Freedom Square (Hanau)

Forum Hanau shopping and cultural center on Freiheitsplatz

Historical view from the south

The Freiheitsplatz (formerly: Paradeplatz , " the Parad ' ") was until 2011 the largest square in the city of Hanau . Today it serves, among other things, as the central bus station and is thus - next to the Hanau main station - one of the two centers of public transport in Hanau. From spring 2012, investors built the Forum Hanau here , which consists of a shopping center and public facilities. The forum opened on September 10, 2015. It is a combination of a shopping and cultural center, houses more than 90 shops and one of the most modern city libraries in the country.

prehistory

Draft for the layout of the Hanauer Neustadt in 1597. Location of the later Freiheitsplatz: middle, above

Extract from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655, an ideal plan of the old (left) and new (right) Hanau. The two overhead bastions of the city fortifications between the two cities take up the area of today's Freiheitsplatz. North is left

The area of the square was occupied by the early modern fortifications on the southern edge of Hanau's old town until the 18th century , which had been under the counts of Philip II and Philip III since 1528 . was built by Hanau-Münzenberg and expanded and modernized the medieval wall ring. A new fastening system, theoretically conceived by Albrecht Dürer , was actually built for the first time. The work lasted almost 20 years.

On June 1, 1597, Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg signed a treaty with Calvinist refugees, who originally came from France and the Spanish Netherlands , the surrender of the new town of Hanau , which regulated their settlement in Hanau. It is the founding act for the Neustadt Hanau . The count made the building site south of Hanau's old town available. The new town was built from the outset with its own, modern baroque fortifications, which were based on the fortifications of the old town and had no defenses there. Where the market gate of the old town now opened towards the new town, a square was created right from the start, albeit not nearly as large as the Freiheitsplatz until 2011.

The seat

A large square was created when the early modern city fortifications between the old and new towns of Hanau were torn down and the dividing ditches filled in under the government of Hereditary Prince Wilhelm (IX./I.) Of Hessen-Kassel as part of a generous redesign in 1768–1779. The square was used twice: In the west, the esplanade was created - a lime -tree walled area for the citizens, in the east the parade ground - a parade ground for the military. The college building for the government of the County of Hanau was built on the eastern edge of the square . Various buildings still stood on the square that were demolished after the Second World War .

Freiheitsplatz, formerly "Paradeplatz", around 1880

Buildings

Disappeared structures

City Theatre

The Hanau City Theater was built by Franz Ludwig Cancrin as the baroque court theater of the Hereditary Prince Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel in two construction phases in 1768 and 1777 and was performed by a separate municipal ensemble until 1945. Although the basement and the rising walls survived the bombing of the Second World War and the building was still used temporarily after the war, it was blown up in 1954.

Armory

The Baroque armory, a security building which originally in the county of Hanau belonging Harreshausen stood on the parade ground in 1782 translocated , has also suffered considerable damage during World War II and was subsequently demolished. It was on the square opposite the junction with Nordstrasse .

Birthplace of the Brothers Grimm

The house where the Brothers Grimm was born was roughly where the house at Am Freiheitsplatz 3 stands today. The house where he was born was destroyed in World War II. The Hanauer historical society had installed in 2007 two panels of the present buildings that provide information about the family Grimm in Hanau.

Old coin

The Hanau Mint stood on the north edge of the square until it was destroyed in the Second World War , in which the coins of the County of Hanau-Münzenberg were minted from 1658 to 1681 .

Monument to Count Philipp Ludwig II.

Graf-Philipp-Ludwig-Anlage with a monument to the city founder

In a former small green area in the southeast area of the former Freiheitsplatz (today: southern area of the forum), the Graf-Philipp-Ludwig-Anlage , a monument, a portrait bust of the Count, was erected on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Neustadt Hanau in 1897 Philipp Ludwig II., Erected. The bust and the inscription plaque were recovered from the rubble of the Second World War and placed at the Walloon-Dutch Church in 1988 .

Department stores

Up until 2010 there was a large department store and a sports department store on the western edge of the square.

The large department store opened on April 24, 1929 as the Wronker department store with a new building in a steel frame construction . The architect was Fritz Nathan . It was the first department store in Hanau. In 1933 the company was " aryanized " and from 1934 changed its name to Hansa AG . The steel frame survived the air raids on Hanau in World War II and was used for reconstruction in 1948. In 1952 the company was incorporated into the Hertie Group . In November 1993 the non-profit Hertie Foundation sold “Hertie Waren- und Kaufhaus GmbH” to “ Karstadt AG ” after months of negotiations . In 2009 or 2010 the department store was closed. The building has been empty since then and was demolished in 2012 for the construction of the cultural forum.

The former sports department store to the north of it (then a record shop, then a bargain shop with a nail salon) was created from the conversion of the former Hanau employment office .

Bus shelters

There was a bus shelter in the middle of the western part of the square, which was used as a bus station. It was built around 1959/60 by the Hanau City Planning Office. The floating roof of the filigree-looking building was supported by a row of graceful round pillars. A kiosk and a seating niche were located here. The listed building was demolished when the Freedom Square was redesigned in 2013.

View of the authorities, today Hanau tax office

Today's buildings

All buildings listed here are cultural monuments according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

Authority building

The core of the authority building dates from 1768, but has undergone numerous renovations.

DGB house

The DGB building, also known as the “union building”, is a reinforced concrete building from 1958. It shows a grid facade typical of the time. Its name in connection with its five upper floors indicates a certain modesty in building construction - at least with regard to the height - in the city of Hanau in the 1950s. It is located on the site of the former high school from the 17th century, the building of which was damaged by fire in 1912 and which was later rebuilt elsewhere. The remains of the 17th century building were destroyed in bombing during World War II.

Ypsilon house on the northwest corner of the square

Ypsilon house

The Ypsilon House partly occupies the site of the city theater that was blown up in 1954. It is a residential building, an eight-story reinforced concrete structure with shops on the ground floor. The name comes from its layout: its three wings are arranged like a Y-shaped wing . It is a typical building from the 1950s.

Comb houses of the 50s. Condition before 2012

Am Freiheitsplatz 5-15

The residential complex Freiheitsplatz 5-15 took up the western half of the south side of the square and is now obstructed by the buildings of the new forum. The residential complex was built in 1957 by Nassauische Heimstätte with 57 residential units. Four five-story residential buildings faced the square (today: the forum) with their narrow sides and are connected by two-story commercial buildings and arcades. This is also a typical architecture of the 1950s.

Urban planning aspects

The Freiheitsplatz is one of a series of squares that are strung together almost axially through the old and new town of Hanau. From north to south these are: Schlossplatz , Altstädter Markt (Hanau) , Freiheitsplatz, Neustädter Markt , Französische Allee and Hafenplatz .

The comb houses of the 50s today

Historical aspects

Use of the western half of the square until 2012. The Ypsilon house in the background

The Hanau Forum is characterized by its open design

In terms of monument law, the Freiheitsplatz is part of the entire Old Town complex with Freiheitsplatz . After the reconstruction period following the Second World War, it was increasingly used inappropriately: one half as a parking lot, the other as a bus station. This situation, which was perceived as unsatisfactory, repeatedly led to discussions about partial development and controversial discussions between the city administration, investors and citizens. A large number of the citizens refused a development, also because of 96 trees under protection.

Partial redevelopment

Moritz and the dancing picture by Robert Schad in front of the Kulturforum

Nevertheless, the city of Hanau decided to develop the western half of the square and to redevelop the adjacent street with a "forum", a shopping arcade with municipal cultural institutions, including the city library, the city archive and rooms for the Hanau History Association and the Wetterauische Gesellschaft . On the undeveloped area that has been preserved to the east, which is partly designed as a bus station and partly as an open space, a large abstract monument to the Hanau-born painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim with the title Moritz and the dancing picture was erected in front of the forum .

Varia

During construction work in 1983, production waste from the Hanau faience factory was found in the southwest corner of Freiheitsplatz .

Until the Second World War, line 1 of the Hanau tram (Hauptbahnhof - Beethovenplatz ) ran along the western edge of what was then Paradeplatz and merged here with line 2 (Westbahnhof - Nordbahnhof ), which came through Nordstrasse and Rosenstrasse.

literature

Gerhard Bott : A princely forum for the residential city of Hanau. Paradeplatz - old town . In: Stadtzeit 6. 700 years of city rights. Hanau 1993, p. 145.
Reinhard Dietrich : Production waste from the Hanau faience factory - an excavation. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter. 30: 335-346 (1988).
Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 .
Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. 3. Edition. Hanau 1919. (Reprint: 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2 )