The story
of the Congress Park Hanau
Space for major events – Stadthalle and Congress Park Hanau
Important events have always been held on Schlossplatz. The “Stadthalle” was already a prestigious venue for business and cultural events. Since its opening in 2003, the CPH has continued this tradition. Conferences and meetings of international companies take place at the CPH just as regularly as national or state party conferences, theater and concert performances or balls. The “Competitive Dialogue”, a method for designing Hanau’s city center that is unique in Germany to date, also used the CPH for workshops and presentations during the various phases of the process.
From the moated castle to the city palace
Schlossplatz in Hanau’s old town is the name given to the square in front of the former Hanau Castle and the later city palace. The moated castle in today’s castle garden was first mentioned in documents in 1234.
Under Count Philipp Reinhard von Hanau-Lichtenberg, a new city palace was built as a residence in several construction phases between 1685 and 1714.
The palace complex included a government building, a chancellery building and a stables. The stables, the predecessor of the town hall, were built between 1712 and 1714. A coach house was later added on its eastern side, from which the Friedrichsbau was created in 1763/64 with a connection to the Fürstenbau. The Fürstenbau was given a representative portal with a balcony above it in 1714. The palace garden was laid out in 1766 as one of the first English landscape gardens on the European continent.
The complex, which was altered several times, was demolished in 1829/30 by order of Elector Wilhelm II of Hesse-Kassel. The city of Hanau bought the palace in 1890. After 1927, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Hanau was located in the Fürstenbau.
From the stables to the town hall
In 1928, the city council of Hanau decided to create a prestigious building for commercial and cultural purposes, and in the same year the stables were converted into a town hall according to the plans of architects Schad and Roth. The west façade was given the sandstone gable at the main entrance, which is still striking today.
Inside, a large hall with a stage was created on the first floor and a chamber music hall on the second floor. The top floor was rented out to the music conservatory. On March 28, 1933, the National Socialists staged the first meeting of city councillors under the same regime in the Stadthalle as a demonstration of their power.
During the Second World War, the Stadthalle served as a military hospital. The City Palace and City Hall were destroyed by British bombers on January 6 and March 19, 1945.
War destruction and reconstruction
The municipal theater also fell victim to the Allied bombs. Hanau therefore no longer had a large, representative event hall. The city council considered this to be “untenable in the long term”, as stated in a letter to the Hessian Ministry of Finance in November 1948.
The city was unable to pay for the reconstruction of the town hall from its own financial resources. So companies and businesses in Hanau donated generous prizes for a lottery. 30,000 tickets were sold at a price of one mark each, and in December 1948 there was also a door-to-door collection and a donation from the Dunlop company. The money was used to replace the roof of the town hall to prevent structural damage in winter.
Voluntary work by Hanau associations, which collected money at festivals, as well as building blocks issued by banks and savings banks in the form of promissory bills, were subsequently used to make decisive progress with the reconstruction. Only the city hall and the government building were rebuilt as former parts of the city palace. Finally, the town hall was officially opened on December 16, 1950.
FROM THE STADTHALLE TO THE CONGRESS PARK HANAU
A community center extension with a hall, conference rooms and restaurant was built in 1966, and the stage of the Stadthalle was extended in the same year. However, the Stadthalle remained a temporary theater. As a result, the “Förderverein für ein Theater- und Kulturzentrum” (Association for the Promotion of a Theatre and Cultural Center) began campaigning for a new theater building in 1988. During the debate, Schlossplatz emerged as the location for a new theater and congress center. There were preliminary plans that envisaged the alternatives of renovating the Stadthalle and the Bürgerhaus or modernizing the Stadthalle and building a new conference center instead of the Bürgerhaus.
In 2000, the city council voted unanimously in favor of building a new congress center and retaining the Stadthalle. The foundation stone for CONGRESS PARK HANAU was laid in August 2001 and the topping-out ceremony took place on Ash Wednesday 2002. The CPH was officially opened on October 4, 2003 with a festive concert by the Staatskapelle Weimar.
The magistrate combined the official opening of the CPH in October 2003 with the 700th anniversary of the granting of town and market rights. At the open day, visitors were impressed by the color scheme and acoustics of the Paul Hindemith Hall as well as the lighting concept of the building. Modern art has been a characteristic of the house from the very beginning. The “Förderverein für ein Theater- und Kulturzentrum” donated a wooden sculpture by Claus Bury in the historic foyer – Henriette Westermayr – of the Stadthalle for the opening. Later, large-format, geometric abstractions by internationally renowned British artist Jon Groom were added in the modern staircase of the CPH and in the glass Klaus Remer Foyer.
