Monday, July 14, 2025

a 125-year-old new townhall

The Neues Rathaus (new townhall) of Elberfeld was new in 1900, when it was inaugurated by Kaiser Wilhelm II together with the famous suspension railway on October 24. The city administration moved there from the old townhall which now houses the Von der Heydt Museum.

It was where Heinrich the cellist worked from 1919 onwards. (After the merger with Barmen in 1929 he may or may not have been working at Barmen townhall at some point, as well as the shortlived appointment at the city's pawnshop, so I'm not sure how many decades he spent working in this building - I'd say at least one). At the time it appeared in all its art nouveau glory on the cover of the residents register of the city of Elberfeld:

Although the main seat of the city administration of Wuppertal is now in Barmen, the Elberfeld townhall is still part of it and contains public-facing offices, especially social services. After realising this, I scheduled a visit to just have a look around, which I did in February this year, and I loved the place to bits. They don't do tours or open days, but the porter didn't mind me just snooping around and taking lots of photos. Here's a selection, I will put a set of 12 photos on my flickr.

I also took a ride or two on the paternoster, which was one of the things my aunt remembered from visiting her grandparents at Wuppertal.

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