Annals of architecture (3): The Dr. Neher Lab

The metamorphosis of a building

Already before the second world war communication technology started to develop rapidly. Labs were built to develop and test new methods and devices. At the time, the radio, the emerging television and the telephone networks were under control of the state. In the Netherlands the organization responsible herefor was the PTT, Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie (Post, Telegraph, and Telephone), a part of the ministry of traffic and water management.

The entrance to the Neher lab and the portiers lodge

After the second world war the PTT was recovering from the war-time losses. The various labs for the development of new technologies were distributed over various sites which mainly were located in the area of the Hague. Since the dispersal of locations was disadvantageous the General Director of PTT, Lambertus Neher, initiated the construction of a central laboratory where all research activities could be concentrated.

The central entrance with the directors offices and the auditorium

A suitable site was found in Leidschendam. The new building was designed by Samuel Van Embden who had experience in projects of functional buildings, for example the technical universities in Eindhoven and Twente. Van Embden’s task was to plan a building including three sheds, space for the management, a boiler house, an acoustic lab, a tower, a bicycle shed and residences for employees.

The facade of the central building and the entrance to the hall

The result was a W-shaped building. The sheds were in the lateral wings, the center included the boiler house, an auditorium and the offices of the management. The building included a high tower, which was used as a chimney to improve the functioning of the coal fired boiler. Only the central building had a basement where the coal was stored.

The interior of the central hall. The original glass roof was removed about restoration

“Nieuwe Zakelijkheid” was a style of Brutalist architecture developing in the early 20th century in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. It was characterized by block-like, geometric, and repetitive forms which allowed the use prefabricated, standardized elements. The emphasis was on material and functionality. Unfinished reinforced concrete, glass, steel and raw brickwork were used.

The entrance hall

The DNL (Dr. Neher Laboratorium) was inaugurated in presence of the queen in 1955. Neher himself had retired in 1954. 1% of the budget of the building was reserved for artwork. Striking even before you enter the building is a bronze sculpture of a nude growing horizontally from the wall and extending its arms. It is the artistic personification of the signal, the quintessence of all communication, by artist Oswald Wenckebach. The outside walls are decorated with concrete reliefs with the logo of PTT, a postal pigeon or a posthorn.

The signal by Oswald Wenckebach

The entrance hall of the building is decorated with graffito, a technique of decoration where the top layer is removed to obtain a shallow relief. The stylized illustrations remind of ears, transmission masts or light elements.

Diana in the entrance hall

Next to the stairs is a sculpture of Diana, the goddess of hunting to refer to the hunt for innovation, the justification for the existence of the building. Other statues were distributed over the various wings and courtyards.

The tower 

The two glass-roofed halls in the wings of the building enclosed large, open, interior spaces. Here the employees worked on their tasks in their laboratories. There was an acoustic lab with a sound proof chamber. DNL was the pioneer for the development of computers, mobile phones, cable and color television and digitization. DNL was also keeping the official standard time of the Netherlands. The quartz crystal standard clock was in the basement. The top of the tower was used to test the signal for the different wireless communication applications. But the lab was also used to develop machines for sorting mail and was forerunner for the development of reliable automatic reading and recognizing of had-written addressees.

On the tower

In the 1980ies the privatization of the Telecom companys started. In the Netherlands PTT was officially renamed in KPN (koninklijke PTT Nederland). The activities in Leidschendam were transferred to other locations. In the 1990ies most were removed. Already in 2001 the director of KPN applied for demolition of the DNL building at the Magistrate of Leidschendam. Although the majority of magistrates agreed, there was resistance. Eventually the building became a municipal monument. In 2003 a call for entries for the rebuilding of the monument was issued.

View from the tower towards The Hague. In the foreground the roof of the DNL

Eventually the lab halls were converted into 87 apartments. Most of the apartments have one floor and 2 to 3 rooms. To provide individual access and space for gardens the central glass roof was removed. The project includes common spaces including an open fire place, a library and lounge cafe, a restaurant, swimming pool and a fitness center where all the tenants are mandatory members. There is also space for a housekeeper and for overnight guests.

Old phones in the public space

An old telephone booth in the garden

The public spaces are decorated with reminders of the building’s past. Old telephones with Bakelit casing and rotation dialer, a collection of traditional copper cables can be found. In one of the courtyard gardens a telephone booth painted in green is displayed. Many tenants added pieces of art displayed in their open space gardens. The gardens form green oases with plants according to the amount of natural water and light available. Big glass panels bring light into the apartments.

Different copper communication cables

The furnishing and renovation of the building and keep-up of the public spaces costs a lot of money, which partially has to be collected from the tenants. However, various organizations gave subsidies. In exchange for the public subsidies part of the building has to be kept accessible for the public. A foundation organizes events like guided visits to the tower.

Presentation in the auditorium

The light switches on upon opening the writing desk

The auditorium was rebuilt as event space. It is managed by Neherlab SC and called Speaker’s club. During Open monument day they organized presentations by artists, designers and historians.

The library

Theo Pronk started the project of “history5D”. For the City of Leidschendam Voorburg he develops an internet platform where the historic development of different selected parts of the city are visualized. From a picture of the current situation you can scroll back to how it looked like hundreds of years ago. In addition an interpretation is given. He calls that the fifths dimension. You can find it at https://www.history5d.nl/

Puzzle table 

Cathelijn van Andel and her coauthors assembled an area biography of Leidschendam Voorburg, a municipality which consists of three distinct parts. The book was quickly sold out but can be downloaded from the internet portal of the Gemeente.

https://www.lv.nl/boek-over-erfgoed-leidschendam-voorburg-opgenomen-in-collectie-bibliotheek-aan-de-vliet#

The public space

Impromptu poets Mar&Co spontaneously created poetry upon a catch word from the auditorium. The presentation was accompanied by modern dance and a guitar duo.

The fitness room

The transformation of the DNL complex shows how well reuse of industrial space can be done. It also sets a model how architecture can help cities in the development of residential space adapted to the needs of the majority. 3.4 million Dutch live alone in one person households. In many cases these are people who occupy family homes much too big for them. Most of them complain about lack of community and loneliness. However, the building politics of the Dutch administrations still favors the construction of expensive semi-detached or detached houses more suitable for big families. The DNL project shows in which direction the preferences for city planning should shift.

The original minimalist stairway was not safe enough. A net was added

Sources:

Hans Bilgin et al, Dr. Neher Laboratorium, 2025, ISBN 978-90-9041578-9

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neherlaboratorium

https://monumentenregister.cultureelerfgoed.nl/monumenten/530851

Annals of Transportation (11): The Chicago elevated railway

Chicago at night

A winter night. The L = elevated rumbles across the bridges of the Loop. Outside tables and chairs are covered in snow. There are few people in the icy streets…. Chicago is a multilevel city and they can use the underground pedwalks

https://hrs-ontherailsagain.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-amtrak-experience-11-great-american.html

In town today... (1)

Eyes of children around the world

Matam, Senegal

At the moment there are exhibitions displaying their photos in Liëge and Nuremberg. Photographers such as Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) or Ruth Orkin (1921-1985) were famous for the compassionate and vivid shots of children in the streets. In countries like India, Mali or the Cabo Verdian islands children are sometimes almost a nuisance – as soon as they see somebody with a camera they jump in front of the lens and pose, attracting their mates with loud howls to draw attention.

Lake Tana, Ethiopia

When I took the metro in Nuremberg recently, a big group of little school kids were herded into the station by their teachers. All were glad to escape the annoying torment at school and full of great expectations of what this day excursion would bring up. It was a lovely picture to watch them line up neatly in lines of two, wearing their little backpacks, Zipfelmütze and warm padded jackets like a group of smurfs.

Nürnberg, Germany

When I took the picture a heard a voice from behind my ear:

“Why do you take pictures of these children?”

“Are they your children?”

“Some parents do not like pictures to be taken from their children”.

Then the owner of the voice disappeared. He was no teacher, as I had suspected, but just an ordinary passer-by.

Outdoor lesson, Udaipur, India

Apparently we live in times where the pictures of happy children like taken by Orkin or Doisneau will disappear. In exhibitions, people will see pictures of streets full of cars but void of children. And parents will be longing for good pictures of their children....

Salento, Colombia

Annals of industrial archeology (3): The heavy industry of Ostrava

Rust never sleeps

The Czech town of Ostrava sits on the coal deposit that stretches over the border to Poland and Slovakia. Already in the times of the Austro-Hungarian empire the first steel works and blast furnaces were established. Meanwhile most of the mines in the area and the heavy industry was closed down. The remainders, however, still dot the cityscape

https://hrs-ontherailsagain.blogspot.com/2024/05/on-my-way-to-anatolia-5.html

Annals of justice (7): The prisons of Bautzen

The town of prisons

During the communist rule Bautzen was infamous as the location of various prisons for heavy criminals, in particular spies, human traffickers and opponents of the regime.

Entrance to the Bautzen II prison

Bautzen II had been a prison as annex to the court building since 1901. Already during the Nazi era the prison was used for interrogation and “Schutzhaft”, the imprisonment of political enemies for their own safety. After the war it was used by the Soviets for denazification. Several thousands of these prisoners were killed in Bautzen, in particular in the prison Bautzen IV, called “gelbes Elend” (yellow misery). Each floor of the museum in the prison is dedicated to one of these time periods. The exhibition shows examples of the typical fate of a prisoner of that time.

The central staircase of the cell building

A typical victim of the soviet denazification period was Fritz Melzer. In Mai 1946 he was arrested on charges of illegal possession of weapons. In August 1946 he was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor for "sabotage". In September 1946 he was transferred to the special camp in Bautzen. On 7. Juli 1947 he died in Bautzen. The soviet camp administration registered his date of death, but not the reason. His remains were buried in a mass grave next to the camp. It took until 1998 for his family to receive a correct death certificate based on information from former prisoners and further research. Many relatives remained completely ignorant of the deceased's fate until the 1990s.

Door of a cell

During the Waldheim trials the soviets put 3500 people in court who already had been imprisoned in different special camps for several years. On soviet orders, twelve grand and eight small criminal chambers of the Regional Court in Chemnitz tried the accused without taking any evidence or indictment. 32 people were sentenced to capital punishment, of whom 24 were executed. The other convicted received sentences of between 10 and 25 years. In the vast majority of cases, the accusations are completely unfounded. Almost all hearings were conducted as closed proceedings.

Cell in the origianl state

In the 1950’ies the prison was taken over by the GDR. The conditions in Bautzen II were better than in the ordinary communist prisons and interrogation centers. After improvements after 1969 straw mats were replaced by proper mattresses, the toilets were improved and little sinks with faucets were introduced, some even with hot water. There was an electrical outlet for immersion heaters and cooking pots. Watches, personal slippers, toiletries and personal belongings like writing utensils, paper, books, and magazines were allowed. All that was untypical for the GDR penal system. The reason was the presence of a number of foreign, in particular prisoners from West Germany. The West German Government had made an agreement that their permanent representation (there was no embassy since they did not recognize the GDR as independent state) was able to visit their nationals.

Shower and bathroom

An interesting and typical case for the time the prison under the administration of the Stasi was Horst Garau. Garau, born in 1939, made a career as school official after he graduated from the regional SED party school. As such he was allowed to travel to the west for congresses and private visits. He was recruited by the State Security's foreign intelligence service as a so-called "travel cadre". During his travels, he served as an "unofficial employee" and instructed spies for their missions in the Federal Republic. Disappointed by the Stasi's surveillance of his own family, Garau turned to the West German Secret Service in 1977 and started a carrier as double agent. However, an employee of the West German secret service revealed his activities as a double agent to the Stasi. In 1986, Garau was sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage by a military court. He served his sentence in strict solitary confinement in Bautzen II. Officially, he committed suicide here on December 12, 1988. To this day, doubts remain about this cause of death.

Improved cell for western guests

I never would have expected to be glad, to even prefer to be in a prison. However, with the searing temperatures outside it is much more pleasant inside the jail. Of course that was different when you were a prisoner here. In winter it was freezing cold in the building which was heated by steam. Into each room a bit of steam was released only twice a day.

The sanitary part of the cells

Under these conditions it was not surprising that the immates had a strong longing to get out.

Dieter Hötger had been sentenced to 9 years in strict solitary confinement after he had built a tunnel with a friend to get his wife out of the GDR. They were betrayed and upon the arrest the friend was shot and Hötger wounded in the chest. Isolated from his fellow inmates, he was locked in work cell no. 18 every day from 5:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to assemble electrical components. While he wasn't watched, he loosened mortar and bricks of the wall behind the closet of his work cell until a hole appears. He hid a total of 23 bricks behind his work table and got rid of the mortar in the toilet. The growing hole in the wall went unnoticed during the guards' regular inspections. In the early morning of November 28, 1967, Hötger let himself fall through the hole in the 65 cm thick outer wall from a height of 5 meters into the courtyard. Unnoticed, he also climbed over the perimeter wall of the adjacent police compound. There were no guards on duty, and the surveillance equipment was not switched on. Hötger ran out of the city and hid in ditches and bushes. After nightfall, he fled north. He planned to cross the border into West Berlin, but was caught after eight days and sentenced to an additional eight years. In 1972, he was ransomed by the German government.

The cell building

Apart from such a rare spectacular acts the inmates succeeded in small acts of violation. Letters were smuggled out although paper or pens were not allowed. Therefore the public, in particular in the west, came to know about the conditions in the prison and the fate of inmates who simply disappeared behind bars.

Courtyard

In the exhibition room about the time when Bautzen II was a Stasi prison I meet a giant covered in tattoos, t-short imprinted with a wild metal scene, shorts, topknot and flesh tunnel in his ear lobe of at least 2 cm. Such a prison like here at least worked discouraging, he tells me in a quiet, shy voice. A contemporary prison room more resembles a luxury hotel room. He should know, because he was imprisoned twice. I timidly ask him what he had done. Aggravated bodily harm and public destruction. Prison wasn't working as an incentive for change for him. But after his second imprisonment, when his mother refused to talk to him and his girlfriend broke up with him, he changed his life. He moved to another city to escape the bad influence of his friends. At first, no one wanted to give him a job because of his past. But then he worked in Wuppertal for 10 years. He travels a lot, the work is fun, and his girlfriend came back. But his improvement wasn't a result of the penal system. Now he is in Bautzen for his work…. and spends his free afternoon to visit the prison.

Van to transport prisoners

Bautzen was not the only prison like this in the GDR. There is a similar interrogation facility in nearby Dresden and it was also turned into a documentation center which can be visited. However, Bautzen was the biggest and strictest of its kind. After modernization, Bautzen IV, the yellow misery, is still in use today. While I step outside into the heat I ask myself whether they have similar places – and musea – in the neighboring countries like Poland or Czech Republic.

Villa in the neighborhood close to the prison Bautzen II

Interesting enough the neighborhood of the prison is full of magnificent art-deco mansions. They were renovated extensively after half a century of neglect.

Spree valley with the ramparts of Bautzen

Bautzen is known and infamous for its prisons. This is why it's easily overlooked that it also has a picturesque old town nestled on the high bank above the Spree river. From below the old town with its wall and towers it looks very impressive.

Pedestrian zone with the Reichentturm

Unfortunately the castle is closed for a series of theater performances. In the cobbled streets it is difficult to take a picture without a car. The pedestrian zone is restricted to the one shopping street. Compared to Jelenia Góra there are few restaurants with shady terraces tucked away between the parked cars. There are very few people in the streets.

The cobbled streets of Bautzen

I enter a restaurant. The interior is dark to resemble a medieval boarding house. The waiters are clad in brown monks’ habits with a rope around their middle. There is a balcony overlooking river, city wall, castle and valley. However, everybody is inside. What usually is an advantage, a sunny terrace, has turned into a drawback. The waiters are surprised that I still want to sit outside. The fresh abbey beer turns into stale, luke warm brew in a wink of time. But at least the food does not cool down to quickly.

Ruins of the Franciscan monastery

Sources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_H%C3%B6tger

Information panels, Gedenkstätte Stasi Gefängnis Bautzen