Old Redoute Aachen

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Spa life on Komphausbadstrasse in the 18th century
Old redoubt around 1805
In the foreground the Alte Redoute - in the background (three houses further) the Alte Kurhaus Aachen (postcard illustration from 1896, the picture is annotated)
From 1878 to 1901 the location of the first Suermondt Museum in the Alte Redoute

The Alte Redoute , (initially just Redoute , from 1786 to 1901 called Alte Redoute ) was a building in the Aachen Komphausbadstrasse 11. The baroque building dates back to before 1670, and was probably built after the fire in Aachen . In 1902 the old redoubt was demolished.

An inn for high demands has been located in the house since the 17th century, and from 1768 it was used for cultural purposes. The Neue Redoute , also called Altes Kurhaus Aachen , built around 1786 , was located in the immediate vicinity of the building (Komphausbadstrasse 19).

history

Since the 17th century, Komphausbadstrasse has been the center of spa and bathing life in the city of Aachen due to its close proximity to the most abundant inner-city thermal springs . Most of the buildings on Komphausbadstrasse were used as inns or spa facilities.

Until 1670, the Gasthaus Roter Löwe, owned by the Klöcker family, was located at Komphausbadstrasse 11 . After Agnes Klöcker married Jakob Bouget , the owner of the neighboring house at Komphausbadstrasse 13, both houses were run together as Maison Bouget from 1670 . This was one of the best inns in the city and hosted numerous prominent guests, in 1724 Frederick IV of Denmark , in 1742 Frederick the Great with his brother Heinrich and in 1767 the Hereditary Prince of Braunschweig . In Maison Bouget concerts and balls were held, it also served temporarily as a casino . As a ballroom, the Alte Redoute was the predecessor of the New Redoute designed by Jakob Couven .

The property of the Maison Bouget was separated and sold in 1768 as a result of the inheritance. The property at number 13 went to Georg Dubigk, who built the later famous Dubigks Grand Hotel there. The house number 11 was acquired by Leo Brammertz and after the completion of the Neue Redoute in the neighborhood from now on referred to as the Alte Redoute . From 1794 to 1858 the house was number A 429. The reading cabinet Cabinet Littéraire des Dieudonné Prosper La Ruelle (1776 Liège - around 1858 Ixelles ) was housed in the Old Redoubt from 1802 to 1804 , then in the Café Dumesnil next to the New Redoubt. The Club Aachener Casino rented the left wing from 1806 to 1846 and the rooms on the upper floor in 1823. Later owners were among others the doctor Epaminondas Koenen (1801-1858), who used the house in 1845 as the seat of the society for useful research , and Franz Anton Heusch (1773-1808). The city of Aachen became the owner of the building in 1858.

Both the Alte and the Neue Redoute should not be confused with the New Kurhaus , which opened in 1916 , which is located at the Stadtgarten , Monheimsallee 44.

architecture

The eaves-standing building was two-story with seven window axes. The first axis protruded at a ratio of 1: 1. Also emphasized was the fifth axis with the entrance, a balcony on the first floor with a wrought iron grille, around 1900 with a round arch pilaster above the window and a richly decorated roof structure with the imperial eagle , the Aachen city coat of arms. The other windows on the first floor had a crown in the form of a triangular gable. A balustrade formed the end of the gable roof on the eaves . Around 1900, in raised relief letters, stood URBAN SUERMONDT MUSEUM under the roof structure .

A representation of the old redoubt from 1805 shows a consistently baroque window design and the condition of the continuous balustrade without roof structure. In 1849, Friedrich Joseph Ark drafted a plan to convert the Alte Redoute into a casino. He wasn't executed.

use

After the completion of the New Redoute , the Old Redoute served various purposes.

Since 1821 the building has been the seat of the Club Aachener Casino . On June 16, 1821, director Liou announced the imminent opening of the 30-year-old art gallery from Vienna with 136 works of art, copies of works by old masters from Vienna, Munich and Dresden , in the Old Redoutensaal and the adjoining rooms. In 1845 the Alte Redoute was bought by the Society for the Advancement of Useful Sciences and later taken over by the city of Aachen.

Ten years later, the Aachen painter Aloys Hubert Michael Venth presented himself as a landscape painter in the small salon of the Kurhaus. Since July 1857 the permanent exhibition of the natural history museum of Willems has been located in the old redoubt as entertainment for the spa guests and education of the locals. Mineral , butterfly , amphibian and geognostic collections were presented. In 1875, the premises of the city of Aachen were used for the provincial trade school , the city ​​library of Aachen and the picture collection.

Dr. Debey actively campaigned for the establishment of a museum in the 19th century . For this purpose, Lord Mayor Ludwig von Weise left the front part of the Kurhaus to the Aachen Museum Association, founded in 1877 . The first exhibition took place on February 12, 1878. The exhibition was devoted to goldsmithing . She also presented the portraits of Emperor Napoléon and Empress Joséphine by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and Robert Lefèvre . In 1882 Barthold Suermondt gave 104 paintings from his collection to the city of Aachen and laid the foundation stone for the Städtische Suermondt-Museum , which opened on October 20, 1883 in the Alte Redoute. In November 1900 the first public reading room was set up in the museum.

In 1901 the museum moved to the Villa Cassalette on Wilhelmstrasse and in 1902 the Alte Redoute was torn down. The stucco decorations of the halls were used again in 1903 in the extension of the Neue Redoute in the two smaller upper floor halls.

Today, Heinz Tobolla's pipe fountain from 1971 stands roughly at the site of the old redoubt .

literature

  • Eduard Arens, Wilhelm Janssen: History of the Club Aachener Casino. Heinrigs, Aachen 1937.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Herrmann Loosen: From the old Aachen. Aquensia-Klette, Aachen, 1978, p. 128.
  2. ↑ Helmut A. Crous : Aachen as it was. Droste, Düsseldorf 1971, p. 57, fig. 105.
  3. ^ Rudolf Dünnwald: Aachen architecture in the 19th century. Friedrich Ark. City architect 1839–1876. Aachen Contributions to Building History and Local Art, Volume 6, Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Aachen 1974, pp. 212–213.
  4. ↑ Josef Lambertz: Aachen life in the mirror of newspaper reports. Volume 2: 1749-1943. Catalog and register. Aachen 2005
  5. ^ Holger A. Dux : Old Redoute. In: Aachen from A to Z. Aschendorff, Münster 2003
  6. ↑ Barthold Suermondt's portrait of Ludwig Knaus decorates the foyer of the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum. Fig. In AKB 28, p. 9.
  7. ^ Walter Kaemmerer, Bernhard Poll , Hans Siemons : Aachens history in data. City archive Aachen , Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-87519-214-1 , p. 235.
  8. ^ Karl Faymonville among others: The art monuments of the city of Aachen. Teilbd. III: The secular monuments and the collections of the city of Aachen. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1924, p. 807.

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 37 "  N , 6 ° 5 ′ 20.2"  E