Döhrener Tower
The Döhrener Turm is a late medieval watch tower of the city of Hanover from the 14th century, which was part of the Hanoverian Landwehr .
location
Hildesheimer Straße leads past the Döhrener Tower as a four-lane arterial road from the city center of Hanover. The tower stands on a central island, on which the metro station of the same name is also located. The building has always not been in the Döhren district , but in the southern part of the city .
history
middle Ages
colored copper engraving by Julius Franz Salzenberg
The Döhrener Tower was built in 1382 south of Hanover as part of the Hanoverian Landwehr with around 17,000 wall and roof tiles. It was created with three storeys with an inside diameter of around 4 m. At about 1.3 m thick walls were loopholes admitted.
For the travel conditions at the time, the tower was half an hour away from the Hanover city wall. The important trade route leading by led to Hildesheim . South of the tower, the Little Free Area began as part of the Big Free .
Like the other waiting towers and waiting houses of the Landwehr system, this building has also served several purposes since the Middle Ages. For a long time, the tower was part of the town's military apron defense, border and customs station with a turnpike and tavern, also to ward off “stray rabble” and a post to monitor wood theft from the Eilenriede .
Attack on Hanover and heroic saga
In 1486, the tower crew delayed an attack by the Guelph Duke Heinrich von Wolfenbüttel on Hanover with firearms . The attackers set up stakes, burned the tower down and killed several men of the tower crew. In 1488 the tower was rebuilt on the plan of the old tower, which is attested by the inscription of a walled-in stone. The defense of the city by the tower crew led to a city legend about "Hanover's Spartans ". It is possibly also expressed in the Siebenmännerstein at the Aegidienkirche . However, it is doubtful whether there is actually a connection, as the year 1480 is mentioned on the stone.
Since the 17th century
After the Thirty Years War , the tower lost its military importance. Until around 1650 the tower was manned by a tower guard who kept an eye out. After that it only served as a customs post. At the end of the 16th century, a tavern was set up in the residential building by the tower.
Sergeant and Freemason Georg Reinecke, born in 1767, worked as a road money collector at the Döhrener Tower after his retirement in the 19th century.
Later, a forest economy developed there, which Hanoverian citizens visited on excursions, especially for Sunday excursions, after the horse-drawn tram ran from the city to the tower
From 1888 the tower was renovated. An octagonal half-timbered floor with a pointed roof was placed on top of the three floors. A relief image of a squire with the city's coat of arms was attached to the north side . At that time there were still residential buildings and stables on the tower, which were demolished around 1930. From 1890 the tram line from Hanover to Laatzen passed the tower . Around the turn of the century, residential developments with new streets were built near the tower. When Döhren and Wülfel were incorporated into Hanover in 1907, the boundary stones near the tower were moved further out of town.
The air raids on Hanover during World War II damaged the structure of the Döhrener Tower. Though not directly hit by bombs, there were cracks in the ceiling vaults and the roof had been covered. Because of the construction work on the residential buildings throughout Hanover after the war, damage to the tower was only poorly repaired. In 1975 the Döhrener Tower was completely restored by the city of Hanover with the help of a donation from a local woman. A fireplace room and the representative extension of the upper wooden floor were created. The donor received a long-term lease to operate the tower, such as visits by school classes, seminars and small groups. In 1982 the tower celebrated its 600th anniversary, which was merged with the opening of the passing light rail line. As a result, up to 100,000 visitors took part in the celebrations.
In 2008, the Heimatbund Lower Saxony, together with the state capital Hanover, awarded the Cord Borgentrick Prize and placed the Cord Borgentrick stone near the Döhrener Tower . The first prizewinner was (posthumously) Christel Wiedemann (1933–2008), who had been committed to maintaining the tower in the 1970s. In 2009 the tower rooms were renovated again with the renewal of the heating system as well as the electrical and sanitary facilities.
particularities
The nocturnal flight route of the water bat leads over the tower from the Eilenriede to the Maschsee . Due to the hibernation of the water bat, the Döhrener tower is only illuminated at night in the winter half-year from October 15 to March 1.
See also
literature
- Günter Porsiel : The Döhrener Tower and its environment , overall title: HeimatArchiv , Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-89702-998-9 and 3-89702-998-7.
- Hugo Thielen , Helmut Knocke : Döhrener Tower. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 148 u.ö.
- Arnold Nöldeke : Monuments of the "old" city area of Hanover, The art monuments of the province of Hanover, Vol. 1, H. 2, Part 1, Hanover , self-published by the provincial administration, Schulzes bookstore, 1932 (Neudruck Verlag Wenner, Osnabrück 1979, ISBN 3-87898 -151-1 ), pp. 63-66
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Gunter Lege : Döhrener Tower. 26 variations on an all-round stony theme , Hanover 1982
- 2nd, revised edition under the title Almuth Wiedemann (Red.): How the Döhrener Tower became a traffic island. With annotated sketches “26 variations on an all-round stony theme” , ed. from the Association of Friends of the Döhrener Tower, Berlin: Laserline, [2012]
- Gerd Weiß: Waldhausen . In: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, city of Hanover, part 1, [Bd.] 10.1 , ISBN 3-528-06203-7 , p. 135ff., As well as Südstadt , in the appendix directory of architectural monuments according to § 4 (NDSchG) (except for architectural monuments of the archaeological monument preservation), status July 1, 1985, City of Hanover , Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , p. 7ff.
- Heimatbund Niedersachsen (Ed.): " Cord-Borgentrick-Stein " for Christel Wiedemann. In: home country. Zeitschrift für Heimatkunde , Naturschutz , Kulturpflege , Hannover 2008, pp. 14-18
- Waldemar R. Röhrbein , Helmut Knocke: Döhrener Tower. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 136.
Web links
- City table of the Döhrener Tower
- Website for the Döhrener Tower
- Döhrener Turm in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas
Individual evidence
- ↑ HAZ of February 13, 2009
- ^ Wilhelm Nöldeke : The Johannis Masonic Lodge to the Black Bear in the Orient from Hanover 1774 to 1874 , Hanover: Hofbuchdruckerei Gebrüder Jänecke, 1875, p. 26; Digitized via Google books
- ↑ The Döhrener Tower can be viewed again in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from October 15, 2009
Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′ 49 " N , 9 ° 45 ′ 38.3" E