Hauptwache (Frankfurt am Main)

The main guard

The Hauptwache is a baroque building in downtown Frankfurt . It is named for the An der Hauptwache square and the Hauptwache underground station . The former guard building was built in 1729-30 by the city architect Johann Jakob Samhaimer . Destroyed in World War II, it was initially rebuilt in a simplified manner until 1954; It was not until 1968, after it had been dismantled to build the underground station, that it was rebuilt and reopened true to the original.

history

Use as a guard building

View from the Zeil to the Hauptwache
( William Henry Fox Talbot , 1846, the trigger is reversed)

The Hauptwache 1738

The main guard around 1760

A first small guard house, which had been on this site since 1671, was demolished in 1728 because it was dilapidated. The council originally planned to build a two-story guard building. After protests from the neighborhood, who feared for the prospect of their houses, a rectangular, single-storey building was created from the Main sandstone characteristic of Frankfurt with a mansard floor and a large hipped roof . The south side, with a representative gable front, forms the facade of the building. The tympanum with the trophy placed on it, the friezes on the windows of the side facades and the bombs over the mansards were made by the Frankfurt sculptor Bernhard Schwarzenburger.

The Hauptwache was the seat of the city guard and also contained a prison . On the first floor there was the open arch hall, behind it three guard rooms for the officers, NCOs and the common. The rooms and chambers of the attic floor served as an interrogation room and as a prison for honest people . The most prominent prisoner was the Frankfurt lawyer and councilor Johann Erasmus von Senckenberg , who was imprisoned from February 28, 1769 until his death on June 21, 1795 in the southwest corner room on the first floor. Ordinary detainees were locked in the dungeons in the basement. They were also called Schanzerloch because the prisoners were called in to carry out repair work on the Frankfurt city fortifications . After his arrest on May 31, 1802, Schinderhannes Johannes Bückler sat here for a few days and was interrogated by imperial officials before he was transferred to Mainz on June 16 and extradited to the French authorities.

In the 18th century there were several places of execution on the square next to the main guard : the soldier's gallows built in 1709, renewed in 1734 and removed in 1758, and various facilities for punishing the dissolute rabble : a wooden disgrace , a pillory and, until 1779, the trill house , a wooden cage that anyone could turn until the delinquent locked up in it felt sick. From 1731 to around 1860 there was a tube fountain at the transition between Hauptwache and Zeil. The city council had the scaffold erected next to this well , on which the maid Susanna Margaretha Brandt was executed on January 14, 1772 .

The soldiers stationed in the Hauptwache belonged to the line battalion , the regular army of the Free City of Frankfurt . On April 3, 1833 the main guard was stormed at the Frankfurt Wachensturm . In 1861, as part of the redesign of the square, plans arose to demolish the Hauptwache or use it for civilian purposes, but the Frankfurt Senate soon rejected these plans. When Prussia annexed the city in 1866, Frankfurt and its sovereignty also lost its military importance and with it the city defense. In 1869 the building fell to the Prussian military treasury due to the Frankfurt Recession .

Now used as a café

The Hauptwache in 1918

The Hauptwache, which was rebuilt in a simplified manner in 1958

The prison was abandoned, but the main guard continued to be used as a military guardhouse. In 1903 the Prussian army moved the guard to the Taunustor and the city bought the building back. This time, too, there were calls for the main guard to be demolished, but the city decided to lease it. After a renovation and a generous conversion of the building, in which the rooms on the ground floor were merged and an extension with a terrace was built to the north, the Hauptwache opened as a café in December 1905 , which it has remained to this day. The café house and especially the neighboring normal clock became the most famous meeting point for meetings in the city center. In 1920 the Hauptwache again became the scene of military events when French troops marched into Frankfurt and occupied the building for six weeks. During a demonstration on April 7, 1920, soldiers shot into the crowd, killing seven people and injuring 26.

In the 1930s the café had 50 employees, including 17 waiters and six pastry chefs. It opened at seven in the morning and closed at two at night. The regular guests included the actor Carl Luley , the sculptor Georg Mahr , the journalists Benno Reifenberg and Richard Kirn and the writer Ernst Nebhut .

In 1944 the Hauptwache burned down completely after the heavy air raids on Frankfurt am Main until it was reopened in 1954 in a renovated state. This temporary solution with a modified roof remained until the subway was built. In 1967 it was initially completely dismantled and then rebuilt a year later - in a slightly different position - above the underground station .

Hauptwache fountain

The main guard fountain is located behind the main guard and was built around 1800. It was set up as a replacement for an old baroque draw well. This was initially called the Goldener Brunnen , but was removed because of its desolate condition. When the subway was built, the fountain had to leave its old place and was placed in its current location on October 4, 1969.