Old Town Hall (hall)
The old town hall of the city of Halle (Saale) was from 13./14. Century until 1945 seat of the city administration. It was located on the east side of Halle's market square on a currently undeveloped area, in front of the council courtyard, which was built in 1928/29 as the rear building of the old town hall. The old town hall was an important secular building in central Germany.
Towards the end of the Second World War , parts of the town hall were badly damaged in an American bombing raid on March 31, 1945. The town hall tower had to be demolished in April 1945 due to static instability. The remaining parts of the building were secured for later repair, but demolished in 1948. In 1950, the baroque wing adjoining the Leipziger Strasse at an obtuse angle , which had survived the war almost intact, was torn down. The reconstruction of the old town hall is being promoted by a community foundation.
History of construction and use
Origins
The exterior shape of the Old Town Hall, which has been handed down in numerous illustrations, essentially goes back to the beginning and the middle of the 16th century. However, its oldest components were made much earlier. A solid building that was preserved on two to three storeys until 1948 and later marked the southern end of the town hall, was probably built as early as the 13th century. At the northern end of the town hall complex was the chapel of the Holy Cross , which was first mentioned in 1327.
The southern massive building was probably part of a feudal self-fortification. Possibly the official residence of the prefect (Schultheißen), first mentioned in 1145, was also located here. Around the middle of the 13th century, the mayor lost his administrative powers, which from then on were transferred to the councilors' college first mentioned in 1258. This committee consisted mainly of the merchants based on the old market and initially met in a building on the east side of the town hall, which appears several times in Halle's lay judges' books, most recently in 1368, as "Old Town Hall" ("an deme alden rathuse").
Since the end of the 13th century, the term “town hall” has often been used to distinguish it from this, and it was apparently already located on the market square at that time. The council chapel , whose polygonal choir section remained largely unchanged until it was demolished in 1862, could have been built in the last third of the 13th century, perhaps only after the town fire in 1312. It was first mentioned in a document in 1327.
From 1316 onwards, the members of the “burkore” designated citizens' assembly elected a new council every year. The associated assembly area is likely to have been located between the massive building, now known as the “town hall”, and the council chapel. Possibly it was a simple wooden construction, but from the third quarter of the 15th century at the latest it was a heated room, to which the traditional name "Ratsdörntze" indicates.
Conversions and extensions
In the years 1501 and 1502, the town hall underwent extensive renovations under the direction of Halle's councilor Ulrich von Schmiedeberg . This extended from the new vaulting and structural expansion of the council chapel to the erection of an annunciation arbor in front of the also renewed outer wall on the market side in the area between the council chapel and the southern solid structure to a tower-like porch at the southern end of this new facade section. Inside, the chapel and the middle part of the building with the citizens' hall were particularly affected by renovation work.
The Holy Cross Chapel was extended on the market side by a risalit with an entrance at ground level and arched windows arranged in two zones. The new vaulting was accompanied by an extensive renovation of the chapel nave, possibly extending to the foundations. The interior of the chapel was equipped with a late Gothic star vault.
No detailed information is available on the design of the proclamation arbor in front of the central part of the building, which was also begun in 1501, since the arbor in its original form only existed until 1558. The Bürgersaal behind the arbor was also rebuilt between 1501 and 1505 and extended to the east. At the same time, on the steps leading to the town hall entrance, a porch that corresponds in terms of design to the chapel risalit, but expanded in depth to form a square tower. This portal risalit, like the chapel risalit and the outer wall of the southern massive building, which is oriented towards Grosse Märkerstraße, was provided with a stepped battlement gable with tracery-like blinds.
Between 1501 and 1524 there was a extension of the town hall to the southeast, where poor quality of rubble a building was built, replacing the one two centuries later by the Baroque wings.
In the years between 1558 and 1569, Nickel Hoffmann , who was one of the most important and productive master builders of his time, gave Halle's town hall its perfect Renaissance look. The proclamation arbor between the chapel and the portal was probably reduced in depth by half and converted into a three-storey “stone corridor”. The actual Annunciation balcony emerged from the central axis of the stone arbor colonnade. The upper end of the Renaissance loggia was formed by an originally presumably curved gable, which was later changed several times.
In 1568/69, Nickel Hoffmann expanded the portal projection into a tower building that protruded far beyond the roof . A four-sided brick attachment was inserted above the eaves and an eight-sided dome over an open lantern.
In 1701 the now dilapidated southeastern part of the town hall was demolished and replaced a year later by the three-storey baroque wing . The solid building, equipped with fourteen window axes, was crowned by a mighty hipped roof with dormers. The facade was accentuated by a slightly protruding four-axis central projection with an artistically designed portal.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the old town hall was rebuilt and repaired several times, with unsuitable changes being purposefully eliminated from 1919 in order to give the building back its dignified appearance, characterized by the late Gothic and Renaissance. In 1924 the connecting corridor at the height of the first floor between the town hall and the neighboring Ratswaage was renewed and crowned with a gable roof. In 1928/29, the city administration built the large council courtyard behind the old town hall to expand the space available : a five-storey building that was decorated with five larger-than-life allegorical bronze sculptures, among other things.
In the years before the Second World War, extensive structural upgrading measures were carried out on the old town hall and the neighboring Ratswaage, both buildings were completely overhauled: from securing the basement to renewing the facades and designing the interior. "Our venerable town hall rises like a phoenix from the ashes, which is hardly recognizable outside and inside". The planned new Ratskeller could no longer be realized due to the outbreak of war. The town hall contained a magnificent citizens' hall, the representative office of the mayor, a magistrate's meeting room, the "Gothic room" as a wedding room in the historic council chapel and a beautiful staircase. In the rooms, among other things, were exhibited: The silver Hallor treasure, the letters of honor and the city's golden book.
Bombing and demolition
Externally, the town hall looked like this until 1945: In the northern part a three-storey, elongated building with brick stepped gables on the narrow sides in the north and south. Moved a little out of the middle on the west side is a square stair tower. At the northern end of the facade a risalit-like porch with a tracery adorned stepped gable, at the intersection of the risalit roof and main roof a roof turret. A three-storey loggia between the porch and the tower.
The town hall was badly damaged as a result of the air raid on Holy Saturday in 1945. This was followed by a debate in the city council and the public about a possible reconstruction or a new building. As an external expert, the new director of the University of Architecture and Fine Arts in Weimar, Hermann Henselmann , advocated a new building at the same location. For him, the destruction of the town hall during the war marked the end of bourgeois society - a new building should embody the departure into a "new order". Then the ruins of the town hall became the subject of a competition in 1947. With Hans Scharoun and Heinrich Tessenow were renowned architect members of the jury. Almost half of the 112 participants intended to receive at least parts of the ensemble. So did the brothers Hans and Wassili Luckhardt , who included the old town hall and the baroque wing in a new building and emerged as the winners of the competition. Ignoring the competition results, however, the town hall was demolished in 1948. As a result, the city held a second, limited competition in 1949, in which no first prize was awarded and which was also not realized. Even if the city council had decided to keep the baroque wing in December 1949, it was leveled by the city council in July 1950.
The foundations and parts of the vaulted cellar of the town hall remained underground and were archaeologically documented in 2004/05.
Art historical importance
According to the national conservative art historian Kurt Gerstenberg (1946), the old town hall of the city of Halle presented itself as a “... in stylish times into an incredibly happy organism ...” building that has grown together: “You have to walk through your rooms, in their vastness Dielen have been guests of the city on a festive occasion in order to know how unusually accurate the city architects used to work here to create a 'good' room for the city inside the town hall. It is a truly distinctive beauty that appears in the town hall, it is an expression of Central German character. "
Reconstruction efforts
Against the background of intensified reconstruction efforts in many German cities, Halle citizens founded the Kuratorium Altes Rathaus Halle (Saale) eV in 2001. It set itself the goal of anchoring the memory of the town hall in the public consciousness again. In this context, a bronze model of the old town hall by the artist Cathleen Meier was set up at the former location of the building - financed exclusively from donations. In 2006 the city of Halle (Saale) had a bronze relief designed by the Swiss artist Maya Graber in memory of the old town hall inserted in the market square. Since it was founded in 2008, the citizens' initiative for the historic town hall side of Halle (Saale) eV has been collecting donations for reconstruction. This purpose serves u. a. a large model of the old town hall made of chocolate, which has been on display in the Halloren Schokoladenfabrik AG museum since 2010 .
In 2016, the above-mentioned citizens' initiative established the Old Town Hall Foundation in Halle (Saale) . The immediate goal of this foundation is the restoration and completion of components of the baroque wing portal of the town hall, in order to then rebuild it. From this portal about half of the stones that were once built are still preserved.
literature
- Angela Dolgner , Dieter Dolgner and Erika Kunath: The historic market square of the city of Halle . Friends of the architectural and art monuments Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2001, ISBN 3931919080
- The old town hall in Halle (Saale) . Ed. Kuratorium Altes Rathaus Halle (Saale) eV Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale), 2008. ISBN 9783898124973 Therein: Andreas Rühl: On the construction and usage history of the town hall from the Middle Ages to the 19th century . Hans-Christian Riecken: The old town hall in its last century . Andreas Rühl: Fateful Years - The Destruction of the Old Town Hall from 1945 to 1950 .
- Andreas Rühl: On the building history of the old town hall . In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt / The market place of Halle: Archeology and history. Edited by Volker Herrmann, Caroline Schulz and Harald Meller. Special volume 10 of the series Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2008. ISBN 3939414255
- Volker Herrmann: Archaeological contributions to the building history of the old town hall . In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt / The market place of Halle: Archeology and history. Edited by Volker Herrmann, Caroline Schulz and Harald Meller. Special volume 10 of the series Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2008. ISBN 3939414255
Web links
- Historical pictures
- Citizens' Initiative Town Hall Side eV & Old Town Hall Foundation Halle (Saale)
- Reconstruction of the old town hall: the 20 million euro dream , April 19, 2016
- Halles old town hall in the structure of the market square - computer simulation, Lengyel Toulouse Architects
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Christian Riecken: The old town hall in its last century . In: The old town hall in Halle (Saale). Ed. Kuratorium Altes Rathaus Halle (Saale) eV, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2008. ISBN 978-3-89812-497-3
- ^ Renate Kroll: Halle (Saale) . In: Fate of German Monuments in World War II. Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2, p. 326.
- ↑ See Karin Hartewig, Alf Lüdtke: Die DDR im Bild: on the use of photography in the other German state. 2004
- ↑ See Dolgner, A; Dolgner, D: The competitions for the reconstruction of the town hall in Halle in 1947 and 1949. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Monuments in space and time, 2002.
- ^ The old town hall in Halle (Saale) . Ed. Kuratorium Altes Rathaus Halle (Saale) eV, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2008, p. 5.
- ↑ Michael Falgowski: Altes Rathaus Foundation First success in the restoration of the MZ baroque portal on November 8, 2016, accessed on March 7, 2017.
Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 56.6 ″ N , 11 ° 58 ′ 16.2 ″ E