Universität Siegen receives a campus with a castle
The whole campus, with two lecture halls and the Untere Schloss will be available for the summer semester of 2016 / The former district clinical centre in the upper city is already being used by Faculty III
The Universität Siegen is receiving a new campus in the centre of the city. Funds from the university modernisation programme and private and municipal contributions are turning a vision into a reality. Faculty III – the School of Economic Disciplines – will be moving into the Untere Schloss and the neighbouring former district hospital on Kohlbettstraße in Siegen's upper city, with a good 3,000 students. The former clinical centre, which was purchased by a group of investors and large parts of which are rented to the Universität Siegen, has been used by the university since September 2014. The departments of German and European Economic Law and of Business Information Systems have moved in. Teaching started there on 6 October 2014.
Building work is going ahead on the Untere Schloss and is on schedule. Helmut Heitkamp, Branch Manager of the construction and real estate company Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetriebs NRW, gave assurances of this at the beginning of November on a tour through the historical building. The so-called Wittgensteiner Flügel, which was part of the Siegen branch office of the Justizvollzugsanstalt Attendorn from 1936 and until 2011, has had its core removed. The rear prison section, built in the 1930s, will be torn down between November 2014 and January 2015 and replaced by a modern new building. The new faculty library will be created from the Wittgensteiner Flügel and the new building.
Work is currently being carried out on the listed slate roofs on the entire Unteres Schloss. This should be completed between spring and summer 2015 – depending on weather conditions. Scaffolding is being erected around the Dicke Turm, one of Siegen's landmarks, which will be receiving a new roof. In total 5,900 square metres of roof is being re-covered. At the same time, the mould abatement and fire renovation of the Wittgensteiner Flügel is in full swing and should be completed in November 2014.
A tour through the cored Wittgensteiner Flügel is like a trip back in time. In the former prison gym, only thick wooden beams remain of the floor. The walls without plaster reveal conversion work carried out over the centuries. The thick outer walls were built in the 18th century. The inner walls are not so chronologically consistent. Here one can see aged arches, the inner surfaces of which are walled with bricks and which show openings made more recently. On one wall, one can detect traces of paint. The Christian-themed mural which is supposed to be there has not yet been found. This gives hope to those in charge at the Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetriebs NRW that they will be allowed to remove the very dilapidated brickwork.
Following the demolition of the newer prison section, rough work is starting in the Wittgensteiner Flügel. In this part of the building, the building structure of the prison cells will be kept in order to retain the former use of this part of the building for following generations. The courtroom in the opposite Kurländer Flügel will also be retained, together with its heavy wooden office furniture. In future the faculty council will hold its meetings here.
In November 2014 renovation work, easily visible from outside, is starting on the roughly 300 listed wooden windows of the whole castle, which will be designed like their historical models as regards their division. Following this, work will start on the facade, in accordance with the conditions of heritage conservation. It is expected that the whole new campus will be being used by the Universität Siegen by the summer semester of 2016. Two new lecture halls will then also be available, created in the area of the Karstadt department store. The department store building, which adjoins the castle square, has also been acquired by a group of investors. In addition to the lecture halls mentioned, it is also intended to build a canteen, which will be run by the Studentenwerk Siegen. A competition is currently being held to find a name for the new campus. The senate of the Universität Siegen is expected to decide upon the name in December 2014.
Katja Knoche, Björn Bowinkelmann ( Photograph)