Berlin Gate (Stettin)
The Berliner Tor , actually Brandenburg Gate ( Polish Brama Portowa - "Hafentor"), is a city gate in Szczecin . The gate, which was transformed into a magnificent baroque gate in the 18th century , belonged to the Szczecin Fortress . In the first half of the 20th century it was converted into a fountain.
description
When it was built, the magnificent gate was located outside the city as an entrance to the fortress between the Passau and the royal bastions. A baroque over- port was attached to the outside . There you can see the coat of arms with the monogram of King Friedrich Wilhelm I. The decorations refer to antiquity: trophies, weapons and lightning bolts of Jupiter, the father of gods, an allegory of victory. The following epitaph is inscribed over it:
Fridericvs Wilhelmvs • Rex Borrvssiæ • Dvcatum Stetinensem
cessvm Brandenbvrgicis Electoribvs svb Clientelæ Fide Pomeraniae
Dvcibvs redditvm • Post Fato ad Svecos delatvm • Ivstis pactis ivstoqve
pertio ad Panim vsqve emit • paravit • sibiqve restitvit • Blame • MDCCXIX
ac Portam Brandenb: fieri ivssit •
“Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, bought the Duchy of Stettin, which was transferred to the Brandenburg Elector and returned to the Dukes of Pomerania under their feudal sovereignty and which later came to Sweden through fate. In just contracts and at a just price he acquired it up to the Peene and incorporated it back into his state. In 1719 and had this Brandenburg Gate built. "
Today it stands alone at a street crossing. From 1976 to 2013 there was a shop with Polish handicrafts and art products. Since 2014 the gate has housed a chamber theater of the Szczecin Society of Art Friends and a chocolate factory. Another remaining fortress gate is the King's Gate .
history
In the Great Northern War , after the siege of Stettin , Friedrich Wilhelm I bought back parts of Western Pomerania in a contract of sale in the Peace of Stockholm in 1720 , which had fallen to the Swedes at the end of the Thirty Years' War in the Peace of Westphalia . As a reminder of the happy return of the Duchy of Stettin, he had the magnificent portal with the Latin inscription set when the fortress was rebuilt at the Brandenburg Gate. The architect was the fortress builder Gerhard Cornelius von Walrave , the stone carvings were created by the sculptor Bartolomé Damart . When the fortress was razed in 1875 , Hugo Lemcke campaigned for the preservation of the Berlin Gate.
In 1902 the town side was closed and the sculptor Reinhold Felderhoff reworked it into a fountain - also called the Felderhoff fountain after him - in neo-baroque forms. In 1932 this fountain was removed again due to the reconstruction of the traffic junction at Am Berliner Tor – Paradeplatz. In addition, according to the provincial curator Franz Balke, it was considered an unfortunate mistake in urban planning and disrupted the function of the building.
After 1945 Szczecin became Polish. Nevertheless, the gate was kept in exemplary condition by Polish restorers. This is all the more remarkable as for many expellees and German Pomeranians the gate symbolizes the structural manifestation of Pomerania and Stettin's affiliation with Prussia. On June 15, 1966, the Deutsche Bundespost issued a series of stamps on German buildings from twelve centuries , in which the Berliner Tor is also shown.
literature
- Hannelore Deya, Edwin Kuna: New historical lexicon , (Edition Vorpommern), Haff-Verlag, Grambin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942916-83-7 , p. 77.
- Otto Kunkel , Hans Bernhard Reichow : Stettin - the way it was. Photographed contemporary history Droste, 2nd edition, Droste, Düsseldorf 1975, ISBN 3-7700-0351-9 .
- Barbara Ochendowska-Grzelak: Hans Lutsch, Franz Balke and Gerhard Bronisch and their contribution to the study of Pomeranian art history , in: Bernfried Lichtnau (Ed.): Fine arts in Mecklenburg and Pomerania from 1880 to 1950. Art processes between center and periphery , Lukas Verlag , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-061-0 , pp. 67-82, here: pp. 76-77.
- Ernst Völker: Stettin - data and images on the city's history. G. Rautenberg, Leer 1986, ISBN 3-7921-0317-6 .
- Martin Wehrmann : History of the City of Szczecin. Weltbild, Augsburg 1993 (unmodified reprint of the 1911 edition of Stettin), ISBN 3-89350-119-3 . (Last major city chronicle in German)
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 29.9 ″ N , 14 ° 33 ′ 1.4 ″ E