Old Freedom (Wuppertal)
The Alte Freiheit is a historical inner-city square in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal , which was called Freiheit Elberfeld in front of Elberfeld Castle and is the historical center of the future town of Elberfeld .
topography
Since the construction of the City-Arkaden at the latest , there is only one street left of the inner-city square . Alte Freiheit is now part of the pedestrian zone. It begins in the north at the intersection of the streets Turmhof , Poststraße and Schöne Gasse. The Alte Freiheit is the continuation of Poststrasse .
The next streets to the east are Kipdorf and the Hofaue , they enclose the western part of the City-Arkaden. To the west, the streets of Kirchstrasse and Calvinstrasse branch off ; these two lead to the Old Reformed Church . To the side, on the north side of the Köbo house , the street Schloßbleiche branches off to the west .
The Alte Freiheit ends in the south at the Döppersberger Brücke at the Köbo-Haus, which is also the Wuppertal Hbf (formerly Döppersberg ) suspension railway station . The Döppersberger Brücke, previously a larger multi-arch bridge, has been included in the street name Alte Freiheit since April 8, 1968. The bridge, today at the traffic junction and bus station Döppersberg , led to the Wuppertal main station . Until the current redesign of the Döppersberg, the connection from the city center to the main train station for pedestrian traffic was mainly made via a longer underpass under the Bundesallee ( Bundesstrasse 7 ).
architecture
The former suspension railway station, built in the Art Nouveau style , was replaced by the Köbo House in 1926. It is the only house in the city that is built over the Wupper. The Parnass Gallery (street address Alte Freiheit 16 and 18 ) was a gallery in the 1950s that gained nationwide recognition. At the beginning of the Hofaue is the J. Wichelhaus P. Sohn bank .
The Döppersberg fountain was inaugurated in 1968, these water features were removed in 1988 and replaced in 1989 by the Döppersberg ball fountain. The ball fountain was removed when the city arcades were built. It is now without function on Willy-Brandt-Platz next to the Elberfeld town hall .
The bronze figure of Mina Knallenfall, a literary figure by the dialect poet Otto Hausmann , who has developed into the Wuppertal original , stands at the intersection of Turmhof, Poststrasse and Schöne Gasse .
history
In the original cadastre from 1824/25 the street on the Alter Markt was named, in the city map from 1827 it is labeled Alter Markt . The current name refers to the earliest settlement at Elberfeld Castle in the 14th century and was referred to as freedom in the early 15th century .
There was a market at this point as early as 1603 (the New Market ), which became the Old Market (also Altenmarkt ) at the beginning of the 19th century when the Neumarkt was built north of Wall Street . After the town was merged with Barmen , when it was renamed in 1935, the historical name Alte Freiheit was used.
At the confluence with Poststrasse (then Marktstrasse ), Elberfeld's city scales stood until the first half of the 17th century , where court hearings and magistrate meetings were also held. The Stadtwaage could be described as the first Elberfeld town hall.
In the middle of the 18th century there was a pillory on the market . In 1852, Coutelle described the Old Market as an insignificant square formed by the streets crossing it. A short time later there were well-known restaurants and shops here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Stock: Wuppertal street names . Thales Verlag, Essen-Werden 2002, ISBN 3-88908-481-8 .
- ↑ Ruth Meyer-Kahrweg : Monuments, fountains and sculptures in Wuppertal . Born-Verlag, Wuppertal 1991, ISBN 3-87093-057-8 .
Web links
- Architectural monument overview Alte Freiheit in the Wuppertal monument list
- Elberfeld district ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) by Wolfgang Mondorf
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '24.4 " N , 7 ° 8' 53.3" E