Town Hall (Flensburg)

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Flensburg's town hall (2013), southeast side

The town hall in Flensburg , which was designed by the architect Carl-Friedrich Fischer , is the seat of the council and the mayor of Flensburg and also houses large parts of the city ​​administration and the city ​​archive . In addition, since January 1, 2008, due to an administrative partnership, the Glücksburg administrative business has also been carried out.

The town hall is located on the edge of the Flensburg city center on one of the city's main traffic routes .

history

predecessor

The first predecessor of today's town hall was the Flensburg Thingplatz , on which Flensburg's old town hall was built in 1445 , which served its purpose until 1882, but was then demolished. After that, the city used the acquired government courtyard at Holm No. 7 near the old Thingplatz as a provisional town hall , because they wanted to build a new, much larger town hall. In addition, parts of the administration were distributed all over the city, as the premises of the government courtyard were no longer sufficient after a while.

Planning and construction of the new town hall

Painted power box near Nordergraben , with Flensburg's landmark and formative buildings; including the modern town hall (photo 2013)

At the beginning of the 1960s, the plans to build a new town hall became more concrete. In March 1960, the Hertie department store group offered the city ​​three million DM for the government courtyard to build a department store there. At the same time, five million DM were estimated for the new town hall. The council meeting decided to build the new town hall. With the construction, the entire administration should be concentrated in one place again. The city chose a large plot of land on Am Pferdewasser Street , near the Deutsches Haus and on the edge of the city center, from where the Exe and Südermarkt were also not particularly far away. A building materials trade was previously located on the aforementioned area. Other areas were probably partly undeveloped, so there were obviously no real old buildings or magnificent buildings in the area.

The Flensburg Town Hall - in the foreground the St. Nikolai Church

In contrast to the “provisional town hall”, the new town hall should be more representative and become a new landmark of the city. The council opted for the design by the architect Carl-Friedrich Fischer, who also designed the building for the Federal Motor Transport Authority in the Mürwik district . On August 3, 1961, the first pile of the new town hall was driven into the building site. The foundation stone was laid on November 18. The move was completed on May 21, 1964. The building complex of the provisional town hall sold to the department store group was demolished that same year. On April 10, 1965, the new town hall was officially opened.

The resulting seventeen-story building was designed as a contrast to the older, historical buildings, although it is also located on a main street on Neumarkt , where a modern cityscape is conveyed. The high-rise building that characterizes the building has twelve floors. This is joined by a four-story base building and a five-story north wing, which means 17 floors. The outer walls of the modern reinforced concrete building were clad with panels made of Norwegian quartzite . On the south side, a large, widely visible Flensburg coat of arms was attached. The town hall was given the address Rathausplatz 1 in the 1990s . The square borders on Rote Straße , where the Red Gate once marked the city limits.

In the commemorative publication for the opening of the town hall, the architect wrote about further plans: “The festive forecourt on the south side is still missing, from which the building is to have its main entrance via a covered parking garage”. However, this has not yet been achieved; Even after the renovation, the town hall does not have a really representative entrance. In the 1960s, Flensburg often paid little attention to the urban structures that had evolved. Huge redesigns were planned without taking into account the historic cityscape. In the above-mentioned commemorative publication on the opening of the town hall, the architect Fischer explained: “One after the other of the old buildings facing the German House are falling into disrepair with the shovel excavator. The building already speaks an important word in this new city forum, which only hits the full chord when the festive town hall forecourt with its planned garage floors has been created, which gives the building its final orientation and traffic orientation towards Neumarkt and Berliner Platz . Only through the inclusion and creation of greenery and the allocation of suitable buildings for a lively cultural and economic life will the new town hall grow fully into the cityscape of Flensburg ”.

In fact, some parts of the old buildings on the neighboring Neumarkt from the end of the 19th century were demolished. Around 1970 the Neumarkt area at the intersection of federal highways 199 and 200 was massively redesigned in favor of road traffic. In addition, to the east, a little away from the new town hall, a large number of old town buildings on Rote Strasse and Töpferstrasse were demolished. The pottery route was even completely abolished. The neighboring cloister corridor also lost large parts of its development. Even the demolition of the historic hospital was considered. After the redesign, an undeveloped area extended east from the town hall to the southern Rote Straße , which had previously been shifted to the east and thus somewhat straightened. This area was used as a large parking lot and was later named Rathausplatz, but a coherent image of the adjacent buildings was not achieved. Apart from a hotel between Rathaus and Roter Straße, on the north side of the square, no further buildings were built in this area on the western side of Rote Straße. Another contrast to the old buildings located there was the parking garage that was built soon afterwards between Roter Straße and Klostergang. Next to the hospital, on the eastern side of the Rote Straße, the modest green space, Platz der Gärtner, was built . When in the 1970s there was a gradual rethinking of the importance of the historical cityscape, the town hall was increasingly seen as a symbol for the insensitive handling of the beautiful old cityscape .

City hall nuclear bunker in the underground car park

At the end of 1968, a new underground car park was built for the town hall, which was also intended to serve as a nuclear-bombproof bunker during the Cold War . The multi-purpose facility has a ceiling thickness of two to three meters and should therefore withstand a ground explosion from an 80-kiloton nuclear weapon. He should also withstand the use of chemical weapons . In an emergency, the cars would have been removed with a rollable jack and beds would have been set up. The bunker would have provided space for 2000 people who could take turns sleeping. The stored supplies should last two weeks. The plant was apparently gradually shut down. The bunker guard evidently left his place of work in 1996. Until 2012, two diesel engines continued to be preheated for immediate use. However, since the 150 meter deep well was no longer working properly, it was apparently decided at the time to give up the bunker entirely.

Renovation of the town hall and redesign of the surrounding area

In the early 1990s the concrete facade of the town hall building was in poor condition. Shortly after the opening of the town hall, the Schleswig-Holstein State Audit Office had criticized the fact that recognized rules of technology, in particular basic building physics rules, had been disregarded during construction. The experts had predicted that increasing deterioration of the steel profiles to which the concrete elements of the facade were attached could not be prevented . This is exactly what happened, and from 1991 safety grids had to be installed around the building, as more and more concrete chunks loosened from the facade and fell to the ground. But many other deficiencies, for example in the electricity and water supply, forced those responsible to act after only 30 years. The demolition of the unpopular high-rise was also seriously considered. However, for cost reasons it was decided to undertake a comprehensive renovation with a completely new construction of the facade, as demolition, re-planning and new construction would have been even more expensive and the substance of the building had proven to be fundamentally stable. Nevertheless, the renovation of the Flensburg town hall cost no less than 51 million marks - the new building had cost 23 million marks at the time. A large part of the facade was covered with orange-colored tiles. The large city coat of arms also disappeared from the facade.

North side of the town hall, in the foreground the Lutherpark , the Friesische Straße and the registry office Flensburg (March 2015)

In the course of the renovation, emphasis was placed on a more citizen-oriented design. The previous residents ' registration office , which was only accessible via a long, narrow staircase, was transformed into a citizens' office and made accessible by elevator. Other drawbacks as the unappealing inputs that high altitude on the 13th floor management of the Mayor and the unattractive, windowless ground-floor under the council chamber Bürgerhalle remained. Several offices were also left out due to lack of space. However, the technical administration had already found its place years earlier in the former school Am Pferdewasser directly opposite its domicile. The registry office moved to the neighboring Villa Besenbruch , which was previously vacant and in danger of being demolished, on Friesische Strasse and was given more representative rooms than before.

Since the 1990s, several new buildings have been built in the vicinity of the town hall. The existing green areas and parking spaces were partly built over with new buildings. First of all, the service center at the town hall, southwest of the town hall , was built in the early 1990s . In 2005–2008, extensions to the Spital zum Heiligen Geist (nursing home) followed, to which the gardener's place was sacrificed, and the new Sydbank building on the corner of Rote Straße and Neumarkt . However, the buildings have no real urban development relationship to the nearby town hall, and the town hall square in between still appears as an amorphous urban development with a parking lot without any design elements. The Rote Straße , which was cleared in the southern section , was also given its historical course back. A rhinoceros sculpture, which stood for a while above the south entrance, was brought to Sünderup in 2011 to the local Sünderuphof .

The new town hall nowadays

Main entrance of the town hall from the horse water (2013)

In 2014, plans for a hotel building became known. It should consist of two towers competing with the town hall and close the town hall square to the Neumarkt. The investor Gerd Theilen is involved in the project, who was also involved in the controversial clear ship construction, which was built in 2012 at the Flensburg harbor and who owns the Alte Meierhof in Meierwik .

The administrative structure of today's town hall

The town hall now houses the following departments, areas and offices:

  • Adoptions / foster children
  • Official guardianship
  • Foreigners matters
  • Education and sports office
  • Citizen's Office
  • Office of the Disability Officer
  • Policy Office
  • Women's office
  • Lost property office
  • Property, trade and dog tax
  • Day care
  • Regulatory and commercial administration
  • Accounting office
  • Arbitration office
  • Education Office
  • Debtor and bankruptcy advice
  • City Archives
  • Advance maintenance fund
  • Traffic monitoring
  • Economic social assistance
The council meeting of the Flensburg town hall takes place once a year in the Red Castle in Mürwik . (Photo 2015)

In the meantime, however, some parts of the administration had to move to neighboring buildings for reasons of space:

  • The registry office is located in the Besenbruchvilla on the corner of Friesische Strasse and Am Pferdewasser
  • The Technical Town Hall (a building of the former technical school) with the address Am Pferdewasser 14 houses the areas of building permits and building regulations as well as environment and planning (i.e. in detail: urban and landscape planning, nature and environmental protection, building regulations and monument protection, urban development and environmental planning)

Other branch offices are:

The mayor and the second mayor have their offices on the main floor of the town hall. The mayor and the mayor also had their offices there at times, but since 2012 they have resided again on the top, 13th floor, where the employees have always had their offices. The council chamber, meeting rooms and parliamentary group office are also located on the main floor below. On the ground floor below there are further group business rooms as well as the citizens' hall and the Europe room , a conference room. The city's New Year's reception takes place in the nearby Deutsches Haus.

Web links

Commons : Town hall of Flensburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City Hall . Flensburg Online; Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (Hrsg.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 31.
  3. ↑ a b c H. W. Flensburg: A town hall is to be sold. In: Die Zeit , No. 11/1960
  4. ↑ sh: z : The timber trade from the early days , from: September 14, 2013; Retrieved December 12, 2014
  5. ↑ a b Gerret Liebing Schlaber: From the country to the district. Flensburg's Stadtfeld and the incorporated villages in pictures and words approx. 1860-1930 . Flensburg 2009, p. 77
  6. ^ A b Norbert Baues: Hamburg Architecture Archive, Carl-Friedrich Fischer ; accessed on June 23, 2014.
  7. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 31 f.
  8. ^ A b c Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (Hrsg.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 32.
  9. ↑ a b c City Hall . In: Andreas Oeding, Broder Schwensen, Michael Sturm: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg! Flensburg 2009
  10. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 402.
  11. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 412.
  12. ↑ Flensburg. Picture of a city Flensburg 1967, p. 39.
  13. ↑ Flensburg and its new town hall . Published by the City of Flensburg. Flensburg: Chr. Wolff Verlag, 1965. P. 18
  14. ↑ Flensburg and its new town hall . Published by the City of Flensburg. Flensburg: Chr. Wolff Verlag, 1965. P. 24
  15. ↑ Holger Ohlsen: The second life for the tower, in: The old new town hall. Special publication of the Flensburger Tageblatt . Flensburg: December 2007. p. 1
  16. ↑ Underground Flensburg: The town hall bunker is being decommissioned . In: Flensburger Tageblatt , August 21, 2012; accessed on May 1, 2015 and Militarized Landscape, Remembrance Landscape, Cold War in Schleswig Holstein and in the “Fulda Gap” ; accessed on May 1, 2015 as well as: bunker . In: Andreas Oeding, Broder Schwensen, Michael Sturm: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg! Flensburg 2009
  17. ↑ Frank Jung: The rust ate the frame of the concrete facade . In: The old new town hall . Special publication of the Flensburger Tageblatt . Flensburg, December 2007, p. 2
  18. ↑ Frank Bötel: A question of costs: 51 million on credit . In: The old new town hall . Special publication of the Flensburger Tageblatt . Flensburg, December 2007, p. 2
  19. ↑ New building at the town hall - a "stroke of luck"? In: Flensburger Tageblatt . June 17, 2011.
  20. ↑ Neumarkt-DLZ. ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: wir-in-flensburg.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wir-in-flensburg.de
  21. ↑ Holger Ohlsen: Flensburg, rhino leaves town hall - one less pachyderm. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . June 1, 2011; Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  22. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Urban planning: Free path for the Neumarkt towers , from October 30, 2014; accessed on October 30, 2014
  23. ↑ Urban planning: Neumarkt: Hotel with two towers , from October 28; accessed on October 30, 2014
  24. ^ Fördeschnack, Klarschiff Flensburg: It is not necessarily the architectural style of one of the investors , from January 23, 2013; accessed on October 30, 2014
  25. ↑ AKOPOL Working Group on Local Policy, New Hotel on Flensburg Town Hall Square - 120 rooms on eleven floors? , dated: October 28, 2014; accessed on October 30, 2014
  26. ↑ Gunnar Dommasch: Flensburg's Lord Mayor: Simon Faber has reached the top. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . May 17, 2012; accessed on June 23, 2014.
  27. ^ March and Fjord, New Years Reception ; Retrieved June 20, 2014.