You wouldn’t think so, but the construction site at the end of Speicherstrasse in the so-called Allerbogen certainly has a certain fame. The HAZ, the taz, the NDR cultural journal and also the “deutsche bauzeitung” made the demolition-in-progress, still-built state the subject of their reporting in spring 2021. “The end of a monument: the city of Celle demolishes the Haesler building” was the headline in the HAZ, for example.
Three and a half years later, the plans for the redevelopment of the “Northern Speicherstrasse” presented to political committees no longer mention the Schmidt wax goods factory at 25 Speicherstrasse. The architect of the New Building movement Otto Haesler (1880 – 1962) had functionally joined blocks of different sizes to build it (see photos). This made the factory a key building for his path to modernity, and he implemented the principle used here a short time later in the “Italian Garden”, which is well known across the region and can be used well for tourist advertising purposes.
In the municipal building committee and in the most recent Neuenhäusen local council meeting, it was now presented how the 24,762 square meter site is to be developed. “All the old buildings are going,” lamented Karin Abenhausen (Greens) in the building committee meeting and was the only one to vote against the “Northern Speicherstrasse” development plan, which focuses on housing but also provides for commercial units and practices. The votes in the political committees are lagging behind what is actually happening, construction was already scheduled to begin in June 2023. The owners of the site and project developer “urbano Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Peter Preuhs” now operate at the address of the former architecturally innovative factory, Speicherstrasse 25.
The commissioned office “baulampe architekten” calls the new quarter “Living at the Allerbogen”; it will consist of a total of 13 buildings with around 155 residential units and three underground car parks. The office speaks of “upscale apartments”; social housing is not planned, according to the municipal employee of the development planning department, Sebastian Knoll, at the local council meeting. The average number of floors is three to four. The center of the quarter or the “core of the entire complex”, as “baulampe architekten” call it, “is a five- to seven-story building, the so-called ‘star house’.” This includes smaller commercial and practice units on the ground floor (see architectural sketch). The site is only accessible to car traffic from Speicherstrasse. According to a traffic report from February 2022, “around 500 car journeys are made every working day in connection with the new residential area.”
The demolition of the wax goods factory in spring 2021 made the site a photo subject, the pictures show many tree stumps. According to Sebastian Knoll, compensatory plantings are being carried out in the village of Hohne in the eastern district. The press spokeswoman for the New Town Hall, Myriam Meißner, explains why these are not being carried out in Celle: “This involves compensatory plantings that are not possible in the city area in this form, at least not at the moment. What is required, as required by the Federal Nature Conservation Act, in this case is compensation in the same region in which the intervention took place.”
The Schmidt wax factory was the most prominent building to be demolished. Other buildings that were used commercially in recent times were reminders of the area on the Aller’s former industrial use. The old buildings have now shrunk to a villa, which will also be demolished. Neuenhäusen’s mayor Dr. Jörg Rodenwaldt (Zukunft Celle) looks back on the demolition of the listed Haesler building: “I am sure that everything was done legally. In general, however, it tends to encourage the creation of faceless neighborhoods when commerce is placed above monument protection and historical heritage.”
Anke Schlicht
Cells Press
Photos: Anke Schlicht (archive)
Architectural sketches: baulampe architects
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