New life at the lady: Sonnenberger Platz opened!

New life at the lady: Sonnenberger Platz opened!

Sonneberg, Deutschland - The city of Sonneberg has taken another step towards urban development and resilience. Long caught, the former department store "Haus der Dame" brings life back to the city center. Originally opened by Carl Rosenthal in 1897, the historical site experienced many ups and downs over the years. After the department store changed its owner in the course of the story and was ultimately nationalized in the GDR, it fell down to decay after the fall of the wall and was demolished in 1994. After numerous failed plans for redesign, construction work for a new living area was finally started in autumn 2024. As reported insuedthueringen.de, the area was inaugurated on May 15, 2025 and 300,000 euros ZIZ federal promotion program financed.

A special incentive for the citizens: Inside, a picture puzzle currently offers to increase civic engagement. Already 89 letters have been submitted to the current competition, whose winner Edeltraud Rebhan was able to win a voucher from the Gessner home brewery. The next puzzle refers to a location in the northern hemisphere of the Sonneberg district, very close to the Morassina show mine. The creative solutions can be submitted by June 20, 2025.

a new chapter for Sonneberg

The city center of Sonneberg changes into a resilient residential and labor location. The project aims to preserve the traditions of the former world toy city and to strengthen the identity of the city. Local actors and specialist planners are integrated in order to develop a future vision for the toy city of the 21st century. According to innerstadtprogramm.bund.de, the following focus is on:

• Further development of the inner city brand
• Place and environmental design
• re-design of the Sonneberger play mile
• staging the toy manufacturing tradition

with a total budget of 855,327.04 euros, of which up to 656,331.76 euros were approved as a federal fund, concepts, studies and structural-investive measures are to be funded. The project aims to increase the quality of stay and social-cultural life around the game stations and thus also wants to address all target groups beyond the city limits.

urban development in the sign of resilience

The challenges that Corona pandemic brought with it have changed everyday life significantly since spring 2020. Cities and municipalities are looking for new solutions to remain sustainable. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, for construction and homeland, launched an expert advisory board in autumn 2020, the aim of which is to find ways to make cities resilient. The resulting memorandum on urban resilience, which was published on national-stadtentwicklungspolitik.de, formulates for a robust, adaptive and Sustainable urban development.

With the implementation of the knowledge from the memorandum, cities want to improve their urban space in the coming months and adapt to the challenges of the 21st century. Sonneberg is to make an important contribution to urban resilience with the redesign of its city center and the revitalization of the historical "House of Dame" and shows how commitment can be made at the local level.