Central Square (Koblenz)
The central square is the main square in Koblenz . The square , which was only created after the Second World War , was fundamentally redesigned in the early 2010s. Since then there has been the Forum Mittelrhein , an inner-city shopping center, and the Forum Confluentes , a cultural building.
There are several bus stops on the edge of the central square, making it a central transfer point for Koblenz local transport .
history
The central square is not a historically grown square in the old town , but was only created after the Second World War as part of the rebuilding of the city of Koblenz. Before the war, there was an area here that was densely built with half-timbered houses, but which was completely devastated by the heavy air raids on Koblenz . These were mainly small buildings that were attached to the medieval city wall; the street "An der Wasserturmsmauer" was a social hotspot before the war.
The house of the Koblenz casino company, built in 1827, stood on the site of today's central square until it was destroyed in the war . A development plan from 1957 provided for the creation of a central square as the center of an up-and-coming city. Until it was demolished in the mid-1960s to build an underground car park under the square, part of the medieval city wall , with the water tower of the electoral water pipeline from Metternich , ran across the central square. It had become visible again through the destruction of the attached houses. Initially, the outdoor area around the wall was only used as a parking lot.
A building complex was built south of the central square between 1950 and 1951, which was initially used by the French occupation army . These buildings were handed over to the German Armed Forces in 1957 and used as a “house of encounter” and as a polyclinic . In addition, the residence cinema was built in one part of the building. The Ernst Rodenwaldt Institute , the Bundeswehr Institute for Military Medicine and Hygiene, developed from the polyclinic in 1962 . The casino building was rebuilt in 1956 on the old site, but had to close again in 1960 because it could not be operated economically. At the eastern end of the square, after the casino building was torn down, a department store with an underground car park was built in 1968, initially used by Quelle , and from 1993 by Hertie . At the north end of the square, the Dresdner Bank high-rise was built in 1970 and the Gewa department store (now the Schängel Center) in 1973.
Due to Ernst Rodenwaldt's Nazi past , the institute was renamed the Central Institute of the Medical Service of the German Armed Forces in Koblenz in 1998 and moved to the Rhein barracks in Lützel in the same year . The building complex on Zentralplatz was then completely demolished at the end of 2005. After the Hertie department store was closed in 1996, only smaller shops moved into the building that only used the ground floor, and most of it was empty. The central square was rarely visited by people and was neglected, especially since a redesign had been considered for a long time and therefore hardly any investments were made in the square and the surrounding buildings.
In the course of the redesign of the square, the excavation work for a construction pit began on the site of the former Bundeswehr Institute in 2007 , and on November 6, 2007, an American aircraft bomb weighing 500 kg was discovered. The implementation of the development plans for a redesign dragged on due to resistance in the population and the disagreement in the Koblenz city council.
Between 2007 and 2010 there was a deep excavation next to the square, without the policy making any further progress in the implementation of the development plans. The proponents of the Forum Mittelrhein project , a combination of shopping center and cultural building, were ultimately able to prevail. Construction work began in August 2010, and the department store along with the underground car park has now also been demolished. The shopping center was completed after a two-year construction period and opened on September 26, 2012. The cultural building was opened on June 20, 2013.
The new central square is located between the two buildings and includes 6,000 m² of open space with a green island (390 m²) and a water feature (200 m²). It enables a connection between the old town and the pedestrian zone (Löhrstraße). The open space offers 1,380 m² of space for a weekly market with approx. 30 stands and for events (seats for approx. 1,450 spectators, unseated for approx. 2,250 spectators). There is also space for cafes and bistros as well as seating elements to linger.
On May 1, 2013, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the central square. It is reminiscent of the murder of a homeless person by a right-wing extremist skinhead. On August 24, 1992, he shot around indiscriminately on the central square and injured six other people in addition to the homeless person who was killed. The commemorative plaque reads: “Here, on August 24, 1992, a right-wing extremist murdered the homeless Frank Bönisch and injured several people. As a reminder and reminder. "
(the apparent right-hand curve of the street is an optical illusion)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tour through Alt-Coblenz, in: Mitteilungen des Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz, 2, 1908, issue 2, pp. 56–65, here p. 62.
- ↑ "Hated and Loved: The Long Road to the New Center" in: Rhein-Zeitung , June 4, 2013
- ↑ 10,000 are evacuated - TuS game relocated - bomb paralyzes Koblenz in: Rhein-Zeitung , November 8, 2007
- ↑ The Middle Rhine Forum is open: Stroll through 80 shops on three floors in: Rhein-Zeitung , September 26, 2012
- ↑ Now everyone in Koblenz can come: Kulturbau has opened in: Rhein-Zeitung , June 20, 2013
- ↑ Brochure from the city of Koblenz on the new development of the central square (PDF; 9.5 MB)
- ↑ Memorial stone on the central square: City commemorates skinhead murder in: Rhein-Zeitung , May 1, 2013
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 30.5 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 45.5" E