Altmarkt (Dresden)
| Old market | |
|---|---|
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 Altmarkt during the Striezelmarkt (2009) |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Dresden |
| District | Inner old town |
| Created | 13th Century |
| Newly designed | from May 31, 1953 |
| Confluent streets | Wilsdruffer Strasse , Seestrasse , Pfarrgasse, Kreuzstrasse, Schloßstrasse , Galeriestrasse |
| Buildings | Kreuzkirche , Altmarkt-Galerie , Kulturpalast |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic , public transport , car traffic |
| Technical specifications | |
| Square area | 13,000 square meters |
The Altmarkt is the oldest square in Dresden . The marketplace , which was planned when the city was founded, was first mentioned as a circulus in 1370 . In later documents it was referred to as margt in 1400 , ring in 1410 and forum in 1452 . Right next to it is the Kreuzkirche , the most important sacred building in the city for centuries. After a new market, the Neumarkt at the Frauenkirche , was created around 1550 through the first city expansion , the large, central square was named the Old Market or Altmarkt for short . Together with the Neumarkt, it is one of the most important squares in the city today. The Altmarkt is known nationwide above all as the location of the annual Striezelmarkt , one of the oldest Christmas markets in the world, which has been held since 1434.
In World War II , much of the historic buildings were destroyed at the Old Market. Only the cruciform church was reconstructed . The reconstruction of the west and east sides as well as the adjacent quarters took place in the 1950s according to the 16 principles of urban development in a "heritage building style", which is based on the baroque cityscape of Dresden. Contrary to these plans, a modernist solitary building , the Kulturpalast, was built on the north side . After the end of the GDR , the south side of the square was closed in 1990 with two buildings that were stylistically loosely adapted to the neighboring buildings. The entire flooring and the street furniture of the Altmarkt were redesigned by 2009.
The market from its beginnings to the 19th century
The approximately 1.3 hectare (approx. 130 × 100 m) large rectangular square was centrally located within the medieval city area . It was surrounded by an almost orthogonal network of streets that divided the city into residential quarters. At its north-west corner, Wilsdruffer Gasse and Elbgasse (later Schloßstraße ) from the north were the most important traffic routes . On the south and west side of the market square an artificial arm of the Kaitzbach flowed to the Elbe in an uncovered channel from Kreuzgasse until the 18th century . It was primarily used for fire-fighting purposes, later also for commercial and cleaning purposes.
A town hall in Dresden is mentioned for the first time in 1380 . It was a free-standing structure approx. 31 m long and at least 20 m wide, which stood in the northern half of the square. The building emerged from the department store of the cloth makers' guild. This department store was first mentioned in 1295.
At the turn of the 14th to the 15th century, the building was extensively expanded. a. The Gothic town hall chapel was added to the south wing of the two-aisled building in the east. There were further alterations and extensions in the course of the 15th and second half of the 16th century. From the 16th to the middle of the 18th century, the old market was also used by the electoral court for festivities and court games, whereby the town hall was increasingly perceived as a nuisance. That is why it was dismantled in 1707 after many years of resistance from the council on the initiative of Elector Friedrich August I.
The market was bordered by the houses of the bourgeoisie, who had erected buildings here on representative plots that offered space for living, sales and storage space. The timber and half-timbered buildings erected during the late Middle Ages have increasingly been replaced by pure stone buildings since the Renaissance. This also happened on the initiative of the city lord, who wanted to limit the danger of large city fires, as happened in 1491.
In the north-eastern corner of the market there had been a large wooden tubular trough since 1478, which was replaced by a stone water trough in 1653. Christoph Abraham Walther provided this with the figure of Justitia, which is why the name Justitia-Brunnen became established. The fountain was renewed in 1749 and removed in 1888.
To commemorate the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, a victory memorial was erected in 1880 in the center of the market. The monument was created by Robert Henze . It showed a statue of Germania standing on a pedestal, over four meters high . She supported herself with her left hand on a shield with the German imperial eagle, in her right hand she held the laurel-adorned imperial flag. Four allegorical figures were attached to the base of the Germania monument , representing military strength, peace, science and religion. Between the figures there were plaques with the names of Dresden citizens who fell at war.
The memorial was inaugurated on the eve of Sedan Day, September 1, 1880; it was damaged in the bombing raids in 1945 and demolished in June 1949. From 1943 there was a large extinguishing water pond around the memorial, in which numerous people sought rescue on the night of the bombing in February 1945 but died because of the unimaginable heat.
Striking buildings from the 18th to 20th centuries
Apart from the old town hall, there were never any permanent buildings on the market, with the exception of the Chaisenhaus and the Rehfeldhaus, two pavilion-like structures. The former has been on the south side of the market in front of the confluence with Schreibergasse since 1746. This is where the city's litter-bearers had their quarters; the building was demolished in 1878.
The Rehfeldhaus, named after its builder Albert Rehfeld, stood from 1926 on the north side of the market opposite the Café Central and was destroyed in 1945. It served as an office for the Dresden Tourist Office, among other things, tickets for events were sold here, and trips could also be booked here. In addition, Pfunds dairy also had business premises in the Rehfeldhaus, as in many parts of the city.
The multi-storey buildings of the Renaissance with their richly decorated gables that limit the market were partially rebuilt in the Baroque, but especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with entire plots being completely redesigned. All buildings fell victim to the air raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945 and were later demolished.
Lion pharmacy
The house at Wilsdruffer Straße 1 formed the northwest corner of the Altmarkt. According to Cornelius Gurlitt , the building in which the Löwenapotheke has been located since 1631 was one of the most remarkable and architecturally valuable buildings in Dresden. This statement referred to the building by Johann Gottfried Fehre from 1709, but applies equally to the new building by Hans Erlwein from 1914.
The privilege of the Löwen-Apotheke dates from February 3rd, 1560 and was granted by Elector August to the pharmacist Johannes Unter den Linden in view of his services and the expansion of the city. The pharmacy was initially not located on the corner of Wilsdruffer Strasse, but in a different building on the Altmarkt. In 1623 Jodokus Müller acquired the privilege and transferred it to his house on Vogelecke, which was confirmed to him on August 31, 1631; from then on he signed as: “Apotheker an der Vogelecke”, while the pharmacy was called the “Vogelapotheke” for short. The name "Vogelecke" was first mentioned in a document in 1536 and came from the bird traders who had their sales point there on the corner of "Wilsdruffergasse".
On February 24, 1707 around 7 o'clock in the evening, the old bird pharmacy was completely thrown into the ashes by a strong conflagration and then by master mason Johann Gottfried Fehre on behalf of Mrs. Anna Rosina Müller née. Skorolin, widow of the pharmacist Jodvei Müller, was rebuilt in two years. The building had five window axes towards the Altmarkt and a ten-window front towards Wilsdruffer Strasse. The main decoration of the building was the five-story corner bay. Fehre had built the whole thing as a plastered building, only the portals and windows were made of sandstone. From 1740 the name “Löwen-Apotheke” appears, at which time the building's landmark, a reclining lion by the sculptor Johann Ferdinand Feige, was also created.
In 1907 the lion pharmacist Ottomar von Mayenburg began developing Chlorodont toothpaste in his Leo laboratory in the attic of the house . The structural condition of the building and the traffic situation at the intersection of the main road axes in Dresden made a new building necessary at the beginning of the 20th century. Against the resistance of parts of the population, a new building project was implemented by Hans Erlwein in 1913/14, with which it was possible to widen Wilsdruffer Straße by almost 7 m without giving up the prominent corner situation. To this end, Erlwein realized an arcade with four arches for Dresden for the first time, which had a clear width of 2.85 m. This variant was later repeated and continued on a large scale when the old market was rebuilt in the 1950s.
The new building extended over the old Löwenapotheke and the Krohne'sche Haus on the Altmarkt, so that the Löwenapotheke was directly connected to the Old Town Hall from 1914 to 1945 . The number of window axes to the Altmarkt had grown to seven, to Wilsdruffer Strasse it remained at ten, of which Erlwein grouped three each and provided them with a decorative gable . The window to the bay window, which was decorated with sculptural decoration by Georg Wrba , was excluded from the grouping, but also crowned by an ornamental gable. The bay window itself was much heavier than the previous building, which Löffler viewed as a misunderstanding of the Dresden tradition.
Old Town Hall
After the city's first town hall, which stood on the market on the north side, was forced to be demolished in 1707 , the council sought to acquire a suitable house on the Altmarkt. With the approval of the elector, the Count's Taubische Haus on the corner of Scheffelgasse was bought in 1709. In 1740 the house was so bad that a new building was necessary. The designs for the new town hall were provided by Dresden's chief architect Johann Christoph Knöffel .
The realization of Knöffel's designs was carried out by council builder Johann Gottfried Fehre in the years 1741 to 1745. A house with a 13-axis front to the Altmarkt was built, above the plaster-clad basement there were two upper floors combined with pilaster strips and a mezzanine separated by a cornice Stitch arches. Side there were two dreifenstrige risalits . These were crowned with cartouches in which “Soli Deo Gloria” (Only to the glory of God) or “Salus publica suprema Lex” (The good of the people, supreme law) could be read in gold letters. A hipped roof with a ridge turret and a clock rose above it .
In front of the windows on the first floor of the two risalites were balconies with wrought-iron gilded bars. Stucco reliefs with medallion portraits of Elector Friedrich August II and his wife Maria Josepha, created by court sculptor Johann Benjamin Thomae, were located above the respective central window .
With the development of Dresden into a large city, the town hall could no longer meet the growing demands of the administration. That is why the city built the New Town Hall on the Ring between 1905 and 1910 . Since then, the building on the Altmarkt has been known as the “ Old Town Hall ”. In the following period the building was the seat of the main administration of the city tram to Dresden , from 1930 of the Dresdner Straßenbahn AG.
Bank "Günther & Rudolph"
Opposite the town hall, on Scheffelstrasse, was the "Günther & Rudolph" bank from 1900. Originally there were two buildings with the house numbers Altmarkt 26 (from 1888 Altmarkt 16) and Scheffelgasse 1 (from 1872 Scheffelstrasse). The first-mentioned house, built around 1620, is described by Gurlitt as a four-storey building with one of the most graceful Renaissance gables in the city, which was almost completely preserved in its old form until it was demolished. At Löffler you can find visualizations from the 1950s, which show this house with the label "Cantade domino". The house on Scheffelgasse was built around 1715. In the second half of the 19th century, both buildings were owned by Casper Trepp and, in addition to apartments and numerous shops, also housed the office of the tobacco and cigarette factory "Kosmos", which was registered in the Dresden commercial register in 1886 .
In 1892 the councilor Franz Günther bought the property. He had the old buildings torn down in 1899 and replaced by a representative new building by the architect Gustav Adolph Rumpel , which extended over both properties. Since the new house had entrances from both the Altmarkt and Scheffelgasse, it was listed in the address book under Altmarkt 16 and Scheffelstraße 1. As owners from 1900, in addition to Günther, the gentlemen Henri and Charles W. Palmié, who were both consul and vice-consul of Great Britain in the Kingdom of Saxony. The new house therefore also housed the consulate of Great Britain and also a branch of the “Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt” . The latter is the main user of this building from 1918 until it was destroyed in 1945, and from 1930 the Latvian consulate can also be found here.
Golden Ring / Hotel de l'Europe
One of the oldest inns in Dresden was located between Scheffelstrasse and Webergasse. Until 1887 this building was numbered Altmarkt 25, from 1888 Altmarkt 15. Elector August had declared it a hereditary inn in 1556. From the 16th to the 18th century, the inn was called "Golden Ring" and was one of the most distinguished inns in Dresden until the time of August the Strong. As a result, the "Golden Ring" repeatedly housed famous personalities. Often foreign embassies came here, for example the Muscovite embassy on May 21, 1600 , 40 people strong on their way back from the imperial court. The most famous guest in the “Golden Ring” was Tsar Peter the Great , who made a stopover in Dresden in 1711 on both the arrival and departure to and from Karlsbad , where he was taking a cure.
From 1737 the building was only used as a tenement house; for a long time it was the apartment of the senior consistorial president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. Between 1840 and 1872 the house was again operated as an inn, now under the name Hotel de l'Europe. From around 1890 to 1945 the house was owned by Hartwig & Vogel , who also had business premises there. The best-known tenant was the Berlin publisher Rudolf Mosse for many years .
Arnoldische Verlagbuchhandlung
In the house next to the Hotel de l'Europe on the corner of the Altmarkt to Webergasse - until 1887 it was number 39 Webergasse, then 2 - the famous Arnold'sche, also Arnoldische Verlagbuchhandlung, was located from 1803 until it was destroyed in 1945. Founded by the publisher, bookseller and later city politician Johann Christoph Arnold , it quickly developed into a well-known and economically successful company. After Arnold's death, his godchild Robert Reimann and the former apprentice Julius Leubner continued the business, who changed their names to Robert Reimann-Arnold and Julius Arnold respectively. Julius Arnold sold the bookstore to Hugo Siegismund Colditz in 1878, but it still bore the now famous name.
Gurlitt stated that the construction date must be around 1500 due to the window shapes. In 1659 a renovation followed, in which an oriel was added and at the end of the 18th century a second renovation by the architect Weinling followed, after which the house, which in Canaletto's pictures still had two upper floors and richly decorated decorations, then had four upper floors. The bay window, which was also raised, rested on two bearing stones designed as bears. These held heraldic shields and were carefully restored in 1901. On the front of the house on Webergasse there was a coat of arms, possibly that of the bookseller Arnold.
Café Altmarkt
At the corner of Altmarkt / Seestrasse , until 1887 Altmarkt 24, later Seestrasse 1, one of the oldest and most representative buildings in the city stood in the most sought-after location. Karl von Friesen acquired it as early as 1653 , after which the house belonged to one of the most important Saxon aristocratic families for about a century. Since the middle of the 19th century at the latest, Robert Besser's paper and map shop was located in this building, and although he was never the owner of the house, it was called the Besser house.
Just like on the corner of Altmarkt and Wilsdruffer Strasse, around 1900 the fact that the street was too narrow in view of the enormous increase in traffic led to the decision to widen Seestrasse. This was only possible by demolishing the Besser'schen house and building a new one, which the limited partnership JA Henckels from Solingen had carried out from 1912 to 1914. Erected according to the plans of the architect Alexander Hohrath, who was also responsible for the construction of the house of the Dresden merchants , a stately and ornate house was created, commensurate with the importance of the square. The building had five window axes towards the Altmarkt and six towards Seestrasse, emphasizing the vertical line and combining the second and third floors. At the angled corner to Seestrasse there was a three-story bay window with a balcony on top.
The Henckels branch, Zwillingswerk Solingen, was located on the ground floor of the house until it was destroyed. Including the utility and storage rooms, the catering operations were spread over four floors. An elegant “family coffee” awaited the guests on the first floor, on the second floor there was the large billiard room, which was converted into a dance cabaret in the 1920s. From 1938 onwards, the establishment operated under the name "Esplanade".
Café Kreutzkamm
Next to the Café Altmarkt there was only one building on the south side of the market that was not owned by the Renner department store empire before it was destroyed in 1945. It was about the house Altmarkt 23 (before 1888) resp. Altmarkt 14. The well-known Kreutzkamm confectionery has been located here since around 1880.
Jeremias Kreutzkamm founded the business in 1825, from 1850 his son Heinrich Julius continued to run the pastry shop and also opened the café, which was to become a Dresden institution. In 1867 Heinrich Julius Kreutzkamm received the title of court confectioner for his excellent pastry products. In the address book of 1875 he was first mentioned as the owner of the residential and commercial building, which u. a. was used as a carpet and oilcloth warehouse. Around 1880 he set up his pastry shop on the ground floor and lived on the second floor himself. Kreutzkamm was particularly well known for the quality of its Dresden stollen , which was also sent abroad from the end of the 19th century.
Renner department store
Before the destruction, almost the entire south side of the Altmarkt was dominated by the buildings in which the Renner department store was located. It was the largest department store in Dresden. There were a total of twelve houses, six of which pointed directly to the Altmarkt: the houses An der Kreuzkirche 17/18 (before 1888 Altmarkt 18), Altmarkt 11 (19), Altmarkt 12 (20), Schreibergasse 1, Schreibergasse 2 (18) and Altmarkt 13 (22), whereby the two houses on Schreibergasse were connected by a transition. Inside, the buildings taken over were gradually connected to one another and completely redesigned; the facades, however, remained largely unchanged, so that the south side of the Altmarkt was not characterized by a monolithic block of houses until it was destroyed, but by houses that were still perceptible as individual buildings.
The company was founded by Johann Traugott Adolph Renner. In 1854 he opened a cloth and manufacture shop on the corner of the Altmarkt and Badergasse, which later became König-Johann-Straße . When the latter was laid out from 1885 to 1888 from the Altmarkt to Pirnaischer Platz as a completely new street breakthrough, the building in which Renner ran his business also had to give way. In September 1886 he therefore moved to Altmarkt 20 (from 1888 Altmarkt 12) and opened his new shop there on the ground floor and first floor.
Of the houses facing the Altmarkt, the next business premises followed around 1895 in the house at Schreibergasse 1 and from 1900 the house at Altmarkt 11 also belonged to the Renner empire. Houses on Schreibergasse and Altmarkt 13 followed in the following ten years. However, from 1909 to 1928 Renner had to share this with the Olympia-Tonfilmtheater, which operated one of the first 500-seat cinemas in Dresden.
Marienapotheke
On the east side of the market, next to the corner house to the Kreuzkirche, was the house Altmarkt 16, from 1888 Altmarkt 10. This building was one of the oldest in the city, which existed for a very long time as it probably existed shortly after City fire of 1491 had been set up. The oldest pharmacy in the city has been located there since the first half of the 16th century. This was initially set up in 1467 on the south side of the market (presumably in Renner's house at no. 12), but was soon moved to the east side. Until the middle of the 17th century it only bore the name "Alte Apotheke", only since then has the name "Marienapotheke" become established.
The building originally had a ground floor and two upper floors and was five windows wide. The middle skylight was turned into a hexagonal turret. Almost the entire wall surface was painted, the only known case for Dresden town houses. In 1722 the house was rebuilt and the wall paintings disappeared. A bay window has also been installed on the first floor and a sixth window on the second, and the tower-like roof structure has been replaced by a large, ornate skylight.
Destruction in the Seven Years' War and later renovations meant that only the Gothic portal remained of the historical building fabric, which then disappeared during a thorough expansion and modernization of the house around 1890. As a result of this construction work, the building then had two loft floors in addition to the ground floor and four upper floors. The Marienapotheke existed in this form until it was destroyed in 1945.
Further buildings on the east side
Adjacent to the Marienapotheke there were numerous commercial buildings on the east side of the market, most of which had been owned by well-known Dresden family businesses such as Metzler or Eberstein for a long time and were repeatedly, mostly carefully, converted and modernized by them. Only after 1930 was the DeFaKa (Deutsches Familienkaufhaus GmbH) built in place of the old Eberstein house, a modern department store in reinforced concrete frame construction.
Specifically, these were the following buildings (the house numbers before 1888 in brackets):
Metzler's heirs
To the right of Grosse Frohngasse were two houses, namely Altmarkt 9 (Altmarkt 15) and Altmarkt 8 (Altmarkt 14) in the possession of the Metzler family for many decades. Since 1829 she ran a textile store in house number 9. The house itself was built in the simplest form around 1700 and was presented like this until the beginning of the 20th century. Certainly influenced by the design of other buildings at this time (such as the Eberstein house), the house was given a completely different facade between 1900 and 1910 with large window fronts and a historicizing gable structure. The department store remained in this form until it was destroyed, Metzler's heirs used the ground floor and all five upper floors as sales rooms.
The neighboring house at Altmarkt 8 housed a restaurant called “Felsner's Restoration” around 1865, from which the well-known “Bürgerbräu” inn emerged around 1900.
Eberstein / DeFaKa
The building complex of the Eberstein'schen Haus comprised the houses Große Frohngasse 1 (Altmarkt 13) and Altmarkt 7 (Altmarkt 12). The house at Große Frohngasse 1 was built around 1620. It was rebuilt in 1899/1900, the gable above the third floor was partially preserved and was repeated on the adjoining house at Altmarkt 7. This created the well-known facade of the Eberstein house, in which the Eberstein brothers sold kitchen equipment, household appliances and, as a specialty, ice boxes from the ground floor to the fourth floor.
The Eberstein era ended in 1932 and from 1934 there was a branch of a German department store chain, the German family department store (DeFaKa), which had existed in numerous German cities since the 1920s. The newly constructed building with its clear window arrangement, the unadorned facade and an overall consistent geometry was, of course, with the exception of the high hipped roof with the dormer window, part of the New Objectivity .
House Roch
Altmarkt 5 (Altmarkt 10) was known as the Roch House because the Roch family ran a drugstore here for many decades. The construction of the house, which still existed around 1900, was dated by Gurlitt to around 1600 due to its classically formed window frames and the profiled beam ceilings on the ground and first floors.
In 1910 the house was completely renovated. Under the direction of architect Alexander Hohrath, a new building was built, which contemporaries described as a rejuvenated version of its predecessor and as an example of local architecture. The ground floor was clad in granite stones and had arched windows, which were not designed as giant shop windows, as with Herzfeld or Metzler. The window openings on the three upper floors were framed with sandstone and the company name was placed on the wall between the ground floor and the first floor, as before. The roof, which was covered with red tiles, was interrupted by a mansard-like extension and three hatches above it.
Residenzcafé
At the corner of Altmarkt and König-Johann-Strasse , when the latter broke through in the years 1885 to 1888, a "towel plot" was created because of the wider street width compared to Badergasse, especially since Roch was unwilling to tear down his building together with it and build a new one to have both properties built. A three-storey building with a corner tower was therefore erected on this property, which only had a single-window front towards the Altmarkt. In this and the adjoining house (König-Johann-Strasse 2 and 2b) was the well-known "Residenzcafé" with a large terrace on the first floor facing König-Johann-Strasse.
Around 1930 there was also a major renovation and a building in the New Objectivity style was then built. The striking new building had a semi-cylinder-shaped structure with a glazed ribbon façade extending over two floors. Two cubes of different sizes indicated the roof end.
Herzfeld department store
The most striking house on the north side was the house to the right of Schössergasse. Around 1865, the Sächsische Hypotheken Versicherungs-Gesellschaft operated here at Altmarkt 7. In the following years, a large number of business premises were established in the company, including that of Hermann Herzfeld since around 1880. He then acquired the building in 1897, which had had the house number Schössergasse 2 since 1888, and fundamentally rebuilt it in 1900/1901. In the place of two baroque houses, Herzfeld had a department store with a lush Art Nouveau facade built. From this point on, people also spoke of the Herzfeld department store .
Like Renner on the south side, Herzfeld also expanded its business premises by adding neighboring houses, e.g. B. the house Altmarkt 4. And like Renner on Schreibergasse, Herzfeld moved into the houses at Galeriestrasse 3 to 5 as an extension in 1912. Deep halls are connected to the main building and allow further specialization of the departments. In contrast to Renner, the Herzfeld company did not survive the First World War and its aftermath. The building was now used as an office and commercial building and even the splendid Art Nouveau facade had to give way to a much more sober, modernist design in 1923.
Café Central
The remaining part of the northern front of the Altmarkt, between Schloßstraße and Schössergasse, was dominated by four connected houses. Before 1888 these had the house numbers Schloßstraße 33 and Altmarkt 4 to 6, then Schloßstraße 2, Altmarkt 2 and 3 and Schössergasse 1. The most famous tenant was Café Central, which in 1910 extended over the first floor of all four houses.
The bay window at Altmarkt 3 was architecturally significant, its lower part from 1670 and the upper part from 1743. At the lower end of the bay was a relief with naked boys making music and dancing in circles, which was exposed again during the renovation in 1910.
The gothic house
At the corner of Schloßstraße and Wilsdruffer Straße (house number Schloßstraße 1 until 1887, Wilsdruffer Straße 2 since 1888), until it was destroyed in 1945, there was the only private house in Dresden that still had Gothic style elements at the beginning of the 20th century. The house was built at the beginning of the 16th century and belonged to the wealthy Dresden merchant and mayor Hans Gleinig . The original access was on Schloßstraße. Gleinig had the bay window at the corner of the building decorated with three sandstone sculptures depicting the Virgin Mary , the Evangelist John and St. Christopher . A Latin inscription referred to the building owner's activities as mayor and founder, which served the community, but was removed when the house was renovated in 1901.
The house had already been rebuilt in 1861 and provided with "Gothic" decorative elements. In addition to the facades, this mainly affected the windows on the first and second floors, while the original architecture was retained on the third and fourth floors and parts of the bay window.
Old market in World War II
During the time of the Second World War, there was a large extinguishing water basin on the old market, the position and extent of which are recorded during the archaeological excavations on the occasion of the construction of the underground car park in 2007/08. This structure had profoundly disturbed large parts of the square. At the same time, two cellars of the medieval town hall had been preserved under him.
After the air raids on Dresden from February 13-14, 1945, the corpses of 6,865 people were burned on the Altmarkt, which is now a memorial plaque .
Reconstruction after the Second World War
On September 26, 1952, an old market competition was announced. It was specified that the old market should be enlarged to 20,000 m². The north side should receive a grandstand for the stand and flow demonstration. A SED house was to be built on the south side and a district council house on the north side. The jury met on November 20, 1952, with Herbert Schneider winning the main prize. Schneider received the order to submit a revised design together with Johannes Rascher. The State Office for Monument Preservation raised an objection to the Altmarkt competition and said that the height of the main cornice on the Altmarkt, also known as the "Festival Hall of the City of Dresden", was originally 18 m and should not exceed 21 m. There should be no unfavorable overlap with the towers of the city. In the revised design by Schneider and Rascher, the ridge height was 33 m; the ground plan of the old market was enlarged, but the east side retained the historical alignment. The enlargement of the ground plan of the old market was due to the fact that the boundaries of the old town in the new planning area of the much larger, central district opened up. However, this district extended from the main train station to Platz der Einheit. When planning the Altmarkt, its size was related to the size of the 26th ring (central district) and not, as originally, to the area of the historic old town (center).
At the meeting of architects to discuss the plan to rebuild Dresden in December 1953, Herbert Schneider's designs were praised with the larger scale of the old market. The reason was:
“The urban composition plan shown at the conference shows that in Dresden the distinction between the central district and the center is not justified. The center and the central district coincide. They are bounded to the south by the main train station and to the north by the Platz der Einheit. In this conception, the standard of the old market [...] must also be affirmed. "
Walter Ulbricht laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the old market on May 31, 1953. The design was based on plans by Herbert Schneider , chief architect of the city of Dresden since 1953, and Johannes Rascher :
"The designs by the architects Schneider and Rascher prove that it is possible to incorporate the historical monuments in the new buildings in such a way that the overall composition of Dresden will secure its old fame as a city of art."
In accordance with the cultural program of that time, the building was built in 1951 in accordance with the “ 16 principles of urban development ” in an architectural style that continued the “national cultural heritage”. The result was the reconstruction of the old market in 1953 in the style of socialist classicism , which historically cites the Dresden Baroque . In 1997 , Jürgen Paul described the baroque-style east side of the square and its palatially composed west side (architect Gerhard Guder ) as the most beautiful urban development in the city center. The listed buildings Haus Altmarkt , Ex-Warenhaus Centrum and Café Prag are noteworthy .
The Kreuzkirche was restored and could be consecrated again in 1955.
All other buildings have been rebuilt. On the north side of the Altmarkt, across Wilsdruffer Strasse, the Kulturpalast was built as a solitary building in 1966–1969 . It is characterized by a socialist-modernist architecture that contrasts with the (neo) baroque surroundings. The south side of the Altmarkt was a green area until the turn . In the two decades that followed, several new buildings were built, so that a closed development was created between the An der Kreuzkirche and Seestrasse , only interrupted by the refurbished Schreibergasse.
Today's development and use
The Altmarkt is located on the north-south axis Hauptbahnhof - Prager Straße - Schloßstraße - Augustusbrücke . In the north it is bounded by Wilsdruffer Strasse , the streets in the west (as an extension of Seestrasse), south and east are run as Altmarkt .
The most striking building on the Altmarkt is the 92 meter high Kreuzkirche . Due to the rebuilding of the southern green area, it shows - as before the war - only one corner to the Altmarkt.
On the south side there are buildings with shops and cafes, including the Altmarkt 10 office building built in 1999/2000 . Another house was built in 2009/2010, which has housed the only remaining Dresdner Bank branch in Germany since the merger of Dresdner Bank and Commerzbank .
The well-known Café Prague was located on Seestrasse on the west side, but it could not maintain its high status over the years and had to close in September 2007. Rebuilt into a market hall in 2012/2013, the house reopened as the market hall Café Prague in December . Further shops follow in the course of the street, after which Seestrasse ends at the northwest corner of the Altmarkt with the old building of the Centrum department store ; this moved from here to complete the sheet metal cube on the Prague street at. After that, the intecta furniture store was located in the building until 2001 . It was ultimately included in the enlargement of the Altmarkt-Galerie and has been its distinctive head building on the Altmarkt since 2011.
The Webergasse led from the Altmarkt to Antonsplatz . The shopping street built here as a pedestrian zone according to plans by Wolfgang Hänsch was demolished at the end of the 1990s. The area was overbuilt over a large area with the Altmarkt-Galerie of Deutsche EuroShop , which opened in 2002 , so that Webergasse has not been a thoroughfare since then.
The north side is determined by the Kulturpalast opposite . The building complex Altmarkt 4–6 / Wilsdruffer Strasse 15–21 is located on the east side , the corner of which is emphasized by the so-called Altmarkt house .
The Altmarkt tram stop for DVB lines 1, 2 and 4 is located on Wilsdruffer Straße . The Prager Straße stop is around 150 meters away.
For most of the year, the Altmarkt was only used as a parking lot, unless it was closed for events. After an underground car park was built under the square in 2007/2008 , it is no longer approved for parking.
In addition to individual events, the sales markets such as the Dresden Autumn Festival are particularly worthy of mention. But the most important thing is the world-famous Dresden Striezelmarkt , which takes place every year in December. Then the huge Christmas tree and the 14-meter-high pyramid stand in the middle of the old market .
The Altmarkt is also used for major urban events, such as the city festival or the Dixieland festival . In addition, sporting events such as a beach volleyball tournament take place on the square.
View from the Kreuzkirche to the Altmarkt (2006) before its redesign: use as a parking lot
Altmarkt during the construction of the underground car park, March 2008
Old market after construction of the underground car park, April 2009
West side 2009
View over the Altmarkt to the Kulturpalast , behind the Frauenkirche , which was rebuilt by 2005
Tram stop Altmarkt with a view of the Frauenkirche
View from the Frauenkirche over the re-emerging Neumarkt and Altmarkt, 2012
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Memorial plaques
On the east side at the corner of Altmarkt / Kreuzstrasse there is a memorial plaque at the location of Ludwig Tieck's former home . The bronze plaque was created by Ernst Hähnel in 1874; it measures (W × H) 60 by 120 centimeters.
At the northwest corner of the Altmarkt a bronze plaque commemorates the Dresden May uprising in 1849. It was created by Martin Hänisch . Two more memorial plaques on the subject of the May Uprising are located at Schlossstrasse 7 and on the east side of the former armory (today's Albertinum ) on Tzschirnerplatz . Also on the west side of the square at the entrance to Webergasse there is a memorial plaque for the laying of the foundation stone for the rebuilding of the market.
In 2005, a filigree, but fully accessible, small memorial to commemorate the air raids of February 13 and 14, 1945, was embedded in the cobblestone ceiling of the Altmarkt .
The two-line inscription can be found in the cast metal in the pavement joints: "After the air raids on Dresden from February 13-14, 1945, the corpses of 6,865 people were burned at this location." The memorial was erected in the course of the redesign of the Altmarkt (underground car park) restored around 2008.
The Walter Ulbricht memorial plaque - construction of the Altmarkt Dresden - course 80/20 - is located on the Altmarkt entrance to the Altmarktgalerie. The cornerstone of the Altmarkt row of houses was laid on May 31, 1953.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dresden Document Book, No. 70
- ↑ a b Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 1905, No. 1, p. 2.
- ↑ Dresden Document Book, No. 81
- ↑ Dresden Document Book, No. 11
- ↑ Hemker, Salmen; Archeology in the heart of the city, State Office for Archeology Saxony, 2009, p. 2
- ^ Dresdner Anzeiger, January 4, 1913
- ^ Dresdner Nachrichten, August 16, 1912
- ^ Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden. VEB EA Seemann Buch- und Kunstverlag, Leipzig 1987, p. 276.
- ^ Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden. VEB EA Seemann Buch- und Kunstverlag, Leipzig 1987, p. 302.
- ↑ About coachmen and conductors. Junius Verlag, Dresden 2007, p. 64.
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Issue 21 to 23, City of Dresden, Dresden 1903, p. 650.
- ^ Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden. VEB EA Seemann Buch- und Kunstverlag, Leipzig 1987, pp. 95, 278.
- ↑ Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 1892, No. 1, p. 14ff.
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Issue 21 to 23, City of Dresden, Dresden 1903, p. 661.
- ↑ Communications from the Saxon Heritage Protection Association, Volume VII, Dresden 1918, p. 82.
- ↑ A. Them: When the first coffee house opened on the Altmarkt. Saxon newspaper of September 11, 2010.
- ↑ Conditorei Kreutzkamm: Chronicle ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Address and business manual of the royal residence and capital Dresden for the year 1886, p. 580.
- ↑ kinowiki: Dresden Olympia-Theater , accessed on March 31, 2020.
- ↑ Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 1892, No. 4, p. 51 f.
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Issue 21 to 23, City of Dresden, Dresden 1903, p. 675.
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Issue 21 to 23, City of Dresden, Dresden 1903, p. 650.
- ^ A b New Objectivity in Dresden
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Issue 21 to 23, City of Dresden, Dresden 1903, p. 659.
- ^ Dresdner Nachrichten, December 11, 1910
- ↑ Dresdner Anzeiger . October 12, 1912
- ↑ Communications of the Saxon Heritage Protection Association, Volume VII, Dresden 1918, p. 80
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony - City of Dresden. C. C. Meinhold & Sons, Dresden 1903, p. 634.
- ^ Announcements of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Volume VII, Dresden 1918, p. 78.
- ↑ Hemker, Salmen: Archeology in the heart of the city. State Office for Archeology Saxony, 2009, p. 10.
- ↑ Lerm, p. 103f
- ↑ Lerm, p. 105
- ↑ Lerm, p. 107
- ↑ Lerm, p. 114
- ↑ Lerm, p. 110
- ↑ Lerm, p. 115
- ↑ Lerm, p. 108f
- ^ Paul, XXV.
- ^ Dresden 01: the only Dresdner Bank in Dresden
- ^ Art in public space . Information brochure of the state capital Dresden, December 1996.
literature
- Matthias Lerm : Farewell to old Dresden. Loss of historical building stock after 1945 . Forum Verlag, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-86151-047-2 .
- Stadtlexikon Dresden A-Z . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1995, ISBN 3-364-00300-9 .
- Jürgen Paul: Dresden - the city and its architecture . In: Gilbert Lupfer, Bernhard Sterra and Martin Wörner (eds.): Architekturführer Dresden . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-01179-3 .
- Johannes Rascher: Dresden-Altmarkt, west side . In: Deutsche Architektur Heft 3, 1954, p. 132.
- Herbert Schneider: Dresden-Altmarkt, east side . In: Deutsche Architektur Heft 2, year 1954, p. 128.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 '58.8 " N , 13 ° 44' 16.9" E