Deutschhof (Heilbronn)

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Münster and Deutschhof (as of 2008)

The Deutschhof is an inner-city quarter in Heilbronn that goes back to the Heilbronn Coming of the Teutonic Order , founded around 1225 . The possession of the order with Deutschhof and the associated Teutonic monastery of St. Peter and Paul formed a separate domain within the city walls of the imperial city of Heilbronn. The building group of the Kleiner Deutschhof was essentially built in the 16th century and was expanded to include the Großer Deutschhof in the 18th century . In 1806 the complex came to Württemberg as a result of the secularization and was then initially barracks, later the official and court seat. During the Second World War, the Deutschhof was largely destroyed in the air raid on December 4, 1944 . Rebuilt in several construction phases from 1958 to 1977, the buildings today roughly follow their historical shape. The facility is owned by the city of Heilbronn and houses u. a. the municipal museums, the Heilbronn city archive with its House of City History and the adult education center.

history

Coming Heilbronn of the Teutonic Order

The Order of Teutonic Knights was founded in 1198 and spread throughout the Holy Roman Empire in the early 13th century through numerous foundations and the accession of wealthy nobles . The number of founded Coming in German-speaking countries reached its peak in the period 1219-1222. In 1219 a Kommende was founded in Mergentheim . The order exercised sole rule in its territories through papal and imperial privileges.

The founding history of the Kommende in Heilbronn is largely in the dark, as numerous documents were lost during the Peasants' War . However, research agrees that the establishment must have occurred in the 1220s.

According to an Anniversar found in the 19th century , Ulrich II von Dürn and his mother Luitgard could be the founders of the Heilbronner Kommende. Ulrich II von Dürn joined the Teutonic Order around 1225. The foundation also took place during this time.

Older research (Hess 1954) sees parts of the Franconian royal court in the endowment, with half of which was enfeoffed to the Counts of Lauffen . After the death of the last male representative of the Counts von Lauffen Boppo (V.) in the period from 1216 to 1219, ownership of Boppo's daughter Mechthild, who was married to Konrad I von Dürn, passed to the Lords of Dürn, and in the frame Ulrich II received the royal court following an inheritance dispute.

In the meantime it has been proven that the Königshof area must have been Kaiserstraße / Gerberstraße / Untere Neckarstraße, and numerous other arguments speak against the above thesis. Among other things, a legacy from Mechtild to her brother-in-law seems implausible. The Dürner property in Heilbronn was verifiably an imperial fiefdom, but the imperial fiefs of the Lauffeners were confiscated by the Hohenstaufen after they died out . The later area of ​​the Deutschhof was probably outside the city walls before about 1250. The wording of the Anniversar suggests that the Dürner only donated land. The missing archaeological finds in the area of ​​the Deutschhof from the time before 1225 also point in this direction.

How the Lords of Dürn came into possession of the area is therefore unclear. The most plausible at the moment is a direct loan from Heinrich (VII.) , After he was able to win back rights in Heilbronn under the Nordhausen Treaty.

According to Alois Seiler (1991), the thesis of a foundation by Ulrich von Dürn is questionable, among other things because he did not appear in Heilbronn and he was not mentioned in the Anniversar - in contrast to a mention in Mergentheim - in a form appropriate for a donor becomes. Seiler considers the diocese of Würzburg as a benefactor, since it had the greatest power in Heilbronn at the time and its bishop Otto I von Lobdeburg was a great sponsor of the Teutonic Order.

The Deutschhaus on a cityscape from 1557

There are no building files from the period before 1500, and excavation findings are interpreted differently, so that there is no reliable information about the original building stock. It can be safely assumed that immediately after the foundation of the Kommende in the first half of the 13th century, a small Romanesque church was built or expanded, from which the Teutonic Minster of St. Peter and Paul emerged after numerous renovations . The adjoining administration and farm buildings formed the actual Deutschhof.

A Commander in Heilbronn was first mentioned in 1268 . It was a Volmar that could come from the Heilbronn patrician family of the Laemmlin . As in many other cities, the patrician stratum could in part have provided the early committees. The Kommende itself was first mentioned in a document in 1279.

In addition to the church and Deutschhof, the order in Heilbronn also included extensive lands, including 40 acres of meadows in the meadows of the nearby Neckar . On the mark of the neighboring town of Sontheim , which came to the order around the time the Kommende was founded, the Heilbronner Kommende had their largest property with 367 acres of forest and numerous vineyards, fields, pieces of trees and gardens. The commander owned further possessions as well as goods and rights in numerous places in the vicinity. In Talheim the order appointed a bailiff to manage the property there. In total, the order's property comprised 507 acres of forest, 265 acres of fields, 212 acres of meadows and 34 acres of vineyards. In addition to the income from the leasing and management of its own property, the order had income from tithe levies , compulsory wine press and mill .

Simultaneously with the Heilbronner Kommende, Heilbronn also experienced an upswing in the 13th and 14th centuries. After becoming a city and breaking away from the sovereignty of the bishops of Würzburg, the city became an imperial city ​​in 1371 . The possession of the order and the city represented separate domains, although the Deutschhof was also located within the city walls. This often led to disputes, e.g. B. when a Neckar flood in 1333 changed the course of the Neckar over meadows of the order and led to the Neckar privilege or several times over the right of asylum that the order could grant to those sought by the Heilbronn authorities. In other areas the cooperation between the order and the city was good, for example in 1340 when the order's church, which had become a pilgrimage church, was enlarged. The personal relationships between the Comturs and the councilors were also friendly.

In 1401 King Ruprecht of the Palatinate stayed in the Deutschhaus. In 1414 the Roman-German King and later Emperor Sigismund summoned the German princes to Heilbronn for a meeting and stayed in the Deutschhof during this time, in 1495 Maximilian I was the guest of the Commander-in-Chief.

In the 16th century, the Deutschhof was renewed in the Renaissance style, with the small Deutschhof essentially being built in its current form with commandery building (1512), stepped gable house (1546/50) and knight's hostel (1566). The 16th century complex also included the stone house (1506) for ball advisors and plowmasters as well as a farm building with a bakery, laundry and horse stables. The Deutschhof was expanded around 1600 to include the stone-Kallenfels building with the prince's room, which was attached to the south of the church, and to the south to include the wagon and granary . This no longer existing building on the site of today's city archive differed from other tithe barns by its representative design with two Gothic cross vaults.

During the German Peasants' War in 1525, insurgent farmers plundered the Deutschhof. With the destruction of all written documents of the Teutonic Order administration, which they threw into the Kirchbrunnenbach flowing past, they hoped to be able to discharge their obligation to the order once and for all. To their great regret, however, they soon discovered that they did not achieve their goal in this way. The German rulers themselves hadn't suffered any harm. The Komtur later calculated his damage at 20,653 guilders - a huge sum, because of which the coming and the city, which had opened the gates to the peasants without coercion, fought for years.

Axel Oxenstierna held the Heilbronn Convent in the Deutschhof in 1633 (lithograph around 1842)

At the time of the Reformation , in the late year 1530, the council and citizenship declared themselves to be part of the Augsburg Confession and subsequently became Protestant, while the Teutonic Order remained Catholic. During the Thirty Years' War , also known as a religious war , the city of Heilbronn and its villages suffered greatly. After the Battle of Wimpfen , Neckargartach was burned down in 1622 and Böckingen was plundered. In 1629 a Catholic imperial garrison moved into Heilbronn. In December 1631, the Swedes fighting on the Protestant side succeeded in taking the city, whereupon General Gustaf Horn opened his headquarters in the Deutschhof. The Swedes officially handed over the Deutschhof and its associated places to the city of Heilbronn on February 28, 1632. Under the chairmanship of the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna , the Heilbronn Convention took place in the German House in 1633 , at which the Heilbronn Confederation between France and Sweden and the Protestant southern German imperial estates were concluded. After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Nördlingen , the property was returned to the Teutonic Order in 1635. In the Palatinate War of Succession in 1689, in addition to councilors and other dignitaries, two committees of the order were among the hostages abducted by the French.

On July 21, 1702, Emperor Joseph I took quarters in the German House on the way to the Imperial Army on the Upper Rhine. Night music was performed in his honor. He must have liked it because he returned on another occasion on September 26th when he was on his way to see the siege of Landau.

Deutschhoff facade in a lithograph by the Wolff brothers from 1823

In 1712, under Komtur Georg Adolf von Speth and master builder Wilhelm Heinrich Behringer, the construction of the new building began in the southwest of the complex , which replaced an old and damaged irregular building in three construction phases until 1718, later after the master builder Behringerbau was called and encloses today's large Deutschhof . The construction took place in a time of economic prosperity of the coming, at the same time from 1717 a new building of the attached Marienkirche and the churches in Sontheim and Degmarn were carried out.

In 1734, Prince Eugene and Duke Karl Alexander von Württemberg successively made the German House their headquarters, from where, as holders of the High Command, they directed the troop movement of the German army against France.

In 1784 the previous housewife was raised to the land of the Deutschordensballei Franken . In 1789, the Ballei Franken was united with the state of the Hoch- und Deutschmeister to form a new administrative structure, and the possessions of the Teutonic Order in Heilbronn belonged to the newly formed Neckaroberamt of the Hoch-Deutschmeistertum in Franconia . At that time, the Ballei Franken was divided into three main offices, one in Ellingen, one on the Tauber and one on the Neckar. The Oberamt am Neckar consisted of six offices, including Heilbronn with Sontheim, Talheim and Degmarn. De jure, the Heilbronn Deutschordenshof was the residence of the Landkomtur of the Ballei Franken, who had previously resided in Ellingen in Central Franconia, because the relocation of the residence for the then Landkomtur Zobel von Giebelstadt was one of the contractual provisions of the new administrative structure. In 1797 the order's often controversial right of asylum was abolished.

Württemberg property from 1805

Portal to the royal court in Deutschhof (1910)

Due to the secularization in the course of the coalition wars, the imperial city of Heilbronn came to Württemberg in 1803. The coming of the order remained untouched for the time being, however, when the Third Coalition War broke out, it was taken over by the Heilbronn Oberamtmann Johann Friedrich Zeller on November 27, 1805 for Württemberg . From 1805 to 1850 the complex was barracks, from which the name of the Kasernengasse near Kirchbrunnenstraße comes from. From 1856 the Deutschhof was the seat of the regional court and jury court.

In the central building of the Deutschhof, a synagogue for the Heilbronn Jews was set up in addition to the jury court from 1856 to 1877 .

Destruction in World War II and reconstruction

The destroyed Deutschhof in 1945 (center, left)

During the Second World War , the Deutschhof was destroyed in an air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944 , only parts of the enclosing walls remained intact. From 1951 the German Order Cathedral and the Catholic parish office were rebuilt. In the 1950s, the Deutschhof ruin was the backdrop for the Käthchen Festival organized by the Heilbronner Kulturring under the direction of Carl Robert Frühsorger . From 1958, the rest of the Deutschhof was also rebuilt in several construction phases using the remains of the wall (stepped gable house) or as a replica of historical buildings (knight's house). Richard Scheffler (1891–1973) was in charge of the architectural management of the reconstruction , the interior design was done by well-known Heilbronn artists, including Walter Maisak (1912–2002), Erich Geßmann (1909–2008) and Maria Fitzen-Wohnsiedler (1908–1989).

The buildings were only restored in their external form, but the inside was appropriately furnished for cultural purposes. The adult education center and, from 1961, the Heilbronn city library moved into spacious rooms. By the beginning of the third construction phase (archive building), a department store had already been built next to the Deutschhof, so that in 1974, from an urban planning perspective, the demolition of the preserved historical south gable of the grain and carriage hall and the construction of a modern archive building for the Heilbronn city archive, completed in 1977 decided. In 1978 the city of Heilbronn acquired the remaining buildings in the Deutschhof and subsequently set up a municipal art gallery there.

For 40 years, until 2001, the city library was located in the Deutschhof and then moved to the newly built Theaterforum K3 next to the Heilbronn Theater . The space that became available was primarily used by the adult education center. The city museums and the city archive operate spatially separate exhibition areas, which are now completely accessible thanks to the renovation of the archive building in 2011/12.

description

View through the south portal of the Großer Deutschhof to the Komtur- and Staffelgiebelhaus
Old bridge between the Komturhaus and the Stein-Kallenfelsisches Bau

The Deutschhof is divided into the small and large Deutschhof . The Kleine Deutschhof goes back to the original extent of the complex from the 13th century with the Teutonic Minster of St. Peter and Paul and the Komtur and administrative buildings renovated in the 16th century. The Große Deutschhof was created by expanding the facility in the 18th century.

Small Deutschhof

The oldest building after the church is the Komturhaus, built from sandstone in 1512 . The ground floor had strong cross vaults supported by massive sandstone columns. The commander's apartment was upstairs. Various rooms housed servants, parts of the archive and the cash register. There was also a small hall. In 1704 the building was extended to the west under Friedrich von Stein-Kallenfels. A settlement joint about three meters east of the west gable provided evidence that the construction of the 16th century only reached as far as this point. A coat of arms of Commander Hans von Welden from 1512 was also found on the corner of the original gable wall. The Komturhaus was renovated under Friedrich von Eltz-Rotendorf in 1744/45 and is connected to the former Trappanei, the so-called Stein-Kallenfelsische Bau , via a baluster-framed bridge on the upper floor .

To the east is the stepped gable house built between 1546 and 1548 . Its west side is adorned with a right-angled staircase decorated with a balustrade. The staircase leads to the upper floor of the Komturhaus. The outer wall of the first floor is adorned by a right-angled bay window supported by stone consoles. This bay window had a cross-vaulted ceiling, in whose keystone the coat of arms of Commander Alexis Diemer with the number 1548 is incorporated. The same bay window is on the eastern gable end. Below the bay window on the west side was a sandstone head with animal ears and a wide open mouth. A sandstone block at this point bore the inscription: I am called hornung. Wit unde groz is min slug ("I am called Hornung. My throat is wide and big"). To the north, a rectangular tower-like extension with half-timbered houses connects to the stepped gable house. A round arched portal leads inside. Above this portal in the tower-like sandstone half-timbered building is a three-pass arch with the order's coat of arms and the year 1550. A spiral staircase with a hollow spindle leads from the door to the upper floors. The third floor is made of timber framing. Under this extension a staircase led through a strongly profiled arch into a spacious cellar. This building is also called the old synagogue because in the 19th century (before the synagogue on the avenue was built) the synagogue of the Heilbronn Jews was located in this building.

The knight's hostel is an approximate replica of the historical building

The former knight's hostel was built in 1556 north of the stepped gable house. The exterior of today's building is an approximate replica of the historical structure and is connected to the stepped gable house by a high bridge. The southwest corner of the knight's house has a five-sided bay window, above and below the windows of the Teutonic order coats of arms. A polygonal console forms the bottom of the bay window. After the Second World War, the building was the seat of the city library for several decades; today the adult education center is located there.

Great Deutschhof

Großer Deutschhof: on the left the Behringerbau in the middle the Stein-Kallenfelsische Bau, behind it the tower of the Teutonic Order Minster
Wappenstein in the Deutschhof

In the south-west of the complex, the so-called New Building began in 1712 , at the site of which originally stood an old and damaged irregular building in a crooked line . The damage should first be repaired, but it was decided to build a new one. The builder was the Count of Öttingische Councilor and engineer Wilhelm Heinrich Behringer . According to his plans, the building line on the west side of the Deutschhof area opposite the city area should be straightened. Columns intended to decorate the long western front, which would have stood in urban areas, were rejected by the city of Heilbronn. A two-storey building, which still exists today, was built under the Comturs von Reinach and von Hoheneck. The first construction phase extended from the church to the main entrance of the Deutschhof. In the years 1714 to 1716 the adjoining part up to the southwest corner was built. The south wing was then built until 1718. The entire facade of the two elongated 24-axis wings is structured with Ionic pilasters , accentuated stone window reveals , massive roof garlands and strong stone cornices. The west wing received three gables , the roof of the south wing is kept simpler. A passage at the eastern end of the south wing leads through a small arched gate into the inner courtyard. Above the entrance in the middle of the west wing was a Madonna, the protector of the order. Today there is a bronze coat of arms, which is supposed to commemorate the German order once resident here and was created in 1961 by the Stuttgart sculptress Gertrud Angelika Wetzel . The first floor included several chambers, a guest room, servants' rooms and a gate room. On the second floor there were seven spacious rooms and the well-known, beautiful and large dressing room.

The southeastern wing is the 1977 built, outwardly simple building of the municipal archives Heilbronn at the site of the former carriage and granary from 1512. The multi-storey building has three underground floors and contains archive rooms and offices and exhibition spaces on the ground floor, as House of History are used .

literature

  • 750 years of the coming of the German Order in Heilbronn. Memories of the past, thoughts of the present . Parish office of St. Peter and Paul, Heilbronn 1977.
  • Archive and museum of the city of Heilbronn in the Deutschhof cultural center . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1977 (Small series of publications by the Heilbronn City Archives, 9).
  • Alois Seiler : The Teutonic Order House and the City of Heilbronn in the Middle Ages . In: Catholic parish of St. Peter and Paul, Heilbronn (ed.): The German Order Minster of St. Peter and Paul Heilbronn. Festschrift for the renovation in 1994/95 and for the consecration of the altar . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1995, p. 45-59 .
  • Ten years of Heilbronn Municipal Museums in the Deutschhof . Municipal museums, Heilbronn 2001 (Museo, 17), ISBN 3-930811-88-X .

Web links

Commons : Deutschhof Heilbronn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alois Seiler: The Teutonic Order House and the City of Heilbronn in the Middle Ages . In: Catholic parish of St. Peter and Paul, Heilbronn (ed.): The German Order Minster of St. Peter and Paul Heilbronn. Festschrift for the renovation in 1994/95 and for the consecration of the altar . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1995, p. 48 .
  2. Seiler 1995, p. 49
  3. a b c Seiler 1995, p. 46
  4. a b c d Gerhard Hess: Foundation and oldest possession of the Teutonic Order-Kommende Heilbronn . In: Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian History . tape 21 . Historischer Verein Heilbronn, 1954, ISSN  0175-9841 , p. 137-156 .
  5. ^ Helmut Schmolz: Basic problems of the early history of Heilbronn . In: Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian History . tape 27 . Historischer Verein Heilbronn, 1973, ISSN  0175-9841 , p. 58 ff .
  6. Schmolz 1973, p. 56ff
  7. Hans-Gert Oomen: The Carolingian royal court Heilbronn. A contribution to the history of the city from the beginning to the end of the 13th century (=  publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 18 ). Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1972, p. 81 .
  8. Schmolz 1973, p. 57
  9. Schmolz 1973, p. 57f
  10. Oomen 1972, p. 81ff
  11. Schmolz 1973, p. 58
  12. Oomen 1972, p. 89
  13. Seiler 1995, p. 47
  14. cf. the problem of the localization of the Palatine Chapel of St. Michael
  15. a b Seiler 1995, p. 50
  16. Seiler 1995, p. 50f
  17. Seiler 1995, p. 51
  18. Seiler 1995, p. 56
  19. Article in Neckar-Echo of August 15, 1962, No. 187, p. 5 Above the gate entrance to Deutschhof ...
  20. ^ Bernhard Lattner with texts by Joachim Hennze: Stille Zeitzeugen, 500 years Heilbronn architecture

Coordinates: 49 ° 8 ′ 27 ″  N , 9 ° 13 ′ 4 ″  E