Old Krahnen (Andernach)
The Alte Krahnen , sometimes also the Alte Krahn (old spelling with 'h') from Andernach is an old port crane from the 16th century. The stone building stands at today's end of the village in the direction of Bonn directly on the fortified banks of the Rhine . It is one of the most famous sights of the city and one of the few surviving industrial monuments of the Renaissance .
history
predecessor
Andernach already owned a floating crane built around 1400 (crane ship, first mentioned in 1405/06) - a square wooden stepping crane on a rectangular pontoon-like ship moored on the bank further towards the city near the Trier gate (north end of today's Kirchstrasse in the Rhine wall) . It could be moved in the port, but was in need of repair. In addition, it often proved to be insufficiently stable in the water under heavy loads.
In 1545/46 a new crane ship was built, which already in 1549 needed a crane builder from Cologne for repairs due to a faulty boom tree, after which the floating crane was able to work effectively again until 1552. In the event of major damage, however, it had to be transported to Cologne.
Already at this time the idea of a house crane was growing.
preparation
With the decree of August 15, 1554 of the Archbishop of Cologne Adolf III. of Schaumburg , the Council received "major and Direktorialstadt the Upper Archbishopric of Cologne" Andernach only because of the foundation construction in the Rhine the necessary permission of the rulers, "... to sonderem benefit and prosperity" to today as age Krahnen named house cranes , as he was then called for 6,700 guilders to the plans of the Cologne foreman Clas Meußgin ( Claas Muysgin ) at the foot of the then Geier mountain to build.
Meussgin had already visited Andernach on May 14, 1554 at the behest of Cologne's mayor Hermann Sudermann (June 1553 - June 1554) and Goswin von Lommersheim (January 1554 - January 1555) to inspect the building site and deliver the plans. Council member Johann Pergener for the entire construction period up to 1561 and Lamprecht von Merll for 1557/58 was the official “master builder at the crane” of the city and responsible for the process and financing .
construction
Construction work on the new harbor crane began as early as November 1554. At the end of 1556 the complete “shipyard” was ready as a foundation in the river; the protective dam was removed and some of the wooden mechanics such as the pedal bikes were made. During the construction work on the crane house, a construction hut was built for the craftsmen by the end of 1557. In 1557 the stone building and the entire wooden structure were completed, the “crane column” was in place, and from August 16 to November 20, 1557 the roof was covered by master Jacob Leyendecker .
The main stonemason and master mason was the member of the eighth man Hans Emel from Andernach, who also created the tracery frieze and the door frames and built the crane house with the masters Philip Huenermenger, Jacob Kastenholz and Hans von Kottenheim, along with journeymen and henchmen ("opper people").
Master Henrich von Koblenz was the leading carpenter who not only selected the highest quality wood ("... from Eyche, eyßhart, very smooth, without branches") in the forests far around Andernach as far as the Duchy of Jülich , but also with assistants to Cologne traveled to acquire the necessary knowledge about wooden construction and boom cladding from the crane builders of the four stationary stepping cranes.
business
The crane was completed in mid-1558, but was not put into operation until 1561. Presumably, filling and filling work still had to be carried out before it was commissioned (order from the city council on January 11, 1560 to “fill the cranes”).
The basal icebreaker , which was additionally attached during construction or afterwards upstream, saved the crane from being destroyed by the huge drift ice of March 1784, among other things . In 1587 a new emperor tree had to be installed, which put the harbor crane out of operation until 1590 simply because of the search for a suitable oak trunk. The original bell roof (see below) was also replaced with a conical roof . In 1600, the pedal bikes were given a lockable metal bar protection against misuse.
The crane was under the supervision of the city council until 1760, where the staff was employed: The winch men or drivers were run as "crane workers" and took care of the mechanical work in the crane, they moved the treadles and the boom. Because of the high wear and tear in the drive wheels, they were given special running shoes. The “Kranknechte”, on the other hand, were responsible for the loading and unloading business on land or in the ship; they were paid by the hour. Schröter , who was otherwise responsible for this, felt they were disadvantaged by this regulation, which led to tensions with the council.
The “crane writer” kept the crane lists with the name of the goods owner, type and scope of goods, transport destination, ship, etc. as well as the invoices for the crane fees due for the loading work and the goods excise (here mostly stone excise ). All crane workers belonged to the guild of the "Aufläder" ( Kärrner elsewhere ). For two hundred years the management of the house crane was the responsibility of a highly respected sworn crane master who was paid for by the city council.
Due to the water level and weather conditions, loading work could not be carried out every day, so that 100 to 150 loading days per year can be assumed. Particularly in the warm season from May to October, the Andernach house crane was busy loading, mainly because, comparable to the mill compulsion, there was a crane compulsion since July 27, 1558: loading business could only be carried out with the crane. Any circumvention of this rule, for example by loading and unloading elsewhere, was punished with a penalty plus the due crane fee plus goods excise.
Around 1650 after the end of the Thirty Years' War , the Geiersberg or Giersberg was renamed Krahnenberg after the now hundred-year-old Krahnen at its base, as it has been written since then . After 200 years of operation in the city, the harbor crane was leased from 1761. The leaseholder was responsible for the proper function and maintenance of the device and still needed a crane master to operate it.
In 1879 the crane was given a siding , which was removed again after it was shut down.
The Andernacher Krahnen was among about 80 cranes at 32 locations in Germany's inland waters , the largest loading device and served for 350 years until the year 1911, the loading of wine barrels from the Ahr and Mill and tuff from the Eifel.
State today
In 1909 the port was moved upstream to the east and a new crane was built there. The location of the old Krahnen away from the city, where it did not stand in the way of any modern change, is held responsible, among other things, for its preservation today. After it was shut down in 1911, the Rhine crane underwent extensive restoration by the master craftsman Lubens Mandt, who saved it from further deterioration; Photos from the beginning of the 20th century and from the 1930s for comparison show it. Its mechanics are intact to this day, but its wooden structure is no longer resilient due to the long service life and the flood damage. To keep it flood-free, the shipyard would have had to be built three meters and the surrounding area higher. The crane would then have been on a hill, which would have been very problematic in terms of loading technology.
For the 2000th anniversary of the city in 1988, the foot of the emperor tree, which had rotted from the frequent floods, was replaced with the iron pivot pin as part of a major repairs and new plastering.
On September 9, 2011, the city of Andernach celebrated the 450th anniversary of the crane with a ceremony and the special exhibition 450 years of Alter Krahn , on December 15, 2011 the booklet accompanying the exhibition was presented. During the extremely low water levels in the Rhine in November 2011, the quay wall with the crane rondel, which protruded five meters from the bank, was exposed. It was discovered that several basalt blocks with a mass of up to 400 kilograms had been loosened by the current of the Rhine over the centuries or removed from the wall association. The low water level could be used to fix the stones properly again and to secure them with lead seals in their original position so that they cannot flow.
Another comprehensive repair of the wooden inner structure and the beak (boom) took place from June to September 2014.
description
The crane's architect, Claas (Clas, Clais) Meussgin , from Cologne , carefully selected the site for the crane at Rhine kilometer 613.8 - 350 meters downstream from the city as the crow flies northwest of the round tower at the port at the time. At this point on the Rhine, the ships could more easily steer the crane down the Rhine. The heavy crane was placed on a particularly stable foundation made of oak logs , on which the approximately eight meter high cylindrical basalt foundation (so-called shipyard, bastion, rondell ) was built. For better loading of the ships, the shipyard protruded from the bank in full width and depth into the river and exceeded the crane house only a few meters in diameter - the “crane” stood on a miniature promontory, so to speak. Today the bastion protrudes only a little into the river, it is integrated into the newer port fortifications from the 19th century. The handling of the crane on the Rhine side is now provided with a railing.
Using a gallows-shaped construction crane called a spill , the stone, 6.8-meter-high crane house with one-meter-thick walls, which has an outside diameter of 10.70 meters (inside 8.70 meters) and a base ring of four protruding below, was built on the foundation Layers of basalt stones resting. In about 5 meters a circumferential sheet trefoil arches fries tuff the crane building, punctuated by four gargoyles of basalt, two crocodile heads inland, looking, two lions heads, river Windwärts looking. As a special feature, the crane house has a further, slightly protruding wall ring above the frieze that protrudes above the edge of the roof and the lower part of the slate-covered conical roof and carries a cornice or parapet about 1.5 meters high. As a result, the conical roof has no natural flow, but is surrounded by masonry, similar to a tower platform. The cornice is finished with a cantilevered, approximately 0.3 meter high leaf frieze made of tuff stone and adorned with eight tuff pilasters (four each above the gargoyles), with a head in profile in the middle, surrounded by a circular border.
Upstream of the Rhine, a pyramidal basal icebreaker with window cut-outs was added to the crane house, reaching above the window height, the cuboid structure of which was additionally reinforced with iron clamps. Access to the crane house is provided by a door on the Rhine side and a door on the city side, both on the axis.
The door on the Rhine side is rectangular with a donkey back bar as a frame, the original basalt lava brackets from the 16th century with acanthus leaf decoration for the respective tuff relief are embedded above both doors. The relief of the door on the Rhine side shows a moving Archangel Michael standing in a Renaissance frame, the patron saint of the city who holds the city coat of arms, and the partly weathered lettering "Anno 1556", an indication of the year of manufacture by Christoph Goldsmit , who also used the pilasters and gargoyles and created the foliage frieze.
The door on the city side has a keel-arch frame made of basalt lava with a donkey's back stick between covings, the base of the stick with alternately sloping coves and pearl rods. The land-side original relief relief of the same design by the same artist was lost around 1800 and was replaced by a new relief in 1894, 340 years after construction began and around 100 years after the land-side coat of arms was lost, showing the coat of arms held by two small angel figures and the dates "1554" and carries "1894".
Numerous house stonemasons can be found on the grooved basalt base stones of the third ring layer and the icebreaker . To keep the loading business going during the winter months, the architect had a chimney with a fireplace built into the one-meter-thick wall of the crane building, the upper vent of which is hidden behind the cornice.
The frustoconical lower roof structure rests on the inner edge of the upper wall behind the cornice and is supported inside the crane building on 14 vertical wooden beams with reinforcements attached to the stone inner wall. With a slope of approx. 63 °, it is significantly steeper than the conical, rotatable roof top with approx. 43 ° ( originally a bell-shaped roof, based on an illustration by Georg Hoefnagels from 1577 ). This sits on the upper end of the crane column and is carried by the boom, its support struts and other support beams from the crane column to the edge of the revolving roof. Below the boom stop, the crane column runs in a low-friction sleeve in the upper beam construction of the stone building. A dormer window is embedded in the crane roof above the jib opening, from which the lifting and lowering of the load could be observed. From there the rope lubricator also climbed to the end of the boom to grease the pulley. The top of the roof is closed with a leaden tower ball , which used to carry a weather vane until the 19th century .
The stone tower crane was driven by two oak treadwheels (4.2 meters in diameter and 1.2 meters in width) running in a bracket attached to the crane boom, the boom, running from the top half of the crane column through the rotating roof, is made of two heavy oak beams with support struts made and clad with lead sheet. The crane has a 0.6 meter thick drum between the running wheels on the corrugated boom (drive axle) with a chain (originally rope ), a simple pulley system and hook. In the past, the bottle was provided with additional special dishes (“stone tongs” or “scissors”). This device consisted of two X-shaped interconnected legs, the upper ends of which could be attached to the hook with a chain. The lower ends either ran into sharp points for lifting stone blocks ("stone scissors") or had two bolt-like, right-angled attachments for receiving the millstone hole at the lower cranked leg ends. At times, two mutually movable L-shaped "hooks" on chains with the length of a millstone were used on an inverted U-shaped double hook for mounting in the millstone hole. Several stones could also be lifted at the same time using additional crockery (iron rod with lifting eyes at the ends). The calculated standard carrying capacity is 1.35 tonnes , higher loads were only approved by the crane master after the respective merchant (goods owner) assumed liability .
The 0.64 meter thick and 10 meter high crane pillar (called "Kaiserbaum" or "Standbaum"), made from a solid oak trunk, runs in the lowered central part of the floor in a depression on a pedestal , the lower iron cone-shaped one to reduce friction Rotary tip. It is welded to a 1.10 meter long square pin made of approximately 90 kilograms of iron with two flat iron as arms similar to a trident, which was used to hold the wooden emperor tree end with the square iron in a corresponding hole and the arms on the outside of the tree. With the help of two long levers - the ends of a continuous beam ( drawbar ) firmly connected to the Kaiserbaum underneath the running wheels - the crane column can be rotated through 360 ° together with the jib arm and the upper part of the roof, while the load can be rotated by two large wooden treadles each to four winches servants (also Tretknechte, Radläufer, winch operator, called crane Treads) driven raised and lowered. For better power transmission when turning the crane roof and to prevent slipping, protruding plates are embedded in the floor of the crane along the inner wall 46 to support the crane twists.
In its early days, the crane also served as a miniature bastion during attacks on the city, as indicated by the four basalt muzzle . They used to be secured inside with metal caps. The necessary light also falls through two basalt-framed windows at right angles to the two doors. Over the centuries there were millstone stores next to the crane, which were temporarily covered with movable wooden roofs. Since the end of the 19th century, several Rhine level slats and high water marks have been attached to the outside.
Stone cranes were rare compared to wooden cranes for reasons of cost. They were often very individually designed, as the Andernach Old Krahnen shows with its friezes and gargoyles. The Koblenzer (built by Johann von Pasqualini the Younger in 1611), Bopparder (1479–1499 / new building 1502–1862), Lorcher and St. Goarer Kran (~ 1470 with typical revolving roof until approx. 1655) were octagonal, the latter as a new building since 1658 to 1869, enlarged in diameter towards the top, provided with a horizontal, roofed boom boom attached to the outside of the crane house (similar to the boom of the Harwich pedal crane).
In today's Netherlands and Belgium, cranes like the Bruges crane were widespread, in which the entire wooden crane without a house (partly with a roof) rotated on a trestle with the Kaiserbaum and treadmills ( Mechelen , Antwerp , Haarlem , Arnhem ). Kampen and Nijmegen had round stone cranes, the former with tracery frieze and round arch frieze.
The Düsseldorf Crane of 1598 the moat near the impact in the Rhine was built around, was similar to Andernacher Krahn, a surrounding Maßwerkfries (arched fries ) with cornice, to a baroque bells revolving roof along with attachments for the crane master. Around 1400 Cologne had four wooden cranes on the banks of the Rhine or on crane ships, one of which was 20 meters high. Today there are five stone cranes in German waters, but only three wooden cranes.
More pedal cranes
In Trier there is a similarly built crane , more than a hundred years older , which has had a double jib since 1778, plus another stepping crane from 1774 with a double jib called the Trier customs crane . In Würzburg there is the old crane with a double hoist, consisting of two jibs with a chain for two loads. In Marktbreit you can find the Alte Kranen or Mainkran on the Main .
Wooden stepping cranes can be found in Lüneburg ( old crane on the Ilmenau), in Stade ( old salt crane (replica)), in the Rostock port as a replica of a wooden harbor crane from the 18th century, in Saarbrücken ( Saarkran (replica)), in Bingen ( Rhine crane ) and Oestrich-Winkel ( Oestricher crane ).
Together with the last two, the Andernacher Alte Krahnen is the last stepping crane on the Rhine. The famous Danzig crane gate also belongs to the category of cranes, which due to its height was also suitable for installing ship masts, such as the rectangular mast crane made of stone, wood and rope on the Danish island of Holmen ( Copenhagen ) (see list of historic port cranes from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque ).
Inclusion in art
The old Krahnen was the subject of many engravings and drawings, especially in the late 18th and early 19th centuries . Some showed the building true to life, others made it appear higher, e.g. Some with a protruding roof without the cornice. A beautifully colored engraving Andernach - view from the north-west with the harbor and round tower by Johann Andreas Ziegler after a watercolor by the landscape painter Laurenz Janscha from 1792 shows the crane (still with the original coat of arms above the door) in great detail when loading a ship, as well as the Engraving Tower near Andernach ( Tower near Andernach ) by William Tombleson from 1834 or the color lithograph Vid Andernach ( Bei Andernach ) by Carl Johan Billmark from 1836.
In works from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the crane is not specifically addressed, but rather describes the tower near Andernach with a view of Andernach , the port of or beach near Andernach , near Andernach on the Rhine, etc.
An engraving by Johann Jakob Tanner (1807–1862), Der Krahn bey Andernach 1840 probably for the first time explicitly bears the Krahn in the title. The term Rhine cranes was also used. The name "Alter Krahn (en)" did not appear until the end of the 19th century. At the time of its construction in the middle of the 16th century it was called Hauskranen (partly with "ß") or Kranen , often written without an "h", which was added permanently in the 17th century.
The Andernacher Krahnen 1834 on river bastion from the west, Wm. Tombleson.
Andernach harbor with crane, door coat of arms still present, engraving by Joh. Ziegler after a watercolor by Lau. Janscha 1792
Andernach with Krahnen 1840, Johann Jakob Tanner (1807–1862)
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literature
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments (Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland) . 1972
- Hans-Liudger Dienel , Wolfgang Meighörner: The Tretradkran . In the series: History of Technology (publications by the Deutsches Museum ), Munich 1995 and 1997; ISBN 3-924183-33-3
- Hans Hunder: Andernach. Depictions of the history of the city . Andernach city administration 1986
- Bernd Lenz, Klaus Schäfer u. a .: Andernach. City and port on the Rhine between tradition and future . City administration Andernach 1995 ("25 years of the new harbor basin")
- Michael Matheus Medieval harbor cranes . In: Uta Lindgren (Ed.): European Technology in the Middle Ages 800-1400 , Berlin 2001 (4th edition), pp. 345-348, ISBN 3-7861-1748-9
- Michael Matheus: Harbor cranes. On the history of a medieval machine on the Rhine and its tributaries from Strasbourg to Düsseldorf . In: Trier historical research , volume 9. Verlag Trier historical research (THF), Trier 1985
- Andrea L. Matthies: Medieval Treadwheels. Artists' Views of Building Construction . In: Technology and Culture , Vol. 33, No. 3 (pp. 510-547). Johns Hopkins University Press , Baltimore 1992; ISSN 0040-165X
- Otto Saegler: Cranes made of wood and stone - old hoists . In: Back then - the magazine for history and culture . Konradin Verlag Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1997; Issue 3/97, pp. 46-50; ISSN 0011-5908
- Klaus Schäfer: 450 years old Krahnen . In: Andernacher contributions 27 , Stadtwerke Andernach, Andernach 2011; ISBN 978-3-9813109-2-4 ; ISSN 1436-9249
- Monika Stöckl: Fixed harbor cranes: Crane buildings from the 15th to 18th centuries on the Rhine, Main and Moselle ; Term paper for obtaining the academic degree of a Magister Artium. University Press, Mainz 1986
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Original: "We Adolff vonn God's grace Ertzbischoff zu Cöllen / [...] / Also for special use and flourish / a house crane / bened from our place in Andernach / on our waterway Rhine / to be built and erected / [...]"
- ↑ The "Old Krahn" is 450 years old ( Memento from December 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Klaus Schäfer: 450 years old Krahnen . In: Andernacher contributions 27 , Stadtwerke Andernach, Andernach 2011
- ↑ Lecture by Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Museum Director in Andernach, on the "Old Krahnen" on March 22, 2007 in Mayen. Archived from the original on August 3, 2012 .
- ↑ Color drawing of Andernach with "Old Krahnen" around 1800 without a door coat of arms (original title unknown)
- ↑ 450 years old Krahnen: Attempting to get closer . Booklet accompanying the special exhibition of the same name in the Andernach City Museum from September 9, 2011 - April 8, 2012 - illustrated by Doris Büma, G. Seibert, M. Samiie, Lucas Schäfer. In: Stadtmuseum Andernach (ed.): Andernacher contributions . tape 27 . Andernach City Museum, 2011, ISBN 978-3-9813109-2-4 . With color lithograph Vid Andernach by CJ Billmark
Coordinates: 50 ° 26 '36.2 " N , 7 ° 23' 30.9" E