Essen-Conditionrade water tower

Bedingrade water tower

The water tower in Essen - Bedingrade, completed in 1897, is located at Frintroper Straße 326 and has been a listed building since 1995 . Although it is located in the Bedingrad area, it is popularly referred to as the Frintrop Water Tower after the neighboring district .

history

Building

Staircase inside

The tower with a height of 44.15 meters was completed in 1897 on Oberhauser Straße (since 1915 Frintroper Straße) and put into operation in July of that year.

It was built from bricks on a circular floor plan. Its cross-section tapers towards the top. The brick tower is structured in the lower area by cornices and blind windows, in the middle part by smaller round-arched and in the upper part by ogival blind openings. At the top it ends with an ogival frieze . The steel storage tank with a capacity of around one million liters of water is attached.

In June 1911 the boiler and the interior of the tower were damaged by a lightning strike. As part of a restoration of the water tower between June and October 1977, the water container received its now characteristic blue wave ornamentation. In 1992 the brick tower got a new coat of paint.

On October 12, 1995, the water tower was added to the city of Essen's list of monuments as an architectural monument.

The builder Hermann Koehne

The construction of the water tower by the Frintrop-born building contractor and councilor Hermann Koehne (1860-1937) began on October 20, 1896 on behalf of Thyssen , which needed a water supply for its Gladbeck works. Hermann Koehne was the oldest of eight children. He only had an elementary school diploma. He married the daughter of a master builder from Oberhausen, with whom he had five daughters and a son. His father-in-law built the old town hall in Oberhausen , where Hermann Koehne initially worked. In 1886 Koehne became master of the Prussian state railway and was then significantly involved in the construction of the Frintrop-Dellwig freight and collection station . In 1893 he founded his own construction company and was involved in the construction of the St. Josef Church in Frintrop and the Duisburg-Ruhrorter ports . He also worked at the Prosper colliery in Bottrop . The construction company Koehne came in the time of global economic crisis of its existence to the edge, but was due to orders for the construction of the dam of Baldeneysees rescued early 1930s. Successor companies by Hermann Koehne's descendants have developed from this until today. Hermann Kohne was also a founding member of the citizens and traffic association Essen-Frintrop, a member of various local associations and a member of the church council of St. Josef as well as the president of the church choir. He was awarded the Pontifical Lateran Cross.

function

The water tower, which is still in operation today, belongs to the Intze 2 generation category with its design . Its water does not benefit the residents of the district, but rather the neighboring towns of Bottrop , Gladbeck and Dorsten to the north . The Rheinisch-Westfälische Wasserwerkgesellschaft from Mülheim an der Ruhr is the operator.

Trivia

The advertising community of the neighboring district of Frintrop uses a logo of the so-called Frinti , the Frintrop water tower, although it is in the Bedingrad area.

On September 5, 2019, every evening LED lighting of the tower was officially put into operation in the presence of Mayor Thomas Kufen and the grandson of the tower builder Hermann Koehne. As part of a district development process, planning began in 2017. The project was implemented by sponsors. Since then, the water tower has been illuminated in different colors every evening, depending on the temperature.