The citizens' ideas are in demand: the old Langenbach train station is to be revived
Created: 01/08/2022, 5:00 PM
From: Andrea Hermann
This is what the train station looks like today: The building in the center of the village has run down, the windows and doors are covered with boards.
Now the building is to be restored.
© Hermann
The old station building in Langenbach is to be filled with life.
The congregation asks for suggestions for the transformation.
An art project is also planned.
Langenbach
- The historic station building in Langenbach is to be renovated and revitalized. There are already a few ideas for the building, which was erected in the middle of the 19th century: many citizens would like a bakery or a café, others could imagine a library in the house, and some associations hope for rooms in the historic building. Until January 15th, the community of Langenbach is collecting ideas on how to fill the historic train station with life again.
The architects Fiedler + Partner created a special website (www.alter-bahnhof-langenbach.de) for the project.
Here you can read: “The historic station building was built between 1850 and 1890.
The main building consists of a low partial basement in the form of a vault, an entrance / sales room, waiting room, stairwell access, lounge for employees and the work room for railway employees on the ground floor, an apartment on the upper floor and an undeveloped attic with a pitched roof.
There are also two auxiliary buildings, the signal box and the heating oil tank room. "
Central location with easy access
So now it is important to find a suitable use - on the one hand for rail travelers, on the other hand for the citizens of Langenbach as a meeting point or shopping opportunity.
“The central location and thus good accessibility from both sides of the railway line through the new underpass allow easy integration into local events.
The aim is to revitalize the building to become a meeting point, the old station ”, says the community and the architecture office.
For years there has been no meeting place in town
The desire for a meeting point is likely to be great - at the latest since January 1, 2017, a bakery branch that had been in town for almost 30 years had to close due to sales reasons.
And there was also no successor to the former stationery and gift shop on Freisinger Straße - the rooms have been empty for around a year.
This is how the train station used to look: In the book "Langenbach im Wandel der Zeiten", published by the municipality in 1980, the train station building is also shown.
© Repro: Conrad
So now the hopes rest on the old station building in the center of the village - specifically, it is about the main building with ancillary building as well as the immediate surroundings.
"On the basis of a detailed examination, possible uses are to be determined, the redesign prepared and the framework conditions and a design concept worked out," says the station's homepage, which also includes floor plans for the buildings.
Until Saturday, January 15th, the community is collecting ideas and suggestions on how the building could be used in the future.
Ideas, requests and suggestions can be communicated by email: Historischer-bahnhof@gemeinde-langenbach.de.
Christine Stein is a woman who is very dear to the station building.
She is not only a councilor and a passionate painter, but also a “station child”, as she tells us in an interview with FT.
“I grew up in a train station”, which is why train stations were and are “always interesting for me”.
Artistically design the station window
This is precisely why it is important to her that the Langenbach train station is beautifully designed - also in the planning phase.
And so she came up with an art project: Together with creative friends, local artists, photographers and children, she would like to make the “nailed-up and empty windows on the station building attractive until the renovation,” says Christine Stein.
Specifically, the whole thing could work like this: The works of art should be created with a maximum size of A3, then scanned and printed on “weatherproof material” and finally stapled onto the boards, according to Stein's idea. It would also be possible to design the works of art directly on the boards, but “you can't use them later”. But that is exactly what Christine Stein would like to do: that the works are also used later.
Thematically, she could imagine motifs that, for example, reflect train station life then and now.
But she is also open to all other ideas.
A first meeting with interested artists is planned for Friday, January 14th.
Anyone who would like to join in on the spur of the moment is welcome in front of the station building from 4.20 p.m.
Anyone who would like to get in touch with Christine Stein in advance can do so by sending an email to stein-langenbach@t-online.de.
Good to know
Proposals for the design of the station building can be submitted to the municipality of Langenbach by Saturday, January 15th - by email to Historischer-Bahnhof@gemeinde-langenbach.de.
If you want to participate in Christine Stein's art project, the first meeting on Friday, January 14th, starting at 4:20 p.m. in front of the station building in the center of the town is the right place for you.