Binger mouse tower

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Binger Mouse Tower, 2004

The Binger mouse tower is a former defense and watchtower . It is on the Mäuseturminsel in the Rhine in front of the Binger district of Bingerbrück . The mouse tower, which is 24.65 meters high and was built as a customs watchtower at the beginning of the 14th century, got its name from a legend.

history

Binger Mouse Tower, around 1900
Wahrschauer at work on the mouse tower, 1938

Ferdinand Luthmer speculates in 1907 that the name derives either from the Mautturm (Old High German muta = road toll), the Muserie (= gun) or the Middle High German mûsen (= peek, lurk).

The tower was built in the first half of the 14th century as a customs watch tower to strengthen the customs barrier system at Ehrenfels Castle , or as a signal tower to prevent ships from meeting in Binger Loch . The location in the middle of the Rhine at the point where the river turns from east-west to north is particularly suitable for this. However, the exact history of its origin is unclear. It was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War and the War of the Palatinate Succession in 1689. In 1845 it was makeshiftly repaired by the Prussian government for use as a veranda . The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Left it from 1855 to 1856 according to plans by the Cologne cathedral builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner and the architect Friedrich Albert Cremer with his direct involvement as the Prussian border mark of the royal Prussian Rhine province to the right bank of the Duchy of Nassau and the southern Grand Duchy of Hesse in the neo-Gothic Rebuilding style. From 1850 to 1974 it served as a signal tower for navigation on the Rhine. The truth show in the mouse tower regulated the ship traffic at the bottleneck called Binger Loch at the beginning of the Rheinengtal. With the widening of the fairway, this function was given up in 1973/74.

architecture

Ruppertsberg with the mouse tower, 1638

In the original state of the out was rubble purpose built executed square ascending on four floors. The walls were 1.9 and 2.8 m thick and the building was covered with a pointed roof. The corners were covered with cantilevered corner turrets, a six-sided stair tower protruded from the northeast corner, and a triangular icebreaker was in front of the east side. The windows were square with undivided walls .

The tower, which was rebuilt in 1855, consists of a ground floor and three floors, above which there is a platform that is crowned by battlements. The masonry, made of rubble, was covered with plaster. The door and window frames, cornices , balcony parapets and battlements were made of gray-yellow sandstone from Flonheim near Alzey and could be restored. For stairs, balcony carrying stones and the foot of the stair tower down Mendiger was basalt - lava stone reseated. A heraldic eagle made of Udelfanger sandstone by the sculptor Stephan from Cologne was attached to the facade, which emphasized the purpose of the tower as a national border. The northern side contained the main entrance door, which was designed by Albert Cremer based on motifs from the Xanten Cathedral.

The ground floor received a kitchen and toilet, and an equipment room was set up on the mezzanine above. A massive staircase, one end of which is walled into the surrounding wall , leads to the first floor, where an administrative room for officials with a balcony facing the Binger Loch has been set up. The truth-viewing station was set up on the second floor, and the attendant had a bedroom on the third floor. The upper floors are connected by a spiral staircase. Apart from the vaulted bedroom, all rooms had beamed ceilings, the doors and window frames were painted the color of oak and covered with amber varnish. The window panes were made of half-white glass in Carnies lead with medieval motifs. The cross vault of the bedroom formed a platform that was covered with Portland cement and protected against the weather with a second pour of cement. The rainwater was drained through sandstone spouts through the cantilevered corner turrets. The lantern of the six-sided stair tower, which still rose 26 feet with its coronation above the platform, could be illuminated by a lamp and at the same time carried the pole from which the royal banner fluttered on festive occasions.

legend

Where there is no freedom, there is no joy, from Daniel Meisner's little treasure chest, 1625

According to a legend, the Archbishop of Mainz, Hatto II , had it built in the 10th century. At that time, when there was a famine in the country, the hard-hearted bishop is said to have denied help to the poor from his filled granaries. When they continued begging, he is said to have locked her in a barn, which was then set on fire by his henchmen . He is said to have scornfully commented on the cries of the dying with the words "Do you hear the little corn mice whistle?"

At that moment, according to legend, thousands of mice came crawling from all corners and swarmed across the table and through the bishop's apartments. The mass of rodents drove the servants to flight, and Hatto is said to have taken a ship down the Rhine to the island, where he believed he was safe. But when he locked himself in there, he was eaten alive by the mice.

This etiological tale was widespread and was intended to explain the name of the tower. Josef Virgil Grohmann assigns all sagas a common, pagan basis. During the romantic era of the Rhine , the often painted building also inspired writers such as Clemens Brentano , Victor Hugo and Ferdinand Freiligrath with its gruesome legend . Since the 19th century, the legend has increasingly been attributed to Hatto I , a predecessor of Hatto II. A similar legend has its roots - albeit with reference to the city of Kruszwica  - about the Polish prince Popiel .

Events and places

The Rhine in Flames takes place annually on the 1st Saturday in July: large fireworks and boat tour on the Middle Rhine from Trechtingshausen with Reichenstein Castle , along Rheinstein Castle , Assmannshausen , Mäuseturm, ruins of Ehrenfels Castle (Hesse) , Bingen am Rhein with Klopp Castle to Rüdesheim am Rhein with the Brömserburg .

In 1974 the city of Bingen converted one of the largest marshalling yards in Germany in Bingerbrück into an area that in 2008 became the exhibition area for the State Garden Show. Today it is called Park am Mäuseturm .

The tower has been open to the general public as part of guided tours since 2016.

Monument protection

Binger Mouse Tower, 2015
The mouse tower as seen from the Rhine side after the renovation, 2015

The Binger Mäuseturm is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and registered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located on the Mouse Tower Island in the Rhine . It has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 . It is also a protected cultural asset according to the Hague Convention and marked with the blue and white trademark.

The listed mouse tower, which is owned by the Bingen Waterways and Shipping Authority, had to be closed to visitors in May 2009 due to mold growth . The repair of this internal damage and the decision, probably taken later, to also carry out an external renovation, was apparently tackled in preparation at the beginning of 2012. This work - initially an abundance of project-related investigations - was carried out in coordination and with the support of experts from the Cultural Heritage Organization / Directorate State Monument Preservation , who were part of the team with the help of their Institute for Stone Conservation, and with the support of the Technical University of Darmstadt , who investigated the climatic conditions carried out. The project, in which the experts for monument restoration and maintenance of the LBB (Landesbetrieb Liegenschafts- und Baubetreuung), Koblenz branch are involved, was completed in December 2015. As part of the work, not only was the mold removed, but a sensor-controlled heating system was also installed in order to be able to heat the walls easily and thus reduce the humidity, especially after floods. A number of damage has been repaired on the outside and a new coat of paint in creamy white and beige-yellow has been applied.

literature

  • Albert Cremer: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 1857. Booklet X / XII P. 4 (below) - 6; Pp. 503/504 (bottom) - 507/508 ; Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 1857. Atlas page 69 = sheet 54 .
  • Friedrich Gottschalck: The mouse tower . (= Sage, full text at Wikisource), from: Die Sagen und Volksmährchen der Deutschen , pp. 240–245, 1st edition, Hemmerde and Schwetschke, Halle 1814.
  • Ferdinand Luthmer: The architectural and art monuments of the Rheingau. H. Keller 1907, page 55 f. Digitized
  • Fred Otten: The legend of Bishop Hatto of Mainz and the mouse tower near Bingen. In: Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie 39 (1977) 233-250, ISSN  0044-3492 .
  • Winfried Wilhelmy (ed.): Gloss of the late Carolingians. Hatto I Archbishop of Mainz (891-913). From Reichenau to the Mouse Tower. Catalog for the special exhibition in the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum Mainz, May 17 to August 11, 2013, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2013.
  • Cornelius Will : The mouse tower near Bingen. In: Monthly for Rhenish-Westphalian historical research and antiquity. 1st year. Lintz, Trier 1875, pages 205-216 digitized
  • Martin Zeiller ; Matthäus Merian (Hrsg.): Description of the Franconian country: Bingen . From: Topographia Colonia et al. Frankfurt am Main, 1656. pp. 24-26. Full text at Wikisource.

Web links

Commons : Mouse Tower  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ferdinand Luthmer: The architectural and art monuments of the Rheingau. H. Keller, 1907, p. 55 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Cornelius Will: The mouse tower near Bingen. In: Monthly for Rhenish-Westphalian historical research and antiquity. 1st year. Lintz, Trier 1875 ( online ).
  3. ↑ The Binger Mouse Tower. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; Retrieved September 26, 2013 .
  4. ^ Albert Cremer: Development of the draft and construction report . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 1857, booklets X / XII. P. 508 ( online ).
  5. ↑ a b c d Albert Cremer: Development of the design and construction report . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 1857, booklets X / XII. P. 505 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Park at the Mouse Tower. Retrieved February 28, 2015 .
  7. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Mainz-Bingen district. Mainz 2020, p. 18 f. (PDF; 7.9 MB).
  8. ↑ Armed against wind and weather. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 24, 2015.

Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 19 ″  N , 7 ° 52 ′ 51 ″  E