Königsplatz (Kassel)
| Koenigsplatz | |
|---|---|
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 Site plan Königsplatz and surroundings, 1877 |
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| Basic data | |
| place | kassel |
| District | center |
| Created | 1767 |
| Newly designed | 1950s and 1990s |
| Confluent streets | Obere Koenigsstrasse, Untere Koenigsstrasse, Kölnische Strasse, An der Garrisonkirche, Poststrasse, Untere Karlsstrasse |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic , public transport |
The Königsplatz is a round square in the center of Kassel . It separates the Obere from the Untere Königsstrasse and is crossed centrally by the tram that runs along these streets. A total of six streets lead to Königsplatz. Today it is part of the pedestrian zone in the city center.
history
The square was laid out in 1767 as part of the redesign of the city according to plans by Simon Louis du Ry . It was named after the Landgrave Friedrich I (1676–1751), who was also King of Sweden. Important public buildings such as that of the state government and the head office of Kassel were located on this square .
Space design
Statue of Napoleon
During the time of the Kingdom of Westphalia , a statue of Napoléon Bonaparte was placed on the square now called Napoléonsplatz. In 1810, King Jérôme ordered a statue of his brother to be erected. It was originally supposed to be made of bronze, which came from local mines and castings. On Jacques-Louis David's recommendation, the Kassel sculptor Johann Werner Henschel was to carry out the work. The original plans were dropped. On November 12, 1812, a statue of Napoleon made of Carrara marble was unveiled by Antoine-Denis Chaudet . The French emperor was idealized as a Roman emperor , crowned with laurel and wrapped in a toga . In his right hand he held a scroll symbolizing the constitution. After the French withdrew, the statue fell victim to cultural vandalism in 1813 . The mutilated remains can be seen today in the Museum Schloss Friedrichstein near Kassel.
Documenta stairs
As part of documenta 9 , the Hamburg landscape architect Gustav Lange, at the instigation of Jan Hoet , artistic director of documenta , built a wooden staircase with a platform in the middle of Königsplatz in 1992. After the end of the documenta , the work of art remained in place with the aim of redesigning the square and sparked controversy in Kassel in the following years.
Many citizens demanded the demolition of the work of art, which they viewed as a disfigurement of the square. The architect resisted this demand. In August 2000, Mayor Georg Lewandowski had the bridge demolished in a "night and fog" campaign. The following criminal proceedings against Lewandowski for breach of trust were discontinued by the regional court after paying a monetary fee of 15,000 euros; The background to the indictment was that it had "endangered the city's assets", as the city of Kassel had risked a fine of over 200,000 euros with the demolition, which however did not have to be paid due to a settlement with Lange.
Fountain
After the reconstruction, the Königsplatz was redesigned several times. Since 2005, 36 bronze gargoyles have surrounded the square.
The obelisk
The memorial, The Obelisk , designed for documenta 14 , which was intended to remind of the humanitarian duty to take in refugees with the multilingual inscription “I was a stranger and you sheltered me” ( Mt 25,35c ELB ), stood after the art exhibition 2017 for a while at Königsplatz, for which it was created. After controversy, it was surprisingly removed from the city and put into storage on October 3, 2018. Shortly afterwards, the city agreed with the artist on the future location in stairs street (near Florentiner Platz), where the stele was put up again on April 18, 2019.
Edge development
The development of the square is very heterogeneous, the oldest building is the former headquarters of the Hessischer Bankverein (No. 34) on the corner of Obere Königsstraße from 1911. The bank was taken over in 1922 by Commerzbank . The building replaced the Palais Hessen-Rotenburg, which served the Prussian administration as an office building from 1867 to 1882 - and the ground floor of commercial building No. 57, a new building from 1909. The old main post office, built in 1831 at the location of today's City-Point shopping center between Poststrasse and Unterer Koenigsstrasse, like other adjacent buildings, was badly damaged by British aerial bombs in 1943 and then demolished.
The Kaskade-Kino was located on Königsplatz in a building designed by Paul Bode (corner of Obere Königsstraße) from 1952 to 2000 . The hall, known for its illuminated water features with music, was removed in autumn 2012 and converted into a retail sales area.
From 1963 to 1999, one side of the square was dominated by a large Neckermann and later Karstadt department store. After the lease had expired, the buildings were replaced by the completely new construction of the City-Point shopping center, which was completed in 2002.
The Overmeyer fashion house was located at Königsplatz 38–40 until 2006; it was closed in 2006 and demolished in 2012. The Braunschweiger Canada Bau invested 15 million euros for a new building on the property. The commercial building was opened on April 10, 2014 and houses, in addition to the sports shop Sportscheck, a mobile phone shop and office space.
On the opposite side of the square, the Hamburg textile retail chain Peek & Cloppenburg opened a new office building in March 2012.
- Buildings along the Königsplatz
Commerzbank (No. 34)
Peek & Cloppenburg (No. 55)
Commercial building (No. 57)
Detail of the office building built in 1909 (No. 57)
Commercial building (No. 59)
City-Point (No. 61)
Overmeyer House (No. 38–40; demolition 2012)
New building no. 38-40 (2014)
Southeast development (No. 36, 36A, 36B)
A little east-southeast of the square: the ruins of the garrison church
Individual evidence
- ↑ s: de: The story of two Napoleon statues
- ↑ Kasseler OB in court for demolishing the "documenta staircase" - indictment accuses Lewandowski of serious infidelity ( memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), from September 24, 2001, from 123recht.net
- ↑ After demolition of the "documenta" -Kunsttreppe ( FAZ ) of 19 February 2002
- ↑ A clear view on Königsplatz: Overmeyer House has almost disappeared , from November 12, 2012, on hna.de.
- ↑ The wait is over: Sportscheck opened in Haus am Kö , April 10, 2014, on hna.de.
- ↑ Peek & Cloppenburg opened in Kassel on March 14, 2012, on property-magazine.de
literature
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Monuments in Hessen - City of Kassel I ( monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ) ; Wiesbaden 1983 ISBN 3-528-06232-0
- Alois Holtmeyer: The architectural and art monuments in the Kassel administrative district, Bd. VI , Marburg, 1923.
Web links
- Around the Königsplatz , on kassel.de
- Königsplatz , HNA / Kassel RegioWiki
Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 56.7 " N , 9 ° 29 ′ 52.6" E