Haus Neuerburg
Brick building on Gülichplatz disguised as two townhouses, with a stair tower in the courtyard echoing Cologne's old patrician houses.
The building takes its name from the Haus Neuerburg cigarette company, whose headquarters it once housed.
Source: Wikipedia
At a Glance
- Type
- Listed building, former commercial headquarters
- Location
- Gülichplatz, Cologne district of Altstadt-Nord
- Construction
- two phases, 1921/1923 and 1928/1929
- Architect
- Emil Felix
- Materials
- Dutch brick, figurative ornamentation in Kirchheim shell limestone
- Heritage status
- listed on 16 October 1984 (No. 2686)
- Current use
- offices of the City of Cologne administration
The slender staircase tower in the courtyard recalls the once-numerous staircase towers of Cologne's patrician houses, almost all of which were destroyed in World War II and never rebuilt.
History
The Haus Neuerburg company was founded in Trier in 1908 by brothers Heinrich and August Neuerburg. After the First World War, Heinrich Neuerburg moved to Cologne and bought up several small plots on Gülichplatz, whose earlier buildings had partly been destroyed in an air raid near the war's end. He commissioned Emil Felix to design and build the company's headquarters — the same architect he soon after entrusted with his private villa in Marienburg. The first phase produced a three-storey structure with two wings enclosing the square to the south and west; an extension followed later. During the 1920s and 1930s, Heinrich Neuerburg also served as Greek Consul General, responsible for the Cologne, Aachen and Koblenz administrative districts as well as the Oldenburg territory of Birkenfeld, conducting his consular business from Gülichplatz.
Architecture
Emil Felix, known for a rather traditionalist style, aligned the building ensemble with Georg Grasegger's 1913 Fastnachtsbrunnen (Carnival Fountain) and gave it the appearance of two separate townhouses. The west wing on Obenmarspforten street draws on Renaissance models, while the south wing facing Gülichplatz echoes a Baroque palace façade. Wolfgang Wallner created the architectural sculpture, and Carl Wyland the wrought-ironwork. A slender stair tower in the courtyard alludes to the stair towers of Cologne's old patrician houses, most of which were lost in the Second World War; a somewhat later counterpart is Paul Bonatz's Richmodis Tower on Neumarkt. Contemporaries hailed the building as a masterpiece, though architect and writer Gustav Lampmann criticised the main cornice between the first and second upper floors, arguing it made the top floor look tacked on without a proper setback, disrupting the building's overall form.
Reconstruction and Today
Damage in the Second World War was comparatively minor, and reconstruction took place from 1947 to 1950. In the process, the arcades on Gülichplatz in the west wing and the original mansard roof on its courtyard side were removed. The city's property office occupied the building from 1981 to 1999, and since a 2001 renovation it has housed the registry office. Several city council factions and the Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln (Friends of Cologne's Romanesque Churches) also keep offices here.
Timeline
- 1908Brothers Heinrich and August Neuerburg found the Haus Neuerburg company in Trier.
- 1913The Fastnachtsbrunnen fountain, designed by Georg Grasegger, is erected on Gülichplatz.
- 1921–1923Construction of the two-wing commercial building designed by Emil Felix.
- 1928/1929Extension of the Haus Neuerburg building.
- 1947–1950Reconstruction after damage from World War II.
- 1981–1999Use by the Cologne city property office (Liegenschaftsamt).
- 1984Listing in Cologne's monument register (16 October, No. 2686).
- 2001After renovation, use by the civil registry office (Standesamt).
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-09-18
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