Castle Gate (Lübeck)
The castle gate in Lübeck , built in the late Gothic style , is the north of the four former city gates of the Lübeck city fortifications and, besides the Holsten Gate, the only one that is still preserved today. It takes its name from the old Lübeck castle high above the Trave , which was converted into a castle monastery in 1227 .
Building history
Today's castle gate was built in 1444 by the city architect Nicolas Peck instead of a Romanesque gate within a fortification. Terracotta giants can be found on the adjoining buildings, the stables and the customs office . The Renaissance frieze on the customs office is from the workshop of Statius von Düren . In the 19th century, the citizens of Lübeck were considering demolishing the castle gate, and the elders of the twelve bourgeois colleges wanted to create a building site there. The citizens finally rejected this proposal unanimously. An ancient building would be destroyed and that would not be sustainable. Instead, it was decided to widen the passage through the castle gate. The western passage was created in 1850, and another in 1875. In 1928 a last round was added, so that there are four rounds today.
The gate that is preserved today was the inner of what were originally three gates one behind the other. Between the outer and the middle gate, on the narrow land bridge between the rivers Wakenitz and Trave, there was a stone bridge, the Batardeau , which was popularly known as the 'bear'. Erected as a double gate in the 15th century, a third gate was added in 1622, for which the Gertrudenkapelle and the smallpox house were demolished. The strong expansion of this facility can be explained by the only land access from the north to Grosse Burgstrasse in downtown Lübeck . Only in the course of the construction work on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal was this single land access pierced, removed and replaced by the Burgtorbrücke and the neo-Gothic lift bridges below . In this context, the Marstallweg in front of the castle gate was also created as a footpath to the street An der Untertrave .
In 1806 the French entered the city through the castle gate at the Battle of Lübeck . A simple memorial plaque in the easternmost passage of the gate commemorates this and the subsequent French period in Lübeck .
On the other side of the Burgtorbrücke there are colossal statues of seated “ Lübeck Lions ” by the sculptor Fritz Behn , which thematically correspond to the reclining lions by Christian Daniel Rauch in front of the Holsten Gate . In the park behind it there is a sculptural group by Karl Geiser . Today there is a drum school with a music studio and a small event room in the Zöllnerhaus. There is an urban youth center in the stables.
When the Monument Preservation Day was held in Lübeck in 1908 , the annoying additions had been removed. Eduard Kulenkamp , chairman of the Association of Art Friends , had initiated a corresponding competition.
On one of the side towers there is a memorial plaque of Carl Hans Lody , a German spy from the First World War who was executed in London . This plaque caused divided opinions in the Lübeck citizenship, as neo-Nazis held commemorative events here. According to the decision of October 29, 2005, the board may be left hanging, but nationalist events in the vicinity are to be prevented.
In 1912, Ida Boy-Ed received lifelong right to live in the castle gate from the Senate for her services to Lübeck, which she could use until her death in 1928. Thereafter, museum director Carl Georg Heise lived in the Burgtor until his dismissal by the National Socialists in 1933. From 1934 to 1990 the castle gate (tower and customs office) was left to the hand weaving and embroidery master Alen Müller-Hellwig (1901–1993) as a place of work and residence. After her marriage to master violin maker Günther Hellwig (1903–1985), he also moved his workshop there. Alen Müller-Hellwig's last trainee, Ruth Löbe (* 1959), took over the workshop in 1992 and continued it until her death in January 2016.
Web links
- Description of the Marstall (PDF) at dev.burgtor.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Report on the construction work in Vaterstädtische Blätter dated April 1, 1928 ( digitized version ), pp. 53–55 (with ill.)
- ^ Eike Lehmann : Hanseatic City of Lübeck. World heritage in models . 1st edition. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7950-7105-9 , pp. 34-45 .
- ↑ Dr. Pabst and Dr. Oemmler: District Judge Dr. Eduard Kulenkamp †. In: Lübeckische Blätter . Vol. 57, No. 18, issue of May 2, 1915, pp. 280-282.
Coordinates: 53 ° 52 ′ 26.2 " N , 10 ° 41 ′ 28.1" E