Press releases

Work can now begin on creating an augmented reality tour of Aachen’s Coronation Hall: The City Hall Association has succeeded in securing nearly 2 million euros in funding from private sponsors and public grants. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Local Government, Construction, and Digitalization of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia played a major role in this achievement. Ina Scharrenbach, Minister of Home Affairs, Local Government, Construction, and Digitalization of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, presented the grant notification in the amount of 322,770 euros on Wednesday, July 22, to Mayor Dr. Michael Ziemons, who is also chairman of the Aachen City Hall Association.

“North Rhine-Westphalia demonstrates that a strong sense of home grows out of commitment, diversity, and democracy in action. Tradition and modernity are not at odds with one another, but rather exist in a dynamic tension that brings a sense of home to life. A sense of home has shape, it has history, it has a sound and faces. To this end, thousands of people in North Rhine-Westphalia are getting involved through the “Heimat-Förderung” initiative, putting ideas into action, and preserving or creating places that foster identity and strengthen cohesion. The ‘Journey Through Time in the Coronation Hall of Aachen City Hall’ is a prime example of how the Heimat-Förderung initiative brings local history to life in a whole new way and, with the help of modern augmented reality, merges the past and the present here,” said Scharrenbach.

Stefan Marx, managing director of Zaubar—the Berlin-based company commissioned to carry out the project—demonstrated to the minister and the mayor what visitors to City Hall will soon be able to experience in Aachen’s Coronation Hall using a prototype of the AR glasses that will be used. The mayor was enthusiastic: “With this project, we can bring a place of European history to life. There will be seven stations in the Coronation Hall where visitors can experience exciting scenes from different eras in augmented reality. This makes us the first city in Germany to implement something like this with such technical perfection.” AR glasses combine the real environment with digital content such as text, images, videos, or 3D objects. All physical surroundings remain visible while additional information is superimposed on them.

Ralf Wagemann, treasurer of the Rathausverein e.V., brought the idea of bringing history to life in the Coronation Hall using AR back with him from Ghent. To try out the glasses intended for the project before it began, he traveled to Spain specifically with historian Dr. Heike Nelsen.

In German, French, English, or Dutch, Fräulein Rotrud—Charlemagne’s eldest daughter—is expected to begin welcoming guests in mid-2027 and guiding them through seven key milestones in the history of this significant Coronation Hall. This immersive journey through time spans from the origins of the Imperial Palace, through the coronation banquet of 1520, to the devastating bombing raid of 1943.

A Collaborative Project
: To launch this project—the first of its kind in Germany—next year, the detailed script is now being developed. To this end, Harald Müller, holder of the Chair of Medieval History at RWTH Aachen University, is collaborating with a select group of historians. In addition to funding from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Rathausverein, the Rhineland Regional Council, Sparkasse Aachen, and the Aachen-based software company DSA are also contributing to the project. The City of Aachen is providing seed funding of 50,000 euros.