Auricher Wall

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Aurich. View by Matthäus Merian from 1632.

The Auricher Wall is the early modern city ​​fortification of the East Frisian district town of Aurich ( Aurich district , Lower Saxony ) and in its preserved parts today a local recreation and green area as well as a natural monument . The origins of the facility go back to the 15th century.

Building description

Plan of the city of Aurich around 1730. Detail from the map Tabula Frisiae Orientalis by Ehrenreich Gerhard Coldewey .

In its final stage of expansion, the city's defenses consisted of a wall and two ditches in front of it. These included both the urban area and the sovereign castle. The metropolitan area was surrounded by three walls, the Hakelwerks- (during his visit and in honor of King on April 21, 1744 George V of Hanover in Georgswall renamed), Neustädter- (also: Mill Wall ) and Nürnburgerwall were in front.

The inner trench was dug directly on the wall. In front of him lay the Zingel , which was also provided with fortifications and which in turn was protected by the outer moat. The inner ditch led into the moat at the ends of the Hakelwerk and Nürnburgerwall and the outer wall was probably connected to the castle's moat system.

There were a total of four gates with drawbridges that allowed access to the city. These were the Oster, Norder, Hakelwerk and Burgtor (also called Hadewig or Leytor because of its slate covering (see Leybucht ) ). Oster-, Norder- and Burgtor were two-story buildings secured with thick masonry. The East Frisian court court was temporarily located on the upper floor of the castle gate.

history

Aurich around 1632

The oldest defensive structure in Aurich was the castle of the chief family tom Brok . It was probably a multi-storey brick residential tower in the form of a Frisian stone house . It was almost certainly on the site of what is now the Hotel am Schloss (until 2012: Piqueurhof ).

After the Battle of the Wild Fields , Focko Ukena took over the dominion of tom Brok, with them he received Aurich and the Auricherland. He tried to consolidate his rule and had the city and castle surrounded by walls and moats. In the east he also built a bulwark , which the street name Fockenbollwerkstraße is reminiscent of to this day. From then on, his son Udo and his wife Hima Itzinga from the north lived in the stone house. Around 1430 the opponents of Focko Ukenas, who were united in the Freedom League of the Seven East Friesland under the leadership of the chief dynasty of the Cirksena, razed the castle in the struggle for supremacy in East Friesland. Today nothing is left of her. During excavations in 1986, the remains of trenches, masonry, stone paving and a layer of fire containing iron equipment and slag were found.

The Cirksena had a new castle built opposite the old castle in 1447, which they later expanded into a palace. Apart from a few changes, this castle lasted until 1852.

After the city was almost completely destroyed by fire during the Saxon feud , Count Edzard I had the city rebuilt as planned. Soon after 1529 his son Enno II surrounded the place with stronger fortifications. The defenses were further strengthened in 1644 when Hessian troops occupied East Frisia at the time of the Thirty Years' War and marched on Aurich.

For centuries the city was essentially limited to the densely populated city center, which was bordered by the three walls.

In the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the defenses increasingly lost their importance. They deteriorated more and more. During this time the magistrate had the city gates demolished. First the small Hakelwerk gate in the south probably disappeared. The Burgtor followed around 1700, the Nordertor in 1788 and the Ostertor in 1806. The pillars of the entrance gate of the former princely pleasure garden in Julianenburg already stood in the place of the old castle gate .

A. Fuchs: Floor plan of the Prince's Residence in Aurich (1740).

Carl Edzard , the last East Frisian prince from the house of Cirksena, died on May 25, 1744 . King Friedrich II of Prussia then asserted his right of succession, which was regulated in the Emden Convention . He had Aurich von Emden occupied by 500 Prussian soldiers without resistance on June 7, 1744, whereupon the country paid homage to the Prussian crown on June 23. The state capital Aurich remained the seat of the state authorities, received a war and domain chamber and became the government capital of the now Prussian province of East Friesland.

The new rulers warned the Aurich magistrate several times to repair the ramparts or to have them leveled. In addition, they should ensure that those living next to the house and garden plant the walls with linden and chestnut trees. Finally, in 1744, the city leased the grass growing on the ramparts to private individuals in four sections.

Around 1800 the ramparts were mostly almost at their old height, but were already planted with trees.

The ramparts in Aurich in 2010.

Today most of the old city moats are cased. Of the ramparts, only the Nürnburger- and the small Mühlenwall (today's name: Hoher Wall ) remained as promenades at a not quite original height.

The so-called snail hill at the castle has also been preserved from the city’s former defenses . It was once a hill in the castle fortifications. Immediately next to it is a remnant of the former moat.

The Great Mühlenwall ( Neustädter Wall ) has completely disappeared. The same goes for Georgswall, of which only a flat surface remained. On this, the city had the course of the original ramparts marked with a green area. The street names Große Mühlenwallstraße and Georgswall are reminiscent of both .

The city of Aurich had the remaining part of the wall redesigned in 2014/15. The aim of the measure was to "improve the functionality of footpaths and cycle paths, improve the experience of the moat and upgrade the Zingel area, the green area east of Von-Jhering-Straße". The city invested a total of around 1.85 million euros in this.

Web links

Commons : Auricher Wall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabriele Bosch Bach: The chain saw circling the High Wall. In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung of February 25, 2014. Accessed online on October 18, 2014.
  2. ^ Herbert Reyer: Aurich. In: Herbert Obenaus et al. (Hrsg.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 126–151, p. 126.
  3. ^ A b Heinrich Reimers : Contributions to the history of East Frisian cities . Volume I: Aurich, Emden, North. Aurich 1979, p. 88.
  4. ↑ Hinrich Schoolmann: Our dear little town - A walk through the old Aurich. Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1976, DNB 780061063 p. 52.
  5. ↑ a b Hinrich Schoolmann: Our dear little town - A walk through the old Aurich. Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1976, DNB 780061063 p. 51.
  6. ^ Heinrich Reimers : Contributions to the history of East Frisian cities . Volume I: Aurich, Emden, North. Aurich 1979, p. 88.
  7. ↑ Edel Marzinek-Späth; Martin Stromann (photos): Aurich - Das Stadtbuch . Verlag SKN, Norden 2003, ISBN 3-928327-58-5 , p. 28.
  8. ^ Heinrich Reimers : Contributions to the history of East Frisian cities . Volume I: Aurich, Emden, North. Aurich 1979, p. 14.
  9. ^ Christine Schneider-Berents: The castle in Aurich. A "new building" on a historical foundation . Retrieved on October 17, 2014. Originally published in 2002 in the General-Anzeiger .
  10. ↑ a b c Joseph König : On the story of Aurich. In: Kulturring Aurich-Stadt und Land (Hrsg.): Address book of the city of Aurich and neighboring communities . 1951 edition. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  11. ↑ East Frisian Landscape Find Chronicle 1986
  12. ^ Herbert Reyer: Aurich. In: Herbert Obenaus et al. (Hrsg.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 126–151, p. 126.
  13. ↑ Hinrich Schoolmann: Our dear little town - A walk through the old Aurich. Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1976, DNB 780061063 p. 51.
  14. ↑ a b Friedrich-Wilhelm Schäfer: The city of Aurich and its civil service in the 19th century with special consideration of the Hanoverian period (1815–1866) . (= Publications of the historical commission for Lower Saxony). Göttingen 1963, p. 13.
  15. ^ Otto Büsch: The 19th Century and Great Subjects in the History of Prussia . Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-008322-1 , p. 480.
  16. ↑ Edel Marzinek-Späth; Martin Stromann (photos): Aurich - Das Stadtbuch . Verlag SKN, Norden 2003, ISBN 3-928327-58-5 , p. 69.
  17. ^ Jörg Michel: Redesign of Georgswall and Rathauspassage Aurich in Ostfriesland. Green area with water basin, fountain field and play and exercise band. Precise spatial structure with references to the history . Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  18. ^ Edel Marzinek-Späth, Martin Stromann (photos): Aurich - Das Stadtbuch . Verlag SKN, Norden 2003, ISBN 3-928327-58-5 , p. 28.
  19. ↑ Heino Hermanns: Hoher Wall: Everything should be ready in mid-April . In: Ostfriesische Nachrichten of March 4, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  20. ↑ City of Aurich: Redesign of the Hoher Wall ( memento of the original from October 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 18, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aurich.de
  21. ↑ Daniel Noglik: Hoher Wall: The renovation is as good as finished . In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung of April 28, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.

Coordinates: 53 ° 28 ′ 13.2 "  N , 7 ° 28 ′ 43.2"  E