Rheinhallen
The Rheinhallen are a listed building ensemble in Cologne-Deutz on the banks of the Rhine north of the Hohenzollern Bridge . They were used as exhibition halls by Koelnmesse until 2005 . After extensive renovation work , the building complex, now known as the Rheinpark Metropolis Cologne , continues to shape the panorama of the Rhine on the right bank of the Rhine.
history
On the initiative of Cologne's Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer , the Cologne trade fair company was founded on April 1, 1922 with the aim of restoring Cologne's old supremacy in the Rhineland. On May 11, 1924, the first trade fair was opened in several halls on the former barracks site, which had already been used for the 1914 Werkbund exhibition for an amusement park. With over 600,000 visitors and over 2,800 exhibitors on 45,000 m² of hall space, it was a great success.
On the occasion of the international press exhibition " Pressa ", which began on May 12, 1928 , the existing, non-uniform exhibition halls were framed by a peripheral development with a uniform facade and the trade fair tower and expanded by the so-called "State House" according to the design of the architect and Cologne City Planning Director Adolf Abel .
From July 1942 , under National Socialism, the exhibition halls were used as deportation accommodations for Jews and Gypsies who were sent from Cologne to the extermination camps. There were also forced sales of Jewish property that the deportees had to leave in their homes. A plaque on the exhibition tower commemorates this story.
In the post-war period, after the first spring fair on September 14, 1947, renovations were carried out again and again so that the area within the perimeter development was fully used. A restaurant was set up in its own building in front of the Rhine front. Further halls were built in the space between the “State House”. Organizationally, the Cologne sports hall, completed in December 1958 , was part of the hall complex of the Rheinhallen as hall X until April 1962, but was then outsourced and continued by Kölner Sportstätten GmbH . With a total of 286,000 m² of exhibition space, the Rheinhallen was the fourth largest contiguous trade fair in the world in 2008.
Todays use
Listed facade of the Rheinhallen after gutting and reconstruction
View of the Rhine
Rheinhallen during the renovation, photographed from the Cologne triangle
Façade of the Rheinhallen
Interior view - RTL broadcasting center
In September 2005, Koelnmesse prematurely parted with the Rheinhallen in order to implement its “Masterplan2006” with new buildings elsewhere. Extensive new building and renovation work was necessary. Since the trade fair tower and red brick facade are under monument protection, the entire building complex was gutted . For this purpose, the facade was secured with metal supports and the entire inner part of the building was torn down.
By May 2010, an office complex and a modern broadcasting center for the RTL media group with the TV channels RTL , VOX , Super RTL and the news channel n-tv had been built within the historic brick facade . In addition, parts of HDI-Gerling Versicherung (now HDI), which was taken over by the Talanx insurance group in 2006 , and Talanx AG's financial services provider, Talanx Asset Management GmbH, have relocated their headquarters here. Half of the total area of 160,000 m² (gross floor area) of the area now known as the Rheinpark Metropolis in Cologne is used by the RTL media group, 80,000 m² by insurance companies and other tenants. The total production area for RTL with the highest acoustic and climatic requirements is 17,000 m². Below there are two television studios with 250 and 440 m² in size. Mediengruppe RTL occupies 1,500 of the 2,000 parking spaces in a newly built car park in front of the northeastern side of the Rheinhallen. The building complex is loosened up by 14 inner courtyards, each with 1,000 m² of open space on different, also sub-structure levels, as well as 28 atria on the third floor. The so-called mall is located between the structures . It is a green, freely accessible, 33 m wide and around 200 m long pedestrian promenade through the entire complex, which consists of four building blocks. 16 buildings that are grouped around the 14 inner courtyards run across the transoms. The promenade continues outside in the central axis to the south and north. If you look at the Rheinpark metropolis as a structural unit, it is the second largest office building complex in Germany.
literature
Web links
- Photos from the construction phase of the new Rheinlandhallen in 2004 - 2009
- Photos of the handover of the first offices to HDI Gerling
Individual evidence
- ^ Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): The great Cologne Lexicon. 2008, p. 314
- ^ Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): The great Cologne Lexicon. 2008, p. 314
- ↑ The monument has been protected since July 1, 1980
- ↑ Immobilienzeitung of August 8, 2009, RTL applies: Please wait!
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 36 ″ N , 6 ° 58 ′ 16 ″ E