Braunschweig town hall
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The town hall of Braunschweig is located on the Platz der Deutschen Einheit. The old building was built between 1894 and 1900 in the neo-Gothic style according to plans by the city councilor Ludwig Winter .
The three-storey building is located in the Braunschweig government district, directly opposite the Braunschweiger Dom am Langen Hof (today Platz der Deutschen Einheit ) and, including its extensions and extensions built between 1968 and 1971, is also adjacent to Münzstraße, Domplatz (then Wilhelmsplatz ), Dankwardstrasse and Bohlweg.
Today the town hall houses, among other things, the registry office of the city of Braunschweig and a memorial for persecuted and murdered Braunschweig Sinti . The "Ratskeller" restaurant has been located in the basement since the building was completed.
history
History of origin
The first drafts for a new "town house" were made on the initiative of the mayor at the time as early as 1880. Originally, these plans even provided for the partial demolition of Dankwarderode Castle , which had been a few meters east of the planned new building since the Middle Ages z. T. was badly affected. However, the demolition plans were abandoned due to an extensive maintenance and new building concept (also by Ludwig Winter). The New Town Hall was one of a series of new representative buildings that were erected in the city center of Braunschweig at the turn of the 20th century as part of a planned government district.
Buildings from Belgium and England as well as the Vienna City Hall served as models for the construction of the town hall . The historicist building was built in the High Gothic style and inaugurated on December 27, 1900. The costs amounted to 2.5 million marks . A representative ballroom was dispensed with because - then as now - the old town hall was used. In addition to the south-facing main facade of the building, the interiors were designed in the Gothic style and furnished in a neo-Gothic style. Ludwig Winter designed the furniture himself. The four figures above the entrance area are allegorical representations of science, art, craft and trade. There are tracery windows above the entrance and two narrow side towers next to them. Before the Second World War , the entrance area had a stepped gable. This collapsed after severe damage and was eventually removed.
After its ceremonial handover with the opening of the meeting room on December 26, 1900, the New Town Hall was the seat of the city council , magistrate and city administration .
Extension buildings
During the Second World War, the building suffered comparatively little damage - in contrast to the 90 percent destruction of the inner city area - and could therefore be used again soon after the war ended. In the mid-1950s, the attic was expanded into service rooms. On June 13, 1968, construction began on a modern extension of the town hall on Bohlweg without any historical adjustments to the old building. The topping-out ceremony took place on November 20, 1969, and the new building was officially inaugurated on March 8, 1971. There are banks and retail stores on the ground floor of the building.
In February 2009, the city administration announced that the new building should be extensively redesigned from 2010 as part of a due renovation. It was planned to demolish up to five floors, the remaining parts should get a new facade. The order for the renovation had already been placed with the Braunschweig architects Giesler. In October 2009, however, Lord Mayor Hoffmann announced the end of the renovation. The reasons given were expected tax shortfalls in the city, but above all a legal uncertainty related to the business line on the ground floor. The city had to fear excessive compensation payments for the time of the renovation. The need for renovation of the new town hall continues, however.
Architecture and interior design
The gable originally erected above the main entrance was destroyed in the Second World War and not rebuilt.
Town hall tower
At the southwest corner of the town hall is the 61 meter high five-pointed town hall tower. Since the construction costs soon exceeded the planning considerably, discussions were held in 1893/94 about not building the tower at a later date and contrary to the original plan. However, since the foundations had already been laid, it was finally built.
Its positioning means it can be seen from afar: lines of sight were created from Burgplatz to the town hall tower, but also from Münzstraße and Hagenmarkt (across Casparistraße), in whose flight it is located. He could also be seen from Schlossplatz .
The town hall tower can be climbed as an observation tower as part of guided tours .
Door handles
On the portal side of the town hall there are three large, double-leaf glass doors with two large metal door handles each, created by Siegfried Neuenhausen and Ulla Lauer (signed by Till Eulenspiegel in the mirror). The handles show buildings, scenes and people from the history of the city of Braunschweig .
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From left to right are u. a. to see:
- Door handle 1: Till Eulenspiegel , who played a few tricks on the Braunschweig residents and comes from the Braunschweiger Land , asparagus , a regional specialty and the city seal from 1231
- Door handle 2: two Braunschweig originals : Harfen-Agnes and Rechen-August as well as the Gewandhaus
- Door handle 3: Braunschweiger Mumme , a beer that was an export hit in the late Middle Ages and the "Braunschweiger photo industry" (meaning the companies Rollei and Voigtländer )
- Door handle 4: the Brunswick lion , the city's landmark, the scientist Carl Friedrich Gauß and an arm reliquary from the Guelph treasure
- Door handle 5: a monkey as an allusion to a prank by Till Eulenspiegel and the procession of the clothes seller
- Door handle 6: an owl as a further allusion to a prank by Till Eulenspiegel, the Brunswick Cathedral and the (detached) head of Henning Brabandt
literature
- Friedrich Behrends and Erhard Metz: The town hall extension. In: City Forum Braunschweig. Edgar Hartmann Verlag, Osterode 1973, pp. 44-49.
- Uwe Beitz: To decorate the city. Building history of the Brunswick Burgplatz since 1750. Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-528-08732-3 , pp. 130-138.
- Monika Lemke-Kokkelink : Ludwig Winter (1843-1930). City planning officer and architect of historicism in Braunschweig. Catalog for the exhibition on the occasion of the 150th birthday in the Braunschweiger Rathaus from October 12 to November 12, 1993. In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke. Volume 34/86, Braunschweig 1993, ISBN 3-87884-040-3 , pp. 55-66.
- Harold Hammer-Schenk and Dieter Lange: Old City - Modern Times. A photo documentation of the 19th and 20th centuries. In: Cord Meckseper (Ed.): Stadt im Wandel. State exhibition Lower Saxony 1985. Art and culture of the bourgeoisie in Lower Saxony. Hanover 1985.
- Norman-Mathias Pingel: City Hall. In: Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 188 .
Web links
- The town hall on braunschweig.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harold Hammer-Schenk and Dieter Lange: Old City - Modern Times. A photo documentation of the 19th and 20th centuries. , Hannover 1985, p. 37f
- ↑ Harold Hammer-Schenk and Dieter Lange: Old City - Modern Times. A photo documentation of the 19th and 20th centuries. , Hannover 1985, p. 43
- ↑ Braunschweiger Zeitung, October 11, 2009: "The town hall building remains as it is"
- ↑ View from the town hall tower - A city tour from a bird's eye view on the website of the city of Braunschweig
- ↑ a b The 61st history tells how Eulenspiegel hired a bread baker as a journeyman baker in Braunschweig and how he baked owls and monkeys on projekt-gutenberg.org
Altewiekrathaus | Old Town Hall | Braunschweig town hall | Hagenrathaus | New Town Hall | City Hall | Townhouse
Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 52.4 ″ N , 10 ° 31 ′ 31 ″ E