Reading hall and pavilion

Franz Zell adds an additional chapter on "Altmünchener Tanzplätze" (Old Munich’s Dance Venues) to the book "Volkstümliche Bauweise in der Au bei München" published in 1908. There he introduced the dance venues of the Biedermeier period, which still existed in the area around Munich at that time, in Großhesselohe, Oberföhring and Bogenhausen.

Zell designed such a "dance venue" for the "1908 Exhibition" in Munich and the amusement park conceived for it. He adopted the pavilion format with the round floor plan and roofed construction open all round. The dance floor was surrounded by a balustrade on which figures from Munich’s Coopers’ Dance stood.

In Berchtesgaden, Zell designed a reading hall, also called the "small conversation house", for the spa gardens at the time. At that time, from 1908, a public lounge area was to be available to spa guests in bad weather. Zell adopted pavilion construction forms for his design. The semi-circular entrance area first opens up to offices and leads to the large reading hall with an oval floor plan. A corridor opening onto the garden, a ladies’ room and a smoking room enclose the oval reading room.

In the "Der Baumeister" magazine in 1908, a view of the reading hall was shown in the appendix on two large-format plates, as well as a top view and cross-section of the elaborate roof construction.

The Berchtesgaden reading hall was demolished in 1968.

Michaela Thomas