display
A tour with Anja Kolacek and Marc Leßle takes time and sturdy shoes.
In the old industrial halls on Deutz-Mülheimer Straße there is not only areas with art but also a lot of fallow land with cavities and all kinds of tripping hazards.
It smells like old machine oil.
For almost ten years now, the couple has rented the former headquarters of the engine group Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD) and parts of the production halls, which are important in terms of industrial history, from an investor and built a “creative and future workshop”.
“It was a win-win situation for both sides,” says Anja Kolacek on the tour through the walk-in total work of art.
For the director and project developer from Essen, the Zeche Zollverein World Heritage Site there is a model for the future of her Cologne project, in which the industrial monument is to be converted into a place of “living, working, public life, for art and nature”, “everything at eye level, ”she says.
Such ideas found many prominent supporters in Cologne, for a long time it looked as if the so-called Otto-Langen-Quartier near the Cologne trade fair could actually be saved from a pure demolition strategy.
The former industrial area was to be developed into a model urban development on which not only artists and creative people but also offices and businesses were to settle.
But now the future is more uncertain than ever.
Gottfried Eggerbauer, a Cologne real estate agent, has terminated the artists' lease and is now threatened with eviction of the 4500 square meter unit.
On December 4th, a hearing is to take place before the Cologne regional court.
That this came about is partly due to the complicated ownership structure.
The largest part of the area belongs to the state-owned development company NRW.Urban, the smaller part to the investor Eggerbauer.
On the other side of the street, the city has already sold a large area, which is also part of the KHD site, to a Düsseldorf investor.
He has already demolished halls and is planning a large residential area under the name “Deutz Quartiere”.
display
A comparable residential development is not even possible in the now highly competitive area, say Cologne building experts.
The proximity to the industrial port of Mülheim makes this impossible.
And the nested properties and listed areas made the development of individual areas difficult.
In order to progress in this difficult terrain, all plots would have to be in one hand, at least in terms of planning.
But while the state of North Rhine-Westphalia wanted to participate in the development of the land before the last change of government, it now apparently wants to sell to the highest bidder.
The ministry is still checking
The building ministry said that they were still in the process of preparing an investor selection process with the city.
But the artists can't wait that long after investor Eggerbauer gave them notice a year ago and put his area up for sale.
After all, the city of Cologne secured a right of first refusal at the end of March 2020.
But you can only do that when the investor has found a buyer, says the city.
Eggermeier is said to have turned down an offer from a municipal subsidiary for 18 million euros, reported the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger".
But there is still hope for the artists, who first had to have electricity and water laid in every corner and first of all secured the area against vandalism.
The couple is supported by the arts, science, business, citizenship and parts of politics.
A year ago, a “Deutz Appeal” for the preservation and future use of the former KHD site was signed by, among others, the Cologne star architect Paul Böhm.
He appeals to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to become more involved locally.
For example, future-oriented drives and technologies could be developed at the former nucleus of motorized individual transport.
“That would be the right place for it,” says Böhm.
"A unique opportunity"
display
IHK managing director Ulrich Soénius also signed.
“The whole thing has to be a matter for the boss,” he says.
Lord Mayor Henriette Reker should speak to the investor Eggermeier and try to at least suspend the eviction suit.
In addition, talks would have to be held with the country about the sale to the city.
“Later on, private investors could also join in and help develop the quarter with an urban development contract.” Soénius sees the area as “a unique opportunity” to develop a creative quarter out of an industrial wasteland, such as that of Amsterdam.
"In this situation you can do something really big for Cologne."
Only a few days ago the Association of German Architects (BDA) massively criticized Cologne's politics.
"When you look from the outside, you get the impression that there is no proactive action on the part of the city to develop this location on the basis of a planning approach geared to the common good," said an open letter to the mayor.
Cologne's building officer Markus Greitemann told this newspaper that neither the city, administration nor politics could directly influence the eviction process.
"Therefore, the accusation that the city is just watching cannot be true."
After the artists' initiative had advertised in local newspapers on Tuesday with numerous supporters to secure the Otto-Langen-Quartier, the otherwise media-shy investor Eggerbauer spoke up one day later.
"It is absurd that a private investor who has been awarded the Cologne Architecture Prize three times for his very successful renovations is now threatened with the moral club because he throws in the towel and sells after twelve years of unsuccessful development efforts," said Eggerbauer of the "Kölnische Rundschau" ".
However, he does not respond to a request from this newspaper.
At the beginning of the 80s there was already an attempt to found a cultural center in Cologne on the site of the former Stollwerk chocolate factory, but without a happy ending: in 1987 most of the buildings were demolished in favor of a housing estate.
"Now, 40 years later, such a project should have a chance", hopes Marc Leßle from the "Raum 13" initiative.