyards behind the two wings of the main facade. They are not designed the same. The inner courtyard on the right as seen from Monheimsallee is larger than the left courtyard, whereas the latter has a long rectangular floor plan by comparison. The east side of the Kurhaus complex merged into terraces and a concert square with a light fountain in the city garden. Overgrown pergolas adorned the area.
Neighboring spa facilities
On the west side, arranged at a right angle, followed the neoclassical foyer with a thermal drinking fountain made of marble at its northern end. To the west of it is the neoclassical palace hotel Quellenhof.
The thermal water bathing hall of the Quellenhof has been fed by the rose spring in Komphausbadstrasse since 1936 . The 46 ° C hot thermal water was led to the Quellenhof and the foyer via an underground pipe.
Right next to the New Kurhaus is a music pavilion, which was previously used for daily spa concerts during the spa season. Events are rarely held here today.
The use of the spa facilities was chargeable. Entrance fees or visitor's taxes were collected from small ticket booths at various entrances to the park.
Picture gallery
Conversation room
reading room
Entrance hall
mosaic
patio
Glance into the pastry shop
Lobby
literature
- Wilhelm Weßberge (City Garden Director): The most important tree species in our city gardens. La Ruelle , Aachen 1908.
- Joseph Laurent: The new spa and bathing facilities at Bad Aachen. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 36th year 1916, No. 101 (from December 16, 1916) , p. 657 ff.
- Joint stock company for spa and bathing operations of the city of Aachen (Hrsg.): Rheuma-Bad Aachen. Graphic art institute Geulen & Nebe, Aachen 1918.
- Medizinalrat Peren: The spa and bath life in Aachen and Burtscheid. In: Albert Huyskens : Aachen. (= Germany's urban development ) Deutscher Architektur- und Industrie-Verlag , Berlin-Halensee 1925, pp. 95-104.
- Albert Huyskens: Aachen. (= Germany's urban development ) German architecture and industry publishing house, Berlin-Halensee 1928, p. #.
- Landeskonservator Rheinland (Ed.): List of monuments, 1.2: Aachen, other parts of the city. (with the assistance of Hans Königs , edited by Volker Osteneck) Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1978, p. 24 and 34.
- Remarkable trees in the city of Aachen. Contemporary witnesses of the city's history. (Ed. City of Aachen, The Lord Mayor, Aachen City Administration and Environment Department.) Aachen Foundation Kathy Beys. Klenkes, Aachen 2002.
- Juliano de Assis Mendonça: History of the public limited company for spa and bathing operations in the city of Aachen 1914–1933. (= Aachen Studies on Economic and Social History , Volume 9.) Aachen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8440-1520-1 .
Web links
- Casino Aachen ( Memento from July 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ The name Maria-Hilf-Straße today reminds of this former building. The street leads from Monheimsallee to Alexanderstraße.
- ^ Public limited company for the spa and bathing business of the city of Aachen (ed.): Rheumabad Aachen. Aachen 1918, p. 28.
- ^ City of Aachen (ed.): Aachen under construction 1952. Administrative report of the city of Aachen for the year 1952. Aachen 1953, p. 87.
- ↑ The new Kurhaus is now becoming a major construction site
- ^ Andreas Rossmann : New Kurhaus in Aachen: Sistine Casino . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 24, 2015, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 24, 2016]).
- ↑ Holger A. Dux : Aachen as it was . Droste, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7700-1429-3 , pp.?.
- ^ Public limited company for spa and bathing operations of the city of Aachen: Rheuma-Bad Aachen . Graphische Kunstanstalt Geulen & Nebe, Aachen, 1918, p.?.
- ^ Joseph Buchkremer: The youngest public buildings. in: Albert Huyskens: Aachen . Deutscher Architektur- und Industrie-Verlag, Berlin-Halensee 1925, pp. 53–61; 51, 54, 58, 59 (illustration of entrance, foyer, conversation room and reading room).
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 54 ″ N , 6 ° 5 ′ 35 ″ E