Special tours of old and new architecture on "Open Monument Day

On "Open Monument Day" Sunday, September 12, the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History will focus on the Research Depot and the Cog Hall.

This year, the DSM invites visitors to free guided tours of the Cog Hall at Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1 on Sunday, September 12, at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and of the new Research Depot at Eichstraße 13 at the Fischereihafen at 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Anyone interested in the tours must sign up by Wednesday, September 8, by calling 0471 48207-844 or e-mailing besucherservice@dsm.museum. (The tours are in German). Visitors may explore the Cog hall and the ships on between 10 and 18 o'clock on September 12 without registration or paying the entrance fee. 

Insights into Hans Scharoun's preferred "organic architecture" are offered by a DSM podcast series with experts from historic preservation, architecture and the museum. 

Students survey the Scharoun Building

Meanwhile, architecture students from Aachen are already thinking about the 50th anniversary of the death of Hans Scharoun, who once designed the first part of the DSM building. They are measuring the building for an exhibition on his work. Right angles? Not a chance. Instead, wide perspectives, light streaming in and a play with levels - Hendrik Reinhold finds a little highlight on every floor in the empty Scharoun Building and never tires of showing Hans Scharoun's special signature in the building. Reinhold is an architect writing his doctoral thesis about the master builder of the DSM, who in a courageous manner made organic construction methods acceptable in post-war Germany. 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of his death.

Reinhold and students of architecture in the Department of Historic Preservation at the RWTH Aachen University want to commemorate the Bremen native, who grew up in Bremerhaven, in a research project and subsequent exhibition. They are visiting and measuring seven buildings throughout Germany and making miniature models of the monuments. Among them is the DSM.

In preparation, the students constructed a model out of cardboard to get a feel for the building. Although Hans Scharoun was considered one of Germany's most important postwar architects, he is rarely taught in undergraduate studies, Reinhold reports. He hopes to make him more popular with students through the seminar. "Teaching Scharoun's concepts is not easy. You have to experience them in a 3D model or even see them". Reinhold knows about the master builder of the north, who, as a former child of the coast, brought the wide, unobstructed view inside the building.

Reinhold was particularly looking forward to his visit to the Scharoun Building: "This is my first time here, so it's a premiere, so to speak. Experiencing the shell of the building is a completely different atmosphere." He hopes that by the end of the year the first models of the buildings will have been made and an exhibition venue will have been found.