From the bridge over Germanenstraße you can see the factory building of the former machine factory Striebeck & Koenemann on the left and the school building of the municipal elementary school on the right. Both buildings were made of bricks with colored clinker bricks. They were built around 1900 and are typical representative brick buildings of this time. The shed-roof factory building - originally a chain and sprocket factory, later a hardening shop - is decorated with a brick cornice and battlements.
The facade of the school building is structured with window sills, multi-part windows, wall panels and an elaborate roof cornice. The rector's apartment was on the upper floor and that of the school servant on the ground floor. The adjacent gym also belonged to the school.
With this equipment, the school should serve as an adornment of the district.
GERMANENSTRASSE SCHOOL AND THE BRICK BUILDINGS ON THE RHINE ROUTE
Along the Rhenish route you can see some representative brick buildings. From about 1850, the traditional half-timbered construction was gradually replaced by brick buildings. When the production methods for clinker and facing bricks improved further in the 1880s, public buildings, such as schools, were also built as pure brick buildings. In 1900 there were 51 schools in Barmen, most of them were similar to the eight-year school on Germanenstrasse Brick buildings were built, even the facades were often alike, as can be seen on the old postcard of the Schützenstrasse elementary school (1394).
Source: Information sign on the viaduct Germanenstrasse