Porschestrasse

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Porschestrasse
Street in Wolfsburg
Porschestrasse
Porschestrasse to the north with the facade of the City-Galerie and the former post office building (right)
Basic data
place Wolfsburg
District City center
Created from 1951
Newly designed from 1977; 2004 to 2010
Connecting roads Heinrich-Nordhoff-Strasse, Heßlinger Strasse;
Braunschweiger Strasse
Cross streets Poststrasse,
Kleiststrasse,
Rothenfelder Strasse, Kaufhofpassage,
Maximilian-Kolbe-Weg, Goethestrasse,
Pestalozziallee, Schillerpassage
Places Sara-Frenkel-Platz,
Hugo-Bork-Platz
Hollerplatz
Buildings City gallery, town hall ,
Alvar-Aalto-Kulturhaus ,
art museum
use
User groups Foot traffic ; partly bus traffic and taxi traffic ; partly car traffic
Road design Granite pavement
Technical specifications
Street length 1300 m

The Porsche Street is the main shopping street in Wolfsburg . It was named after Ferdinand Porsche , who was chief executive officer of Volkswagenwerk GmbH from 1938 to 1945

history

Porschestrasse was built in 1951 and was planned as the main shopping street of the rapidly growing city. Before that, a few shops were concentrated on Kaufhof Street, which was built in 1949, and on Schachtweg. With a council resolution of January 30, 1951, the until then largely undeveloped "Rothehofer Strasse", which existed before 1945, was renamed Porschestrasse, just a few hours after Porsche's death became known. Construction began in the central and southern section between Rothenfelder Strasse and Bebelstrasse. The roadway was - with a wide median - twelve meters wide and four lanes; there were also wide sidewalks. Instead of the planned cycle paths and rows of trees, parking lanes and return lanes were set up.

The first store was the Großkopf bookstore in 1950. Shortly thereafter, further stores were opened, including the Haerder textile store of Lübeck- based August Haerder & Co GmbH on November 28, 1950 . In 1952 Volksbank Wolfsburg moved into the new building that was built that year and still exists today in Porschestrasse. In 1953, the Delphin-Palast cinema opened on what was then Delphinplatz, and the Noack Hotel at the southern end of Porschestrasse . In 1954 the Kreissparkasse Gifhorn and the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung moved into their newly built offices, and the WKS (Wolfsburg Kaufhaus Schwerdtfeger) opened the first Wolfsburg department store. In 1956 the section from Fallersleber Strasse (today: Heinrich-Nordhoff-Strasse) to Kleiststrasse was built. The Imperial Cinema was built in 1956 and the Town Hall in 1958 . In 1959 the “ rack building ”, which is now a listed building, was built according to plans by the architect Heinrich Senge . In the 1950s, the Wolfsburg police also opened their office in Porschestrasse.

In 1960 a Hertie department store was built on the property at Porschestrasse 2 , and in 1962 the cultural center designed by Alvar Aalto opened (later the Alvar Aalto cultural center ). In 1967, city planning officer Rüdiger Recknagel first presented the concept for a pedestrian zone in Porschestrasse.

In 1972 the newly built Hotel Holiday Inn (since 2014 Leonardo ) started operations, but it is located on a plot of land on Rathausstrasse. The Haerder City Center, which opened on November 12, 1973, was the first shopping center in Porschestrasse to combine various independent retail stores under one roof. In addition to the Haerder clothing range , the center also housed a travel agency , a jewelry store, a toy store, a magazine store and a pet store, and a grocery store in the basement. The center was built in 1972/73 according to plans by the Lübeck architect Karl August Müller-Scherz and completed at the top with a parking garage that still exists today and 29 apartments. After the center was closed, Müller and H&M , among others, opened branch stores in the building complex, and part of the area was converted into the Schillergalerie. In 1975, the self-managed youth center Mitte was set up in the closed Hotel Noack , previously there was a leisure home in the cultural center. In the 1970s, the Wolfsburg police moved their headquarters from Porschestraße 45 to the new building on Heßlinger Straße that still exists today.

Between 1977 and 1980 the middle section of Porschestrasse was redesigned as a pedestrian zone , and on March 1, 1977 the groundbreaking ceremony took place . In the 1980s, the southern section was converted into a pedestrian zone. A long existing line of sight to Wolfsburg Castle was destroyed at the end of the 1970s when the business pavilions were built in the pedestrian zone. The Südkopf Center was opened in 1990, and the Central Youth Center was demolished for its construction . As a replacement, the Kaschpa , a center for children and adolescents , was built in part of the indoor pool . The art museum was built until 1994, and in December 1999 the “Haerder City Center” was closed again. In 2001 the “City-Galerie” was opened, a shopping center belonging to the ECE Group. In 2003 the Hertie department store closed.

In 2004 it was decided to redesign the entire length. Construction work lasted until 2010. 16,500 square meters were paved with Chinese granite slabs; A glass roof was erected over the central Hugo-Bork-Platz, which was expanded in 2014. The expansion cost a total of eleven million euros. The footfall rose after conversion to 4245 per day, reaching the sixth-highest figure in Lower Saxony .

  • Porschestrasse from the intersection with Heinrich-Heine-Strasse, with line of sight to Wolfsburg Castle (1973)

  • Porschestrasse from the town hall, on the left the Haerder-City-Center under construction, in the background the Volkswagen factory (1973)

  • The northern section, in the background a tower of the Autostadt

  • The rack construction

Plant, traffic and structures

Porschestrasse runs in a straight line roughly from north-northeast to south-southwest. It is paved with granite and is designated as a pedestrian zone except for the northern section . In the northern section between Heinrich-Nordhoff-Straße and Poststraße only regular buses and taxis run. The width is around 40 meters. In large parts a two-row avenue of plane trees runs in the middle . In the street there are almost exclusively shops, but also medical and law offices and some cultural institutions. Most of the buildings are two to four storeys high, but there are also significantly higher structures. The architecture reflects architectural styles from the 1950s to 2000s. Some buildings protrude into the street space. In the middle of the street there are pavilions in several places, which also contain shops. Part of the central bus station is located in the widened road system at the north end, known as the north head . The main train station and the phæno , among others, are nearby . About 100 meters to the south is Sara-Frenkel-Platz, which was named after the former slave laborer Sara Frenkel . A copper-clad beech trunk reminds of the suffering of the forced laborers up to 1945. Next to it is the “market hall”, which opened in 2009 and is now largely empty. In the further course there are numerous water features in the middle of the street .

Hugo-Bork-Platz with a glass roof and dolphin cinema

In the center of Porschestrasse is Hugo-Bork-Platz (previously unofficially Delphinplatz), named after the former Wolfsburg mayor Hugo Bork . Part of the square has been covered by a glass roof since 2010, which has been around 730 square meters since an expansion and cost a total of 1.2 million euros.

Town hall market with (from left) town hall, Alvar-Aalto-Kulturhaus, art museum and savings bank

To the south of the crossing Pestalozziallee are bank buildings and shops on the west side, including the “Südkopf-Center”, which opened in 1990 and whose architecture is intended to be reminiscent of a ship, at the southern end. On the east side are the town hall, the Alvar-Aalto-Kulturhaus and the art museum, which is dedicated to modernity . There is a market twice a week in front of the town hall. In front of the art museum is Hollerplatz, paved with Indian granite. The underground car park under the southern Porschestrasse also serves as a shelter if necessary . To the south, Porschestrasse joins Schillerstrasse. The Scharoun Theater , the Planetarium and the CongressPark can be reached through a pedestrian tunnel .

Further use

There are numerous commercial events in Porschestrasse, such as flea markets and the annual Christmas market. Occasional cultural performances take place on Hugo-Bork-Platz and in the southern section.

criticism

In 2008 Porschestrasse was criticized as being "like a motorway". The main drawback is the “City Gallery”, which accommodates the wealthy retailers, while the rent level in the rest of Porschestrasse is too low and thus attracts tenants like “one-euro shops”. The pavilions, which are irregularly in the open space, have also been criticized.

literature

  • Nicole Froberg, Ulrich Knufinke, Susanne Kreykenboom: Wolfsburg. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-03768-055-1 , pp. 66, 68-69, 72, 78, 91, 94-95, 130, 131, 142, 160, 161, 163.

Web links

Commons : Porschestraße (Wolfsburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kaufhof "Laufhof". In: Aller newspaper. from September 7, 1949. In: City of Wolfsburg (Ed.): 50 years of Wolfsburg in the mirror of the press. Wolfsburg 1988, p. 19.
  2. ^ Eberhard Rohde: Cleansing cure for many street names. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition July 8, 2017.
  3. ↑ Katja Widmann: “A painting exhibition in this workers' city?” Art in the early years of Wolfsburg and Stalinstadt. dhm.de , accessed on August 23, 2018
  4. ↑ The Porschestrasse. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten from 17./18. March 1951. In: City of Wolfsburg (Hrsg.): 50 years of Wolfsburg in the mirror of the press. Wolfsburg 1988, p. 22.
  5. ^ Haerder: A Wolfsburg department store and its exciting history. waz-online.de from August 22, 2018, accessed on August 23, 2018.
  6. ↑ 25 years of Kreissparkasse in Wolfsburg. In: Verkehrsverein Wolfsburg eV (ed.): Current Wolfsburg. Volume 2, issue 7, July 1963, p. 32.
  7. ^ Rack-Haus on the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung website , accessed on January 14, 2017
  8. ↑ Wolfsburg's pedestrian zone is celebrating its birthday. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Issued November 1, 2017.
  9. ↑ architecture & economy. No. 52, Verlag für Architektur GmbH, Wiesbaden 1986, pp. 68-69.
  10. ↑ Eberhard Rohde: Everything under one roof. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition of January 7, 2017, p. 14.
  11. ↑ Edmond E. Worgul: recreational activities for children and young people in Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg 1984, pp. 19-20.
  12. ↑ Hertie: The hangover followed the shopping spree. waz-online.de of March 11, 2018, accessed on March 6, 2019.
  13. ↑ Description of the conversion at wolfsburg.de ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), archive version from August 14, 2014.
  14. ↑ a b Glass roof is getting bigger: Conversion with cranes. waz-online.de on August 6, 2014, accessed on November 14, 2014.
  15. ↑ The “City-Galerie” is on the east side. It was built at an acute angle around a post office building and includes around 100 retail outlets and restaurants.
  16. ↑ City-Galerie website , accessed on March 3, 2013.
  17. ↑ City report Wolfsburg at comfort.de (PDF; 79 kB), accessed on March 1, 2013

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 23 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 14 ″  E