Report on the EL DE house in Cologne

The EL DE house (pronounced LD house) in Cologne was named after the initials of Leopold Dahmen, who designed the house in the district according to plans by architect Hans Erberich Altstadt Nord . The EL DE house was originally intended as a residential and commercial building, until it was confiscated by the Cologne Gestapo in 1935. At this point the house was still under construction. It is also worth mentioning that the Gestapo did not dispossess the building, but did confiscate it. Nowadays the EL DE house is used as a museum and has its own archive.

The construction of the building

As noted in the introduction, the EL DE house was built by Leopold Dahmen . Dahmen was a wholesaler of gold goods and clocks and originally planned to use the four-story building as a residential and commercial building. The architect Hans Erberich designed the house according to a strict neoclassical design, with a facade made of tuff stone. The National Socialist newspaper with the name "Westdeutscher Beobachter" praised the building as contemporary. Nowadays, visitors can still marvel at the original entrance door, in which the initials of the client Leopold Dahmen are set.

In addition to the name, a coat of arms with the lettering "EL DE" , which is embedded in the wall relief of the building, provide information from the client. Another special feature that visitors can discover along the building is a symbol for the merchant god Helmes. In the outside area of ​​the EL DE house an own fountain system was built and the house also had its own garages and an air raid shelter or cellar that offered space for around 60 people.

Confiscation of the shell by the Gestapo

Still under construction, the EL DE house was confiscated in the summer of 1935 by the National Socialists' Secret State Police, i.e. the Gestapo. Since it was not a question of expropriation, the Gestapo paid their rent to Leopold Dahmen. Other tenants who actually wanted to move into their apartment after the completion of the building were disappointed and handed it over in the shell. In other words, existing leases were terminated. The location of the EL DE house was excellent for the Gestapo, as the building was in the heart of Cologne.

In addition, this was in the immediate vicinity of the police headquarters in Krebsgasse and close to the city's central prison. Immediately after the confiscation, the Gestapo commissioned craftsmen to start converting the apartments into offices.

The building has two basement floors. The Gestapo decided to use the upper of the two basement floors as a prison wing with a total of ten cells . The building began operating as a Gestapo office on December 1, 1935, and it would take almost ten years before operations ceased on March 2, 1945 in the face of the advancing American troops.

With regard to a large part of the remaining buildings in Cologne, which were destroyed by the war and hail of bombs, it is particularly ironic that the dreaded Gestapo office survived the war . After the end of the Second World War and the occupation of Cologne by American soldiers, there were structural changes to the EL DE house, which are described in the next paragraph.

Reconstruction of the EL DE house after the Second World War

After the war, the EL DE house was extensively expanded . From 1947 to 1949 extensions were built to the building, which were modeled on the style of the former Gestapo office. Even the tuff stone that was used for the facade came from the same quarry as that of the EL DE house. In addition, the window frames and other typical features were adapted to those of the EL DE house. The number of window axes was doubled from six to twelve and then expanded once more to 16.

Another renovation measure includes the upper floors of the building. Here another storey was built above the attic so that the EL DE house also grew in height . The use of the EL DE house after 1945 is discussed in the next paragraph.

The use of the building after the Second World War

After the Gestapo had cleared the building and after Nazi Germany surrendered, the EL DE house was treated relatively carelessly. The City of Cologne used the office space in the building, in which the Gestapo made decisions, immediately after the war and housed the Occupation Office, the Price Authority and the Legal and Insurance Office there .

Since the registry office was also located in the EL DE building , people had to marry here or do other things at offices and that in the building where this was done by employees of the Gestapo interrogated and often tortured.

The current tenants of the EL DE house, which is still owned by the Dahmen family, are the NS Documentation Center, i.e. a kind of museum that reminds of the terrible acts and violent crimes of the Gestapo, the staff council for the cultural department of the City as well as the legal and insurance office of Cologne. The building also houses a memorial for the numerous victims of the Gestapo and an extensive archive with documents from the Nazi era. The inner courtyard of the EL DE House, where the executions took place, is also intended as a memorial to commemorate the murdered people.

Contact

Address: Appellhofpl. 23-25, 50667 Cologne

Telephone: 0221 22126331

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