Advertising tower (Bremen)
The advertising tower in Bremen was designed by the architect Heinz Stoffregen and built in 1925 . The building was erected on today's station forecourt on the corner of Breitenweg and Bahnhofstrasse next to the Breitenwegbad swimming pool that was still in existence at the time. The name "advertising tower" was proposed during a meeting of the Association of German Advertising Experts in Bremen in September 1924, as the word "advertising" was already negatively assigned at that time. After the company Opel operated the tower in the 1930s, it was given the nickname "Opelturm". The tower was demolished in 1967.
background
In 1923 the Bremen Senate announced an architectural competition for the construction of an exhibition building at the train station. One of the participating architects was Heinz Stoffregen, who had already been successful in previous years, especially in Delmenhorst . In addition to the Coburg House (1905), the town hall (1909) with the striking water tower, and the city's tax office building, he had also designed numerous residential and commercial buildings and also made a name for himself as an architect for industrial buildings. He had also designed the Bremer Landhaus with which Bremen was represented at the German Trade Show in Munich in 1922 .
Stoffregen won the competition, received first prize and the contract to carry out the work.
The area to be built on had the dimensions of 15 × 15 meters. Stoffregen designed a square floor plan of 13 × 13 meters for the ground floor of the building, as the actual advertising medium he put on a tower, which was also square (6 × 6 meters) and the top of which was 23 meters above the ground. The facade of the ground floor was clad with sandstone slabs, above which clinker was used. Clinker brick columns ascending in a spiral were used as decorative elements, and the tower was also given a roof.
Technically, new paths were broken for the time. The Deutsche Bauzeitung (DBZ) described the planned advertising technology:
“In this tower, 160 large posters on all four sides are continuously shown to passers-by alternately by mechanical-electrical activation from morning to night. The posters have an extension of 4 by 6 m. It is a completely new type of advertising that has not been used anywhere "
The completion took place at the meeting of the German Werkbund , which took place from June 20 to 24, 1925 in Bremen. On this occasion, Stoffregen exhibited his own works as well as works by the painter Marie Koll. The first tenant of the building was Engel & Schwedhelm, a company that produced agricultural machinery and advertised it in the building.
In the 1930s, Opel rented the advertising tower and the company displayed its vehicles in the building. For the first time, the tower structure of the building received permanently installed advertising panels. During this time, the building's common name was also created: "Opelturm".
The building survived the Second World War relatively unscathed, although large parts of the city's station district had been destroyed. Due to the resulting lack of retail space, the ground floor of the building had already been divided into three retail spaces in 1944. In 1952 the tower changed significantly: a restaurant was built on the ground floor ( Haus Helgoland ), the building was extended and lost its tower character. In 1955 the owner opened a dance hall ( Helgoland Ahoi ) on the first floor .
In 1956, the Bremen-based car manufacturer Borgward had a globe with a diameter of five meters and a rotary arm with a diameter of 6.5 meters with the Borgward logo installed on the tower. On all four sides of the tower there were advertising signs with the slogan "Borgward - proven on all roads".
State of preservation
The building was demolished in 1967 as part of the redesign of the station square.
Web links
- Article about the Opelturm on bremen-history.de, accessed on August 18, 2015
- Photo gallery of the structure on weser-kurier.de , accessed on August 18, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of special exhibitions by companies in Bremen and Worpswede , in: Böttcherstraßen-Archiv / Werkbund-Archiv: “Advertising and commercial graphics are also exhibited by the Stoffregen / Koll studio” .
- ↑ Frank Hethey: A globe as a late coronation - the "Opelturm" was opened 60 years ago , in: Weser-Kurier of July 9, 2015.
Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 54.1 ″ N , 8 ° 48 ′ 42.5 ″ E