America House Ruhr
The Amerikahaus Ruhr , called Europahaus since 1994 , is a listed building in Essen city center since 1991 . It was built by the Americans in the early 1950s as the America House and the first main base of their information network in selected major cities. After the house later served as the mayor's seat for 15 years, it has been home to the Stratmann's theater since 1994.
history
America House
Between 1951 and 1952, the Amerikahaus was built according to plans by the architect Herman Gehrig in Essen, which was selected as the central city in the Ruhr area for one of several main bases of the American information network. The reliefs on the outer walls were designed by the Essen sculptor Herbert Lungwitz . The inner courtyard of the U-shaped building was designed like a garden on a terrace based on a design by Essen's horticultural director Schmidt.
The official opening took place on February 22, 1952. On this day in 1732, George Washington , the first American president, was born. The opening was made by Karl Arnold , the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Amerikahaus in Essen was the first in Europe to serve exclusively to present democratic culture and political education for the population in post-war Germany. There was also a lending library, lecture rooms and exhibition areas. The house and its upkeep were financed by donations from American citizens.
From 1953, the provisional business lines on the guild square where the America House is located were removed. In 1963 the open space was renamed after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated . The Kennedy Square was before the destruction in the Second World War built and therefore has no local historical origin. In 1964 the America House closed and was also called the Kennedy House .
Provisional town hall
After the then Essen town hall by the architect Peter Zindel was torn down , it served as the seat of the mayor and the city director. Of the Essenes citizens it was therefore up to the opening of the new city hall at the Porsche place in 1979, jokingly referred to as Rathäuschen referred.
House industrial form
Between 1979 and 1988, the building housed the domestic industry form the collection of industrial design e. V. , which later became the Design Center NRW , which today operates the Red Dot Design Museum .
After that, the house was only used as a warehouse and a temporary shop for various shops.
Stratmanns Theater Europahaus
The former Amerikahaus was renovated and rebuilt from 1992, so that, since 1994 called the Europahaus , the Stratmanns Theater was opened as a cabaret.
The cabaret artist and general practitioner Ludger Stratmann opened the Stratmanns Theater Europahaus together with his brother Christian in December 1994 after years of looking for a suitable location for a cabaret and renovating the dilapidated building for 2.5 million euros. Since July 1995 Ludger Stratmann has been performing on his own stage with various cabaret programs under the motto Doctor Stratmanns - Heiteres Medizinisches Kabarett .
Christian Stratmann managed the house until 2003. After that he retired in favor of the Mondpalast in Wanne-Eickel. Since then, Ludger Stratmann has been running the house, which also houses a restaurant, on his own.
See also
literature
- Andreas Benedict: The former America House Ruhr in Essen (= Rheinische Kunststätten issue 399). Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Neuss 1994, ISBN 3-88094-767-8 .
- Mathias Kitschenberg: The America House Ruhr. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. No. 1, 1991, ISSN 0177-2619 , pp. 20-23.
- Mathias Kitschenberg: From America House Ruhr to Europahaus Essen. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. No. 2, 1995, ISSN 0177-2619 , pp. 95-96.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 22 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 39 ″ E