River water art

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Postcard from the Flusswasserkunst
Verlag Louis Glaser (Leipzig), around 1900

The river water art in Hanover was a castle-like water art on the main arm of the Leine, built in 1895 in the neo-renaissance style and demolished in 1963/64 . The building rose at the level of the Friederikenbrücke across the Leineschloss . Since the foundation of the Hannoversche Stadtbaukultur e. V. In 2008 there are plans to rebuild the important technical structure, especially since the urban development framework plan for Hannover City 2020 + includes numerous changes around the former building site.

history

Architectural competitions

Multi-color lithograph of a postcard with the river water art and the click mill as well as the artist signature of George Müller , around 1898
River water art and monumental fountain by Karl Gundelach in the Kingdom of Heaven on the recently extended Karmarschstraße
Postcard number 45 by Ludwig Hemmer
Well system on the stairs from Friederikenplatz , around 1905;
Postcard number 8745 from Louis Glaser
Stereoscopy LL 22 of the motif series " Germany " by Léon & Lévy

In 1895 the city of Hanover acquired the area of Friederikenplatz in front of the Leineschloss, in particular to build a new building for the city's service water supply . For this purpose, the click mill mentioned in 1226 was demolished in the same year , as was the water art redesigned by August Heinrich Andreae from 1847 to 1850 . The new building to be erected was also intended to bring about a representative redesign of the southern entrance to the city around the Platz am Himmelreich . In 1895, both an architectural competition for the design of the New Town Hall and a competition for the facade of the river water art to be built were announced, which the architect Hubert Stier was able to win. The editor Friedrich Lüddecke later compared the waterworks with a palace.

According to the technical planning by Anselm Bock a wealthy was in the years 1896-1898 ornamental assembly in red and white sandstone built: The machine shop has been set up between two higher end buildings, it cultivated an approximately 32 meter high water tower with a relief - Fries from Carl Dopmeyer , who showed the triumphal procession of the water god Neptune , and Amphitrite , the beautiful ruler of the seas.

At the same time, in the area of ​​river water art, the extension of Karmarschstrasse up to its confluence with Friedrichswall , the new construction of the Friederikenbrücke and an elaborate fountain system based on plans by Karl Gundelach were built .

The construction aroused international interest: For example, wearing a the light pressure multiplied stereoscopy of the building from the water side the serial number "22 LL" of postcards Motif series " Germany " by the French Postcards-publisher Léon & Lévy .

Years of Reconstruction and Destruction

The river water art was hardly damaged during the air raids on Hanover in World War II . Only the tower hood was destroyed by an aerial bomb .

In August 1963, the editor of the found Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , Hans Reichelt , and photographer Wilhelm Hauschild "flashes brightly polished Hanomag - pumping equipment ". They saw "blue and white Delft tiles on the walls, a wooden ceiling painted in bright colors and a several meter high mural on the history of fountain construction".

Nevertheless, in the years of reconstruction , an inconspicuous replacement building was initially built south of Friedrichswall on Culemannstrasse . From there, an almost 100 km long pipe network was fed with river water from the Leine, "with which the city blew up green spaces and flushed sewers - this saved precious drinking water ". The river water art, however, was discontinued in 1963/64 despite violent protests from the population. In this way, the urban development integration of the Lower Saxony state parliament , which was set up in the bombed-out Leineschloss, was to succeed.

The careful "dismantling" of the river water art should not be as brutal as the demolition of the court prison at the time . When it lasted six months instead of the estimated ten weeks due to the hard stone material, the building contractor finally reached for the wrecking ball - which unexpectedly crashed the entire tower onto Karmarschstrasse.

River water art
River water art and Leineschloss, before that the rehearsal for the tattoo on the occasion of Kaiser Wilhelm's visit in 1898; Postcard number 558 from Karl F. Wunder

At that time, the city of Hanover promised to preserve historically important components of the building for posterity, for example cannon balls that were previously walled in and a bronze relief from the entrance. After this declaration of intent was almost forgotten, it was not until the beginning of the 1980s that a 30- pound Neptune head from the former river water art was rediscovered at the house of a stonemason in Stadtoldendorf . After an apology from the previously commissioned restorer , the head relief hangs together with others as a reminder of the river water art today on a side wall of the Leine near the river weir.

With the demolition of the Friederikenschlösschen opposite in favor of a new building for the Lower Saxony State Chancellery , which was never realized there, a promenade should be created as the new center of the "government district" according to the ideas of the urban planners around Rudolf Hillebrecht .

When then made redesign of the forecourt of the State Parliament, the future course of the Göttingen Seven by Dieter Oesterlen , was a representative Erinnerungsbau: The dam was exposed visible, it built an additional pedestrian bridge where the river gods - sculptures were installed the former waterworks.

After the bowl of the former “Monumental Fountain” at Klagesmarkt had been reused, the monument to the Göttingen Seven was erected next to the weir in 1998 .

Association "Hannoversche Stadtbaukultur"

New building models (brown) around the former river water art as part of Hannover City 2020+
Illumination in spring, seen from the Leineufer at the Leineschloss

In April 2008, the then new building department of Hanover, Uwe Bodemann, publicly considered a long-term development on the site of the former river water art: "A building on a bridge - that will be expensive", investors and a sensible use would have to be found. As a result, the Hannoversche Stadtbaukultur association was founded in the same year . V. In addition to the search for sponsors , the association wants to have turbines installed to generate electricity at the centuries-old site of water extraction and has therefore held preliminary talks with the Hanover municipal utilities and started an economic calculation. In particular, however, the association wants the reconstruction in historicizing forms in order to give the city back an old landmark .

As another possibility of utilization sees profit development association to set up a technology museum in the wiederzuerrichtenden building. For example, it could show the history of drinking water production or it could also be used as an exclusive hotel, as was planned a little further downstream on Am Hohen Ufer . The State Chancellery is also not yet integrated into the government district.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Flusswasserkunst (Hannover)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Helmut Knocke: Flusswasserkunst. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , pp. 184f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Conrad von Meding: Association wants to rebuild river water art , in the online edition of the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from December 2, 2008 (see web links )
  3. ^ Office for urban development: urban development framework plan. In: The Concept , in the series: Hannover City 2020+ , p. 62f.
  4. ↑ Eva Benz-Rababah : Kingdom of Heaven. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 296
  5. ^ Helmut Knocke: New Town Hall. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 466f.
  6. ↑ Compare the documentation at Commons (see under the section Weblinks )
  7. ^ Felix Hoffmeyer: Hannoversche Stadtbaukultur e. V. (see web links)

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 10.4 ″  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 1.3 ″  E