Description
A spacious, modernly designed square with a complex of buildings on the site of the former C. G. Wilke hat factory, combining elements of industrial architecture of the mid-nineteenth century with elements of modern architecture. The renovated complex of interconnected buildings houses the city administration, exhibition grounds, music school and the city library. All buildings, except for the dye-house, are from two to three floors high. The whole complex is closed with flat gable roofs. The intricately designed 19th-century facade and monumental staircases in the form of historicized (Italian Neo-Renaissance) towers were glazed with large-format windows, wrapped in iron. The building closest to Promenade am Dreieck was covered with white plaster; the object in the background was left in its original, raw, brick form. The one-hall "Old Dye-shop" (Ger.: "Alte Färberei") has only one floor and is distinguished by three large, hood-like chimneys set on a flat roof. The coat of arms of the city of Guben from 1822 was placed above the former main entrance to the factory.
The whole is linked by a varied layout of landscape architecture, with water (longitudinal fountains) and green elements (saggy flower beds, fruit trees, shrubs).
Historical background
By renaming the former town hall square to Friedrich-Wilke-Platz in June 2008, the city paid tribute to the Friedrich Wilke, a hat manufacturer and a great contributor to the development of Guben. Since the invention of the weather-resistant wool felt hat in 1854, the Wilke family has created a world-renowned company that made transformed the city into a European hat metropolis of the 19th century. Friedrich Wilke himself generously reinvested his own financial cusses into the city's economic prosperity. For example, as a counterbalance to the enormous loss of his 14-year-old daughter Naemi he built a children's hospital - today's Naemi-Wilke-Stift. He also built and donated to his Evangelical Lutheran parish the outstanding architectural Church of the Good Shepherd.
Friedrich Wilke died suddenly in October 1908 in a train accident.
Gas Str. 4-7, 03172, Guben, Germany
Friedrich-Wilke square with a library, music school and former dyehouses
As a hat factory of C. G. Wilke: 1864
Square: 2008
Material: clinker, brick
Production technology: partially plastered, solid, partially veneered
Open 24/7
