German House (Dinkelsbühl)
The German House on the Weinmarkt in Dinkelsbühl is a half-timbered house , essentially from the 15th century with a facade from the late Renaissance 1593/94. It is the ancestral home of the Counts von Drechsel and the Barons Drechsel von und zu Unterdeufstetten. Today there is a hotel with a restaurant in the building.
history
The German House stands on the Imperial City Square between plastered houses. With its artistic carving it is one of the most important town houses of the German Renaissance and sets it apart from other Dinkelsbühler residential buildings.
The house was owned by councilor and mayor Hans Drechsel, who died in 1540. His son, the mayor , Metsieder and landlord Peter Drechsel I then rebuilt it in 1543 - at least this can be deduced from the data on the inscription plaque, which was placed next to the entrance in 1765 and was later supplemented by renovation dates. His epitaph with the date of death 1591 is built into the doorway. In turn his son, the mayor Peter Drechsel II, also Metsieder, had the half-timbered facade on the sandstone ground floor designed in 1593/94. At that time, no mead was boiled or sold in the house, and he did not pay any extra money.
The wealthy patrician family of the Drechsel had demonstrably since the 15th century houses and land in Dinkelsbühl and outside the city. Over the course of two centuries the men held important city offices, up to councilors and mayors. Peter I was ennobled with the title “von und zu Unterdeufstetten”. Outside the city walls, his brothers Dr. Melchior Drechsel (also ennobled) as assessor at the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer and Dr. Walter Drechsel (also ennobled) as councilor and chancellor of the Pfalzgrafschaft Neuburg a. D. to call. The Unterdeufstetten estate was acquired by Mayor Hans Drechsel around 1544. Peter Drechsel II built the palace there around 1600. Since Mayor Hans Drechsel owned the German House and his sons were born in it, it can be referred to as the "ancestral home of the Counts of Drechsel" and as " Stammhaus der Freiherren von und zu Unterdeufstetten ”. Walter Drechsel was the progenitor of the counts, Peter I was the progenitor of the baronial line. The coats of arms remind of the former homeowners.
The German House is the absolute highlight in the half-timbered building of the German late Renaissance. In its unique façade, wooden construction and carved ornaments as well as monochrome painting in gray form a harmonious unit despite the diverse shapes and figures.
With the wall painting on the second floor, the people standing in niches at the corners of the house are to be interpreted as Christ and a female allegory of faith. Also typical of the Renaissance are the masked faces of the consoles, the post carvings and the reinforced atlases in the parapets, which look as if they were carved out of stone.
The design concept, which points to an educated homeowner as the client, is also iconologically unique. On the first and second floors, to the left and right of the windows, slightly sloping post columns with figures can be seen: They are seven planet gods and humans. It was believed that the planets were gods who determined the fate of human beings. The veneration through their representation at the house should make them kind and bring happiness to the residents. On the first floor these are Luna (moon), Mercury and Sol (sun) from the left, and on the second floor Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus. At that time the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were still undiscovered, while the sun and moon were mistaken for planets and the earth for the center of the universe.
In the middle of the house on the first floor there is a statue of Our Lady with a baby Jesus, carved in wood around 1700 in a niche. The center mullions of the window are decorated with plants. Above, there are storage doors on the three attic floors, flanked by carved columnar people. To top it off, under the elevator beam in the top of the gable rides a small naked egg on a wine barrel, the wine god Bacchus, because after all, the former Metsieder and tavern is on the Weinmarkt.
Individual evidence
- ↑ on the family see the short article about the family in the Neue Deutsche Biographie Otto Veh: Drechsel, von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 105 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Gerfrid Arnold: Calendar text in "Dinkelsbühl is worth it ...", 2013. Published for the 58 cent stamp of the Deutsche Post "Mitteldeutscher Fachwerkbau / before 1600 Dinkelsbühl."
Coordinates: 49 ° 4 ′ 10.1 ″ N , 10 ° 19 ′ 6.8 ″ E