Bahnhofstraße (Train Station Street) is not only an important traffic artery, but also a well-frequented shopping street. In records from 1895 it is still noted as Lößnitzer Straße, in GDR times it was called Straße der Befreiung. The residential and commercial buildings have beautiful facades. This street begins with the Hotel Blauer Engel on the left and ends at the former Temper on the right. The two buildings on the far left are still on Aue’s Altmarkt, and it is not until the third building that Bahnhofstraße begins.
Hotel Blauer Engel
The Blauer Engel hotel (Blue Angel) building dates from 1663. It was long known as David Rehm’s Gasthaus and houses the Tausendgüldenstube on the upper floor – the name refers to the story that Rehm paid a Nuremberg artist 1000 gulden to decorate it. The hotel also includes the “Lotters Wirtschaft” adventure brewery and a beer museum with Saxony’s largest collection of beer steins.
Gantenberg bank building
In the middle of the panorama we see the building complex of the linen manufacturer W. Gantenberg. First the double-crowned right part was built in 1902 by architect Max Fricke. In 1913, Gantenberg had the complex extended to the left by architect Otto Juhrich in the same style. Over the last 100 years, the building has been used by the Deutsche Kreditbank, the Deutsche Notenbank, the State Bank of the GDR and currently the Commerzbank, among others.
Further facades
On the right, the next building with half-timbered decoration was also commissioned by Gantenberg and was built in 1898 by the architect Albert Geßner. This is followed by a Wilhelminian style building by the architect Julius Bochmann and finally the once famous Café Temper at Bahnhofstraße 13 / Schulbrücke. This extends behind the inconspicuous front to the rear along Schulbrücke Street. The old post office was located on the adjacent car park on the right until the new post office was built on Postplatz. At Bahnhofstraße 9, the Albert Geßner building, Herbert Milster sold tickets for steamship trips worldwide in the 1920s, e.g. also for the HAMBURG-AMERICA-LINE.
