Old Town (Herford)

Old town City of Herford Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 57 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 13 ″  E
Height :	67 m above sea level NN
Incorporation :	1634
Postal code :	32052
Area code :	05221
Location of the old town in the Herford city district of Herford . The northern part is the former immunity of the imperial abbey.

The old town is one of three parts of the Herford city ​​center and belongs to the official district of Herford City . The old town is the largest of the three inner city parts, but not the oldest, the Radewig is older . The third part is the new town .

location

The old town is bordered by the Bowerre in the north and northeast, the Pöppelmannwall and Unter den Linden ramparts in the south and the Aa in the west.

The Bowerre runs from the Werre at Bergertor to the Aa in the area of ​​the Steintorwall. Except for a small piece just before the mouth, it is cased and filled in. It forms the border between the old town and the new town. The name probably goes back to the Central German word "borne", which can mean fountain, bubbling water or drinking trough.

The Herford ramparts surround the entire city center with the old town, new town and Radewig. South of the old town ramparts is the Old Town Feldmark .

history

Before the new town was founded in the first half of the 13th century, the old town was protected by extensive swamp areas of the Werre.

In 1634 the old and new towns were united.

For more on the history of the old town, see History of the City of Herford , Herford Abbey and Herford Imperial City .

Streets, squares, pedestrian zone

Pedestrian zone

The central square of the old town is the old market, which is part of the Herford pedestrian zone created in 1968, which runs from Bäckerstraße over the old market to the street “Gehrenberg” and the Brüderstraße. In the Neustadt, the pedestrian zone continues beyond Gehrenberg through Höckerstrasse, Neuer Markt and Lübberstrasse to Lübbertor.

old market

Rendezvous with VMR buses at the Alter Markt in Herford

The Old Market is the city's central downtown square. The Old Town Hall was built here in 1360 , and about a hundred years later it was supplemented by an extension and later by a porch. It was canceled in 1878.

The square is surrounded by shops, pubs and cafes, with outdoor dining on warmer days. In addition to the train station (covered bus station), it is also the city's central bus meeting point. The bus stops are on the west and south sides of the square, which interrupts the pedestrian zone. Since the city buses are currently organized according to a rendezvous concept, up to 12 buses meet on the square every half hour, making normal use almost impossible, especially for other vehicles.

The Nicolaikirche on the corner of Alter Markt and Gehrenberg burned down in 1546.

Backerstrasse

The Bäckerstrasse leads from the Alter Markt to Radewig. The name became common in the Middle Ages because of the numerous stalls of the bakers' guild . In 1291 and 1408 the name "platea pistorum" was attested for the street and in 1596 it was called "Beckerstrate". In 1638 and 1680 it was referred to as "Beckerstraße". In 1886 the street was officially given its current name by the city council.

Mönchstrasse

Mönchstrasse branches off south of Bäckerstrasse. It is named after the Herford Minorite Monastery , which was located here until the Reformation and whose buildings were partially preserved until the 19th century.

Gehrenberg

In the past, many small craftsmen as well as general and merchant shops were located in Gehrenberg. The name was taken from an old name in 1886. Since 1408 it is attested as "platea Gerrenberg". The Middle Low German word "Gehre" could refer to a wedge-shaped street, the word "Berg" to the slope between the Bowerre and the Old Market.

Linnenbauerplatz

Another square is Linnenbauerplatz, which is named after the Linnenbauer whose monument is there (see below under Monuments). Until 1972, the Mittelstädter Mühle was located on Linnenbauerplatz, the mill wheel of which was driven by the Bowerre. The history of the mill, which was also called the abbey mill, dates back to the 10th century.

Brothers Street

The name Brüderstraße recalls the brothers of the Augustinian order, whose Herford monastery stood between the Brüderstraße and the Bowerre from the 13th century until 1540. The Augustinians were instrumental in introducing the Reformation in Herford . The Latin school, whose tradition is continued today by the Friedrichs-Gymnasium , was built on the site of the Augustinian monastery . The late classical grammar school building from 1869 was demolished in 1972. The Kaufhof building, which had been vacant since 2001, was built in its place. After its renovation and partial demolition, the old town center with several shops and apartments was opened there in March 2018.

Augustinerplatz

Augustinerplatz is right in front of the Altstadt-Centrum , which opened in 2018 . The name of the square was determined in February 2018 as part of an online vote by the citizens of Herford. Like the Brüderstraße, it is reminiscent of the Augustinian monastery that was located in the area.

Klosterstrasse

The Klosterstraße is a connecting road between the Brüderstraße and the Komturstraße, which is already in the Neustadt. It was built in the early 1970s after the Friedrichs Gymnasium was demolished and the Kaufhof building was rebuilt. Before that, today's street area was part of the school yard of the grammar school. The name Klosterstrasse is also reminiscent of the Augustinian monastery.

Martinsgang

The Martinsgang connects the Brüderstraße with the Johannisstraße. In 1970 the narrow alley was turned into a street. The name probably goes back to the Martenshof , which was once here. The earlier name was therefore Märtensgang or Mertensgang. The Martinsklause restaurant was on the corner with Brüderstraße . At times it was assumed that Martin von Tours , one of the most famous saints of the Catholic Church, was the namesake. Therefore, on the facade of the Martinsklause house, there is a mural showing Martin sitting on a horse sharing his coat in order to give half of his clothing to a beggar.

Area of ​​the women's pen

Within the area of ​​the former women's monastery are the Münsterkirchplatz, the Rathausplatz, the Stephansplatz, the Elisabethstraße and the Straße Auf der Freiheit.

Münsterkirchplatz

The Münsterkirchplatz is located between the Alter Markt, Elisabethstraße, Rathausplatz and Stephansplatz. The Herford Minster stands in the center of the square. Other buildings are the Wolderus Chapel, the Kantorhaus and the Münsterkirchplatz 1 house, in which the adult education center is located. In the square are the old town fountain, the abbey soul and a city relief. For details on buildings, monuments, and fountains, see later in this article.

Town Hall Square

The town hall square is framed by the town hall, the market hall, the minster and the Sparkasse Herford. The Abbey Fountain and the Old Abbey Fountain are located on the Rathausplatz.

Stephansplatz

Stephansplatz was named in 1897 after Heinrich von Stephan , the organizer of the German postal service , after visiting the new imperial main post office in 1895. It is still there today, but was given up as a post office in 1977 and is now used by the German Employee Academy . To the east of the post office, the building of the telephone exchange office, which is still standing today, was built in the 1960s. It is currently used as a museum archive for the city of Herford. The building of the company "Weinclub" stood in its place until 1960. There is also a branch of Volksbank Bad Oeynhausen-Herford on Stephansplatz .

Stephansplatz is not a square, but an intersection where Arndtstrasse and Münsterkirchplatz merge into the street Auf der Freiheit. Berliner Straße, on the other hand, does not begin at Stephansplatz, but further east on Hämelinger Straße. There is no street sign with the name Stephansplatz. The square is only called that on the city map. The former post office building has the address Auf der Freiheit 1, the Volksbank belongs to Arndtstrasse.

Elisabethstrasse

Since 1886 the street name has been reminiscent of the Herford abbess Elisabeth von der Pfalz, for whom a bust was erected there (see below under monuments). The street leads over the area of ​​the former Abteilichen Freiheit to Bäckerstraße and connected several administrative buildings of the abbey.

In progress

The street is the connecting route from Elisabethstraße to Gehrenberg and the Mittelstädter Mühle. It formed the border between the abbey and the city. The origin of the name introduced in 1886 is not known.

On freedom

The name of the street "Auf der Freiheit" was introduced in 1886. It reminds of the freedom of justice of the Herford abbey (see also under Mausefalle).

mousetrap

The connecting path between the prince abbey and the old market in the secular part of the old town used to be popularly known as the mouse trap. Since the city did not have jurisdiction over the abbey in the Middle Ages, those persecuted in the city of Herford were able to escape through the mousetrap to the area of ​​the abbey. But they were caught there like in a mousetrap, since the abbey was surrounded by urban area. In 1886 the street was renamed Marktstrasse. However, since this name could not prevail, it was renamed Mausefalle again in 1912. In the course of time, the alley became a shopping street with through traffic. After it became a one-way street in the 1970s, only buses and delivery vehicles are allowed to drive through the street to and from the Old Market.

The border between the old town and the abbey at the intersection of Mausefalle / Elisabethstraße / Münsterkirchplatz / Am Gange, which was secured and guarded by chains in the Middle Ages, is now marked by two sandstone pillars and a memorial plaque.

Clarenstrasse

Clarenstrasse runs from the Alter Markt in a south-westerly direction. There was once a monastery there, which was inhabited for more than a hundred years by Poor Clares , from whom the street name is derived. After the Reformation in the middle of the 16th century, weavers and spinners moved into the monastery.

Race street and race gate

The Rennstraße runs from the Alter Markt to the Renntor, one of the five former Herford city gates. It is one of the oldest streets in the city and was first mentioned in writing in 1393 as Renstrate. In front of the city gate were the large and small racing fields on which knight tournaments, so-called races, were presumably held in the Middle Ages. Rennstrasse officially got its name in 1866.

A special feature of Rennstrasse is that the houses are not numbered in ascending order out of town, as is usually the case. Rather, the houses with the lower house numbers are at the racing gate and the houses with the highest house numbers are at the Old Market. The Mathilden Hospital is between the Pöppelmannwall, which was once called the Renntorwall, and the Renntormauer street . On the other side of the street, the “Unter den Linden” wall and the Renntorwallstraße flow into Rennstraße.

Lessingstrasse

Lessingstrasse was named at the beginning of the 20th century after the poet and enlightener Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , who campaigned for the tolerance of religions. Before that it was called Judengasse after the Jews who lived there. Around 1350 their fellow citizens blamed them for the outbreak of the plague and drove them out or killed them in a pogrom .

To the bleach

Between 1890 and the 1920s , a bleaching plant was operated where the Bowerre branched off from the Werre at that time . This street area was later called "Zur Bleiche". One of the five municipal day-care centers now stands on the spot where the bleaching plant was located .

building

The minster church with the cantor house

The Herford town hall

See also : Herford # buildings

Münster, town hall and market hall

The late Romanesque Herford Minster , which was built between 1220 and 1250 , is the oldest and largest church in the city on Münsterkirchplatz . On one side of the neighboring town hall square is on the site of the former abbey building, the last remains of which were demolished in 1913, the town hall , built between 1913 and 1916 , one of the last large neo-baroque buildings in Germany. On the other side is the market hall , which is used for weekly markets and events.

Wolderus Chapel

Next to the minster is the Wolderus Chapel , built in 1735 , in which the founder of the Herford monastery , Waltger or Wolderus, is said to be buried. The Greek Orthodox community of the city of Herford has been based there since 1962. On the walls hang icons made especially for the church by a Greek icon painter.

Münsterkirchplatz 1

On the east side of the Münsterkirchplatz there is a brick building that was inaugurated on July 29, 1896 and used as an agricultural and arable school as well as a secondary school. The three-storey building with two gables has a facade made of red facing bricks with ornaments, cornices and door and window frames made of white sandstone. After the agricultural school was moved to Goebenstrasse and the agricultural school was closed, the upper secondary school was founded here in 1926. During the Nazi era, it was converted into a high school for boys. In 1946 the Queen Mathilde School was temporarily housed there, with classes taking place in the mornings and afternoons. In 1954 the high school for boys was named Ravensberger Gymnasium . After his move to the new building at Lübberbruch in 1960, the house served as a vocational school for a few years.

In 1968 the building was transferred from the city to the Herford district and was the headquarters of the Friedrich List vocational school until 1976. Subsequently, the Herford Labor Court and in 1983 the adult education center moved into the building. On March 21, 1984 the building was listed as a historical monument . This year the roof, facade and windows were renovated. In 1994 the adult education center bought the building and expanded it. After the labor court moved out in 2001, the study center of the Distance University Hagen and the Federal Working Group Landsberg an der Warthe moved in . The rock academy Ostwestfalen-Lippe also moved in temporarily.

In the assembly hall of the adult education center there is a mural by Konrad Astfalck depicting Heinrich's courtship for Mathilde the saint .

Kantorhaus and history hotel

On the edge of the Münsterkirchplatz on Elisabethstraße stands the cantor's house , built in the 15th century , which is one of the oldest half-timbered houses in Westphalia . On the opposite side of the street there are other half-timbered houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, including Germany's only historical hotel. The hotel for the prince abbey was opened in 1999. It is furnished with paintings, stucco work and monument models from Herford's history. In the passage from the street to the courtyard there are seven bronze reliefs from the city's history.

More half-timbered houses

There are also several half-timbered houses on Brüderstraße, including the Remensniderhaus from 1521.

Monuments

At Linne Bauer space is a 1909 inaugurated Linne Bauer Monument of the last Herford handloom weaver, who sold his linen in the city. Up to the piping of the Bowerre he stood on a pillar of the Mittelstädter Bridge, which connected the old town with the new town. The Linnenbauer or linen weaver is comparable to the Kiepenkerl .

Elisabeth of the Palatinate

On Elisabethstraße there is a bust of Elisabeth von Herford (also Elisabeth von der Pfalz) created by the artist Wolfgang Knorr , who was abbess in Herford from 1667 to 1680.

In 1989 the abbey stele was erected between the minster church and the cantor's house, reminding of the noble Reichsstift Herford and the work of the canons .

Since 1998 the city ​​history monument of the imperial monastery town of Herford has been located in the neighboring market hall, which is supposed to represent the singular relationship between monastery and city, the condominium (since 1256).

In 2002, a city ​​model of the walled imperial city was erected on the Münsterkirchplatz near the old town's market fountain in the middle of the 17th century.

Details on the monuments can be found in the article Monuments and art in public spaces in Herford .

Fountain

In the Gehrenberg at the confluence with the Brüderstraße there is the century fountain with moving figures depicting the Herford originals Mother Green and Trumpet Oskar (by the way, a married couple) as well as the Herford showmen . Also in the Gehrenberg at the confluence with “Am Gange”, a modern fountain was set up, which is popularly known as the “Citizen Shower” because of its shape.

The old town market fountain from 1616, which formerly stood on the old market, is now on the Münsterkirchplatz. The abbey fountain and the old abbey fountain on the town hall square are intended to keep the memory of the abbey alive. Another fountain depicting a rascal is in Bäckerstraße.

Details about the wells can be found in the article Wells in Herford .

Authorities and institutions

The district court , which is responsible for Herford, Hiddenhausen , Enger and Spenge , is opposite the Sparkasse on the street “Auf der Freiheit”. It belongs to the Bielefeld Regional Court and the Hamm Higher Regional Court .

The city's tourist information and theater office are located in the building of the city library on Linnenbauerplatz .

The Haus unter den Linden civic center , also known as the HudL, is located between Renntorwallstrasse and the “Unter den Linden” wall .

There is an unemployment center at Münsterkirchplatz .

On the edge of the old town on Pöppelmannwall is one of the two Herford hospitals, the Catholic Mathilden Hospital with 211 beds (as of 2017).

The Zweckverband Volkshochschule for the Herford district is located on Münsterkirchplatz in the building that was the home of the Ravensberger Gymnasium until 1960 .

The Altstadt parking garage is on the edge of the pedestrian zone on Tribenstrasse.

The headquarters of the Sparkasse Herford is located between the Aa, Abteistraße and “Auf der Freiheit” street.

Volksbank Bad Oeynhausen-Herford has its city center branch on Stephansplatz .

There is a post office and post bank branch in Bäckerstraße.

On October 31, 2009, the last remaining Herford cinema "Capitol" on Elisabethstrasse was closed after more than 80 years of history. It was opened in 1927 as the Herford Cinema Palace (HeLiPa). After extensive renovation, the Capitol was reopened on November 11, 2010.

The Catholic-Apostolic Parish of Herford has its parish hall on Renntorwallstrasse .

The Masonic Lodge "Zur Roten Erde" , founded in 1899, has its seat in the lodge house on Faulen Steg, which was built in two phases in 1906 and 1924. Since 1972, the lodge "The Rose of Minden" of the British Freemasons in Germany has also been located there.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lena Henning: This is the name of the square in front of the old town center . In: Herford . ( nw.de [accessed on August 4, 2018]).
2. ↑ stadtfuehrung-herford.de: Renntor
3. ↑ http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~bochmann/Bildhauer/Skulpturen/Werke-im-Oefflichen/Linnenbauer.html Information on the Linnenbauerdenkmal