“Old Office” in Kürten
Ute Jülich
Version dated February 18, 2021
High above the old village center of Kürten, Kürten's first town hall was built at a fork in the road in 1893. The office was responsible for the administration of the municipalities of Kürten, Bechen and Wipperfeld. With the territorial reform of 1929, the administration of the municipality of Olpe was added. Despite the centrally responsible mayor of Kürten, the honorary local mayors were retained. As the administrative tasks increased over the years, a new town hall was designed. In 1956, the entire administration moved to the new town hall on the Markfeld (the name of the field) in Sülztal.
It is interesting to note that until 1893, official business was conducted in the private home of the respective mayor. It is therefore not surprising that the first town hall contained both the administrative offices and the official residence of the mayor, and later the district director.
The old town hall had a beautiful little hall where civil weddings were held. Many Kürten residents will remember their own wedding ceremony in the registry office and wedding parties who came to the registry office on foot in their festive attire (for example from Bechen via Hommermühle).
After the administration moved to the new town hall in Sülztal, the old town hall became private property. In the 1960s, it was run by the Steinbacher family as a vacation home, and from the 1970s until 2007 as a retirement home under the name "Haus Bergeck". The name was inspired by the location of the house: "on a slope and in the corner between two streets".
From 2007 onwards, it was used for a variety of purposes, most famously as an artists' house. Since 2010, a retirement community has lived in the house under the name "Altes Amt".
“Am Lindchen” and old paths
You have to take a special look at the street layout. In the photo from 1958, two roads run past the old town hall.
The road on the right was the main connection from Kürten to Weiden to the old Heerweg, today's B 506. In Weiden, the St. Anna Chapel is located on Wipperfürther Str.. The chapel was donated in 1507 and was an important point of reference for Kürten. Today, this right-hand road is cut off and only the access road to the "Altes Amt" retirement home remains.
The left-hand road led directly to Hommermühle, past "Am Lindchen", an 800-year-old Caucasian lime tree that could be seen from afar (today's street name "Am Lindchen" still bears witness to the imposing tree, which was felled in 1982).
The route continued via Ossenbach to Eisenkaul, Kotzberg to the Dhünn near Königsspitze, via Doktorsdhünn to Stumpf until it was interrupted by the Dhünntalsperre in the 1970s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, this road, which was built around 1865, was part of the connection from Bergisch Gladbach to Stumpf and on to Wermelskirchen and Remscheid.
Today, the Bergstraße runs to the left of the old town hall and, after a small bend over the traffic circle, joins the original main route between Kürten and Weiden. The road to Hommermühle now branches off at the beginning of the new development area, where the old lime tree stood, which towered far above the wayside cross from Hommermühle.
Sources:
Büchel, Josef / Peter Gronewald: “Pictures from ancient times” 1984
Steinbacher, Helmut: “Haus Bergeck - the history of a retirement home”,
Kürtener Writings, Issue 8, November 2011, Publisher: Historical Association for the Community of Kürten and the Surrounding Area eV,
Büchel, Josef “The Anna Chapel in Weiden”
Kürtener Writings, Issue 8, November 2011, Publisher: Historical Association for the Community of Kürten and the Surrounding Area eV,
Ströbel-Dettmer, Ute: “25 years of Kürten after the municipal reorganization came into force 1975 – 2000”,
Kürtener Writings, Issue 3, November 2001, Publisher: Historical Association for the Community of Kürten and the Surrounding Area eV,
Rutt, Theodor: Home Chronicle of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis (1964)
Topographic map 1896 and 1979
Haus Bergeck is listed as a culturally and historically significant building in the municipality of Kürten In: Cultural and historical evidence in the municipality of Kürten - Historical association for the municipality of Kürten and the surrounding area eV (2009)
