Wilhelm Marx House

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wilhelm Marx House in 2010

The Wilhelm-Marx-Haus is an office and commercial building in the center of Düsseldorf . It is located on Heinrich-Heine-Allee , what was then Alleestraße or Hindenburgwall and was built on Alleeplatz, the southern end of the avenue in front of Grabenstraße, from 1922. When it was completed in 1924, it was 57 meters high and twelve floors above ground, together with the Düsseldorf industrial building, one of the first high-rise buildings in Düsseldorf and one of the earliest in Germany. It is since 3 December 1984 under monument protection . Until the completion of the Hansa high-rise in Cologne in 1925, which towered over the Düsseldorf office building by four floors, the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus was even "the tallest reinforced concrete structure in Europe" according to the contemporary press.

planning

Since the early 1920s, the whole of Germany has been concerned with the question of whether high-rise buildings are needed in Germany and whether one should follow the trend in large US cities. In Düsseldorf, too, they wanted to create high-rise buildings as a sign of progress and economic upswing and thus prevent companies from migrating to other cities. Therefore, the "Düsseldorfer Bürohausgesellschaft" was founded in 1921, which was supposed to simplify the bureaucracy when applying for corresponding building projects. The company's first order was the seven-storey industrial building on Wehrhahn , which was already the first high-rise under the building law in force at the time - all buildings used for business purposes with more than six full storeys were considered high-rise.

In autumn 1921, a competition for an “office building on Alleeplatz” was launched together with the city administration. The task was to create an architectural finish for the Hindenburg Wall and to mark an interface between the old town , Carlstadt and the banking district. According to contemporary reports, the Alleeplatz was considered to be one of the busiest places in Düsseldorf and the construction site had an urban development significance that should not be underestimated. The new building should emphasize this position.

The first prize in the competition went to the design by the architect Wilhelm Kreis , then a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , who was also responsible for other buildings in Düsseldorf and the region. In the opinion of the jury, the urban topography was taken into account most consistently thanks to its floor plan with two intersecting rectangles. Other designs were “The Red Tower” by Fritz Becker with a 21-storey tower or “The House of Golden Balls” by Arno Breker and Heinrich Bähr , each of which envisaged the development of the entire property and a tower across the Hindenburgwall.

construction

Construction of the building began in May 1922 and the building was occupied in the summer of 1924. It consists of a twelve-storey building and two six-storey side wings, the rectangular floor plans of which intersect and thus form the floor plan of the tower building. The reinforced concrete construction is clad with shell limestone up to the window sills of the second floor , the other floors are clad with the red bricks typical of that time . The windows are also framed with stone ( dolomite ) up to the height of the side sash and have continuous window sills . The whole building is surrounded by arcades , which are only open in the area of ​​the building construction - the other areas are glazed so that they can be used as shop windows. The two upper floors of the tower have a lower height and smaller windows. In the tent roof of the spire, a water tank that was not directly visible from the street was originally hidden for fire protection . This was ensured by the balustrade with a two-storey tracery gallery made of brick, which was designed from overlapping pointed arches.

The equipment of the building with hot water heating and hot water supply on all floors as well as an elaborate ventilation system was groundbreaking for the time. A paternoster elevator , a conventional passenger elevator and two freight elevators were also installed in the building.

The quantities of building materials used also show unusual dimensions: 7,200 m³ of gravel , 430,000 kg of iron and steel , 34,200 sacks of cement , 540 m³ of stone and 350,000 bricks. The entire building material could have filled 2,000 wagons of a 27 km long train.

The top floors of the building were badly damaged in the air raids of World War II in June 1943, but could be used again after the end of the war.

From 1982 to 1984 a side wing was extended as part of the subway building in the direction of Kasernenstrasse in the old style, with the same facade and profile, creating a large inner courtyard behind the building. The extension was carried out by the architects Hentrich, Petschnigg & Partner (HPP) and Rhode, Kellermann, Wawrosky and Partner ( RKW ). An underground car park was also set up under the building together with the neighboring Carsch-Haus . In the course of this construction work, the neighboring Carsch-Haus was moved by 27 meters to make room for the “Heinrich-Heine-Allee” underground station. Since the four-lane route of the subway runs directly under the building, it had to be supported with a bored pile wall made of more than 500 concrete pillars. One reason for these extensive stabilization measures was also the subsoil, which partly consists of an old rampart and a fortress moat. When it was built in 1922, this had already caused unexpected water ingresses several times and made a 1 meter thick concrete slab necessary.

owner

In 1988 the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus, which had been supported by the city until then, was sold to the French group "Pierre Premier" in Paris for financial reasons for 58 million DM after a decision by the city council. The new owner, the building underwent then 1991/1992 again a makeover .

In 2001 the building got a German owner again - Düsseldorf-based WestInvest, which belongs to DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale and thus to the savings bank group , and has been operating and managing the building since then. The building is part of the open real estate fund "WestInvest InterSelect".

Naming

The former Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf , Wilhelm Marx (not to be confused with the Chancellor of the same name ), who laid the foundation for the modernization of the city at the beginning of the 20th century , acted as godfather . The building opened in the year of his death.

use

Musikbrunnen, Joachim Schmettau , 1986

The Wilhelm-Marx-Haus offers 1079 m² of retail space on the ground floor , which is used by several well-known brands because of the location and the fame of the building. On the twelve upper floors there is 8,620 m² of office space, which is mainly used by the Düsseldorf private bank HSBC Trinkaus . In addition, the “JuTA” ( Young Theater in the Old Town ) with a small stage , which belongs to the Forum Free Theater, is located in the building .

Originally, the building housed the Düsseldorf stock exchange , which was a focal point of economic activity there with two trading floors. The larger of the two halls was designed by the symbolist painter Jan Thorn Prikker . When the stock exchange rooms of the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus were destroyed on June 12, 1943, stock exchange operations came to a standstill. After extensive construction work, the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus was reopened for stock exchange transactions on April 17, 1951 as part of a ceremony. After the stock exchange moved to the new building near Berliner Allee in 1957, nothing remained of the halls other than memories. In addition, in January 1949 the replacement head office of Deutsche Industriebank (later IKB Deutsche Industriebank) was relocated from Hamburg-Harburg to the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus, which, however, moved to its newly built domicile on Karl-Theodor-Straße in 1952/1953. In the late 1960s, the building housed various offices of the city of Düsseldorf (social welfare and youth welfare office). The Dr. Carl Hahn KG for hygiene and cosmetics was a tenant in the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus for a long time.

For more than 50 years, there has been a neon advertisement for Persil detergent from the Düsseldorf-based Henkel Group on the top of the tower and on the tracery gallery . In October and November 2009 the old, defective lettering was dismantled and replaced with four animated red Persil logos. This neon sign is supported by a sophisticated technique. During the day, the letters are lowered behind the brick balustrade by a kind of lifting platform. In the dark, the stage goes up and shows the Persil lettering over all four house fronts.

The gallery could be reached by visitors with the paternoster elevator and for a long time served as a lookout point that allowed a view over the entire city.

Also worth seeing is the inner courtyard of the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus, where several cafés are located around the music fountain . At Christmas time there is a Christmas market in the inner courtyard, called "Sternchenmarkt am Stadtbrückchen".

In June 2018 Check24 rented 1,300 m² of office space in order to incorporate its loan service and the shopping comparison portal . The offices have been in use since autumn 2018; with this letting the building was fully let.

The music temple

Bandstand

Since August 17, 1984, opposite the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus, in front of the main entrance of the Carsch-Haus, there has been a faithful reconstruction of the music temple, which had to give way to the construction of the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus. The replica of the pavilion was created by master blacksmith Hans Sauer from Kaarst -Büttgen from 15 tons of steel. The two-ton copper roof is decorated with two kilograms of gold leaf .

The exact origin of the original music temple is not known, but it is believed that it was created for the 1902 industrial and commercial exhibition - during the tenure of Mayor Wilhelm Marx. In 1906, the temple is said to have been moved to the old town at the instigation of Robert Visser , the then director of the tourist office. The music temple was a popular meeting place after going to church on Sunday.

literature

Wilhelm Marx House

  • Paul Ernst Wentz: Architecture Guide Düsseldorf. Droste, Düsseldorf 1975, ISBN 3-7700-0408-6 , object no. 4th
  • Jürgen Wiener (Hrsg.): The GeSoLei and the Düsseldorf architecture of the 20s. JP Bachem, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7616-1445-4 .
  • Roland Kanz, Jürgen Wiener (ed.): Architectural guide Düsseldorf. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-496-01232-3 .

Music temple

  • Theo Lücker: Düsseldorf - around Karlstadt. Verlag der Goethe-Buchhandlung, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-924331-21-9 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm-Marx-Haus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1909 address book for the city of Düsseldorf and the mayor's offices. 1909, p. [773] 93.
  2. ^ The Bürohausgesellschaft mb H. started its operations in July 1921, in the administrative report of the state capital Düsseldorf from April 1, 1922 to March 31, 1925, p. 328 ub.uni-duesseldorf.de
  3. ↑ Solinger Tageblatt. June 22, 2018, p. 25.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 30 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 36 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 30, 2006 .