Yellow Castle (Weimar)

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East view from Democracy Square of the baroque Yellow Palace in Weimar (photo from 2019)
Northwest view of the baroque Yellow Palace on the Green Market in Weimar (photo from 2009)

The Yellow Palace in Weimar is a listed baroque building from 1704, which was built as a widow's residence for the Duchess Charlotte Dorothea Sophie . It belongs to the historic palace complex in the inner city of Weimar and is a structural expression of the former court and residence city . Johann Sebastian Bach gave music lessons for the two princes of Duke Johann Ernst III here. The successful writer August von Kotzebue spent his youth in the house. Years later the castle was appointed the seat of the Thuringian Ministry of Finance . The building has been part of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar since 1998 and has been part of the new study center of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library since 2005 .

Urban development context

View into Kollegiengasse, on the left the entrance to the Yellow Castle (was an imposing columned portal until 1945), behind it the Red Castle

The Yellow Palace is part of the historic palace complex around Weimar's "Platz der Demokratie" (formerly "Fürstenplatz"), where the "Green Palace" with the Duchess Anna Amalia Library is also located. The Yellow Castle forms the northern end of the urban ensemble .

The main front of the Yellow Castle is oriented towards the “Grüner Markt” (formerly “Burgplatz”) to the north, which had emerged in 1837/38 from the vacated space of the demolished “Alte Hauptwache” and some house gardens. In the immediate vicinity to the east, the late classicist building of the “Neue Wache” , built in 1834–1838 by senior building director Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray (1775–1845), adjoins the palace. In the south, the Yellow Castle borders the formerly free-standing "Gleichenschen Hof" (16th century) and the city apartment of the Counts of Gleichen (later the seat of the police and savings bank). And on the west side, the narrow Kollegiengasse leads directly past the Yellow Castle.

Together with the adjoining Red Castle (1574–1576) to the south and the two classicist “gatehouses” (1820) by Coudray, the historic building complex called “Markt 15” forms a ring of buildings surrounding the inner courtyard.

history

Detailed view of the former lion portal, which was converted into a window with a balustrade after the Second World War

The Yellow Palace, named after the original facade color, was built in the years 1702 to 1704 on Weimarer Burgplatz as a result of the renovation of a free house from the 16th century by the baroque architect and court builder Johann Mützel (1647–1717) with the aim of building a new one To create a widow's residence for Duchess Charlotte Dorothea Sophie (1672–1738), born Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and wife of Duke Johann Ernst III. of Saxe-Weimar (1664–1707). The iron majuscules "CDSDSLHH" , which are distributed over the entire north facade, are the initials for Charlotta Dorothea Sophia Dux Saxoniae Landgrafia Hasso Homburgiae . On the west facade, the large black numbers "1.7.0.4." Testify to the time the house was built. The main front of the yellow plastered, two-storey castle building with a mansard roof was emphasized in addition to the initials by an imposing "lion portal", named after the two lions above the duchess's coat of arms. The main access, however, was from the west via Kollegiengasse through a mighty column portal (see photo from 1938 under web links ).

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a frequent guest at the Yellow Palace between 1708 and 1717 during his time in Weimar. Together with his friend and distant cousin Johann Gottfried Walther (1684–1748), who had been the organist of the City Church of St. Peter and Paul in Weimar since 1707 , he gave music lessons in the Yellow Palace for the musically gifted Prince Johann Ernst IV of Saxony- Weimar (1696–1715) and his half-brother Ernst August I of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1688–1748).

After the death of Duchess Charlotte von Hessen-Homburg in 1738, the Yellow Palace was used as an administration building and later as the residence of various court officials. Among other things, the Brunswick Major Levin Karl Christian Kotzebue lived in the house. At that time he was in the service of Duchess Anna Amalia as counselor and secret trainee lawyer . His wife Christina Kotzebue (née Krüger) and his daughter and later writer Karoline Ludecus (1757–1827) also soon moved to Weimar in the Yellow Palace. The famous son August von Kotzebue (1761–1819) was born here in 1761 and spent part of his youth in the house. He was one of the most played dramatists of his time and wrote more than 200 plays before he was stabbed to death in Mannheim in 1819 by a fraternity named Karl Ludwig Sand .

In 1774 the ducal chamber had been relocated to the Yellow Palace, which remained there until it was closed in 1848. In 1838 the “Neue Wache” and the Weimar “Pagerie” were added to the eastern part of the castle. In 1852 the Yellow Castle became the seat of the “State Ministry Dep. III ”(third department of finance), which involved significant structural changes that connected the entire castle even more precisely with the neighboring“ Gleichenschen Hof ”. In 1910/1911, the architect Carl Friedrich Dittmar had additional buildings built between the “Neue Wache” and the “Red Palace” as a separating crossbar in the inner courtyard of the building ring, creating a small northern courtyard at the Yellow Castle and a narrow one southern courtyard between gatehouses and the Red Castle.

In 1911 it was planned to set up a fountain in the courtyard of the Yellow Palace . Thereupon the sculptor and professor Gottlieb Elster (1867-1917) created the original bronze sculpture “Tax Collector” (1912 ) for the fountain figure , a clerk dragging files and money as he shuffled as a troubled civil servant across the courtyard and the long corridors of the neighboring princely finance ministry . The sandstone fountain in the courtyard is therefore known as the "Aktenmännchenbrunnen".

After the state of Thuringia was founded on May 1, 1920, the Yellow Palace became the seat of the Thuringian Ministry of Finance , which existed as the central state authority from December 3, 1920 to June 12, 1945.

During the air raids on Weimar in the Second World War , the interior of the Yellow Castle was almost completely destroyed by a heavy bomb hit on February 9, 1945 and was heavily modified as part of the reconstruction after 1945. The former lion portal of the north facade was still preserved, but was redesigned to a window with a balustrade . The large pillar portal to Kollegiengasse, on the other hand, could no longer be saved.

Between 1992 and 1997, the facades of the “Markt 15” building complex were repaired in several stages in accordance with the requirements of historical monuments. Until 1994, the Yellow Castle served as the seat of the Weimar city administration. After the Thuringian district reform on July 1, 1994, it moved to the Schwanseestrasse 17 building. The " Aktenmännchenbrunnen ", which was extensively renovated from 1985 to 1989, was dismantled in 1998 due to the planned construction work in the inner courtyard of the Yellow Palace and was to be located in front of the new headquarters of the city administration. However, the installation has not yet taken place, at least as far as the figure of the little file man is concerned, it has ended up in the magazine in the Weimar City Museum .

Todays use

New entrance building of the HAAB study center between the courtyards of Rotem and Gelben Schloss
Interior view of the book cube in the courtyard of the Yellow Castle

In 1998, the Weimarer Klassik Foundation acquired the Yellow and Red Castle and, from 2002 to 2005, in its largest construction project to date, for a total of 23 million euros (half funded by the federal government and the Free State of Thuringia ) through renovation and expansion, to restore it as a Use the extension buildings and the new study center for the Duchess Anna Amalia Library (HAAB) opposite in the Green Palace . The reason for this was the long overdue amalgamation of the library holdings , which have grown to around a million volumes and are distributed in around 20 depots throughout the city. For this purpose, a depth magazine and a parking magazine were also built under the “Platz der Demokratie” (Democracy Square ), which are connected to the castles via an underground passage.

The building erected in 1910 in the inner courtyard of the building complex was demolished and replaced by a general entrance building for the new study center, which also houses an underground reading room with daylight. A multi-storey, 18-meter-high book cube with 16 glazed skylights has been placed in the old courtyard of the Yellow Palace , which is presented in rough exposed concrete on the outside and in an elegant wooden bowl on the inside. It functions as a large book cabinet with two-story galleries and wall-mounted shelves. In addition to free access to around 100,000 volumes, the book cube offers a photo library with 150,000 images, various event rooms and a reading café. The study magazine is connected to the main building (Green Castle) via an underground passage. The Yellow Castle itself was gutted and statically converted to accommodate the books and the resulting ceiling loads. The Red Castle, on the other hand, was refurbished in a way that was gentle on the substance and is used in its current structure for managing and cataloging the holdings.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Emery, Robert L. Marshall: Johann Sebastian Bach Biography (1685 - 1750) . Article from Biography.com ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.biography.com  
  2. ↑ Ferdinand von Biedenfeld: A day in Weimar: A concise tourist guide - With a view of Weimar. Verlag von Ferd. Jansen and Comp., 1852, p. 26 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Hemmann, Paul; Günther Golling; Gisela Hemmann: The fountains in Weimar: history and stories about the emergence, the partial decay and the restart of the running fountains. Weimar: Stadtmuseum Weimar, 1990. - 96 pages .: Ill .; Kt. (Tradition and present, Weimar writings; 38)
  4. ^ Website of the Thuringian Ministry of Finance of the Thuringia archive portal ( online ).
  5. ↑ Isolde Bacher: Baedeker Allianz travel guide Weimar. 5th edition. Verlag Karl Baedeker, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-8297-1177-7 ( Baedeker Allianz travel guide ), pp. 153-156 ( online ).

literature

  • Knoche, Michael (Ed.): The Duchess Anna Amalia Library: The Study Center . Anthology on behalf of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. Nicolai, Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-89479-347-0

Web links

Commons : Yellow Castle  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 47 ″  N , 11 ° 19 ′ 51 ″  E