Berlin/Düsseldorf, 16 June 2023.

Relocation of a modern monument: erected on the occasion of the 2006 Football World Cup as a central event venue within sight of the Reichstag building in Berlin, the replica of the Reichstag dome was the landmark of the Berlin EUREF campus for almost 15 years. As the EUREF dome, it rose up inside the steel skeleton of the Schöneberg gasometer and became an internationally renowned CO2-neutral location for climate and mobility summits, congresses, exhibitions, party conferences, film premieres and, from 2011 to 2015, for Günther Jauch’s successful ARD political talk show. It has now moved and will adorn the new EUREF Campus in Düsseldorf in future.

EUREF AG hosted an open-air event on the construction site today to celebrate the topping-out ceremony for the dome, which consists of over 3,000 individual parts, weighs 100 tonnes and is 21 metres high and 32 metres in diameter. A supporting programme and various food trucks awaited the guests under the culinary responsibility of EUREF’s top chefs Cornelia Poletto (EUREF Campus Düsseldorf) and Thomas Kammeier (EUREF Campus Berlin). After the welcome address by EUREF Board Member Sarah Ameler, there was a video message from the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, and a foreword from EUREF founder Reinhard Müller.

“North Rhine-Westphalia is to become the first climate-neutral industrial state,” explained Minister President Hendrik Wüst. “Climate protection is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We will only be able to solve it together. The EUREF-Campus in Düsseldorf is a perfect example of this. An innovative, climate-friendly building complex is being built here. Many people will work here, including on solutions for climate neutrality, e.g. in the state company NRW.Energy4Climate.” The Minister President welcomes the new CO2-neutral event location in Düsseldorf: “Working together creates solutions for the future. Complex ideas and creative thoughts mature more quickly through dialogue. What could symbolise this better than this dome?”

“The decision to build our second EUREF campus here is only logical on the one hand, because after all, North Rhine-Westphalia is the economic engine of our state. At the same time, this choice of location was also a matter close to my heart,” said EUREF founder Reinhard Müller. “Not only was I born in Krefeld, I also studied architecture in Düsseldorf. When we started developing the site around the historic gasometer in Berlin-Schöneberg as a real-life laboratory for the energy transition 16 years ago, hardly anyone believed that this project would be so successful that we could go into series production. But that’s how it turned out. It therefore fills me with pride to be able to crown the new location in Düsseldorf with our prominent dome, so to speak.”

Perspectives of the new campus

The subsequent panel talk “Events of the Future”, moderated by Jörg Thadeusz, featured Düsseldorf’s Lord Mayor Dr Stephan Keller, the Head of Real Estate Investment Management at Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe Privatbank Patrick Brinker, the Editor-in-Chief of the Rheinische Post Moritz Döbler, business manager Prof Dr Rüdiger Grube, the Director of the Düsseldorf Convention Jens Ihsen and Karin Teichmann, member and spokesperson of the EUREF Management Board. They discussed the significance of the new campus for Düsseldorf, as well as programme highlights that are planned in the dome.

Lord Mayor Dr Stephan Keller expressed his delight at the relocation of the dome: “The EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf is in many ways a real beacon project for the energy transition, a future-proof economy and sustainability. With this unique dome as an event location, it now has a centre that is well known in the media and is also a visible example of recycling. The dome has already had two lives in Berlin and has been the venue for many high-calibre events – in front of the Bundestag and in the gasometer on the EUREF-Campus. I look forward to constructive discussions under its roof.”

In accompanying interviews, Reinhard Müller and EUREF Management Board member Kevin Hauert spoke with future stakeholders of the EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf about the expectations, goals and opportunities of the future location. They included Frank Theobald (CEO Klüh Service Management), Oliver Hermes (CEO Wilo Group), Dr Matthias Jacob (Managing Director Implenia Germany), David Emin (Vice President Services DACH Zone Schneider Electric), Markus Holzke (CEO SPIE Germany & Central Europe), Julien Mounier (CEO Stadtwerke Düsseldorf) and Cornelia Poletto.

The EUREF dome: a sustainable monument

The EUREF dome, modelled on the dome of the Reichstag building in Berlin, was built on the initiative of the then President of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, as a “Bundestag arena” for the 2006 Football World Cup. Thanks to the sustainable construction of the dome by the internationally active Swiss company Nüssli, which specialises in event and exhibition construction, it was possible to completely dismantle and store it again after the tournament.

After Reinhard Müller bought the former GASAG site in Berlin-Schöneberg in 2008 to develop it as a real-life laboratory for the energy transition, the EUREF-Campus, it was temporarily unclear how the striking listed gasometer skeleton could be integrated into the plans. A coincidence drew Müller’s attention to the stored “Bundestagsarena”. A computer simulation showed that its dimensions fitted exactly into the gasometer. The topping-out ceremony on 6 August 2009 marked the beginning of a second life for the dome, which is now being given a third life in Düsseldorf. Instead, a new event centre is being built at its old location as part of the conversion and renovation of the gasometer.

A new chapter in the energy transition: The EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf

Around 80,000 square metres of office and event space is being built on the EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf. After Berlin, it is the second innovation campus of its kind in Germany and will be an international showcase for the energy transition. Around 4,000 employees from established companies, innovative start-ups, science and research will work here in close dialogue and in an inspiring working environment on the future topics of energy, mobility and sustainability.

The EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf will be a place where ideas are created, realised and tested for success. Intelligent architectural approaches, the use of renewable energy sources, new energy storage systems and the consistent networking of state-of-the-art technology will create a visible future location as a real model that can be transferred to many major cities around the world. A real place of the future that fulfils the German government’s CO₂ climate protection targets for 2045 – right from the start.

The EUREF-Campus Berlin: Leading location for the energy transition

The EUREF-Campus Berlin is the leading location for the energy transition in Germany. More than 150 companies, start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises from business, science and research are located on the 5.5-hectare site and work with their soon to be 7,000 employees on the topics of the future such as energy management, mobility and climate protection. The latest technologies are developed and applied here. As an international showcase for the energy and mobility transition, the EUREF-Campus has been meeting the German government’s CO2 climate targets for 2045 since 2014 and is also a reference site for the state of Berlin’s Smart City strategy. Healthy diversity and sustainability also characterise the gastronomic concept in Berlin. For example, in the casual fine dining restaurant “the CORD” under the direction of star chef Thomas Kammeier.

EUREF AG

EUREF AG is a creative developer of energy and environmentally optimised properties with sustainable added value. It was founded by Reinhard Müller in connection with the acquisition of a 5.5-hectare site around the historic gasometer in Berlin-Schöneberg in 2007. In the years that followed, this site was developed into the EUREF-Campus Berlin, the leading location for the energy transition in Germany. Since 2021, EUREF AG has been developing the second EUREF-Campus in the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital of Düsseldorf.