Schwerthof
Office and commercial building from 1921/22 where, in 1947, Cologne's first postwar inner-city cinema opened.
The building's name dates back to the Middle Ages: Cologne's Schreinsbücher record a citizen named Abel vom Schwerthof living here in 1493. The name later passed to a 16th-century armory for the nobility.
Source: Wikipedia
At a Glance
- Type
- Office and commercial building, listed monument
- Location
- Zeppelinstraße 2, corner of Neumarkt 2, Cologne's Altstadt-Nord district
- Construction
- 1921 to 1922
- Architects
- Jacob Koerfer (also the client) and Theodor Veil
- Frontage
- 75 meters on Zeppelinstraße, 27 meters on Neumarkt
- Heritage listing
- registered 27 June 1988 (monument no. 4661)
When Cologne's first inner-city cinema of the postwar era opened on the ground floor of the Schwerthof in 1947, that same space had previously housed a café with a 450 sqm confectionery and up to 180 employees.
Predecessor and Origins
The site previously held the "Blankenheimer Hof," a palace built in 1758 that most recently served as an officers' casino. When Zeppelinstraße was laid out in 1910/1911, the palace's façade—projecting 3.64 meters toward Neumarkt—stood in the way of Carl Rehorst's traffic plans, which called for widening Schildergasse where it opens onto Neumarkt. Proposals to set the façade back or rebuild it elsewhere were rejected, and the building was demolished in autumn 1913. The adjoining plot to the north, Zeppelinstraße 4–8, had already been developed with the Kaufhaus Isay department store in 1911–1913, while this site remained vacant; World War I interrupted the city's search for a buyer. In early 1921, architect Koerfer acquired the more than 2,000 m² plot and built the Schwerthof using his own capital and loans. It opened on 3 October 1922.
Architecture
Koerfer developed the design together with architect Theodor Veil, though their collaboration ended after Koerfer made various changes. The façade comprises 14 bays on Zeppelinstraße and five on Neumarkt, with three gabled projections structuring the Zeppelinstraße front. The ground floor is arcaded, topped by office floors; the fourth floor is set back 50 cm, and a tall hipped roof crowns the building. The central column spacing still matched the axis spacing of the structural grid. The design was adapted to its neighbors: toward Neumarkt through the small-scale window format of the police headquarters, toward Zeppelinstraße through the strict, flat façade grid of the Kaufhaus Cords opposite. Cologne sculptor Willy Meller created the exterior sculptural work as well as interior stucco decoration.
Use and Interior
The four office floors each offered 1,650 m² of usable space, with circulation areas making up 19%; thanks to the skeleton construction, layouts could be adapted to tenants' needs from the outset. The 1,750 m² ground floor housed a café with a 450 m² patisserie, run by restaurateur Ludwig Blatzheim with up to 180 staff. By the opening, 15 companies had already moved in.
After the War
The Schwerthof suffered only light damage in World War II. In 1947, the "UFA-Schwerthof" opened on the site of the former café—Cologne's first postwar inner-city cinema. For decades, the "Bücherstube am Dom jetzt am Neumarkt" bookshop occupied the space, with entrances on both Neumarkt and Zeppelinstraße.
Timeline
- 1758Construction of the predecessor building „Blankenheimer Hof“
- 1910/1911Construction of Zeppelinstraße according to Carl Rehorst's plan
- 1911–1913Development of the neighboring plot with the Isay department store
- Herbst 1913Demolition of the Blankenheimer Hof
- Anfang 1921Koerfer acquires the plot for the Schwerthof
- Frühjahr 1921Start of construction of the Schwerthof
- 3. Oktober 1922Opening of the Schwerthof
- 1947Opening of the „UFA-Schwerthof“ cinema in place of the café
- 27. Juni 1988Listing in the Cologne monument register
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-09-12
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