Swimming and diving hall at Freiberger Platz

View from Freiberger Strasse.

The complex swimming and diving center Freiberger Place is the largest sports facility in Dresden for swimming and Diving . The building complex at the corner of Freiberger Platz and Freiberger Straße consists of two swimming pools (old building from 1969 and extension from 2016), a diving hall completed in 1964 and a sauna built in 2019. In 2008, the old buildings from the 1960s were listed as an example of post-war modernism by the State Office for Monument Preservation in Saxony . After the Berlin swimming and diving hall in the Europa Sport Park , it is the second largest swimming complex in Germany.

Building complex

The first swimming pool, which was completed in 1969, was added to the diving hall, which was built in 1964. These two parts of the building formed the swimming complex on Freiberger Platz until 2016. To remedy the structural deficiencies in the swimming pool and the necessary enlargement of the water surface for school as well as for club, competition and popular sports, plans were made to build an additional swimming pool. The old building should then be renovated.

On March 12, 2009, the Dresden city council decided to add the building, followed by a thorough renovation of the old swimming pool. On November 4, 2009, the three winning designs of a corresponding architecture competition were announced. A new, common entrance area for the swimming pools and the diving hall, over which a sauna will be installed, was also planned. The start of construction planned for 2012 was postponed due to financial difficulties and took place in 2014. After more than five years of construction and total investments of 36.8 million euros, the expanded complex was completed in December 2019.

Swimming pool from 1969

Entrance from Freiberger Platz (2009)

View from the grandstand (2011)

The old swimming pool was built as a prototype by VEB Projektierung für Sportbauten Leipzig according to plans by Günter Nichtitz, Eva Kaltenbrunn and Eitel Jackowski from 1968 to 1969. It has a sloping ceiling that is 60 meters long and 40 meters wide. The concave curved prestressed concrete roof was constructed as a hanging shell structure with prestressing steel that supports precast reinforced concrete panels. The building came into being “when an astonishing willingness to experiment was also allowed in the GDR architecture. This pictorial architecture as a built-up landscape fits into the trend of global post-war modernism between Brasília and Moscow . ”The Dresden swimming pool became the model for numerous other swimming pools, such as in Potsdam am Brauhausberg (1970) or the university swimming pool in Leipzig (1971).

Before the renovation work from 2016, the entrance area was on the northwest side of Freiberger Platz. From there it was possible to access the checkout area and further up a staircase to the three-row auditorium with 300 seats and 100 standing places. The entrance to the changing rooms was to the right of the cash register. The swimming pool was directly accessible from the entrance area via a lounge. In the changing area there were collecting booths and individually lockable lockers. The showers and sanitary facilities were located between the changing room and the passage to the teaching pool . The teaching pool was 12.5 × 8 meters in size and 1.35 meters deep. Next to the stairs there was a small slide designed as an elephant. The wall was decorated with a listed tile mosaic.

The large, originally tiled swimmer's pool is 50 meters long and has eight lanes with starting blocks on both sides. Under the grandstand area there are lounge and material rooms for the swimming master and the clubs rented in the swimming pool. Concrete heated benches are set up on the other side and at the top of the pool. On the west side of the hall there is a pulpit-like room for judges.

After more than 45 years of operation without general renovation, both the fire protection regulations and the statics of the roof required a fundamental repair and renewal of the swimming pool. In the meantime, the closure of the hall was up for discussion due to the defects found.

A few days after the extension went into operation at the end of 2016, the old hall was closed. Demolition work then began, so the old teaching pool was torn down for the new foyer that was built later.

Pictures of the renovation of the old building
The entrance area at Freiberger Platz in September 2017
Scaffolded window side, September 2017
New construction of parts of the entrance area and renovation of the roof, February 2018
New entrance and sauna, construction status January 2019
East side of the swimming pool, January 2019

The renovated old building was officially opened on December 2, 2019.

Swimming pool from 2016

The construction work for the extension began with the demolition of an old sports hall on the site between Freiberger and Maternistraße.

Pictures of the construction of the extension to the existing hall
Excavation of the construction pit in March 2015
Construction progress in June 2015
The construction site in November 2015
The later glass front to Maternistraße
After the opening, at the beginning of April 2017, neon letters were placed facing Freiberger Straße.

The new building was inaugurated with a ceremony on December 13, 2016. From December 16 to 18, the Christmas Stollen Swimming Festival took place in the new pool before the opening for the general public. The facility has been available for club and school sports as well as the public since December 19. Access to the hall and the new sanitary area is via containers until the common entrance area with the old building is completed. These are accessible from Maternistraße and include the checkout area.

The swimming pool from 2016 is parallel to Maternistraße. Your main entrance is at the south end. From there, stairs can be used to access the spectator stand, which can seat around 400 people, and there are direct passages to the hall. Material and staff rooms are located below the grandstand. The changing and sanitary areas for this hall are located between the old and new buildings. At the northern end of the sanitary wing there is a corridor that initially only leads into the new building, but later also connects to the old building. In front of it, facing Freiberger Straße, there is the 12.5 × 8 meter teaching pool of the complex with a water depth of up to 1.35 meters.

The 50 meter long stainless steel swimming pool has eight runways, which are equipped on both sides with starting blocks with adjustable footrests . On the sides of Freiberger and Maternistraße there is an electronic display board for competition results or scores.

Jump hall

Sculpture Ingrid Krämer on the roof of the jumping hall

In 1960 it was decided to build the Dresden Springerhalle. The jumping hall was built as a steel skeleton with a ten-meter tower inside. Its facade consisted of six high support pillars with large glass surfaces in between and inserted window compartments - window parts separated by framing - in the ground floor zone . The jumping hall was completed in 1964 based on designs by the architects Claus Kaiser , Helmut Regel and Joachim Hans Schulz .

The reason for the construction of the jumping hall was the victory of Dresden's Ingrid Krämer-Gulbin in Rome at the 1960 Olympic Games in art and high diving , where she won gold. In 1968, Hans Steger created the life-size bronze sculpture of the sportswoman. After his death, Helmut Heinze and Wilhelm Landgraf completed the sculpture.

In 2002, architect Johannes Böhm partially removed three central support pillars from the facade and built a grandstand in their place. The extension has been the subject of criticism because “the craggy extension ... [removed] the former openness and transparency of the well-designed glass facade. This enabled the sports-loving passer-by to observe the elegant turns of the diver from the street before the renovation. For the jumpers the now necessary artificial light is an enormous disruptive factor ”.

The bronze figure Ingrid Krämer stands today on the roof of the jumping arena extension from 2002.

use

In addition to public bathing and swimming courses and school swimming, the indoor swimming pool at Freiberger Platz is a training location for numerous Dresden sports and swimming clubs (including the swimming departments of the Dresden SC 1898 and the USV TU Dresden ). The water polo players of the SWV TuR Dresden also use the hall as a training and home venue. In the field of competitive sports , the hall is the training center of the state swimming base in the Saxon Swimming Association and the national diving base in the German Swimming Association .

The following one-time major events were held in the swimming complex on Freiberger Platz:

24.-27. May 1990: GDR Swimming Championships 1990
December 12, 2017: Water polo world league game Germany – Russia
January 29, 2019: Water polo world league game Germany – Hungary

In addition, the annual swimming competitions “Dresdner Christstollen-Swimming Festival” and “Dresden Spring Prize” take place with international participation. The indoor swimming pool is also the venue for numerous competitions at national and regional level.

literature

Walter May , Werner Pampel and Hans Konrad: Architectural Guide GDR, Dresden District . VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1979, p. 49 (No. 69 (1) (indoor swimming pool) No. 69 (2) (diving school)).