Augsburg Project Visit: "Grenzenlos" at the Augsburg Gasworks
- Written by Portal Editor
Augsburg – The "Grenzenlos" (Boundless) Festival is once again taking place on the grounds of the former gasworks in Augsburg a site we are visiting as part of our project.
The eight-hectare site has a character that is partly park-like almost resembling the grounds of a palace. The former gasworks is considered a monument of European significance and is unique in Bavaria, as almost all the original buildings remain intact and two different types of gas holders—telescopic and disc-type can still be seen.
It is hardly surprising, then, that an association was formed after the gasworks ceased operations in 2001 to oversee the preservation of this heritage-listed building complex. Since 2005, the *Gaswerksfreunde Augsburg e.V.* (Friends of the Augsburg Gasworks) association has organized guided tours of the plant several times a year and has also established a museum dedicated to the history of the Augsburg gasworks. The association has set up its main exhibition space in the former electrical substation; here, alongside MAN diesel engines from 1922 and 1958, visitors can view the "oil engine" dating back to 1922.
The association conducts guided tours of the museum and gasworks buildings for interested groups by appointment. Since August 2009, the roof of the 84-meter-high gas holder has been secured with a safety fence, allowing visitors to access it safely. Guided ascents take place on Sundays between April and October, weather permitting.
The Augsburg Gasworks began operations in 1915 in the city's Oberhausen district; the buildings constructed there up to 1915 survived the Second World War unscathed. The gasworks complex comprises the retort house, gasholder tower, electrical substation, workshop wing, exhauster house, apparatus house and purifier building, residences for officials and staff, an office building, three workers' housing units, and two telescopic gasholders. The shell of the first disc-type gasholder built by MAN (dating from 1914/15—a pioneering structure) also remains on the site.
History of the Augsburg Gasworks
There were two predecessor gasworks. Gasworks I began operations in December 1848 on Johannes-Haag-Straße to supply Augsburg’s street lighting; Augsburg was thus the second city in Bavaria, after Nuremberg, to possess a gasworks. The second gasworks went into operation 15 years later, in 1863.
In 1907, the City of Augsburg acquired the two privately operated gasworks. They were superseded in 1915 by the new gasworks, which was built between 1912 and 1915 based on designs by the Munich-based Rank brothers. In 1954, MAN erected the highly visible gasholder next to the two older telescopic ones. Until 1969, the plant produced town gas from coal to supply energy to households and businesses not only in Augsburg but as far away as Kaufbeuren.
From 1963 to 1978, a natural gas cracking plant was operated to convert natural gas into town gas. In 1978, Augsburg switched entirely from town gas to natural gas. The gasholders were used for peak-load gas storage until 2001. In 2011, the City of Augsburg proposed the gasworks site for the Museum of Bavarian History, which is scheduled to open in 2018.
The Large Gas Holder at the Gasworks
The Augsburg gas holder is a disc-type gas holder. Due to its height, it serves as a landmark in northern Augsburg that is just as prominent as the Augsburg Hotel Tower is in the south of the city centre.
It has a storage capacity of 100,000 cubic meters of gas at a pressure of approximately 23 millibars. The 20-sided structure stands 84.1 meters tall and has a diameter of 45 meters. During its construction in 1953 and 1954, the company MAN assembled around 1,800 riveted iron plates.
A unique feature is that the foundation of the gas holder itself was built on a raised platform, creating a large space underneath. This area was formerly used for storage by the gasworks. During the "Grenzenlos" festival which is currently being held there again concerts also take place in this space.
A staircase with 392 steps winds around the external elevator, leading to the roof of the gas holder. In addition to the external elevator, there is an internal cable-operated elevator in the centre of the holder, providing access to the internal disc for maintenance and inspection purposes.
Since September 2008, a 70-meter-long Foucault pendulum has been installed inside the gas holder. In the summer of 2009, the sound installation *Bach_10k* was added; 58 organ pipes play Bach’s Prelude in C Major in time with the pendulum’s extremely slow rhythm, transforming the entire gas holder into an immersive sound art installation.
Other Gas Holders on the Site
In addition to the large disc-type gas holder, two telescopic gas holders (bell-type holders) dating from 1910 and 1913 have also been preserved. These stand in water-filled arched basins a design patented by MAN which are now extremely rare to find. Also, still in existence are decommissioned high-pressure tubular storage tanks, as well as the casing of the first disc-type gas holder built by MAN in 1915 with a volume of 1,600 m³ which is, so to speak, the "little brother" of the main gas holder.
Consequently, the Augsburg Gasworks is worth a visit even outside the time of the Grenzenlos Festival, although the festival does add a very special extra dimension.
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