Chilehaus

The Chilehaus in Hamburg is a striking example of the brick expressionism of the 1920s and is regarded as an icon of modern architecture. Built between 1922 and 1924, the office building was designed by architect Fritz Höger and still shapes the look of Hamburg's Kontorhaus District today. With a gross floor area of 36,000 square meters and up to ten floors, it ranks among the city's first high-rise buildings. It is especially famous for its eastern tip, which resembles the bow of a ship and gives the building its unmistakable silhouette. Together with the Speicherstadt and the rest of the Kontorhaus District, the Chilehaus was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015.

The history of the building site is closely tied to Hamburg's urban development. The area was originally divided into small plots and was home to, among other things, the Gängeviertel, a district of narrow alleyways. After the Great Fire of 1842 and later redevelopment measures, which became more urgent following the cholera epidemic of 1892, the reorganization of the area moved forward. The planning was significantly influenced by Hamburg's chief building director, Fritz Schumacher. The actual building lot, which was surrounded by several streets and cut through by the Fischertwiete, was purchased by the city in 1913. In 1921, the businessman Henry B. Sloman, whose fortune came from trading Chilean saltpeter, bought the property at auction. In reference to his many years working in South America, he named the building Chilehaus.

Fritz Höger won the commission to carry out the project after previously qualifying with other designs. To achieve the desired total floor area, the building had to be built upward, resulting in a height of nine to ten floors. To soften the massive impression of the high-rise, Höger chose stepped-back upper floors. The facade is made of Bockhorn clinker bricks, which Höger deliberately selected for their natural, irregular surface in order to give the building a distinctive dynamism and lightness. The sculptor Richard Kuöhl played a major role in creating the ceramic decoration on the facade and in the stairwells. A special detail is the Andean condor at the tip of the base level, which serves as a symbol of Chile.

The building was completed during a period of major economic upheaval. Because of inflation and the currency changeover, the construction costs could only be estimated at the time of handover. Numerous small import and export firms moved into the building, needing only a few rooms each. Soon after its completion, the Chilehaus became famous worldwide, above all thanks to the spectacular photographs by the Dransfeld brothers, who shot the building's eastern tip from an extreme low angle. These images shaped the public image of the building for decades and made it the most frequently photographed German architectural subject of the 1920s. The building symbolized the determination of Hamburg's economy to rebuild after World War I.

Today, the Chilehaus is an important part of Hamburg's cityscape and a popular destination. The building underwent an extensive renovation in the 1990s and has been a protected monument since 1983. The ground floor now houses a department store of the Manufactum chain as well as a branch of the piano house C. Bechstein. Visitors can admire the imposing structure from the outside and be impressed by its expressionist design. As part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus," it attracts many tourists every year who want to experience the architectural and historical significance of the place.