Old Town Hall (Berlin)
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 7.3 " N , 13 ° 24 ′ 27.5" E
The old town hall in Berlin was the medieval council and administrative center on the corner of Königstraße (since 1951 Rathausstraße ) and Spandauer Straße in the district of Mitte with the actual council building, the court arbor and the later added clock tower .
history
town hall
The location of the very first town hall since the city of Berlin was founded has not yet been clarified. The building was probably located on the oldest square in Berlin, the Molkenmarkt . Only an excavation could provide certainty. The founding of the town hall location at the intersection of Spandauer Strasse and Königstrasse dates back to around 1270.
The actual council building was a two-story building, the ground floor of which - provided with a Gothic cross vault since 1320 - was used as a cloth hall. The council meetings and gatherings of the cloth makers 'and merchants' guild took place on the upper floor .
During the great city fires of 1380, 1484 and 1581, individual parts of the building complex were badly damaged, but always rebuilt. During the expansion of the old town hall from 1692 to 1695 according to plans by Johann Arnold Nering , the exterior was given a baroque appearance, and the town hall was supplemented by a complete wing of the building on Spandauer Strasse. In addition, the building volume was increased and the roof expanded.
The foundation stone for the new building was laid on April 23, 1692 , for which a sandstone block weighing around 750 kg was hollowed out and a matching cover plate was chiseled. The hewn cuboid described here and exhibited in the Ephraim-Palais was uncovered during the preparatory work for the extension of the U5 underground line in 2010. Historical researchers and archaeologists came to the conclusion after detailed investigations that this is a "modern" foundation stone from the 17th century, which had already been found during the later complete rebuilding of the Red City Hall . In the opinion of the experts, the council members at that time should have removed the historical documents from the cave and disposed of the stone block that had subsequently become useless in the cellar of the medieval town hall described here .
At the beginning of the 19th century the town hall building became increasingly neglected. First the top and in 1819 the tower of the town hall were removed, also because it was an obstacle to the increasing traffic at the intersection. At that time, Königstrasse was considered a protocol route because the entry of the Prussian kings to the Berlin Palace passed this square. In addition, the Berliners saw the historical buildings as unfashionable and unworthy of an up-and-coming city, which meant that the court arbor had to disappear from Berlin.
The Red City Hall as a completely new building was built behind the previous building. As a result, the old town hall remained in place until construction began on the new administrative center in 1860. Only after 1865, with the beginning of the second construction phase, was the ailing old building removed down to the foundations, basement and parts of the cloth hall. The remains were secured by embedding. This procedure took place because Berlin citizens and scientists protested against the total elimination.
During the GDR era , around a third of the vaults in the floor were destroyed by a district heating line running along Rathausstrasse .
Outbuildings
Directly on the street corner - exposed from the building line - was the likewise Gothic courtyard. Law was pronounced here, there was a pillory with a Kaak relief above it (bird's head with a human face) and the so-called “poor sinner's bench”. The arbor was open on the ground floor so that the citizens could convince themselves of the jurisprudence of the councilors.
In front of the town hall, a clock tower in the Renaissance style was added in the 15th century to accommodate the town clock .
Rediscovery of building remains and discussion about preservation
During the archaeological excavations for the extension of the U5 underground line, other remains of the old town hall were rediscovered in addition to the foundation stone described above. Especially in the Cloth Hall (around 18 meters × 39 meters in size), more than half of the vaults of which have been preserved, everyday finds about life in the Middle Ages have been secured. Remnants of the court arbor and the clock tower were also exposed. The artifacts have been stored for the time being and are to be exhibited in parts in the new train station in front of the town hall ; the location and construction of the train station have been adapted to these considerations.
There were controversial discussions about the preservation of the parts . While Senate Building Director Regula Lüscher wanted to "stage" the Gothic vaults, citizens, historians and architects demanded that the court arbor be moved back to its original location and that the masonry of the Gothic yokes be restored - at least exemplary .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Horst Ulrich, Uwe Prell, Ernst Luuk: Berlin City Hall . In: Berlin Handbook. The lexicon of the federal capital . FAB-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-927551-27-9 , p. 108.
- ↑ Text on the foundation stone and the associated history taken from the explanation board in the Ephraim-Palais.
- ↑ Jan Thomsen: The GDR modernity is something again . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 26, 2011.
- ^ Ralf Schönball: Return of Berlin History . In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 8, 2010
- ↑ Welcome to Nucleus, the network for the Berlin city center! ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )