Flottmann Halls

"Herne was not only a mining town, but also known as the 'City of Rotary Hammers'. For in 1902, one of the most important supplier companies for the mining industry settled here: the Flottmann-Werke. Heinrich Flottman founded his business in 1869 in Bochum, where he was responsible for Compressed air and steam driven impact and rock drilling machines developed. After destroying his work by fire, he moved to Herne and set up a new factory in the open field. When the new forge, locksmithery, exhibition and dispatch hall was necessary in 1908, Flottmann commissioned the architects Schmidtmann and Klemp. The symmetrical articulated, five-aisled building on Flottmannstrasse comes from its pen. He combines the formal idiom of the declining Art Nouveau style of Darmstädter with the rigor and monumentality of the New Objectivity.At the first mechanization wave in the German hard coal mining Flottmans compressed air hammer hammers had substantially share. If only 2% of the coal was mechanically mined before the First World War, by 1932 it was already 97%. After 1945, new tasks awaited the company. Trade relations had to be re-established, machines and production facilities modernized. In the following decades, the Flottmann mining machines were able to hold their own in the market. In 1983, the company moved a second time - a danger to the old factory buildings: the wrecking ball threatened. But the tract at the Flottmannstraße was classified as worthy of preservation and remained so.
Since 1986 the Flottmann halls have been a center for theater, music and fine arts. The focal point of the temporary exhibitions are space-specific projects, many of which are created locally and for the location. During the Capital of Culture year, the sculpture park around the halls was opened on a 12-hectare site. Even before, artists had used the outdoor space as an exhibition space. Since 2010, the restored Jugendstiltor (1902) by Carl Weinhold, the iron and bronze former main entrance gate of the company Flottmann, is once again a work of art, sculpture and monument in the area of ​​the halls. "
Source: route-industriekultur.ruhr/themenrouten/16-westfaelische-bergbauroute/flottmann-hallen.htmlFurther information also under:
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flottmann-Werke

This gate was on display at Strückede Castle for a long time
Childhood memory 👍👍👍

There is also a very nice restaurant with a beer garden
Here is the homepage of the Flottmann Halle:
flottmann-hallen.de