Wilhelm Bell
Wilhelm Bell (* 1849 in Burgbrohl ; † 1936 ) was a German builder and contractor .
Life
Wilhelm Bell was the son of a craftsman from Weibern who moved to Burgbrohl at the beginning of the 19th century. Bell's mother came from the Beunerhof near Burgbrohl. Wilhelm Bell lost his father at an early age, with whom he had learned the building trade. He built up a company that had around 300 employees during the First World War . In addition to building houses and bridges, he mainly specialized in road construction. He managed around 20 quarries.
Outside of his profession, Wilhelm Bell held numerous honorary posts . He was a member of the church and school board and was a member of the district committee and the savings bank board. During the First World War he was also the mayor of Burgbrohl and the purchase of the land required for the construction of the Brohltalbahn was also assigned to Bell. Bell was also involved in the construction of the railway.
He was married and had numerous children.
Kaiserhalle and other buildings
Wilhelm Bell became known in particular through the construction of the Kaiserhalle in Burgbrohl in 1896. Although the project was rejected in a decision from the official inspector, Bell built this cantilevered, round, domed building made of trass concrete , which is currently the only one of its kind. The building was saved from demolition and renovated in the 1980s.
Bell had enforced the construction against the resistance of his home authorities by getting the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg to give an opinion on his plan. On November 5, 1895 he had received the building permit, on September 2, 1896 the hall was inaugurated. The hall was operated as a cultural venue. In 1926 it came into the possession of a Klein family who owned it until 1982 and used it according to its original purpose until 1945. Then the Kaiserhalle was used as a garage and storage room and gradually came down. In 1978 the Rhineland-Palatinate State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Mainz was informed that the hall should be demolished. After interventions, including by Professor Klaus Borchard from the University of Bonn , the demolition contract was suspended. However, an expert report from 1980 confirmed an acute danger of collapse. While work was still being carried out on a counter-report, the building was applied for monument protection and in 1981 the counter-report denying the risk of collapse was submitted. In 1982 the building became the property of the Burgbrohl Citizens' Association and renovation work could begin. The building is now a listed building.
Bell also experimented later with trass and basalt mixtures, which he z. Partly reinforced with metal. Test structures made of different concrete mixes were in the Gleestal .
Water pipe
Bell was also the builder of Burgbrohl's local water supply, which was set up in 1889. This was taken over by the municipality in 1902.
Bell, who had received permission from the municipality on October 2, 1889 to build the water pipe at his own expense and to operate it according to economic principles, assumed a water requirement of around 50 liters per day and person. In addition, certain amounts of water were used for animal husbandry and industry. However, the sources in the municipality were hardly sufficient for these needs. Bell tried, among other things, to use the Am Sührchen spring to add more water to the pipeline network. His drilling was unsuccessful in this regard, but yielded several fossil finds .
Bell also owned basalt and quarry stone pits above the Chudomel house at Lindenstrasse 2. There was a water collection area in which Wilhelm Bell built a collecting basin early on, from which the households in the area were supplied with water.
Two elevated tanks were also built to supply the community . The main container with a capacity of 126 m³ was at the Kunkskopf , the second container, which held 97.5 m³, was in the "In der Dreispitz" area. But only the acquisition of a spring in the Wassenach area could really solve the problem.
Honors
Wilhelm-Bell-Strasse in Burgbrohl is named after Wilhelm Bell.
Web links
- Kaiserhalle Burgbrohl. at www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de , accessed on December 18, 2014
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bell, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German builder and contractor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1849 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Burgbrohl |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1936 |