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1.09.2023Bayer 04

Miscellaneous: 65 years ago – The Bayer Cross shines again

Carl Duisberg switched on the Bayer Cross, back then the biggest freestanding illuminated advertising, above the Leverkusen Works for the first time on 20 February 1933. The cross had a diameter of 72 metres and 2,200 light bulbs. Before the Second World War, it hung for the next six years between two chimneys each 126 metres tall.
1933_Bayer_Kreuz_2.jpg

It was designed as a flashing sign: The circle is initially visible and then the letters in the cross are switched on. The whole thing is repeated after a blackout phase.

The Bayer Cross was switched off at the outbreak of war in 1939 due to the lighting regulations and was then dismantled. For the next 19 years there was darkness over the Works.

crop_1936_Bayer_Kreuz_.jpg

The Leverkusen landmark was illuminated again in its current form on 2 September 1958. It is somewhat smaller than its predecessor and does not flash any more. The diameter is now only 51 metres and it has a circumference of 160 metres.

A fan-based campaign to save our landmark was launched n 2007 after Bayer AG wanted to pull it down. Instead the company wanted to project the cross as digital illuminated advertising on the Bayer office tower block. 21,000 people signed up to keep the Bayer Cross where it is. I hope it will continue to shine for a long time.

 

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