Disch-Haus

Cologne office and commercial building regarded as a major landmark of New Objectivity architecture, built on the site of a former luxury hotel.

City centre Old town Architecture History Monument City history Technology

Its name recalls a predecessor building that stood on this spot long before the current structure was built.

to Wikipedia ↗

Source: Wikipedia

At a glance

Type: Office and commercial building
Location: Brückenstraße 19/corner of Herzogstraße 36, Cologne city centre (Altstadt-Nord)
Architectural style: New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
Inaugurated: 1 February 1930
Floors: 5 today
Office space: around 7,700 m²
Heritage protection: since 15 October 1981 (monument no. 787)

Did you know?

Helen Jane Gladstone, sister of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, died at the Hotel Disch in 1880 with her brother at her bedside; she reportedly lived there for about ten years, and her conversion to Catholicism had been a scandal in her time.

The former Hotel Disch

On this site, the "Hotel Disch" opened in 1848, designed by Josef Felten and named after the art collector Franz Karl Damian Disch. It featured a Rococo hall suited to chamber music and hosted international guests as well as large assemblies. Alongside the Dom-Hotel, it was one of only two Cologne establishments in its category to enjoy international renown. The architects Heinrich Joseph Kayser and Karl von Großheim remodelled the hotel in 1890, with a further renovation following in 1912. On 20 December 1859, Franz Egon Graf von Fürstenberg-Stammheim, Cologne's first honorary citizen, died here. In May 1914, the delegate assembly of the "Centralverband Deutscher Industrieller" met at the hotel. The City of Cologne acquired the hotel out of the operating company's insolvency in 1928, and it was demolished in April 1929.

Fritz-Gruber-Platz – Disch-Haus — © Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

The new building and its architecture

Bruno Paul and Franz Weber emerged as winners of a competition, still launched by the hotel company, in 1928. The corner building was designed as a rounded structure, its façade structured by horizontal ribbon windows, while the ground floor is entirely dissolved into shop windows. It ranks among Bruno Paul's principal works and is considered the most important example of this architectural style in Cologne. The building was one of the first to feature thin natural stone panels hung on a large scale as cladding. An air raid during the Second World War destroyed the top floor.

Aktie der Disch Hotel und Verkehrs AG vom Dezember 1929 — © Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V. · Public domain

Present-day use

After reconstruction, the City of Cologne used the building to house several municipal offices. In 2005 it sold the property to a consortium comprising the Swiss real estate fund UBS, Colonia Real Estate AG and Redos Real Estate GmbH, which renovated and let around 7,700 m² of office space, with the mail-order retailer Manufactum as anchor tenant. In 2008 the building passed to the Bayerische Versorgungskammer. A Schindler paternoster lift installed in 1952 survived the renovations and remains one of only five paternosters still licensed for operation in Cologne.

Dischhaus in Köln, Brückenstraße / Herzogstraße — © Bordeaux · CC BY-SA 3.0

Good to know

Helen Jane Gladstone, sister of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, died at the Hotel Disch in 1880; he attended her deathbed. She is said to have lived there for around ten years. Her conversion to Catholicism was considered scandalous in her time.

Museum Kolumba at Cologne, architekt Zumthor (to the right: modernist building Dischhaus) — © Hpschaefer · CC BY-SA 3.0

Timeline

1848
Opening of the "Hotel Disch" designed by Josef Felten
1859
Death of Cologne honorary citizen Franz Egon Graf von Fürstenberg-Stammheim at the hotel
1880
Death of Helen Jane Gladstone at the Hotel Disch
1890
Founding of the "Disch Hotel- und Verkehrs-AG" and first renovation by Kayser & von Großheim
1912
Another renovation of the hotel
1929
Demolition of the hotel and dissolution of the Disch-AG
1930
Inauguration of the new administrative building in the New Objectivity style
2005
Sale of the Disch-Haus by the city of Cologne to an international consortium

Gallery

halb erleuchtetes Disch-Haus — © Thomas Roessler · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

Disch-Haus und L-Fritz-Gruber-Platz, Köln — © Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Disch-Haus, Köln — © Chris06 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Köln, Blick vom Offenbachplatz mit den Nachkriegsbauten Ebinghaus und einem Wohn- und Geschäftshaus von Wilhelm Riphahn (der auch die Oper gegenüber entwarf) zu — © MenkinAlRire · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Disch-Haus Köln, Foto 2008 — © Gunnar Klack · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Map

Blue dots: other places nearby — tap to explore.

Get directions:

Google Maps Apple Maps OpenStreetMap

You might also like — related or nearby

370 m

Haus Hindenburg

Neoclassical corner building at Schildergasse and Neumarkt in Cologne, a listed historic monument since 1993.

350 m

Blau-Gold-Haus

Right next to Cologne Cathedral stands the Blau-Gold-Haus, a turquoise-and-gold office and commercial building from 1952 that is a listed monument and a notable example of German post-war modernism, today home to hotel suites and luxury boutiques.

3.2 km

Colonia-Haus

since 1973

4.3(151)· Google

Germany's second-tallest residential skyscraper, right on the Rhine in Riehl — at 155 m with antenna, almost as tall as Cologne Cathedral (157 m).

Comments

Loading comments…

Sources & links

Wikidata (retrieved 2026-09-13)
Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-09-13)

Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-09-13

How this page is made

This page draws on open sources — Wikipedia, Wikidata, official websites and the city’s open data. Every statement is checked against the sources linked here, and pages are refreshed regularly.

Spotted a mistake anyway? Tell us below — we read every submission.