VDI house

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As VDI building (also: engineering house ), the main office and the seat of the first since 1897 Association of German Engineers designated (VDI). The VDI regional association of Baden-Württemberg also calls its office in Stuttgart VDI-Haus.

history

The Association of German Engineers (VDI) was founded on May 12, 1856 in Alexisbad ( Harz ). In the time between the founding of the association in 1856 and moving into the first VDI house in 1897, the VDI did not have its own building. Initially, the apartments of the respective managing directors served as business premises; from the 1880s, premises in the west of Berlin were rented. These were first on Wichmannstrasse, then on Potsdamer Strasse and even later on Leipziger Strasse .

In its 160-year history, the VDI had to move several times due to its growth, but also due to the consequences of the Second World War and the associated division of Berlin . Until the dissolution of the association by the Allies on November 22, 1945, the VDI was based in Berlin . After approval by the military government, the VDI was re-established on September 12, 1946 in the British Zone and finally in September 1949 for the entire area of ​​the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin . Düsseldorf was chosen as the headquarters of the office .

Buildings in Berlin

Charlottenstrasse 43

First VDI house in Berlin (VDI headquarters 1897–1914, status 2009)

After an architectural competition , the Berlin district association of the VDI commissioned the Berlin architects Konrad Reimer and Friedrich Körte ( Reimer und Körte office ) to build a club house. On a small plot of land in the Mitte district , Charlottenstrasse 43 / Unter den Linden 2–15 / Mittelstrasse, a five-storey building with an ashlar facade in the neo-renaissance style was built from 1896 to 1897 . The base is faced with Silesian granite , the upper floors show different window formats and bas-reliefs depicting trade, science, industry, steam and electricity by the sculptor Gotthold Riegelmann .

The basement was rented to a restaurant, the ground floor and the first floor to a bank. The VDI set up its head office on the 2nd floor. The editorial staff of the club's magazine, a meeting room with wooden panels and some living rooms could be accommodated on the 3rd and 4th floors. In 1905, due to the increased number of employees and the resulting lack of space, it was decided at the 46th general meeting of the VDI to use the entire building from now on and to invest a total of 50,000 marks for renovations and refurbishing the clubhouse. At the same general meeting, based on the investments that have now been made, it was also decided that there are no plans to negotiate the construction of a new clubhouse before five years have elapsed. The following changes were made during the renovation work: The business premises of the director and the office were moved to the 1st floor. The rooms on the 2nd floor that were freed up as a result were made available to the editors of the club magazine, for which the drawing room on the 3rd floor could be enlarged. A library for VDI members with a reading and meeting room was set up on the ground floor.

The mechanical engineering company MAN bought the house in 1918 and used it until 1950. Between 1950 and 1990 the building housed administrative units of the Humboldt University in Berlin . After German reunification , MAN got the property back. After extensive renovation, their Berlin branch is housed here.

Ebertstrasse 27

Since the VDI's rooms in Charlottenstrasse 43 were no longer sufficient after a short time, the corner plot of Sommerstrasse / Dorotheenstrasse opposite the Reichstag building and in the vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate was acquired following a resolution by the Annual General Meeting in 1899 . In February 1912, the architects Reimer and Körte emerged victorious again from a two-stage architectural competition. The inauguration took place shortly before the outbreak of the First World War on June 5, 1914. The new five-storey club house on today's Ebertstrasse fits in with the prominent neighboring buildings through the choice of facade material ( Wünschelburg sandstone ) and a restrained monumentality with a hip roof , sculptural decorations and balusters good at.

During the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II , the building was bombed and heavily damaged due to its close proximity to the Reichstag building. The archive and library as well as almost all of the VDI's assets were destroyed. With the dissolution of the VDI by the Allied Control Council on November 22, 1945, due to its affiliation with the NS-Bund Deutscher Technik , the VDI building and property were confiscated on the basis of Control Council Act No. 2 of October 10, 1945. According to Albert Speer's plans to redesign the capital , the VDI building would have been torn down.

During the division of Berlin , the VDI house was in the Soviet sector . The ban on the VDI remained in place in the Soviet sector and later in the GDR . Instead, the Chamber of Technology was founded here , which the former VDI building used from 1949 to 1990 after the severe war damage to the roof and facade had been removed. 1952–1954 further repairs were carried out inside the house, during which the conference room and the main staircase were redesigned. Hedwig Bollhagen made ceramic jewelry for the stairwell . The Berlin Wall ran directly on the west side of the building.

After the political change , the building stood empty for a few years. It was only used again after the capital city resolution and the associated construction activity. Today the building is integrated into the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus of the German Bundestag and received a new glass roof structure. The renovation was carried out by the architect Pie de Bruijn.

  • VDI building at Ebertstrasse 27 in Berlin (VDI headquarters 1914–1945)

  • Building as it was in 1951

  • Building as it was in 1951

  • Building as it was in the 1970s

  • Building in the state of 2009

Buildings in Düsseldorf

Prinz-Georg-Strasse 77–79

VDI-Haus Prinz-Georg-Straße 77–79, Düsseldorf (VDI headquarters 1949–1967, status 1956)

From 1949 to 1967 the main office of the VDI was located at Prinz-Georg-Straße 77-79 in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort . The purchased property at number 77 first had to be laboriously cleared of war rubble before construction could begin on November 11, 1948. The members made a significant contribution to the financing of the new VDI building in the form of a building block collection through the district associations. The inauguration of the new headquarters took place on September 6, 1949.

Just one year later, due to a significantly increased number of employees, it became clear that the new rooms were no longer sufficient. As a precaution, the neighboring property with house number 79 had already been acquired on August 13, 1949 in order to ensure an expansion of the VDI building. For the extension (inauguration on September 17, 1951), another collection of building blocks was carried out. Architecturally, the extension was connected to the existing VDI building to form a uniform building. The extension building was provided with a representative main entrance which, in addition to the VDI logo that was valid at the time, also contained the full name of the Association of German Engineers.

Both parts of the building have been extensively renovated and are now used as apartment buildings. There are no signs of the builder and former owner on site.

Graf-Recke-Strasse 84

VDI house Graf-Recke-Straße 84, Düsseldorf (VDI headquarters 1967-2008, status: 2006)
Cast iron building block for the donors of the building block collection of the VDI house in Graf-Recke-Straße 84

From 1967 to 2008 the main office of the VDI was in Graf-Recke-Straße 84 in Düsseldorf-Düsseltal . The new VDI building was partly realized through building block donations from members, district associations and companies. The four-storey building with a square floor plan was built for the VDI from 1965 to 1967 based on designs by Helmut Rhode . The basic grid of the design had a side length of 75 meters. The main beams of the building were 15 meters long. Prefabricated exposed aggregate concrete slabs were suspended from these girders , which together with the ribbon windows formed the outer facade of the house. Inside the building there was an inner courtyard with sloping corners; the courtyard facades were clad with slate . The building had lecture halls , a library and conference rooms as well as a canteen and kitchen on the ground floor .

For the 125th anniversary of the VDI , the VDI memorial , which had been in Alexisbad (Harz) since May 12, 1931, was transported to Düsseldorf and was ceremonially unveiled there on May 12, 1981 in front of the VDI building on Graf-Recke-Strasse.

Due to stricter fire protection regulations and a lack of space, the building finally had to be abandoned.

The VDI building on Graf-Recke-Straße was demolished in 2008/2009. Two apartment buildings were built in its place. The VDI memorial was moved to the new location of the VDI building. There are no signs of the former property owner on site.

VDI place 1

VDI-Haus VDI-Platz 1, Düsseldorf (VDI headquarters since 2008, status 2009)

Since 2008 the main office of the VDI has been at VDI-Platz 1 in AirportCity at Düsseldorf Airport in Düsseldorf-Lohausen . The new building was designed by the Düsseldorf office pinkarchitektur with the following theme:

“The building communicates the dynamism of a place that is about acceleration, intellectual speed and the transfer of know-how, inspired by the fascination and aesthetics of a world of drive and thrust. The structure and design of the facade and its horizontal facade bands resemble white contrails. The sweeping side wings of the building complex are reminiscent of majestic spans that, in harmony with the surface materials used, welcome visitors on board the VDI. "

The Duisburg architects' office agiplan integrale bauplanung (aib) was responsible for project management.

Due to the direct proximity to the airport, an improved connection could be realized and the possibilities for holding meetings and conferences improved through numerous conference rooms both in-house and externally. Furthermore, the new building with around 500 employees of the entire VDI group could be moved into, which should create synergies.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Birk Karsten Ecke: Alexisbad and the Association of German Engineers, December 9, 2012, accessed on March 17, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Bieler, W., Laalej, G, Renkel, S. (2008): Five houses, one association. VDI GmbH, Düsseldorf.
  3. ^ Theodor Peters : History of the Association of German Engineers . Based on papers left by Th. Peters - Published on behalf of the board and completed by 1910. Self-published by the Association of German Engineers, Berlin 1912, p. 81-82 .
  4. ^ A b Association of German Engineers (1981): 125 years of the Association of German Engineers. Dusseldorf.
  5. ^ VDI (1905): Affairs of the association. The 46th general meeting of the Association of German Engineers . Journal of the Association of German Engineers. Vol. 49, No. 35, pp. 1450-1453. VDI, Berlin.
  6. ^ A b VDI (1905): Affairs of the association. Meeting of the board of directors of the Association of German Engineers - circulars to the district associations regarding the construction of a new association building . Journal of the Association of German Engineers. Vol. 49, No. 11, p. 460. VDI, Berlin.
  7. ↑ first VDI house (Charlottenstrasse 43) in the Berlin state monument list
  8. ^ Institute for Monument Preservation (ed.): Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmale der DDR, Berlin, I. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 202.
  9. ^ Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 46, 1912, No. 15 (from February 21, 1912), p. 152.
  10. ↑ Erich Kothe : On becoming and working of the VDI . In: VDI-Z. tape 98 , no. 14 , May 11, 1956, pp. 644 .
  11. ↑ a b c d second VDI house (Ebertstraße 25) in the Berlin State Monument List
  12. ^ A b c d Association of German Engineers (ed.): 140 years of VDI. Düsseldorf 1996.
  13. ^ A b c d F. Haßler (1949): The engineering house in Düsseldorf . VDI-Z. Vol. 91, No. 17, pp. 411-413. VDI-Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf.
  14. ^ Karl-Heinz Ludwig: The VDI as an object of party politics 1933 to 1945 . In: Karl-Heinz Ludwig (Ed.): Technology, Engineers and Society - History of the Association of German Engineers 1856–1981 . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-18-400510-0 , p. 425 .
  15. ↑ a b c d F. Haßler (1951): The extension of the engineering house in Düsseldorf . VDI-Z. Vol. 93, No. 33, pp. 1036-1038. VDI-Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf.
  16. ^ Paul Ernst Wentz: Architecture Guide Düsseldorf. Droste, Düsseldorf 1975, No. 52.
  17. ↑ a b VDI-Nachrichten of June 22, 2007: VDI lays the foundation for its future. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  18. ↑ VDI House. At: pinkarchitektur.de , accessed on January 4, 2018.
  19. ↑ a b VDI checks in. From: verbaende.com , August 1, 2005, accessed January 4, 2018.