City Hall (Freiburg im Breisgau)
The Freiburg City Hall was built in 1954 as a multi-purpose hall in the Wiehre district of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau .
history
After the art and festival hall at the Stadtgarten in Freiburg , built between 1846 and 1854 according to plans by Friedrich Eisenlohr , was destroyed during the bombing on November 27, 1944 , the demand for a larger venue for concerts, sporting events and citizens' encounters grew in the early 1950s , Congresses and exhibitions are getting bigger and bigger, so that at the insistence of the mayor at the time, Wolfgang Hoffmann , the city council decided to build such a building. A first competition did not produce the desired result. In the second attempt, after long deliberations, the design by civil engineer and architect Albert Maria Lehr was selected for execution.
Construction began on April 3, 1954, and on September 12, 1954, the hall with the Egmont Overture for the opening of a conference of the Society of German Naturalists and Doctors was put into operation. The total construction costs were less than 2.5 million DM (estimate: 2,160,000 DM).
The hall was used for larger concerts, sporting events, congresses, exhibitions, balls, party conferences and other events. For example, several federal party conventions of the FDP took place here (1968, 1971, 1972); In 1968 a spontaneous discussion took place in front of the hall between the student leader Rudi Dutschke and the liberal professor Ralf Dahrendorf , and in 1971 the so-called Freiburg theses were adopted there, with which the FDP then oriented itself towards social liberalism .
In the course of the following decades, buildings specialized in various uses were gradually built in the city, such as a large sports hall, the Freiburg concert hall and a new trade fair and exhibition center in the west of the city next to the Freiburg airport . When the measuring site was then released for development, this meant the end of the town hall as an event location. A demolition in favor of residential development threatened, but the building was used as a district-formative structure because of its "documentary and exemplary value for the architecture of multi-purpose halls in the early 1950s" in 2009 under monument protection provided.
From 2008 to 2015, after renovations inside, the building was used as an alternative quarter for the Freiburg University Library. Their building on the inner city campus was demolished and rebuilt due to the expected high renovation costs except for the stairwells and basement floors.
After this use ended, there was again a need for space in the city, due to the large numbers of people from the Near and Middle East who fled to Germany in 2015 . It had to be rebuilt again so that around 400 refugees could find space in the hall. In December 2016, the town hall was initially closed as refugee accommodation - as it was no longer needed; For the time being, however, it will continue to be available for a possible renewed need for emergency accommodation.
Building description
The trapezoidal steel frame building with a completely glazed facade facing northwest is on the eastern edge of the Oberwiehre district, on the edge of the old measuring site. The building is 18.3 m high, almost 70 meters long, 81.6 m on the facade side and 46.3 m wide on the rear. Inside, in addition to the large parquet surface, there is a stage with orchestra pit, a gallery, a large entrance hall, various ancillary rooms, a cellar and a restaurant area under the stage. The hall offered 3600 seats, 2000 seats and 800 standing places at sporting events.
The outer, fan-shaped appearance is created by the external steel girders on which the roof structure is suspended, a rather rare construction principle that was also practiced occasionally by the architect Mies van der Rohe .
In the spacious entrance hall, the side walls are adorned with semi-abstract frescoes by the Freiburg artist Rudolf Kaufhold , the pillars were designed by the Freiburg sculptor Karl Rißler with stone carved figures that refer to the various uses of the hall.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Thoma: The art and festival hall . In: Baden Architects and Engineers Association, Upper Rhine District (Ed.): Freiburg im Breisgau. The city and its buildings . HM Poppen & Sohn, Freiburg im Breisgau 1898, p. 573-574 ( Scan - Wikisource ).
- ^ Sina Gesell: Freiburg: Refugees: Emergency accommodation in the town hall: The last residents have moved out. Badische Zeitung, December 10, 2016, accessed on December 10, 2016 .
Web links
literature
- City administration Freiburg im Breisgau (Ed.): City hall Freiburg im Breisgau. (Festschrift for the handover of the hall). Freiburg, undated (1954)
Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 12.7 " N , 7 ° 52 ′ 21.7" E