Ebhardt fountain
Colored postcard number 189 by an anonymous photographer, stamped on the lapel by Theodor Schulze's bookshop , around 1905
The Ebhardt Fountain or Gutenberg Fountain in Hanover was a fountain system built at the end of the 19th century , which was the result of a joint effort by the Hanoverian city planning inspector Paul Rowald and the sculptor Carl Dopmeyer . Location was the green area of the later by the horticultural director Julius trip designed Masch parks on Friedrichswall , in the alignment of Ebhardtstraße in the district center .
history
The Gutenberg Fountain was built according to plans by Paul Rowald and Carl Dopmeyer, probably on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg . Heinrich Ebhardt was the founder of the system, which was installed in 1890, and was also the owner of the renowned JC König & Ebhardt business books factory .
The sculpture of Johannes Gutenberg - with a beard and a Bible - stood raised on a well shaft, which in the lower third carried a shell-like shell made of copper, from which four amphibians looked down; a frog, a salamander, a turtle and a chameleon . In the middle of the shaft of the well four lion heads spat water into the bowl; between them sat four young men . They were described in an essay written in 1916 as follows:
“[...] a German boy with a book, an Indian with a throwing ax and shield , a Chinese with a snake and a negro with a lance and a parrot . One recognizes that the people represent the four largest continents - Europe , America , Asia and Africa - and should show that the so useful book printing art has made its way through the whole universe . "
So Henry Ebhardt honored with its funds the inventor of printing, but also brought the patrons with an attached at the well shaft table in memory:
" Dedicated to the dear hometown of Hanover by Heinrich Ebhardt 1890"
The Ebhardt fountain in the visual axis of Ebhardtstrasse ;
Postcard number 504 by Karl F. Wunder , collotype , around 1898
In the following year, Ebhardtstrasse , which was laid out in 1891 and tapered towards the fountain and which was now to connect Friedrichswall with the old Marktstrasse, was officially named after the founder of the fountain.
Behind the Ebhardtbrunnen in the Maschpark, the building authority building , which was completed between 1899 and 1906, was built as part of the planned construction of the New Town Hall .
After the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the beginning of World War II , all made of metal figures of the fountain in the wake of the so-called "legal deposit" soon had to be dismantled and then to meltdown and further processing for military purposes such as weapons and ammunition to serve. But it was then the weapons of the attacked who destroyed the building authority building behind the dismantled Ebhardt well during their air raids on Hanover - and at the same time "[...] considerable parts of the historical documents stored there."
The figures in the Gutenberg fountain were also considered lost, but then a search by the Neue Presse in 1948 - as with many other figures - led to a partial success: the city of Hanover was able to buy back the sculpture of Johannes Gutenberg at scrap value, but without it Arms, legs and the Bible. But the old well system should no longer be renovated. On the one hand, the fountain would have looked disproportionate without the lost ornamentation; on the other hand, a possibly larger and more modern new construction of the destroyed building authority building was considered - which was later built in 1955, but then as a building department on the other side of the town hall.
The statue of Gutenberg, which was soon to be restored, was erected in September 1949 - at the time some printers in Hanover were celebrating anniversaries - on a rather simple brick base on Schlosswender Strasse on Königsworther Platz in front of the building of the former JC König & Ebhardt accounting book factory and printing company - and found its way back to its founder, so to speak.
The old fountain plinth on which the statue originally stood then served as a plinth in the night watchman fountain on the Linden market square in Linden-Mitte from 1950 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Rainer Ertel , Ernst-Friedrich Roesener: Gutenberg fountain (Ebhardt fountain) and night watchman fountain in this: fountain in Hanover: water features and fountains in their districts , with a contribution by Ludwig Zerull , funded by the Rut and Klaus Bahlsen Foundation , Hanover: Cartoon-Concept Agentur und Verlags GmbH, 1998, ISBN 3-932401-03-4 , pp. 29f., 64f.
- ^ Eva Benz-Rababah : Maschpark. 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. 430.
- ↑ Compare, for example, the plan of the city of Hanover from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon from 1895 (5th edition), grid square C5 ; Digitized at Wikimedia Commons
- ↑ Compare, for example, postcard 504 from Karl F. Wunder
- ^ A b Helmut Zimmermann : Ebhardtstraße , in the same: The street names of the state capital Hanover , Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 1992, ISBN 3-7752-6120-6 , p. 66
- ↑ a b Helmut Knocke : New Town Hall. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 466f.
- ↑ Cornelia Regin (responsible): History of the City Archives / Archive History on the hannover.de page in the version of January 11, 2016
Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 3.8 " N , 9 ° 44 ′ 22.3" E