Gothic house

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gothic House (2013)
Town Hall and Gothic House (1910–1920)
Town hall and Gothic house around 1890

The Gothic House is a listed building in the town of Wernigerode in the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt .

location

It is located on the west side of the city's market at Marktplatz 2, right next to the town hall . The Klint begins at the house and leads south to the Oberpfarrkirchhof .

Architecture and history

The building is two-story and has a slated gable roof with four small dormers . The ground floor of the building is made of natural stone with three large neo-Gothic windows on the left and four small windows on the right of the entrance portal, the upper floor of cantilevered functional half-timbering , which is filled with windows over the entire width. To the right of the building is a wide firewall .

The first documentary mention of a house at this point can be found in the interest register of the Drübeck Monastery , in which in 1360 an income “uth dem groten Huse op deme Markede an dem spelhuse” (from the big house on the market by the playhouse) is recorded. In 1425, Curd Kramer is mentioned as the owner in the interest register, and Heinrich Adenbüttel bought the house in 1430. In 1481 Adenbüttel rented his wine cellar for three Rhenish guilders to the city council. ("Prove tho Wernigerode op dem Markede on the Winkeller against the rathus dry rinsche guilders jarliker renthe") In the time that followed, the building was rebuilt around 1494/1498. Four of the figures that were attached to the facade of the right half of the building also date from this period.

In 1528 there was a big fire in the town that destroyed the town hall and spared the Gothic House. In search of a new building for the town hall, a contract was signed with the owner and canon Johann Adenbüttel in 1538. The city council had already started demolishing the house and uncovering the half-timbered structure when the council's conversion decision was changed at the end of the year. Instead, the Schierstedt family's house on the Klint was converted into a town hall. As a ruin, the city sold the house in 1540 to the Count of Stolberg's councilor Wilhelm Curio von Reifenstein, who had it restored. In 1545, Reifenstein and his wife moved into the house. He granted his friend Philipp Melanchthon refuge in his house from May 17, 1547 after the battle of Mühlberg , as a memorial plaque next to the entrance reminds of.

In 1545 a wing in the Renaissance style was added behind the house, which was provided on the front with carved beam heads, border thresholds and with sun, wheel or fan-shaped decorations of the panels. Until around 1854, there were also carved wall coverings and a wooden ceiling, which were processed in two rooms during the removal and handover to Count zu Stolberg at Wernigerode Castle .

After that the owners of the house changed several times. In 1847, the building was again spared from a city fire, which is commemorated by a plaque on the fire wall. In 1848 the brewer Samuel Gottfried Erxleben bought the building, who opened an inn in the same year. In a newspaper advertisement on November 27, 1848 he published an advertisement with the following text:

"To an honored public here and abroad, the sincere announcement that from December 1st of the year. J. fresh bitter beer every Friday and fresh Broyhan every Tuesday and, within a short time, good Bavarian beer is available in my brewery. - I will endeavor to regain the trust that was so generously given to me in the past by real service. At the same time, I allow myself to say that as of today I opened the tavern and inn “Zum Gothischen Haus” on the market and can serve cold and warm meals and drinks at any time; it will always be my greatest endeavor to serve the guests honoring me to their satisfaction. Wernigerode, November 26th 1848 "

- SG Experience

The name Gothisches Haus is not based on the Gothic architectural style, but refers to the Gothic spelling of the time , which linguistically stood for "medieval" or "old German".

An inn was operated continuously from the opening, even if the owners changed several times. In 1869 Wilhelm Fricke bought the Gothisches Haus, which after his death in 1876 was continued by his widow Anna Fricke and later by his son Wilhelm Fricke. In 1894 the hotel was expanded to include Markt 3 and in 1897 to include Klint 6, and the number of rented rooms increased.

In 1897 the guest room was rebuilt and enlarged , in which the neo-Gothic windows were inserted into the facade in the left half of the building and the entrance portal was given a round arch. The three original carved figures above the entrance were removed. The holy figures of St. Christopher and St. George were placed in the guest room, while the figure of the Apostle James was kept in the Harz Museum. In March 2017, with the support of foundations, the Harz Museum acquired all three Knaggenfiguren that had previously been on loan at the museum from 1989 to 2015. During the renovation, two memorial plaques were attached to the house, commemorating Melanchthon's visit in 1547 and the town fire of 1847.

In 1937 the guest room was redesigned and adapted to the taste of the time. The Fricke family operated the house through World War II and then leased it to Wilhelm Krebs. The hotel remained in family ownership until it was sold in 1965 to the state trade organization of the GDR, which continued to operate it as an HO hotel and restaurant. In 1986 it had to close due to the poor condition of the catering facilities and the dilapidation of the building.

In 1988 the general management of VEB travel agency of the GDR bought the house and in 1989 awarded the contract for the new building with reconstruction to the construction company Porr International AG from Vienna. In August 1989 the demolition of the existing building began on the left to the Klint and on the right to Westernstrasse, the Gothic House was the only building that remained. On May 11, 1990, the foundation stone was laid in the presence of Horst Dannat and Ernst August von Hannover as chairmen of the supervisory board of Porr AG. In June 1990 the hotels of the travel agencies of the GDR founded Travel Hotel GmbH, of which the Treuhandanstalt was 100% shareholder . After the fall of the Wall , the construction planning had to be adapted to the new circumstances, as the conversion to a " currency hotel " was planned beforehand . After a construction freeze, the number of hotel rooms was increased and the number of restaurant seats reduced. The old mint at the Oberpfarrkirchhof became the Pension Nonnenhof instead of the administrative building of the Gothic House.

During the reconstruction of the Gothic House, which took place under the supervision of the State Office for Monument Preservation from Halle, the five remaining wooden figures on the right facade were replaced by replicas , while the originals were used inside a hall. Four of the figures date from around 1480, a fifth from 1854. The figures are a bagpiper, a lute player, a flute player, a man with a scepter and a woman with an apple. The plank room behind it has been restored in accordance with the preservation order and corresponds to the original condition. The historic Renaissance facade, which was previously in the courtyard, was restored in the Quedlinburg workshops for monument preservation and hung in the restaurant's winter garden. The rooms above the restaurant have been restored in the historical style and the historical wine cellar is now used as a vaulted cellar for smaller parties. All remaining parts of the building of the new hotel are made of concrete cast, which is faced with half-timbering in the visible area from the market square and Westernstrasse.

The topping-out ceremony was celebrated in July 1991 and the hotel opened in December. Today it is operated by Travel Charme Hotel GmbH from Berlin.

In the list of cultural monuments of the city of Wernigerode, the Gothic House is recorded as an architectural monument under registration number 094 03340.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gothisches Haus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eduard Jacobs : Overview of the history u. Monuments of Wernigerode and the surrounding area . 1885, p. 43-45 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Wernigerödisches intelligence sheet. Monday, November 27th, 1848
  3. ^ Ivonne Sielaff: Late return to the Harz Museum. In: volksstimme.de. March 21, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture March 19, 2015 Printed matter 6/3905 (KA 6/8670): Monument register Saxony-Anhalt

Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 59.9 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 2.9 ″  E