Friedberger Tor
| Friedberger Tor | |
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 Beginning of Friedberger Landstrasse at Friedberger Tor |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Frankfurt am Main |
| District | Downtown |
| Created | 1812 |
| Confluent streets | Eschenheimer Anlage , Friedberger Anlage , Bleichstraße, Seilerstraße , Konrad-Adenauer-Straße , Friedberger Landstraße , Vilbeler Gasse |
| Buildings | Bethmannsches Gartenhaus , Fina-Haus , Friedrich-Stoltze-Schule, courthouse, Hessendenkmal , NH-Frankfurt City Hotel |
The Friedberger Tor is a square on the northeastern edge of downtown Frankfurt am Main . It is named after one of the five gates of the former Frankfurt city fortifications .
Location and surroundings
The Friedberger Tor forms a border between the districts of Frankfurt city center and Frankfurt Nordend . It is located between Friedberger Anlage and Eschenheimer Anlage in the Wallanlagen , a green belt around Frankfurt city center. Friedberger Landstrasse , one of the major entry and exit roads in downtown Frankfurt, begins here . In the past, only Vilbeler Gasse, which is now insignificant for road traffic, led out of the city to the gate. After the destruction of the Second World War by the air raids on Frankfurt am Main , the decision was made to build a spacious north-south street through the eastern city center, which leads from Friedberger Tor via Konstablerwache to the Alte Brücke . The northern part of this street is now called Konrad-Adenauer-Straße .
The system ring also crosses at Friedberger Tor . The inner ring, which leads around the city center in an easterly direction, consists of Bleichstraße coming from the northwest from Eschenheimer Tor . To the southeast, Seilerstraße continues towards Allerheiligentor . The outer ring, the Friedberger Anlage, is a one-way street to the west.
The most striking building on Friedberger Tor is the Fina-Haus , built in 1966 and modernized in 2000 , a 51 meter high 14-storey high-rise. In front of Friedberger Tor lies the Bethmannpark with the Bethmann family's country house, built around 1760 , where Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte stayed overnight on October 31, 1813 on his retreat after the Battle of Leipzig .
Public transport
The tunnel of the underground line B , which is used by the lines U4 and U5, is located under Friedberger Tor . The closest underground station is Frankfurt (Main) Konstablerwache station . To the north of Friedberger Tor, the U5 line is led over a ramp to the surface and into Eckenheimer Landstrasse . The U4 line goes under the Friedberger Tor and Bethmannpark in the tunnel towards Berger Straße .
The tram lines 12 and 18 and the bus lines 30 and 36 run above ground .
history
Middle Ages and the siege of 1552
After Emperor Ludwig der Bayer had granted Frankfurt the so-called second city expansion in 1333 , the city began a few years later to enclose the newly won Neustadt with a city wall. According to official records, the Friedberger Tor already existed in 1346, but its tower was not built until 1380. It was rectangular and crowned by a high, hipped gable roof with a lantern . The bridge over the moat was not directly in the axis of the tower, but was moved to the east for defensive purposes. After crossing the trench, you first had to walk a little along the outside of the wall to get to the actual gate.
In July 1552, during the prince uprising, Protestant troops led by Moritz von Sachs besieged the city, which was also Protestant but loyal to the emperor, and was successfully defended by troops of the Catholic emperor led by Colonel Konrad von Hanstein . Hanstein had the city fortifications brought up to date in a very short time, temporary bastions poured in and the Gothic spiers of the Bockenheimer and Friedberger Tor thrown off because they stood in the way of their own artillery. The siege ended with the conclusion of the Passau Treaty . The city had successfully defended its Lutheran creed and at the same time its privileges as a trade fair venue and as the place of election and coronation of the Roman emperors . From 1562 onwards, almost all emperors in Frankfurt were not only elected, as was customary before, but also ceremonially crowned. The damaged fortifications were soon rebuilt.
The early modern fortification
The siege had shown, however, that the Friedberger Tor had become a weak point in the city's defenses with the advent of powder cannons. The wall bent here from the west-east in a south-east direction, so that the system could not be covered by the flank. In addition, the terrain, which gradually rose by about 30 meters from the gate to Friedberger Feld , offered potential besiegers a favorable position to bombard the city safely. When the Thirty Years' War was about to modernize the Frankfurt fortifications, work began on the Friedberger Tor. In 1626, fortress builder Johann Adolf von Holzhausen built a ravelin in front of the gate, which, however, collapsed the following year due to planning and construction errors. The then commissioned Johann Wilhelm Dilich suggested strengthening the gate with a bulwark in front , but the execution of the plan also failed him. Only after calling in the renowned fortress builder Johannes Faulhaber did the work succeed in the third attempt in 1631. At times, up to 600 workers had built the bulwark, and the citizens had to raise an extraordinary estimate , i.e. a special tax, for it.
The new fortification also forced a relocation of the traffic flows. The now old Friedberger Tor at the north end of the Große Friedberger Gasse only led into the kennel in front of the old wall. Its outwork leading over the moat was torn down, but the stand-alone tower, which was inhabited by a tower keeper until the end, remained in place until 1812. The actual New Friedberger Tor , built between 1628 and 1630 and soon popularly known , was relocated about 100 meters south-east to the end of Vilbeler Gasse .
The new building was the first early modern city gate in Frankfurt and was probably designed with particular care because fortress builder Dilich initially only had a three-year contract with the city and had to prove himself. Perhaps, for the same reason, what happened on the part of the city was much better documented than with any later gate construction and can certainly serve as a model for how other gates of the 17th century were used.
First of all, a wooden model of the New Friedberger Tor was probably made based on Dilich's drawings to illustrate the planned implementation to the council. Only after his approval was the gate implemented. It had three vaults , the middle of which served as a passage for carriages and goods transport, while the western one was intended for passenger traffic in and out of the city. The eastern vault, on the other hand, was divided into two rooms and was used by the gatekeepers. From here a spiral staircase led upwards, where you could enter the higher parapet of the Friedberg bulwark through a small stone tower with a lantern .
Directly behind the landside entrance were several deep wolf pits , covered with strong planks , into which the counterweights of the drawbridge over the moat were usually lowered. In the event of a defense, the planks could be removed and, together with other defensive devices such as a portcullis and loopholes on the second floor of the secondary vault, make it much more difficult to conquer the gate. After this outwork , the vault, which was probably very dark all day long and only illuminated by small, so-called day holes in its apex, bent at a 133 ° angle. This should make it impossible for a besiegers to shoot directly through into the city behind.
According to the construction and arithmetic master books of the time, around 36,000 pieces of bricks were used for the gate ; the outside of the building, which was in the early Baroque style , was faced with heavy basalt blocks. The wall opening on the city side was as arched designed, the two half column- flanked. These ended in a sturdy cornice , on which there were again five antique columns with arches, which carried a heavy ornamental gable. A stylistic transition to the battlements of the old city fortifications was cleverly created by means of an attic . The land side showed three semicircular gables with obelisks , the city eagle and a plaque with the name of the gate and the year of completion, 1630.
The battle on December 2, 1792
On October 23, 1792, two days after the occupation of neighboring Mainz , French troops under General Victor Neuwinger appeared at the gates of Frankfurt and after brief negotiations forced the gates to be opened. With 3,000 men, the French Revolutionary Army advanced through the Sachsenhausen Affentor into the city. Its commander, General Adam-Philippe de Custine , provided the city with a contribution of 2 million guilders and had seven respected citizens arrested as hostages .
A city deputation traveled to Paris to negotiate the reprisals. However, it soon got into an awkward position: On December 2, 1792, Prussian and Hessian soldiers who had returned from Champagne stormed the Friedberger Tor. At first they suffered heavy losses as the walls were manned by French snipers. From there they could fire from safe cover at the attackers, who advanced in a classic line formation .
It was only when Frankfurt craft boys intervened and opened the drawbridge at Friedberger Tor that the allied troops were able to enter the city and drive out the French occupation army. When the news reached Paris, the Frankfurt hostages were immediately arrested. To the great relief of the council, however, they were soon able to return safely to the city.
Commemorating the successful battle and the 55 this fallen Hessian grenadiers of the Prussian king donated Friedrich Wilhelm II. The following year the Hessendenkmal . After it had to be relocated in 1970 for the construction of the subway and a road breakthrough , it stands a few meters outside the city center at the beginning of Friedberger Landstrasse.
In 1795 and 1796, French troops again moved in front of the city. On the night of July 13-14, 1796, they shelled the city, which was defended by Austrian troops, from their positions north of the city, causing great damage.
After the demolition of the city fortifications
From 1807 to 1809 the fortifications at the New Friedberger Tor were demolished. City gardener Sebastian Rinz created an English landscape garden in their place . Instead of the broken gates, city architect Johann Georg Christian Hess built classicist gates with wrought iron bars in 1808 . The gates bore the inscription Friedberger Thor and Erbauet MDCCCVIII in gilded letters and served as guard houses and customs stations. The gates were locked every evening until 1864. After the Free City of Frankfurt was annexed by Prussia in 1866, the gates lost their function and were rented out as shops in 1867. They were demolished at the end of the 19th century.
On September 18, 1848, the September riots broke out . Two days earlier, the Frankfurt National Assembly had approved the Malmö ceasefire with a narrow majority . As a result, left-wing insurgents erected barricades in the city and murdered two members of the conservative-liberal casino faction - Felix Fürst Lichnowsky and Hans Adolf Erdmann von Auerswald - while riding in front of the Friedberger Tor. The National Assembly then felt compelled to summon Prussian and Austrian federal troops from the Mainz fortress into the city to restore order. Memorial stones were erected in Frankfurt's main cemetery for the two murdered MPs .
literature
- Architects & Engineers Association (Ed.): Frankfurt am Main and its buildings . Self-published by the association, Frankfurt am Main 1886
- Walter Gerteis: The unknown Frankfurt . 8th edition, Verlag Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-920346-05-X
- Fried Lübbecke : The face of the city. According to Frankfurt's plans by Faber, Merian and Delkeskamp. 1552-1864 . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1952
- Franz Rittweger, Carl Friedrich Fay: The old Frankfurt am Main , Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86568-118-8
- Heinrich Schüßler: Frankfurt's towers and gates . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1951
- Carl Wolff, Rudolf Jung: The architectural monuments of Frankfurt am Main - Volume 2, secular buildings . Self-published / Völcker, Frankfurt am Main 1898
Web links
- Friedberger Tor. altfrankfurt.com
Frankfurt city fortifications : Affentor | All Saints Gate | Plant ring | Bockenheim Gate | Eschenheim Gate | Travel gate | Friedberger Tor | Fronhofturm | Galgentor | Cowherd Tower | Monk's Tower | Rent tower | Salmenstein's house | Staufen wall | Ulrichstein | Ramparts | Wall Service • Frankfurter Landwehr : Bockenheimer Warte | Friedberger Warte | Galluswarte | Gutleuthof | Kühhornshof | Riederhöfe | Sachsenhausen Control Center
Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 4.9 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 18.6 ″ E