Claus stable hand

Claus Stallknecht (born September 2, 1681 in Groß Sandbek near Kappeln , † March 3, 1734 in Altona ) was a builder in the Danish kingdom .

Biographical

Stallknecht was born into a farming family in the fishing countryside . He probably trained as a craftsman. He doesn't seem to have attended an architecture school. In March 1713 he was appointed by the High President Christian Detlev von Reventlow to rebuild the city in Altona. This second largest city in the Danish conglomerate state after Copenhagen had lost almost 300 apartments in a damaging fire in November 1711; In January 1713, during the Great Northern War , Altona was burned down and largely destroyed by the Swedish troops under General Stenbock . In 1714 Stallknecht was appointed city architect, who was allowed to work as both architect and building contractor. Since he remained unpaid in his official function - which relieved the city treasury - he was able to earn his living with the latter activity. In the same year he married the local Anna Klünder.

As a city architect in Altona

The old Altona town hall from 1721 (destroyed in 1943)

The reconstruction of Altona was based on the old town plan in order to avoid lengthy procedures for reorganizing the land and the ownership structure. As a result, on the one hand, it was possible that as many people (around 12,000) lived in the city as early as 1720 as before the "Swedish fire"; on the other hand, the opportunity was given to rearrange the partly unplanned, winding street grid leading to extremely cramped living conditions. In his town plan, however, Stallknecht gave the private landowners fixed building lines and, with Reventlow's support, determined that the houses had to be built of stone to reduce the risk of fire; these increasingly replaced the half-timbered houses .

From 1716 to 1721, according to Stallknecht's plans, the old Altona town hall on Königstraße was built in the French baroque style . Other buildings by Stallknecht in Altona are the Mennonite Church, built from 1716 to 1717, and the rectory of Sankt Joseph (1717) in Große Freiheit , the Heiliggeistkirche (1716 to 1718), the guard house on Fischmarkt (1719), the new municipal Latin school, ( 1721 to 1724, from 1738 Christianeum ), his own house in Elbstraße (1721?) And the pilotage at the newly created Holzhafen (1723 to 1725). He was also involved in the revitalization of the Palmaille into a boulevard that still exists today ( “publike avenue” in the language used at the time).

Typical of Stallknecht's style are the mansard roof , the arched gable and the protruding central projection .

Activity in Viborg

In 1726 Stallknecht followed a call to Viborg in Jutland , where he led the reconstruction of the city as in Altona. From 1728 to 1730 he built the town hall of Viborg. On November 20, 1731, he was given the title of royal Danish chamber councilor and at the same time became royal master builder for the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Oldenburg.

On March 3, 1734 Stallknecht died in his Altona house.

literature

• Renata Klée Gobert: The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Volume 11: Altona Elbe suburbs. Hamburg 1959 (C. Wegner)