AUTHORS Susanne & Thomas Meermann
PUBLISHED 21. FEB 2025
Timeline of the town hall
The new town hall was occupied in 1964. This makes the current town hall, somewhat simplified, the fourth in Lüdenscheid at the third location.
The first town hall, the ‘Uralt-Rathaus’ or simply ‘Huys’, stood from 1268 to 1816, roughly where the ‘Fabriksken’ pub is located today. It was damaged in various town fires and was last rebuilt on the same site in 1723.
Second town hall: Patrician house below the Church of the Saviour from 1816 to 1873.
Third town hall: new construction of today’s old town hall on the same site from 1874 to 1963.
Fourth town hall: the current town hall from 1964/65. MARch 1965 open days (with arrangements of primroses, hyacinths, palms and leafy plants. ‘A group of live flamingos had been specially brought in from Cologne Zoo to provide a delightful splash of colour in the foyer with their stilt-legged rosiness.”)
Before the new town hall was built, the site was occupied by the old Hograph, later, from around the middle of the 19th century, by the Dicke family (including the factory). Haus Dicke was demolished in 1951 and initially converted into a green space, which it was used as until 1963.
Construction of the town hall tunnel (runs directly below the town hall square): 1971 – 1973.
Town hall building
Today’s town hall was built according to plans drawn up by the building authority (it was therefore not possible to identify a commissioned architect’s office).
Façade renovation in 2001, as the mosaic façade was crumbling. Initially sheet metal panelling on the front facing Sternplatz.
Façade renovation, modernisation and redesign of the town hall until 2006. The façade was given frosted glass cladding and the entire body of the building was clad. The architects WES + Partner were responsible for this. A large part of the ground floor now houses catering outlets and small shops. The main entrance is located on the Rathausplatz side. Old works of art in the entrance area of the town hall (MARie-Luise Quade/K.T. Neumann) had to make way for the redesign.
There were originally two entrances to the town hall. In addition to the current main entrance, there was another on the front side facing Sternplatz.
Town Hall Square
Naming: Today’s Rathausplatz has had many names
Pastors Weide until the end of the 19th century.
Then Carlsplatz and later Karlsplatz.
Adolf-Hitler-Platz during the Nazi era.
Karl-MARx-Platz until 1952.
MARket square until the construction of the town hall and the tunnel.
Town Hall Square from 1974.
Pavilions: There were pavilions on the town hall square for a long time. The first pavilions stood along the former Poststraße (on the opposite side of the square to the town hall). The first pavilion was erected as a waiting booth in 1935, two more in a similar form as a kiosk in 1952. These disappeared when the tunnel was built in 1971. After the tunnel was built, new, lectern-like pavilions were erected in 1975. They were demolished in 2003 with the subsequent redesign of the square.
Modern sculptures on Rathausplatz were erected after the tunnel was built in 1975 and were also removed before the square was redesigned in 2003. The following works were on display:
‘Untitled’ [Tin boxes/ vernacular: dented tin cans] by Ansgar Nierhoff.
‘Untitled’ [cubes] by Erich Hauser.
‘Untitled’ [water features/popular parlance: elephant loo or elephant shower] by Hansjerg Maier-Aichen.
The sculptures by Nierhoff and Hauser were almost disposed of in 2003, then removed and reinstalled in the Kulturhaus garden in 2013. Due to repeated, wilful destruction, the water features by Maier-Aichen no longer exist. They could no longer be repaired.
In 2004, the plane tree grove with the concrete bowl was installed as part of the redesign of the square.
The so-called ‘Gänsegärtchen’ is now called the ‘Hochzeitsgärtchen’ and has been located in its current form in the inner courtyard of the town hall since the Allen House was completed in 2011. Before that, there was a green space on the site of the Allen House, the aforementioned ‘Gänsegärtchen’, named after the bronze sculpture ‘Gänsegruppe’. Works of art in the wedding garden:
‘Group of Geese’ by Hans Nübold
‘Man and woman with tree’ (1965) by Waldemar Wien
‘Large grazing foal’ (1929) by Reneé Sintenis
Town hall and town hall square as a light art location
Light art as a location as part of the LICHTROUTEN:
2003 – Rochus Aust, interactive performance in the town hall.
2003 – Aurelia Mihai, projection on scaffolding on the façade facing Sternplatz.
2013 – Rainer Plum, with a laser installation in the plane tree grove on Rathausplatz.
2018 – Philipp Artus, with a projection on the façade facing Rathausplatz
Light elements/strips in the granite paving of Rathausplatz were installed from 2004 as pole-free square lighting; Lichtwerke (Königsberg) and Insta Elektro.
All information is taken from issues 166, 202, 203 and 226 of the history journal ‘Der Reidemeister’ published by the Lüdenscheid History and Local History Society (GHV) and from an article in the Westfälische Rundschau (WR) of 27 October 2004. We would like to thank the GHV and the WR and their authors, Hartmut Waldminghaus, Prof. Günter Spieß and Susanne Kornau, as well as the WR editor Carsten Menzel.