Monkey gate

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Affentor 1628
The Affentor 1798
The classicistic monkey gatehouses

The Affentor was the southernmost of the medieval city ​​gates of Frankfurt am Main in Sachsenhausen .

history

In the course of the city ​​expansion approved by Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria in 1333, Sachsenhausen was surrounded by a city wall around 1390 . Since then, the traffic flowing to and from the south has led through a newly constructed city ​​gate , the Monkey Gate . The street from Affentor to Frankfurt Main Bridge via Elisabethenstrasse and Brückenstrasse divided Sachsenhausen into the two quarters of Oberhausen and Unterhausen .

Sachsenhausen suffered considerable damage during the siege of Frankfurt in the Prince's War in 1552 . The monkey gate was also damaged. Another city gate to the southwest, the Oppenheimer Tor , was even completely closed after 1552.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the old Frankfurt city fortifications were razed because they had lost their military importance. The Affentor was also torn down in 1809. In its place, Johann Friedrich Christian Hess built the two classicistic monkey gates as customs and guard houses in 1810/11 , between which the street ran. The city gates were still locked at night until 1837, after which the gates had lost their function due to the rapid expansion of the built-up urban area.

Unlike the other classicist city gates of Frankfurt, which were demolished in 1864, the Affentorhäuser have been preserved to this day. They are under monument protection and served as town houses until 1995, when the Saalbau GmbH sold them to the Katharinen- und Weißfrauenstift . After further changes of ownership, the houses have belonged to the Frankfurter Caritasverband eV since 2001 , which had them renovated by 2006 for 200,000 euros.

etymology

There are various explanations for the name, but none of them can be proven:

  • A Frankfurt legend reports that Charlemagne chanted the Ave Maria while fleeing the Saxons , whereupon a tidal wave made it impossible for the pursuers to cross the Main. A second vote led to the opening of a spring at the place of the banner, which was later called Aveborn and captured. When the monkey gate was opened, it seems to have dried up or buried.
  • But a name origin from an old hallway name is also possible. According to the South Hessian field name book, “Aube” is a subsidiary form of “ Aue ”, both from Middle High German “ouwe”, dialect “Aab” and “Aa”. "Au-" should mean "Aawe-" in dialect with "Aab". This expression could be misinterpreted as "monkey", not a rare phenomenon in the history of the name. So “Affentor” could also mean a gate to the Auenfeld. In fact, there used to be a damp lowland stretching from Sachsenhausen along the Main towards Offenbach .
  • Finally, like most gates, the gate could be derived from the destination of the country roads emanating from the gate. "Affen" is the Germanic form of the Celtic "aba, apa, aban, avon" 'river' and occurs quite often in the short form "-aff, -off" (such as in " Aschaffenburg " and "Offenbach "). The “Affentor” could be the “Offenbacher Tor” or the “Aschaffenburger Tor”. In fact, in the 19th century the gate was sometimes referred to as the Aschaffenburg Gate , and the stage from Frankfurt to Aschaffenburg was roughly a day's journey.
  • According to a legend, which is printed in the menu of the restaurant "Affentor-Schänke", the gate takes its name - as in the first legend - from the Ave Maria. At the "Ave Gate" the travelers were given one last "Ave Maria" to take them along. In Frankfurt dialect, the "Ave" became more and more a polished "Avve" up to the "Affe", from which the "Affen-Tor" got its name.
  • Another derivation brings the Affentor in connection with the word " evening ".

In any case, the name is very old. The historian Johann Georg Battonn headed in his Frankfurt topography the name of a nearby of the gate house from: "The Balde march handwriting of 1350 this gate called the Roder Gate and from the near corner house to monkeys even monkeys gate . It is a well-known fact that in earlier times the forest reached as far as Sachsenhausen. But afterwards different districts were cultivated to produce fertile fields, which collectively were called the Roder or rather the Röder and from them the gate was named Roderpforte . The place Oberrode , which arose on the upper Rode between Sachsenhausen and Offenbach , later led to the mistaken idea that the name of the gate originated solely from this place ... "

literature

  • Architects & Engineers Association (Ed.): Frankfurt am Main and its buildings . Self-published by the association, Frankfurt am Main 1886
  • Helmut Bode: Frankfurt saga treasure. Legendary and fabulous stories from the sources and older collections as well as the Lersner Chronicle, retold by Helmut Bode. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt a. M., second edition 1986, pp. 92-94 ISBN 3-7829-0209-2 .
  • Walter Gerteis: The unknown Frankfurt . 8th edition, Verlag Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-920346-05-X
  • Fried Lübbecke: The face of the city. According to Frankfurt's plans by Faber, Merian and Delkeskamp. 1552-1864 . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1952
  • Franz Rittweger, Carl Friedrich Fay: The old Frankfurt am Main , Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86568-118-8
  • Heinrich Schüßler: Frankfurt's towers and gates . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1951
  • Carl Wolff, Rudolf Jung: The architectural monuments of Frankfurt am Main - Volume 2, secular buildings . Self-published / Völcker, Frankfurt am Main 1898
  • Vinz de Rouet: I love Sachsenhausen! 33 reasons to love Sachsenhausen. Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-86931-738-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Affentorplatz 1 In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  2. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Affentorplatz 2 In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  3. ^ Helmut Bode: Frankfurter Sagenschatz. Legendary and fabulous stories from the sources and older collections as well as the Lersner Chronicle, retold by Helmut Bode. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt a. M., Second Edition 1986, pp. 92-94.
  4. ↑ Local description of the city of Frankfurt am Main , Volume VII, p. 69. Published by the Association for History and Antiquity in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1861–1875

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 16.7 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 24.9 ″  E