Caspar Bank

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The Caspar bank at Prinzenstrasse 23 , built between 1911 and 1912 for the banker Bernhard Caspar by the architect Emil Lorenz , with the logo of Niedersächsischer Städtetag . The picture was taken shortly before the demolition in July 2014.

The Caspar Bank in Hanover was one of the few historic buildings in the city ​​center of the Lower Saxony state capital that had survived the destruction of the Second World War . The bank , which was built by the architect Emil Lorenz for the Jewish banker Bernhard Caspar in the German Empire , was completely demolished in September 2014 . The building that was last (as of August 2014) owned by VGH Versicherungen (VGH) was located at Prinzenstraße 23 in the Hanover district of Mitte .

History and description

Initials BC on shell limestone - relief with two naked boys in the style of putti with fruits
Sculptural : One of the portals with three-quarter columns , bronze door and window grilles under a putti relief
View from the Schiffgraben onto the youngest corner of the group of buildings on Georgsplatz, built around 1950 as a purely functional building

The architect Emil Lorenz had received the contract to build the Caspar bank at the beginning of the 20th century from the private banker Bernhard Caspar, after he had previously carried out his banking business in 1890 at what was then Packhofstrasse 26 and later, according to the Hanover city's address book from 1899, at Bahnhofstrasse 11 had operated.

However, after the Hannoversche Bank had given up its old building on Georgstrasse at the corner of Schillerstrasse around 1900 and moved to Georgsplatz and subsequently almost the entire "banking district" from Schillerstrasse, some of it was moved to initial development in the direction of Georgsplatz , Bernhard Caspar also let himself be moved Build his Caspar bank on a plot of land on Prinzenstrasse near Georgsplatz .

Lorenz erected the 14-axis bank building with tall rectangular windows and an axially symmetrical facade, which was clad with shell limestone on the mezzanine floor and decorated sparingly. On the outer sides of the main facade, two identical portals were created, which allow access to the side stairwells between three-quarter columns by means of pure, restrained, bronze - paneled entrance doors. Bronze-barred windows let in additional light above the portals. The entrances were crowned with semi-sculptural naked boys in the shape of putti with fruit, in between the interlaced initials BC were applied.

After Bernhard Caspar's death in 1918, the building was expanded in 1922 and again around 1950. In 1927 the building housed the Darmstädter und Nationalbank KGaA (DaNat-Bank) branch, and after 1945 the administration of the Sparkassen-Giroverband. It was used by the board of the owner VGH Versicherungen until 1995, and until recently by the Lower Saxony Association of Cities .

The planned demolition of the old more than 100 years of bank building for a then only new to rent new office building of the noted architectural historian and chairman of the monument Foundation Hanover area , Sid Auffarth :

"[...] the demolitions must be over!"

When asked about a conservation or design statute for historic building substance in the city center to be designed by the Hanoverian building department Uwe Bodemann, Uwe Zittlau from the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation said that it had to

"[...] the elected representatives have the political will to preserve the legacy ."

The house was finally demolished in September 2014. The facade decoration, including the shell limestone reliefs, was obviously not preserved.

  • Start of demolition work

  • Destroyed shell limestone relief

  • Completely demolished building

Media coverage (selection)

  • Conrad von Meding: Excavator at Schiffgraben / VGH starts demolition / The excavators at the corner of Schiffgraben / Prinzenstrasse are due to roll in May. They are tearing down the venerable Caspar bank and two post-war houses. The Hannover Insurance Group (VGH) is planning large-scale new buildings there and, according to its own information, already has prospective tenants for most of the space, In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ) of April 9, 2014, last accessed online on August 15, 2014
  • Christian Bohnenkamp: City construction site / VGH project worth millions / VGH insurance company tried unsuccessfully for years to rent the building at Prinzenstrasse 23. Now the building from 1910 is being demolished to make room for a modern new building with six floors, into which an auditing company is to move. In: Neue Presse from April 10, 2014; last accessed online on August 15, 2014
  • Conrad von Meding: Old houses in the city “Demolition has to stop” / Two historic buildings are being demolished again in the city of Hanover. In view of the destruction in the Second World War and the disappearance of many other old houses to this day, Hanover's Monument Foundation demands that this must finally come to an end in the city center. In: HAZ of September 16, 2013, last accessed online on August 15, 2014

Web links

Commons : Bankhaus Caspar (Hannover)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Barbara Neubacher (responsible for content according to § 6 MDStV ): VGH Versicherungen provide planned new buildings before in Hannover , press release of 9 April 2014, on the side vgh.de online last downloaded 15 August 2014

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Conrad von Meding: Bagger am Schiffgraben ... (see under the section media coverage )
  2. ↑ a b c Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Prinzenstrasse. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 182f.
  3. ↑ Compare Alla sökträffar för Bernd Klaus Caspar on the Swedish-language site ancestry.se , last accessed on August 15, 2014
  4. ^ Ludwig Hoerner : The building of the Hannoversche Bank, Georgstraße, corner Schillerstraße, 1859. In: Ludwig Hoerner: Hannover in early photographs. 1848-1910 . Schirmer-Mosel, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-921375-44-4 (With a contribution by Franz Rudolf Zankl ), pp. 160f.
  5. ↑ Heinz Heineberg (Ed.): Inner-city differentiation and processes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Geographical and historical aspects (= urban research. Publications of the Institute for Comparative Urban History in Münster , Series A: Representations , Vol. 25), Cologne; Vienna: Böhlau, 1987, ISBN 3-412-07786-0 , p. 318; Preview over google books
  6. ↑ Gerd Weiß, Marianne Zehnpfennig: Georgsplatz , as well as "Bankenviertel" (Rathenaustraße / Sophienstrasse / Landschaftstraße / Prinzenstraße). In: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, City of Hanover, part 1, vol. 10.1, ed. by Hans-Herbert Möller, Lower Saxony State Administration Office - publications by the Institute for Monument Preservation , Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-528-06203-7 , pp. 69-73
  7. ↑ a b Compare the documentation at Commons (see under the section Web Links )
  8. ↑ Peter Schulze : Caspar, Bernhard. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 83 f .; online through google books
  9. ^ Friedrich Stadelmann (arrangement): Hanover. The big city in the country. Hanover 1927, p. 341.
  10. ^ Friedrich Lindau : Hanover. Reconstruction and destruction. The city in dealing with its architectural identity. Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-87706-607-0 , p. 326.

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 '17.4 "  N , 9 ° 44' 37.7"  E