Living in a special way: local celebrities

Gelsenkirchen Baroque

Judith Lembke

Editor in the "Housing" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Gelsenkirchen doesn't have it easy: mines dead, Schalke relegated and the whole of Germany looks down on the interior style for which the city is known.

The Gelsenkirchen Baroque is not a stylistic term like Biedermeier or Art Nouveau, but its pastiche.

A synonym for kitsch and bad taste, mentioned in one go with garden gnomes and photo wallpaper.

The furniture, which is described as Gelsenkirchen baroque, is too big, too lavish, too expansive for the middle-class living room in which it stands.

The whole pride of the district is in the buffet cabinet, with which the workers could show in the post-war period that they had made it.

There are different theories as to why the home of this pompous furnishing style is assumed to be in Gelsenkirchen of all places,

After all, this furniture was neither invented nor manufactured in the city.

One is that Gelsenkirchen became a victim of its own success.

In the interwar period Gelsenkirchen was an up-and-coming and modern city, real avant-garde.

In the center, new, expressionist buildings were mixed with mines and magnificent Wilhelminian buildings - an exuberant mix of architecture.

To describe it, the term Gelsenkirchen Baroque came up, which was later transferred to the furnishings of the lower middle-class living room.

The city has now made peace with the derogatory term.

However, an ironic revival – see garden gnomes – is not in the offing.

In the interwar period Gelsenkirchen was an up-and-coming and modern city, real avant-garde.

In the center, new, expressionist buildings were mixed with mines and magnificent Wilhelminian buildings - an exuberant mix of architecture.

To describe it, the term Gelsenkirchen Baroque came up, which was later transferred to the furnishings of the lower middle-class living room.

The city has now made peace with the derogatory term.

However, an ironic revival – see garden gnomes – is not in the offing.

In the interwar period Gelsenkirchen was an up-and-coming and modern city, real avant-garde.

In the center, new, expressionist buildings were mixed with mines and magnificent Wilhelminian buildings - an exuberant mix of architecture.

To describe it, the term Gelsenkirchen Baroque came up, which was later transferred to the furnishings of the lower middle-class living room.

The city has now made peace with the derogatory term.

However, an ironic revival – see garden gnomes – is not in the offing.

which was later transferred to the furnishings of the petit bourgeois living room.

The city has now made peace with the derogatory term.

However, an ironic revival – see garden gnomes – is not in the offing.

which was later transferred to the furnishings of the petit bourgeois living room.

The city has now made peace with the derogatory term.

However, an ironic revival – see garden gnomes – is not in the offing.

Frankfurt bath

There is no longer an upscale new building without an

out, a wet cell that can be accessed from the bedroom.

From the hotel industry comes the trend to completely combine sleeping and living and to place the bath tub directly in the bedroom.

Of course, as with most things that eventually get hyped, this has been around for a long time.

In contrast to its chic descendant, the ensuite bathroom, the Frankfurt variant was not born out of excess, but out of necessity.

Previously there was no permanently installed sanitary area in the apartments, the ventilated bathroom was a novelty.

The washing area should be heated and have water connections, while the toilet was in the stairwell or courtyard and was usually unheated.

Due to the proximity to the water connections, the Frankfurt bathroom is often located next to or even in the kitchen,

shielded from the rest of the room by a partition or curtain.

What seems a bit uncomfortable in today's understanding was a real innovation at the beginning of the 20th century, when Frankfurt's apartment buildings were growing.

The upper class apartments even had their own water closet (toilet) in the apartment - a real luxury!

Even today there are still numerous Frankfurt baths.

Anyone who showers or bathes there can always feel a bit like they are in a hotel.

Even today there are still numerous Frankfurt baths.

Anyone who showers or bathes there can always feel a bit like they are in a hotel.

Even today there are still numerous Frankfurt baths.

Anyone who showers or bathes there can always feel a bit like they are in a hotel.