• Intensive inspections and tests were carried out in all municipal swimming pools in the days following the incident in Brand.
• Südhalle and Elisabethhalle are open. Ulla Klinger Hall back in operation from Saturday for the time being. East Hall closed on Monday for further testing.
• Facility Management is working flat out to ensure that the hall in Brand can be reopened as soon as possible.

After parts of the ceiling cladding in the indoor swimming pool in the Aachen-Brand district came loose last Sunday and fell into the water, the city is working at full speed to repair the damage. Due to the damage above the small pool in the Brander Halle, all halls were inspected ad-hoc on Monday (January 12). At the same time, the building management department responsible for the city's real estate has called in external experts and extended the inspections of the hall ceilings over the past few days.

The results are now available:
In addition to the ceiling cladding in Brand, corrosion damage has also been found in the ceiling cladding of the Ulla Klinger Hall, which must be repaired as soon as possible "The top priority is to ensure the safety of people visiting the municipal pools," says Lord Mayor Dr. Michael Ziemons. "I am very pleased that it was possible to involve an external structural engineer in the investigations very quickly. The current tests have shown that operations in the Südhalle and Elisabethhalle can basically continue as usual." Ziemons continues: "We are now doing everything we can to ensure that the Brander swimming pool can reopen as quickly as possible and that further necessary renovation work can be carried out in the Ulla Klinger Hall."

Osthalle closed on Monday for inspection
Following the initial assessments, an in-depth structural inspection of the Osthalle is also scheduled for next Monday, January 19. The indoor swimming pool will therefore be closed to the public all day.

Teaching pool
The four municipal teaching pools and the pool at the "Kleebachschule" special school, which the city operates on behalf of the Aachen city region, have also been inspected in recent days. As a result, it has become apparent that the pool in the Walheim elementary school also needs to be inspected more intensively, as the ceiling construction is not easily visible. Therefore, there will be restrictions in operation in the near future. The city will provide separate information on this.

That's what happened this week:

• Monday, January 12: Facility management has carried out initial visual inspections of the ceilings in the swimming pools without the use of scaffolding or dismantling.
• Tuesday/Wednesday (January 13/14): The experts looked into the cavities and structures of the ceilings to rule out damage similar to that caused by the fire. To this end, the building management team brought in an external architect and a drywall builder. As a result, corrosion damage was discovered in the ceiling of the Ulla Klinger Hall. A structural engineer was then brought in on Wednesday afternoon to support the investigations into the hall ceiling.
• Thursday/Friday (January 15/16): The Ulla-Klinger-Halle was closed to the public. Static assessments and calculations were carried out with the help of scaffolding and partial ceiling dismantling at various points.

Ulla Klinger Hall: next steps
The structural engineer's inspection has concluded: The hall can remain in operation for the time being. However, the ceiling must be dismantled as soon as possible, which is only possible if the hall is closed. The administration is now starting to plan this. The aim is to keep the restrictions for the people, schools and clubs that use the hall as low as possible.

Brand indoor swimming pool: further action
The damage caused to the Brand indoor swimming pool cannot yet be quantified. As a first step, experts dismantled the ceiling surfaces in the closed non-swimmer area this week. The building management team is currently assuming that the hall can be put back into operation relatively quickly. To this end, temporary lights - without corresponding ceiling soundproofing elements - are to be installed in the near future. The planning for this and the calculation of the costs have begun.

According to current investigations, the falling off of part of the ceiling cladding above the non-swimmers' pool is due to corrosion damage. The ceiling above the large swimmers' pool in the Brander Halle was renovated around 15 years ago. The suspended ceiling there has been refastened. There are redundant, newer hangers that hold the ceiling. In addition, the old hangers there are not under as much strain as in the small hall next door. Nevertheless, the building management will also have the reattached ceiling above the swimmers' pool statically assessed in the coming week.

Facility management is currently investigating why the renovation of the non-swimmers' pool was not tackled in good time. It is currently assumed that this is due to an unfortunate knowledge gap caused by staff changes long ago. Such documentation gaps are to be closed in future using new digital solutions.

Digitalization brings improvements
The City of Aachen inspects its buildings at regular intervals. "Municipal properties are inspected and inspected annually by building management staff as part of their traffic safety and operator responsibility. Particular attention is paid to critical structures and constructions. The indoor swimming pool in Brand was last inspected in November 2025," explains Ricarda Bruns, Technical Operations Manager of Facility Management.

The city acts on the basis of recognized guidelines for building inspections and in some cases goes beyond the requirements formulated therein. Municipal engineers and architects are constantly working on this. "I am committed to modern knowledge management in our administration," emphasizes Mayor Ziemons. "As part of digitalization, inspection processes and their documentation are also to be further improved. A modern software module that has already been purchased will soon be introduced in building management."