Town Halls

Freiburg has a couple of town halls that developed historically. The oldest, somewhat hidden, and lesser-known building is the Gerichtslaube (courthouse), first mentioned in 1280 and where, in 1498, the Imperial Diet met.

Gerichtslaube

On Rathausplatz, in full view, stand the so-called old and new town halls: the former, built in 1557 in Renaissance style; the latter, after acquiring two older buildings, was finished in 1901 in the historicist revival style.

New and old town hall on Rathausplatz.
The latter is decorated with a color called Ochsenblut (oxblood).

Over time, Freiburg grew and needed more services and administration, so more space became necessary. Even the three town halls, nowadays the Gerichtslaube is used only for ceremonial purposes, soon became too small, so many services had to move into several other buildings scattered across Freiburg. This was annoying not only for the city administration but also for citizens, who had to go all over town to get their official business done.

Technical town hall under construction (©Wikipedia/Andreas Schwarzkopf)

That is why the city planned a new technical town hall building, which is currently under construction. The move of all those scattered offices into the new premises was initially scheduled for November last year and then postponed to April this year. The city informed the press yesterday that it could not move into the new building before November 2017. The technologically complex suspended ceiling, which includes air conditioning, a sprinkler system, lighting, and loudspeakers, is causing further delays.

Accursed ceiling (©BZ/Ingo Schneider) 

We Germans are accustomed to delays and cost overruns at all significant construction sites by now. As the responsible site manager said in his mind-blowing logic, "The building becomes more expensive when we build longer than planned."

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