Cardinal Schulte House
The Kardinal-Schulte-Haus (own name: Kardinal Schulte Haus) is a conference center of the Archdiocese of Cologne in the Bockenberg district of Bergisch Gladbach . The building was built in 1924 as a seminary according to plans by the architect Bernhard Rotterdam . It serves as a conference and guest house with a hotel. The Thomas-More-Akademie Bensberg has its office in the Kardinal-Schulte-Haus and holds most of its events there.
history
Archbishop Karl Joseph Schulte decided in 1924 to build a new building for the archbishopric's seminary , which had been in downtown Cologne since 1615, because of the proximity to the main train station and the narrowness of the previous structure . After an architectural competition in 1924, the building was built between 1926 and 1929 in the then independent municipality of Bensberg based on plans by the architect Bernhard Rotterdam. On June 29, 1926, Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII. , the cornerstone. In 1929 the seminary began teaching in the new building.
After the outbreak of war in 1939, the building became a reserve hospital and the seminary was temporarily relocated to the Altenberg building . After the seizure by the Gestapo in 1941, the seminarians had to leave the house again. It became a military hospital for the Wehrmacht in 1944 and a military hospital for the Allied forces until 1948 after the end of the war .
The seminary returned to Bensberg on April 27, 1948. In addition to the seminary, the building initially housed an emergency hospital and later an old people's and nursing home. In 1958, at the request of Josef Cardinal Frings , the seminary was relocated to Cologne in the new building of the Archbishop's House and the Diocesan Library, which was built on the site of the Bishop's Palace which had been destroyed by bombs; Cardinal Frings did not want to live in this house alone and considered the proximity of the seminarians to Cologne Cathedral and the Archbishop to be desirable.
From 1958, one part of the house became the seat of the Thomas More Academy, while the other part of the old people's home continued to exist. Both facilities were connected by a common kitchen and housekeeping business.
A fire on February 21, 1980 caused considerable damage to the building; two firefighters from Bensberg were killed during the extinguishing work. The residents of the old people's home could be evacuated to neighboring homes unharmed. The house was initially uninhabitable.
In 1984 the Archdiocese of Cologne decided to renovate the house and use it as a conference center. It was now named "Cardinal Schulte House" after its builder. After its completion in 1988, during the renovation work of the Collegium Albertinum in Bonn, it initially became an alternative accommodation for the archbishopric's priesthood candidates studying at the University of Bonn .
Since October 1st, 1989, the house has been run with a different usage concept. The old people's and nursing home did not return to the building, and the organizational unit of the conference center and the Thomas More Academy was given up. The building became the "Conference Center of the Archdiocese of Cologne", which is largely available to church, charitable groups, institutions and organizers and serves as a rental base and event location for the Thomas More Academy.
Building
The building is located on a hill above Bensberg , which allows a wide view of the Rhine Valley and Cologne. It can be reached via a driveway from Overather Straße ( B 55 ) through a gate building that houses apartments.
The atrium- style building designed by Bernhard Rotterdam consists of a rectangular complex that includes a large courtyard. The four corners are tower-like and each have an onion cap , the entrance area in the middle of the west facade is determined by a wide protruding bay window above a portico , which is crowned by a roof turret , also with an onion cap.
The large seminar rooms, the dining rooms, the Thomas More Chapel as well as the property management and the office of the Thomas More Academy are located on the mezzanine floor above a full basement or basement floor with kitchen and leisure rooms. On two full floors above and in the attic there are further seminar rooms and the 163 guest and speaker rooms, all of which are equipped with wet rooms.
During the renovation after the fire in the 1980s, the facades were completely preserved. The interiors were partially redesigned and given a contemporary infrastructure that also enables hotel operations.
Since the previous large house chapel was converted into an auditorium, the Archdiocese built a new octagonal chapel in the courtyard in 1987, which was consecrated to the nun Edith Stein . The architects were Hans Peter Greyer and Manfred König, the artist Paul Nagel created the interior design. The interior without niches and pillars is determined by a large hanging round chandelier. The choice of materials and the image program for the ceiling, walls and windows address the life, martyrdom and the expectation of salvation of the church patroness Edith Stein, who was murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp .
The corridors on the ground floor of the conference building are regularly used as an exhibition space for works of art as part of the Art Encounter series of the Thomas More Academy.
The house is run as a non-smoking house. On the terrace in front of the building there is a beer garden with a view of the Cologne Bay.
monument
The building is entered under number 71 in the list of architectural monuments in Bergisch Gladbach .
Sculpture park
A sculpture park has been built on the site since 1994 , in which five sculptures have been set up to date. The project is supported by the Thomas More Academy, the Artists Union in the Archdiocese of Cologne and the Archdiocese of Cologne and aims to make the spiritual dimension of art tangible in the synthesis of conference room and landscape. The sculptures are:
- Rolf Schaffer: Without a title
- Dorissa Lem: Without a title
- Günther Oellers : The two-flame stone
- Rolf Schaffer: The "Equilibro" project
- Heinz Georg Neussl: The cross.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Homepage Priesterseminar Köln ( Memento from December 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 20, 2014.
- ^ TMA Bensberg, History & Development , accessed on March 18, 2013.
- ↑ Thomas-More-Akademie Bensberg, regular place for “the beautiful” , accessed on March 18, 2013.
- ↑ Thomas-More-Akademie Bensberg, Sculpture Park Bensberg , accessed on March 18, 2013.
literature
- Herbert Stahl : Only 30 years: Bensberg seminary. A proud building as a "balcony above the Rhine plain" and its residents. In: Rheinisch Bergischer Calendar 2015, Heider, Bergisch Gladbach 2014, pp. 78–84, ISBN 978-3-87314-486-6 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 '38.7 " N , 7 ° 10' 12.2" E