100 years goseriedebad
august 26 through october 23, 2005
The unique “Jugendstil” building in the heart of Hannover looks back upon one hundred years of a history full of vicissitudes as a public bathing facility, a swimming hall, a meeting place for the youth scene, and also a centre for media and culture. The photographic, textual and cinematic material of the exhibition issues an invitation to follow long-lost trails and will certainly revive memories for many Hanoverians.
The Goseriedebad was opened in 1905 and was at that time one of the most modern and also most expensive public bathing facilities in Germany. There were a swimming hall for women, two swimming pools for men (1st and 2nd class), 39 tub baths, rooms for massages as well as steam and hot-air baths. The building was severely damaged during the Second World War. With the reopening of the Goseriedebad at the beginning of the 1950s, the main area of utilization shifted more and more to the swimming hall, because the need for publically accessible spaces for washing and bathing became less and less. The operation of the facility became an increasingly heavy burden upon public funding, so that the city government decided upon its closure in 1982.
After many years during which the building remained empty, it was restructured during the 1990s into a centre for media and culture. In 1997 the kestnergesellschaft began to present exhibitions in the spaces of the former women’s swimming hall and the entrance area. Today the radio station ffn is located in the fully hollowed-out space of the former men’s swimming pool 1st class. The former men’s swimming pool 2nd class had already been torn down in the 1980s.