Dance fountain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tanzbrunnen is an event location in Cologne , north of the old exhibition halls on the banks of the Rhine in the Deutz district . The area used as a culture and leisure park extends over approximately 30,000 square meters. It forms the southern entrance to the Rheinpark with a view of Cologne Cathedral . The site includes the open-air stage, the “Theater am Tanzbrunnen”, the Rheinterrassen restaurant and, since 2004, the “km 689 Cologne Beach Club”.

Dance fountain from the air
km 689 Cologne Beach Club
Rheinterrassen restaurant
Tanzbrunnen station of the Kleinbahn in Rheinpark with train

history

The area of ​​today's Tanzbrunnen in Deutz was designed in 1929/30 in the course of the abandonment of the "Lower Rhine village" of the former Cologne Werkbund exhibition according to designs by the city horticultural architect Theodor Nussbaum . This included the area of ​​the former Prussian Fort XV, of which parts of the outdoor facilities still existed after the buildings were partially leveled and laid down in 1913/14.

The restoration building there for the Werkbund exhibition based on a design by Wilhelm Kreis existed until it was destroyed during the Second World War . It closed off the area of ​​the dance fountain to the north, while the semicircular building of the State House stands in the east . The last major event to take place in the Cologne trade fair in 1940 was the International Transport Exhibition, which ultimately did not happen when the war broke out. Instead, the amusement area at the fountain was used by facilities of the Cologne exhibition center , a network of labor camps from various imperial institutions and companies relevant to armament. For these, barracks were also installed in the vicinity of the well system.

At the end of the war, the outdoor facilities were largely in ruins. In 1949, a new fountain with a walk-in roundabout in its center, which also served as a dance floor and gave the dance fountain its name, was built using the original system based on the design by the architect Josef Op Gen Orth . In the 1950s, the Rheinterrassen restaurant was added to the Tanzbrunnen. The dance fountain was rebuilt for the 1957 Federal Garden Show and received its trademark, the star wave tent . The roof structure spans the roundabout of the dance fountain and parts of the open space and was designed by Frei Otto .

For the 1971 Federal Garden Show , the grounds and fountains were renovated and six folding umbrellas designed by Frei Otto were added to protect the audience on the open-air stage from wind and weather. The “Theater am Tanzbrunnen”, built in 1994, complements the open-air area with an indoor stage that is suitable for presentations, societies and concerts. In 1998 KölnKongress GmbH took over the entire area for further marketing.

The system was repaired according to the historical model. The fountain with the star wave tent, the open-air stage and the theater have been renewed. The restaurant in the Rheinterrassen was also renovated true to style after the takeover, and the park hall was made usable as an event room. Another innovation was the expansion of the park hall terrace. The large terrace located one floor below directly on the Rhine was converted into a beer garden for up to 1200 visitors.

In the summer of 2000, the fountain was put back into operation. In March of the following year, the new star wave tent was also installed. In addition, the previous backstage building was replaced by a new building in the same place. In 2003 another “textile building” was erected with the entrance tent. With its 350 square meter area, it enables guests to arrive safely even in wind and weather. The facilities were completed with the “km 689 Cologne Beach Club”, which was opened in 2004 as a city beach with a view of the cathedral .

Fountain system

The fountain system was set up in 1950 based on a design by the architect Josef Op Gen Orth and has been a listed building since 1989. With a diameter of 55 meters, the fountain holds 1200 cubic meters of water and it takes 26 hours to fill it. The fountain has 132 nozzles that show three images of water. Seven foam effect nozzles, controllable up to a height of eight meters, form the inner ring; 16 nozzle rings, each with six, individually controllable nozzles up to a height of two meters, form the outer ring. Seven parabolas, which can bubble up to ten meters from the inside to the outside, take up the original appearance from the 1950s. 145 lights were installed to illuminate the individual water features. From 1994 to 2000 the well was dry. When the season opened in May 2000, it was put back into operation. Since the end of April 2001, a water goblet in the middle of the fountain has been added to the system.

Star wave tent

The star wave tent , made to a design by Frei Otto , which spans the dance fountain, was erected for the 1957 Federal Garden Show. The first renovation took place for the Federal Horticultural Show in 1971. Due to structural defects, it had to be dismantled in 1993; Only in 2001 could it be rebuilt after complete renovation using the historical templates. The eleven meter high stellar wave tent covers an area of ​​around 500 square meters.

Tent arch at the entrance

The earlier tent roof construction in the entrance area was built for the Federal Garden Show in 1957, also based on a design by Frei Otto. It stood until BUGA 1971 and served as weather and sun protection for the visitors waiting at the entrance to the Tanzbrunnen and the Rheinpark. At the end of the 1980s the membrane was worn out.

For the season opening in May 2003, a new tent roof was installed, which takes on the original appearance from the 1950s. The steel arch is 40 meters long, weighs six tons and has a diameter of 50 centimeters. At the top it measures 8.80 meters. The tent roof membrane has an area of ​​350 square meters and weighs 200 kilograms.

Rooms and capacities

  • Open-air area: 30,000 m²; 12,500 standing places
  • “Theater am Tanzbrunnen”: 940 m²; around 1000 seats
  • Rheinterrassen: 4 rooms from 212 to 300 m² for 82 to 200 seats
  • Beer garden: 850 m²; 800 seats
  • “Km 689 Cologne Beach Club”: 3500 m²; up to 1000 people
Open-air concert at the Tanzbrunnen

Todays use

The Tanzbrunnen is a popular cross-generational culture and leisure park. The around 400 events that take place annually, both on the open-air site and in the theater, attracted around 690,000 visitors in 2017. Concerts by local and international stars, festivals, cabaret and cabaret performances, the “fish market” and the flower and garden market at Tanzbrunnen take place regularly . The Amphi Festival has been taking place on the grounds of the Tanzbrunnen, the theater and in the adjacent State House since 2006 . In addition to the public events, there are also numerous private parties and company celebrations in the theater or on the adjacent Rhine terraces.

literature

  • Henriette Meynen: The Cologne green spaces. The urban development and garden architecture development of the urban green and the green system of Fritz Schumacher. (= Contributions to architectural and art monuments in the Rhineland, Volume 25) Schwann, Düsseldorf 1979, ISBN 3-590-29025-0 . P. 160 and a.
  • René Zey: Parks in Cologne. A guide through the green spaces. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7743-0273-1 , p. 150ff.

Web links

Commons : Tanzbrunnen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Amphi Festival 2015 - Cologne Amphi Event Park. In: www.amphi-festival.de. Retrieved July 16, 2015 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 47.2 "  N , 6 ° 58 ′ 18.6"  E