Town hall Höhscheid

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Town hall Höhscheid
Town hall Höhscheid

Town hall Höhscheid

Data
place Solingen - Höhscheid
architect Ernst G. Weber
Client City of Höhscheid
Architectural style Neo-renaissance
Construction year 1892-1893

The town hall Höhscheid is the former town hall of the once independent town Höhscheid , which is now a district of Solingen . The listed neo-renaissance building was erected between 1892 and 1893. After the city of Höhscheid was incorporated into the city of Solingen in 1929, the building was for most of the time a branch of the Solingen city administration until the city of Solingen sold it to the entrepreneur Jörg Föste in 2005 . For the renovation in 2005, this received the monument protection award of the Solingen department of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein .

prehistory

As in other mayor's offices in the district of Solingen in the Prussian Rhine Province , the official business of the respective mayor was carried out in his home in the Höhscheid mayor's office. The Mairie Höhscheid had already been formed in the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg in 1808 . Maire (mayor) was Johann Peter Becher, owner of the Höhscheider Hof from 1808 until his death in 1816. He was followed as head of the community by the alderman Johann Peter Kayser, a farmer at the Platzhof. He did not have the title of mayor, rather in the early days of the Prussian administration in the then Jülich-Kleve-Berg province in 1819, he had to prevent Höhscheid from being divided between Solingen, Dorp and Leichlingen . Since September 27, 1816, his secretary has been Johann Peter Höfer , who succeeded him in August 1821 and was not appointed acting mayor until April 1, 1823.

Peter Höfer served as mayor until 1849. In his last house, today Neuenhofer Straße 8, the mayor's meetings took place on the upper floor. When he took office , his successor, Peter Daniel Berger, lived in the house at Obenkatternberg 37, which was called Katternberg mayor's office by the citizens . In 1853 Berger bought Haus Kirschheide and set up his offices in its office and farm building, where they remained until the end of his tenure in 1873.

Around 1875 the city of Höhscheid acquired the nearby house at Neuenhofer Straße 13 for Mayor Josef Pütz, who had been in office since 1873, and which is considered to be the city's first town hall. The newly elected mayor Louis Gläßner and his family moved into the official apartment in 1881 , who held this office for 30 years. Ten years later, a new building for the town hall was planned, which, together with the Höhscheider Platz, should give the city an independent center . Directly next to the old town hall, the property of the master baker Pohlig, Neuenhofer Straße 11, was acquired for the new building, after the completion of which the old building was sold to Louis Berns in 1893. In 1890 the otter factory of the Berns brothers, specialists in pocket and penknives , moved to Neuenhofer Strasse. In 1912 Reinhard Berns had a new house built on the neighboring property at Neuenhofer Straße 15, and the city bought the old town hall back in the same year. It was planned to demolish the building and rebuild it in Josefstal in order to build an extension for the now too small town hall on the property on Neuenhofer Straße. These plans were probably never implemented because of the First World War . Instead, the old building was renovated in 1919 and used for the city administration before it was sold again in later years.

  • Former official seat of the Höhscheider mayor

  • Neuenhofer Straße 8
    last house of the mayor
    Johann Peter Höfer (1821–1849)

  • House Kirschheide
    from 1853 residence of Mayor
    Daniel Peter Berger (1849–1873)

  • Neuenhofer Straße 13
    first town hall from 1875

Construction of the town hall

In 1891, the Solingen architect Ernst G. Weber submitted the building plans, which were somewhat more modest than the town halls that had previously been built in the neighboring towns of Dorp and Ohlig . In Höhscheid, above the side risers , instead of triangular gables , there were decorative gables in the neo-renaissance style above the heavily developed eaves . The central projectile and the two large dormer windows were decorated with such an ornament . The typical Wilhelminian style building is oriented towards the street in the facade design . The side and rear facades were smoothly cleaned with minimal effort .

Only ring kilns - type I bricks from the Benninghoven & Cie brickworks on Neuenkamper Strasse were allowed to be used for the construction . Solingen contractors Heinrich Kissel got the order for the Maurer - Room - Painter - and glazier work .

In addition to the mayor's official apartment, there were enough administrative rooms so that the Sparkasse Höhscheid could also be temporarily accommodated. Under the last mayor of Höhscheid, Hugo Pohlig, who moved in in 1911, the rooms were renovated in 1927.

Use after incorporation

After the city of Höhscheid was incorporated into the city of Solingen in 1929, the Solingen city administration initially used the building as a branch. From August 1937 to the end of January 1940, the former town hall was the seat of the Wuppertal Army Base Administration . On February 1, 1940, the city of Solingen rented the building to the National Socialist People's Welfare . After extensive repair work, it became a dormitory for student nurses ( Maidenheim ). In addition to the maiden working in the municipal hospitals , the municipal tram administration also occupied some rooms from October 1941 .

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the British military government initially used the town hall as an administrative office. A kitchen was set up in the basement for this purpose. After the British moved out, the municipal arbitration board for housing matters moved in , and in June 1949 it was relocated to the town hall on Cronenberger Straße. For this, Höhscheid got the district office of the welfare office . In 1952, the city of Solingen originally planned to use the building as a youth hostel. But then it was decided to make it the location for the education authority . The building was extensively rebuilt for this purpose. Walls were moved, 20 offices were created and the former town hall was converted into a meeting room. A new toilet wing was built on the stairwell at the back . The decorative gables on the roof have been removed. In 1974 the building was partially renovated with various modifications and additions. On January 21, 1991 the former town hall was placed under a preservation order. This prevented further serious structural changes. In 1996 the caretaker's apartment on the top floor was converted into additional offices. In the autumn of 2000, the city had another renovation carried out to accommodate a citizens' office and a police station in the building .

In 1998 the city of Solingen took over the building of the former Solvay company headquarters on Langhansstrasse in Ohligs. The school office was also relocated there. In the course of the planning for the new Solingen town hall on Konrad-Adenauer-Straße and the intended task of decentralized administration buildings, the Höhscheid town hall, in need of renovation, was put up for sale as the first property. This was controversial in the city council , as some saw the grown Solingen tradition of the city districts as endangered. The young singers of the city of Solingen planned to take over the building and create a central location with rehearsal rooms for choirs and other musical offers. Despite the approval for such a training building in 2004, the young singers were unable to secure the necessary funding. In December 2004, the decision to sell was made in favor of the Solingen entrepreneur Jörg Föste, who planned to merge his previous company locations in the building and to invest in the renovation of the property.

In 2005, the entire building was renovated in just six months in accordance with a listed building. During the first inspections, there was still a strong room with a heavy door and old shower systems from the Maidenheim in the basement . As part of the renovation concept co-developed by the architect Roland Dakowski, the following parts were restored by dismantling: Terrazzo floors on the ground floor, 80 oak windows, main and side staircases, coffered interior doors and stucco in the meeting room and in the mayor's office. In addition to the new, high-quality slate for the roof, it was given missing dormers in the rear area. The roof storage , which had previously been used as a file storage, was expanded. The street facade has been restored with high quality craftsmanship. The inauguration of the new premises took place on September 25, 2005. In the same year, the Solingen department of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein honored the renovation with its monument protection prize.

literature

  • Beate Battenfeld : Town halls in Solingen, past-present-future , history (s) current volume 4, publisher: Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Solingen e. V., 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Rosenthal: Solingen. History of a City , Volume 2, Walter Braun Verlag. Duisburg 1972, ISBN 3-87096-103-1 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Beate Battenfeld : Town halls in Solingen past-present-future , history (s) current volume 4, publisher: Bergischer Geschichtsverein Abt. Solingen e. V., 2008.
  3. ↑ Johannes Fahmüller; Ralf Rogge; Marco Kieser: Villas in Solingen - bourgeois houses between 1860 and 1950 In: Udo Mainzer (Ed.): Workbook of the Rhenish Monument Preservation 74 , Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2009, ISBN 978-3-88462-292-6 .