Old Garden (Schwerin)
The old garden is a central, representative square in Schwerin , which is framed by magnificent buildings. It is bordered on two sides by Lake Schwerin and Lake Burgsee . Both the layout of the square itself and the buildings located there and adjoining it - Schwerin Castle , theater , museum , Old Palace and State Chancellery - are listed in the list of monuments of the city of Schwerin. The history of use of the square probably begins as early as the 9th century in the vicinity of Obodritenburg Zuarin. Over time, the use of the square changed several times to its modern use for meetings and events as well as a tourist center.
Location and layout
The square is located at the southern end of Schwerin's old town on the banks of Lake Schwerin opposite the castle island, to which it is connected by the castle bridge. Its south-western boundary forms the shore of the Burgsee. The old garden is roughly in the shape of a rectangle with an area of around 200 by 100 meters. Its longitudinal axis runs in a south-west-north-east direction, parallel to the shore of Lake Schwerin. It is marked by the victory column and the entrance to the museum. The transverse axis begins at the main portal of the castle and continues on the other side of the old garden in Schloßstraße in a north-west direction. The street (east of the Werderstrasse square , west of the Graf-Schack-Allee ), which initially runs along the solidly fortified and elevated bank of the Schweriner See, cuts the square in half. The Victory Column, surrounded by a semicircle of old linden trees, is located in the southwest half on the near-natural bank of the Burgsee. There are lawns and flower beds between this and the street. The central area of the square on the other side of the street has a simple gravel surface and is bordered on two sides by green areas with smaller trees. The museum's mighty open staircase forms the north-eastern end . The theater is in the north corner of the square; the old palace and the state chancellery form the north-western boundary. In front of the Old Palace and the theater there is another street that leads to Ekhofplatz , behind which there are also parking spaces.
History of the place
It is assumed that since the 10th century at the latest, a connection to the Slavic castle Zuarin ran through the then largely swampy area, which with a dam and a bridge roughly followed the current course of the road. However, the early use of the site is neither documented by written sources nor by archaeological finds.
After the conquest of Schwerin and the founding of the city in 1160 by Heinrich the Lion , a new castle was built on the castle island as a replacement for the previous building burned by the defeated Slav prince Niklot . The outer bailey area became a castle freedom and therefore did not belong to the legal area of the city, but to the domain of the lords of the castle, i.e. H. the Count of Schwerin and later the Mecklenburg dukes .
The old garden formed the transition and border area between the old town and the castle. Towards the city it was first limited by the planks and later by the city wall. Already in the Middle Ages, the castle freedom was surrounded by a moat. The place was probably not built on at first. A Franciscan monastery had been located in the adjacent city area since 1230 . Also adjacent to the square was a knight's farm , the Ravensburg, with a residential building, garden and usable areas and farm buildings.
Under the reign of Duke Johann Albrechts (1556–1576), the construction of a garden began, but was not completed. Furthermore, a stud with a racecourse was built in the southern area. The place was henceforth called on the railway or on the railway . Up until the 17th century there were numerous buildings in and around the Old Garden: the chancellery , riding house, the house of the bailiff , a blacksmith shop and apartments for several craftsmen and servants, a syringe house and stables. In 1569 the old garden was surrounded by a moat, presumably by expanding the city moat, and the city wall in this area was probably removed. The canal , known as the Burgkanal , Burggraben or later as a pit , was navigable until the beginning of the 18th century; Due to the strong odor from discharged sewage and waste, it was backfilled until 1802.
A ballroom was built between 1693 and 1698 . Around 1750, a pleasure garden lined with an avenue of lime trees was laid out after the square had meanwhile been used as a parade ground. In 1799 the Alte Palais, a two-storey half-timbered building on the corner of Schloßstraße, was renovated. “This building emerged from several small buildings that the court had acquired.” Until 1834, the college building (today's State Chancellery) was built on the site of the monastery at the southwest end of the square. It was planned in the classical style by Georg Adolf Demmler . Its splendid side faces Schloßstraße, the gable towards the Old Garden. In 1865 the building burned down but was rebuilt. The construction of the college building initiated the transformation of the old garden into a representative space. By 1836, a theater, also according to Demmler's plans in the classical style, was built on the site of the old ballroom. The splendid gable of the building faced the Old Palace, where Grand Duke Paul Friedrich moved into his residence. In the course of the redesign of the square, it was enlarged in 1834 by filling it up towards Lake Schwerin. Semicircular rows of linden trees were planted towards the Burgsee.
Riding arena, ballroom and pleasure garden
Plan of the old garden with riding arena, ballroom and pleasure garden in 1764
View from the castle over the newly designed old garden to the theater; left the college building; on the right the construction site of the Grand Ducal Palace
Demmler's design for the magnificent gable of the theater
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Since the Grand Duke only viewed the residence in the Old Palace as an interim solution, he commissioned Demmler to plan a new Grand Ducal Palace at the northern end of the Old Garden. The first foundation piles were set in 1842 for this purpose. After the Grand Duke died in the same year, the foundations were still completed, but then construction work stopped. The construction site then stood still for over 30 years. Between 1877 and 1882, the Grand Ducal Museum was built on the existing foundations according to plans by Hermann Willebrand . The museum's open staircase in particular has shaped the northern part of the square since then.
Schwerin Castle was rebuilt and rebuilt from 1843 to 1857. The magnificent new main portal is aligned with the extended axis of Schloßstraße (Schwerin) , and thus with the Old Garden.
While the dukes had previously made their entry into the market , from the middle of the 19th century parades were mainly held in the Old Garden. In 1849 a memorial in honor of Grand Duke Paul Friedrich was erected there (from 1935 to 2011 on the castle lake side of the palace). In 1874 the Victory Column was erected at the southern end of the square and in 1876 the two horse tamers were placed on their pedestals at the castle bridge.
Paul Friedrich Monument on Schlossinsel (2007)
Victory Column
Right (southern) horse tamer at the castle bridge
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After the playhouse burned down during a performance in 1882, today's theater building was built in the neo-renaissance style from 1883 to 1886 according to plans by court architect Georg Daniel . The Hamburg City Theater (Dammtorstrasse, not preserved) and the Vienna Opera House probably served as models . With this building, the square essentially had its current shape.
From the beginning of the 20th century, but especially after the Nazis came to power , the old garden was increasingly used for propaganda mass marches. Since the Paul Friedrich memorial was a nuisance at these events, it was removed and moved to its current location. A stage was set up on the stairs of the museum. Further planned extensive renovation measures, including the demolition of the old palace and the construction of a monumental building as well as the redesign of the existing facades, were no longer carried out due to the start of the war . The occupying powers and later the SED also continued to use the space for parades and demonstrations. In particular, the May Day celebrations took place here. Renewed, well-advanced plans for redesign were not carried out again because residential construction was prioritized.
On October 23, 1989, the Old Garden was the starting point for the first Schwerin Monday demonstration . The Democratic Bloc and the City Council responded to a rally by the New Forum with a counter-event to which numerous citizens were brought up by bus and the willingness to enter into dialogue was proclaimed, but the New Forum was not granted the right to speak. The supporters of the event of the New Forum started from the square to a demonstration through the city, which was also joined by numerous participants in the counter-event and the peace prayer in the cathedral . A total of around 40,000 people took part in the Monday demonstration.
After the fall of the Wall , there was no utilization concept for the old garden. Campaign appearances, art exhibitions, fairs and trade shows took place there, car dealers presented their goods and the square was temporarily used as a large car park.
Todays use
The Old Garden, together with the Schwerin Castle and the adjacent landing stage for the White Fleet, form a tourist center in Schwerin. There are stops nearby for coaches and city tours start in the square. The old garden is still used for numerous, now mainly cultural, events. The annual palace festivals with opera productions that have been taking place in the inner courtyard of the palace since 1993 and since 1999 in the Old Garden are a magnet for visitors . In 2007 it was the scene of the official celebrations for the Day of German Unity . In 2009 the Federal Garden Show took place in the immediate vicinity . In this context, several events were held in the Old Garden, such as the BUGA construction site festivals.
The square is cut through by one of Schwerin's main arteries. However, through the construction of bypass roads and traffic calming measures, transit traffic in particular, which had led to heavy traffic from 1990 onwards, has been reduced considerably.
remodeling
In September 2010, renovation work began on the Old Garden, which should be completed in spring 2012. The measures for redesigning the square are based on the plans of the court architect Hermann Willebrand. The lower staircase at the State Museum has been dismantled and plantings from the 1970s and 1980s as well as asphalt surfaces are being removed. The square will have uniform paving, new lighting and subtle signage.
The redesign includes the relocation of the Paul Friedrich memorial to its original location in front of the museum stairs. On May 23, 2011, the statue and base were removed from the castle peninsula and the statue was initially placed on a temporary pedestal in the old garden for renovation.
During repair work, the previously white facade of the theater building was restored to its original ocher yellow color.
Work on the staircase of the State Museum (June 2011)
Paul Friedrich statue during the renovation
Mecklenburg State Theater with the original ocher-yellow facade paint
literature
- Norbert Credé, Dirk Handorf, Birgid Holz, Nils Rühberg: The old garden: history of a square in Schwerin . Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1999, ISBN 3-931185-53-2 .
Web links
- History of the Old Garden on NDR.de ( Memento from April 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of monuments of the city of Schwerin (as of June 2009)
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 17
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 11
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 21
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 22
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 43
- ↑ Credé et al. P. 50
- ^ Article by Nordmagazin , NDR television, October 24, 2009
- ↑ Horst Zänger: 170 years Mecklenburg State Theater Schwerin: From the theatrical life . BoD - Books on Demand, 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2786-8 .
- ↑ BUGA newsletter from September 2008. (PDF; 1.1 MB) Bundesgartenschau Schwerin 2009 GmbH, archived from the original on September 2, 2016 ; accessed on July 18, 2020 .
- ^ Paul Friedrich moves to Alten Garten , Schweriner Volkszeitung, May 26, 2010
- ↑ Herzog monument on the old garden back , Schweriner Volkszeitung, May 24, 2011
Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 33.4 ″ N , 11 ° 25 ′ 0.5 ″ E