Williamsbau
The Williams Building was a multi-purpose building erected by Circus Williams in the post-war period on Aachener Strasse in Cologne at no.132.
building
All large event halls in Cologne fell victim to the war destruction. After construction began in 1946, the first event building in Cologne based on the plans of the architect Wilhelm Koep was inaugurated in July 1947 as a semi-permanent winter building for Circus Williams. It stood on the edge of the western inner city of Cologne at the level of the Aachener Weiher (No. 132) on the north side of Aachener Strasse and served as a multi-purpose hall until 1955. The circus built a winter tent of the same name on Erkrather Strasse in Düsseldorf. With a capacity of 2,500 spectators, the Williams Building in Cologne was the largest hall in the city in the post-war period. With the reconstruction of the large event halls in downtown Cologne, the temporary structure became superfluous and the building was demolished in 1956.
On May 6, 2018, the area around the former location of the Williams Building in Cologne was named Carola-Williams-Park and a memorial stele was unveiled in the presence of members of the Williams family.
use
Between 1947 and 1955, the building, originally used as the winter quarters of the Willams Circus, served as a multi-purpose hall for carnival meetings, operettas, jazz concerts, fairy tale games, sporting and political events. On October 8, 1949, the Cologne local hero Peter Müller boxed against the Romanian Jo Neff. On November 29, 1952 Louis Armstrong gave a frenetically applauded concert, Konrad Adenauer spoke here on June 29, 1953 in front of the CDU middle class block. With its events, the Williamsbau became the center of the reviving popular culture in post-war Cologne. In the post-war period, the home revues of the destroyed Greater Cologne were performed here again during the carnival season. Here u. a. the dancer Marika Rökk , the musician Lionel Hampton with band or the singer Grete Fluss . The proclamation of the Cologne triumvirate also took place in the hall. When Alfred Neven DuMont was named Prince Carnival here on February 9, 1955, the Mainz court singers celebrated their greatest success with the carnival song So a day, as beautiful as it is today , which had sold over 300,000 copies by August 1959. Ludwig Sebus also appeared at this event .
Trivia
On February 13, 1950, the circus director Carola Williams presented a billy billy billy goat as a carnival joke to the team of the soccer club 1. FC Köln during a carnival session in the Williams building . According to legend, the animal was so excited in the spotlight that it peed on the player Hennes Weisweiler . In this way, the billy goat, now known as " Hennes ", became the club's mascot.
literature
- Reinold Louis / Wolfgang Oelsner: The Williams building 1947–1956. Memories of a center of Cologne entertainment culture . Ed .: Große Kölner KG (= Große Kölner Edition . Volume 5 ). Marzellen, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-937795-53-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cheerfulness between rubble and ashes, accessed on May 31, 2015 under WDR, Reconstruction Carnival
- ^ WDR, Reconstruction Carnival
- ^ Picture book Cologne, Williamsbau
- ↑ Henriette Westphal: Williamsbau: Where the Cologne people enjoyed themselves and celebrated after the Second World War. In: rundschau-online.de. May 3, 2018, accessed May 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Circus_Williams
- ^ History of Circus Williams 1945–1949, accessed on May 31, 2015 under Circus Williams History