The EUREF Campus Düsseldorf represents a unique platform thematically. It will offer tenants, but also guests from politics, business, science and the general public, a broad space for discussions, information exchange and events. Among other things, the event dome will be available for this in the future.
The “EUREF-Dome”
Günther Jauch made it famous: in 2011 he started his Polittalk in the dome and broadcast from the EUREF Campus Berlin.
In 2006, the dome was designed on the occasion of the World Cup and its shape was inspired by the Reichstag.
Up to 600 people can be seated under the “EUREF-Dome”. In the past years, people met in the Gasometer in Berlin for film premieres, party conferences, UN conferences and much more. The dome has now been relocated to the EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf and will be available for exciting events from spring 2025.
GÜNTHER JAUCH was the political talk show from the heart of the capital. From 2011 to 2015, we broadcast live from the EUREF-Campus in the Berlin Gasometer. Just right for us, an inspiring and innovative environment for this TV format.”
Günther Jauch Fernsehmoderator, Journalist und Produzent
Dome on the way to Düsseldorf
In 2006, the Football World Cup took place in Germany. As host, Berlin was world champion-like. The Bundestag administration under President Norbert Lammert, who had only been in office for a year, had an ingenious but expensive idea. Within sight of the Reichstag building, the “Bundestagarena” was built, modelled on the dome of the parliament building.The project cost 2.5 million euros. From 7 June to 9 July 2006, a lot of events took place under the dome. The dome was constructed in a sustainable way so that it could be dismantled and stored again, it did not have to end up in the dustbin of history.
100 tonnes in weight, 3,000 individual parts, 21 metres high, 32 metres in diameter.
In 2008 Reinhard Müller bought the former GASAG site in Schöneberg. He thought about how he could put the listed gasometer to good use. A friend told him one Saturday evening that the “Bundestagarena” was stored in a large tent in Fürstenwalde, Brandenburg. The internationally active Swiss company Nüssli, which specialises in event and exhibition construction, had erected the dome in 2006 and has kept it ever since. Müller obtained the measurements and placed the dome in the gasometer using a computer simulation before the end of the weekend. It fits, was the result. Müller got in touch with Nüssli and on Monday evening the dome was his.
Bernd Krömer, then Schöneberg’s city councillor for construction, approved the installation. The success story of the dome in the Gasometer is thanks to his courage, says Reinhard Müller.
And so the topping-out ceremony on 6 August 2009 marked the beginning of the second life of the “Bundestagarena”. The list of events that did not take place under the dome in the last twelve years is shorter than the list of events that took place under the dome. Climate- and mobility summits, exhibitions, party conferences, film premieres and much more.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a regular guest at the Gasometer. On 13 June 2017, a state of emergency prevailed around the Gasometer at the Africa Summit hosted by the German Chancellor.All heads of state and government of the continent accepted the invitation.
The dome achieved nationwide fame between 2011 and 2015 when Günther Jauch broadcast his Sunday talk show from here. Since then it has been known as the “Jauch-Kuppel”. Jauch’s guests immortalised themselves with signatures on the tables in the “Schmiede” restaurant, where the after-show parties took place.
On 12 January 2021, the dismantling of the dome began. Not because they are no longer needed, but because the interior work on the gasometer is beginning. The dismantling, which will take a week, began with great media interest.
Dismantling was again carried out by the experts from Nüssli. Then it’s off to Düsseldorf in six trucks. There, the dismantled individual parts of the dome will be stored and await their third life as part of the new EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf. A little melancholy was heard as steel girder after steel girder was dismantled. An event location like this, a dome embedded in the shell of a gasometer, will never exist again. It is a pity that a dignified farewell could not take place because of Covid-19.
So let’s look forward to the new opening in Düsseldorf.
