Bochum town hall

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Town hall in Bochum
Bell for the 1867 World's Fair
The fountain of beauty in the courtyard of Bochum town hall
The fountain of happiness in the courtyard of Bochum town hall

The Bochum town hall is one of the most important representative buildings in the Ruhr area .

History of the town hall

From 1697 the old town hall of Bochum was located on the Alter Markt opposite the provost church of St. Peter and Paul and from 1886 in a former hotel on Alleestraße. In the course of the incorporation in 1904, 1926 and 1929, the administration of Bochum with now over 200,000 inhabitants was to be centralized in a new building.

A first architectural competition to rebuild a suitable town hall took place in 1912–1913, but did not lead to further execution. Due to the First World War , the new building plans were initially postponed before another architectural competition was called in 1925. Even after this renewed competition, none of the winners could take over the execution of the town hall. Nevertheless, the new town hall building was more urgent than ever. With the aim of a timeless architecture, Karl Roth , who already designed the town halls in Dresden ( New Town Hall Dresden ) (1905-1910), Kassel ( Town Hall Kassel ) (1905-1909) and Barmen ( Town Hall Barmen ) (completed in 1922) was therefore designed in 1926 had been commissioned with a new design.

The construction of today's town hall began in 1926, the foundation stone was laid in 1927 and the opening took place on May 20, 1931. The building of the town hall cost the high sum of 9.25 million Reichsmarks .

The Darmstadt architect Karl Roth created a highly modern office building with 329 rooms in the historical guise of the Spanish monastery in El Escorial (1562–1584) and thus in the style of the ornamentless Spanish Renaissance . The building has a symmetrical floor plan. The outside is kept simple and the entrance portal and the two-story porch on the right front are the only decorative elements of the facade. The base of the building is made of hard granite stone , shell limestone was used for the facade and slate for the roof .

The town hall was elaborate bronze grilles, sculptures from bronze and masterful carvings by renowned German artist: August Vogel (1887-1932), Paul Wynand (1879-1956), Richard Long (1879-1950), Richard Guhr (1873-1956) and Augusto Varnesi (1866-1941). Marble , copper , bronze and dark wood paneling were used in the hallways and representative rooms of the house .

The 40 × 46 meter inner courtyard is completely enclosed on four sides. The town hall meeting room (restored in 1950 according to plans by Ferdinand Keilmann ) with the registry office's wedding room, which was set up in 1980 underneath, is located in the axis of symmetry of the council court, so that side courtyards were created on both sides. There is still a carillon and two fountains here. In the inner courtyard there were originally ticket halls that were used for tax, wage, social and other payments prior to the introduction of cashless traffic.

Because of the alleged exaggerated splendor of the town hall, the National Socialists attacked the Jewish mayor at the time, Otto Ruer (1879–1933), and drove him to suicide. Ruer had stopped a lot of jewelry work on the town hall because of the attacks on himself. The National Socialists had the bronze sculptures melted down for armament purposes in 1943; the stone carvings were lost due to war damage, with the exception of the small lion heads above the portal.

The war damage to the town hall from the Second World War was repaired by 1951. In 1980 and 1982 more buildings were erected. With the education and administration center (BVZ) (architectural office Bahlo, Köhnke, Stosberg and Partner) and space in the rented town hall center , additional space was added. In 2000, parts of the historic town hall were rebuilt in order to set up citizens' offices and contact points for the environmental service, the police and the municipal transport company (BOGESTRA) (planning: Architects Schröder Schulte-Ladbeck , Dortmund). The opening took place on December 4, 2000.

Fountain and bells

In addition to the many beautiful interiors mentioned above, the two fountains, Fountain of Beauty and Fountain of Happiness, made of travertine and bronze by August Vogel and “Florentine” main portals by Augusto Varnesi , which under the motto “In Labore Honor” (In Work is honor) address Christian faith and industrial diligence. Of the gilded figures of the "fountain of happiness" symbolize the Putte with wedding ring and slipper marital bliss (not received), the Putte with apple fertility, Putte with empty wallet to optimism (not preserved) and the Putte with the bubble the illusion .

The carillon consists of 28 cast steel bells with a total weight of 2300 kilograms. The individual bells weigh between 4 and 375 kilograms. The original carillon was the world's first made of cast steel and was destroyed in the war. The current carillon was given to the city in 1951 by the Bochum Association .

Also worth seeing is the bell in front of the town hall with a diameter of 3.13 meters and a weight of 15,000 kilograms. As the largest of four bells, it was an attraction at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867 and was rung when it opened. Cast by the Bochum Association , it was erected as a memorial on the Krupp Stahl AG factory premises after the exhibition and finally in its current location in 1979. Her clapper - a steel ball hanging on four ropes - has since disappeared; The bell can no longer be rung because of damage suffered in the Second World War.

The Fontana fountain in front of the education and administration center was also donated by Krupp . The fountain was designed by the sculptor and graphic artist Erwin Hegemann from Hagen , made of stainless steel and titanium and inaugurated in September 1985.

Paternoster elevator

The Bochum town hall is one of the few administration buildings with a paternoster lift . The facility was built in 1964 and is still in operation today.

Transport links

In the vicinity of the town hall there are numerous bus stops and the Bochum Rathaus underground station , which can be reached by the Bochum city railway .

Movie and TV

Bochum town hall is a popular location for film and television productions. In addition to settings for the television series Einstein and Heldt, there are, for example, Berlin 36 with Karoline Herfurth and Thomas Thieme (the town hall with its inner courtyards, the small meeting room and the mayor's floor served as the “House of Sports” in the film) and the international film adaptation of the novel Everyone dies for himself with Emma Thompson , Brendan Gleeson and Daniel Brühl (including shooting in the courtyards of the town hall) to be mentioned as well-known films.

Web links

Commons : Rathaus Bochum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/lokales/bochum/Ein-Fahrstuhl-im-Rathaus-der-nicht-haben-bleibt;art932,1722905
  2. WAZ: The town hall becomes a cinema star , derwesten.de from August 8, 2008 (accessed on April 15, 2019)
  3. WAZ: Bochum town hall offers a backdrop for a movie , derwesten.de from May 28, 2015 (accessed on April 15, 2019)

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 57 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 55 ″  E