Aachen City Hall

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The Aachen town hall of the south, from Katschhof seen from

The Gothic Aachen City Hall is next to the cathedral is the most prominent building in the historic center of Aachen .

history

Aachen City Hall on an engraving by Matthäus Merian , 1647

In the first half of the 14th century, the citizens of Aachen built a new town hall under the direction of their incumbent mayor Gerhard Chorus (1285–1367) as a sign of their civil liberty. Until then, the grass house built in the middle of the 13th century had served as the town hall. As a concession to the Roman-German kings , the citizens had to undertake to set up a hall in the new town hall for the festive coronation meal (following the coronations in Aachen Cathedral ). Construction began in 1330, with the building being built on the foundations of a ruined palace from the Carolingian era , the Aula regia of the Imperial Palace .

The from the time of Charlemagne coming Granusturm was acquired and increased by 14 meters. Parts of the rising Carolingian masonry are also still present on the south side of the town hall . It was completed in 1349. Until 1531, the so-called coronation hall was used to hold the banquets for the Aachen royal coronations. While the town hall served as the administration building and festival hall for the imperial celebrations, certificates and some of the town's weapons and ammunition were housed in the Granus Tower. The tower also served as a prison for a time .

The Gothic town hall of Aachen is the architectural model for numerous town hall buildings in the Flemish region of that time.

Epiphany relief

Torso relief of the Three Kings , around 1380

The entrance to the imperial staircase, the connection between the basement and the coronation hall, the door of the Three Kings, was decorated with a high relief made of limestone from around 1380 depicting the Adoration of the Magi . Four limestone blocks formed the relief. The three king reliefs and the mother-child group each consisted of a limestone block.

During the Napoleonic period , the relief was partially destroyed in 1798. The fragment was left above the portal, which was then known as the entrance to the Hauptwache. The medieval work of art was replaced by a free replica in 1879 by Gottfried Götting . Before the Second World War it was transferred to the local history museum and was lost during the war.

Baroque

The town hall and market, redesigned in the baroque, steel engraving by Henry Winkles , around 1840

During the great city ​​fire of 1656 , part of the roofs and towers burned down. The destroyed parts were rebuilt in the baroque style. In the years 1727 to 1732, the Aachen builder Johann Joseph Couven carried out a fundamental baroque redesign, especially in the area of ​​the front facade and the entrance stairs. The Gothic figure decorations and the cross sticks from the windows have been removed. The interiors were also redesigned in the baroque style. The conference room and the “White Hall” on the ground floor still give an impression of this today.

The wood paneling in the Aachen-Liège Baroque style from the workshop of Jacques de Reux and the wall paintings by the painter Johann Chrysanth Bollenrath are characteristic of the phase . The so-called foremen's court gives an impression of this. The hall was originally set up for a jury that controlled the quality of the Aachen cloth; later it served as the mayor's office.

The Friedenssaal was set up for the solemn signing of the peace treaty to end the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, but it was not used due to disputes among the ambassadors. As compensation for this, the city of Aachen received portraits of the ambassadors. These are now in different halls of the town hall.

19th century

The discovery of the hot springs, depicted on a fresco by Alfred Rethel

Since the end of the imperial city period and during the Napoleonic occupation, the state of construction of the town hall was severely neglected, so that the building had to be viewed as partially dilapidated in 1840. Since the middle of the 19th century, the town hall has been gradually rebuilt, especially by the city architect Friedrich Joseph Ark , as the time imagined the original Gothic state and equipped with neo-Gothic paintings, reliefs and sculptures . The facade facing the market was decorated with statues of 50 kings as well as symbols of the arts, science and Christianity.

The coronation ballroom, which was now divided by walls, was restored and given a new entrance, the Ark staircase. In addition, the painter Alfred Rethel was commissioned to decorate the hall with a cycle of large-scale frescoes. The cycle, begun in 1847 and completed by a student in 1861, shows stations and legends from the life of Charlemagne. After the destruction of comparable cycles that adorned the Neues Museum in Berlin , it is one of the most important surviving examples of late Romantic history painting .

City hall fire in 1883

State of the town hall after the fire in 1883

Starting from a fire in Monheim's drug and material goods store at Antoniusstraße 26, flying sparks set fire to the roof structure and initially the Granus tower on June 29, 1883. Within four hours, the roof structure and the two town hall towers as well as more than 30 of the surrounding residential buildings on the south side of Markt, in Pont-, Jakob- and Kockerellstraße, Judengasse and Königstraße up to Karlsgraben burned. In addition to the fire brigades from Aachen and Burtscheid and emergency services from the 53rd Infantry Regiment, military trains from Stolberg and Langerwehe, but also from Eupen, Mönchengladbach, Cologne and Düsseldorf were deployed. The fires could only be completely extinguished by violent thunderstorms on the night of July 1st. The cause of the fire in Antoniusstrasse could never be clarified properly.

The coronation hall with the Rethel frescoes and the ground floor were spared from the fire, but had suffered badly from the extinguishing water. The restoration was carried out by genre painter and painting technician Friedrich Gerhardt . In the period that followed, the roof and the towers were temporarily covered again.

Tower construction from the rear in 1899
Aachen town hall around 1900
Opening of the restored town hall by Kaiser Wilhelm II on June 19, 1902

On November 1, 1884, the city of Aachen launched a competition among German architects to restore the town hall. Among the 13 submitted designs, the first prize was awarded to the Aachen architect Georg Frentzen , who was commissioned in 1891 to rebuild the town hall and the towers. The renovation of the interior was under the planning and direction of the city architect Joseph Laurent . Around 1895 the sculptures Ritter Gerhard Chorus and Johann von Pont were attached to the edge of the wall of the bay on the back of the town hall, as well as eight coats of arms of medieval noble families (Margarten, Berensberg, Roide, Hasselholz, Surse, Wilde, Joh. Chorus, Zevel) in the arches. These are works by Karl Krauss . In addition, by 1900 the Aachen sculptor workshops Carl Esser , Wilhelm Pohl , Lambert Piedboeuf and Gottfried Götting made several statues of kings, some of whom were crowned here, for the city hall wall, some of which are based on designs by the Cologne sculptor Christian Mohr . In 1899 the FA Neuman company from Eschweiler built a new steel construction for the roof and the two neo-Gothic spiers.

The restoration work was finished in 1902. The ceremonial inauguration of the town hall took place in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II on June 19, 1902.

20th century

Devastation inside the town hall after the storming by the separatists on October 21, 1923

The Aachen town hall survived the First World War without any damage caused by the war. During the political unrest in the wake of separatist movements to break away from a Rhenish republic , the town hall was stormed and seriously devastated by a group of Sonderbündler on October 21, 1923. Parts of the facade, the decorative figures and the two clocks on the town hall towers were destroyed, all the window panes on the ground floor on the market side were smashed and numerous historic rooms of the town hall were devastated. Many of the Rethel frescoes were badly damaged by bullets. The furniture - especially from the mayor's room and from the coronation hall - was smashed and used as a projectile. An unexploded bomb was found in the Imperial Hall.

During the Second World War , the town hall was badly damaged by several bomb attacks, particularly on July 14, 1943 and April 11, 1944. On July 14, 1943, the roof structure and both town hall towers burned out, only the steel skeletons of the tower hoods, which were bent by the heat, were to shape the appearance of the town hall for a few more years. The Coronation Hall was badly damaged and the north facade was due to the pressure of the bomb explosions in places up to 30 centimeters from the Lot moved. The acute danger of collapse was initially barely averted by massive wooden supports. The Rethel frescoes were badly affected by the penetration of rainwater. Five of the eight frescoes were carefully removed in small batches by the Aachen painter Franz Stiewi and initially stored in the Suermondt Museum .

In 1945, the architect Otto Gruber and the civil engineer Richard Stumpf first drew up a report on the stability of the building. The urgent securing of the north facade, which was in danger of collapsing, was carried out by Professor Josef Pirlet with the help of a steel construction and tie rods . In 1946 the roof of the town hall could be repaired with zinc plates. First of all, static securing was in the foreground during the reconstruction , since in addition to the detachment of the north facade, almost all of the arches were broken through. On August 9, 1948, Pirlet was able to report to the city council that the existence of the historic town hall was secured. The vaults on the ground floor were closed again in 1950. The reconstruction of the Kaisersaal was largely completed in 1953, and the design of the hall followed over the next few years.

The question of the form in which the two spire helmets will be rebuilt continued to be the focus of controversial discussions. In 1966, Wilhelm K. Fischer, who had done a lot for the reconstruction of Aachen, presented a sketch work on the tower design. RWTH Aachen students also took part in the discussion with 24 drafts. In 1968, eight expert drafts were submitted to a working committee for the restoration of the spiers. Some of the designs, some of which seem very modern, such as those by Gerhard Graubner and Wilhelm K. Fischer, were discussed intensively during the public presentation in August 1968. The working group opted for the design by the city ​​curator Leo Hugot , which was closely based on the historical models. The spire helmets were put back on in 1978.

Imperial regalia

Imperial regalia (copies)

Today faithful copies of the imperial regalia from the Vienna Secular Treasury, which were made for an exhibition around 1915 on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II, are exhibited in the town hall . They commemorate the 31 royal coronations that took place in Aachen between 813 and 1531. These include copies of the Imperial Gospel - a manuscript from the time of Charlemagne - the so-called saber of Charlemagne , the imperial crown and the imperial orb , which were made by the Aachen goldsmith Bernhard Witte , partly together with Paul Beumers (1865–1950), the son of goldsmith Conrad Anton Beumers , between 1915 and 1920.

Current

Since 2009 the town hall has been a station on the Route Charlemagne . As part of this project, the historic halls were opened to visitors. A museum exhibition and the interactive Aixplorer guide explain the history and works of art of the house and give an impression of the historical coronation feasts . The works of art include the portraits of Emperor Napoleon I from 1807 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and Empress Joséphine from 1805, made by Robert Lefèvre . The town hall is still the seat of the mayor and the council. The International Charlemagne Prize is awarded annually in the coronation hall of the town hall .

On January 22, 2019, the 56th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty , Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron signed the Treaty of Aachen in the Coronation Hall .

Karlsgarten

Karlsgarten at Aachen City Hall

As the second Karlsgarten in Aachen, the Freundeskreis Botanischer Garten Aachen maintains the herb garden on the south side of the Aachen town hall at Katschhof . A selection of the plants from the Capitulare de villis has been cultivated here since 1965 .

monument

The entry in the list of monuments reads:

"Former Palace auditorium of Charlemagne, market

Foundation walls and parts of the rising Carolingian (including Granus Tower), rebuilt as town hall after 1300 to 1349, the baroque conversions and changes Johann Joseph Couven removed except for parts of the interior (council hall, white hall), 1840–1881 the town hall according to plans by Friedrich Joseph Ark regotized, further alterations and restorations after fire from 1883 to 1901 and especially after severe war damage after 1945;

2-storey town hall building above a high base, with neo-Gothic facades, semicircular apse (so-called market tower) and square stair tower (so-called Granus tower); in the Reichssaal frescoes by A. Rethel; on the new annex Wappenstein from 1723 from the gable of the Kornelius bath "

As part of the monument project Ways against Forgetting , a bronze plaque on the town hall reminds of the political turmoil during the National Socialist era . It is engraved:

Memorial plaque ways against oblivion

“The city of Aachen is committed to freedom and democracy. Citizens want to preserve these values ​​now and in the future.
Human rights were violated in Aachen during the Nazi era. Local politicians and the city administration were also involved. The “Ways Against Forgetting” project reminds us here and in other parts of the city of the crimes of Nazi terror, of following along and of resistance. The city council elected on March 12, 1933 under conditions of terror and persecution of dissidents decided on March 29, 1933 to offer Adolf Hitler honorary citizenship of the city of Aachen.
The same thing happened in many other cities. The city councilors of the center, the black-white-red battle front, the DVP and the NSDAP voted for this. The Social Democratic city councilors voted against; the communist city councilors were already excluded from the city council.
After the SPD and KPD were banned in July 1933, the mayor who had been in office since 1928 and had been a member of the center was given a forced leave and on September 15, 1933 a National Socialist was unanimously "elected" mayor by the other city councilors. The memory of these events is for all of us a reminder for our behavior in the future. "

reception

Aachen City Hall, drawing by Albrecht Dürer, 1520

The city hall of Aachen was used several times as a motif by important artists, for example in a drawing by Albrecht Dürer from 1520 - the most famous reception of the building.

literature

  • Rudolf Wiegmann : The renovation of the town hall in Aachen. In: Correspondence sheet for the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westphalen , year 1846/1847, pp. 24–31.
  • Rudolf Wiegmann: The fresco paintings in the great hall of the town hall in Aachen. In: Correspondenz-Blatt for the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westphalen , year 1860/1861, pp. 45–48.
  • Ludwig Rovenhagen: The town hall of Aachen. A visitor guide and legend to the frescoes of the Kaisersaal. Jacobi, Aachen 1873. ( digitized version )
  • Carl Rhoen : Something about the fire of the Aachen town hall on June 29, 1883. In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Volume 5. Benrath & Vogelsang, Aachen 1883, pp. 302-310. ( Digitized version )
  • Richard Pick : The town hall in Aachen. In: From Aachen's past. Contributions to the history of the old imperial city. Creutzer, Aachen 1895, pp. 271-293. ( Digitized version )
  • Philipp Kerz : Destruction and reconstruction of the old town hall in Aachen. In: Rheinischer Verein für Heimatpflege und Denkmalschutz (Ed.): Aachen for the year 1951. Düsseldorf 1952, pp. 140–151.
  • Paul Schoenen: Rethel's Karlsfresken and the romantic history painting. In: Rheinischer Verein für Heimatpflege und Denkmalschutz (Ed.): Aachen for the year 1951. Düsseldorf 1952, pp. 152–165.
  • Mathilde Röntgen: The Gothic town hall of Aachen. In: Albert Huyskens, Bernhard Poll (Hrsg.): The old Aachen its destruction and its reconstruction. (= Aachen contributions for building history and local art , volume 3.) (published on behalf of the Aachener Geschichtsverein ) Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein, Aachen 1953, pp. 106–155.
  • Wilhelm Niehüsener: Report of the working group for the reconstruction of the town hall towers. JA Mayer, Aachen 1977.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme , Renate Puvogel : European sculptures from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. Royal sculptures in the coronation hall of the Aachen town hall. (= Aachener Kunstblätter des Museumsverein , Volume 47.) Du Mont, Cologne 1977.
  • Helmut A. Crous : Aachen as it was. Volume 2, Droste, Düsseldorf 1979.
  • Hans Hoffmann: Aachen in ruins. The old imperial city in the hail of bombs and afterwards. Droste, Düsseldorf 1984.
  • Thomas R. Kraus : On the history of the Aachen town hall clock. In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Volume 90/91 (1983/1984). Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein, Aachen 1984, pp. 69–97.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme: The town hall of Aachen. Einhard, Aachen 1996, ISBN 3-930701-15-4 .
  • Judith Ley: The town hall of the Free Imperial City of Aachen. The conversion of the Carolingian Aula Regia into a Gothic coronation palace. In: Working group for house research e. V., Ulrich Klein (ed.): Town halls and other communal buildings. (= Yearbook for House Research , Volume 60.) Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89445-444-9 , pp. 159-173.

Web links

Commons : Aachen City Hall  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ William Niehüsener: Report of the Working Group for the reconstruction of the town hall towers. JA Mayer, Aachen 1977.
  2. ^ History of the town hall on the Route Charlemagne pages , accessed on March 2, 2015.
  3. ^ Ernst Günther Grimme: The town hall of Aachen. Einhard, Aachen 1996, p. 40: “Cost estimate for the elimination of all signs that were related to feudalism, royalty and religion […]”. The three-kings relief appears in second place among the 36 positions: A demolir les trois rois au dessus de la porte du Corps de la garde de la place (for) 12 livres […] . They contented themselves with destroying the heads and hands of all figures and the arms of the kneeling king. "
  4. ^ Johann Becker: The town hall of Aachen and its fire on the Petri and Pauli days 1883. With 5 illustrations. Kaatzer, Aachen 1883 ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ 135 years ago, Aachen was on fire for the second time , Archivlae of the Month June 2018 of the Aachen City Archives
  6. ^ Hugo Dietschi: Friedrich Gerhardt. In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History , Volume 10 (1948–1949), p. 187. ( Digitized version ( memento from April 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ))
  7. ↑ Did you calculate correctly? Anniversary publication for the 125th anniversary of FANeuman, Eschweiler 1974, pp. 18–19
  8. ^ Will Hermann: City in chains. Aachen 1933, pp. 250-269
  9. ↑ Günther Borchers (eds.), Volker Osteneck and Hans Königs (edit.): List of monuments Aachen, 1.1: Inner city with Frankenberg quarter. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1977, p. 21.

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 33.9 ″  N , 6 ° 5 ′ 1.6 ″  E