Hammonia
Hammonia is a neo-Latin name for the city of Hamburg . As a pictorial allegory in the form of a female figure, the Hammonia represents the city of Hamburg (city allegory). As a linguistic allegory in literature, poetry and lyrics, the name Hammonia is representative (as a synonym ) for the name Hamburg or refers to that female figure.
In addition to the use of the name and its representation in art, numerous associations, companies and products also bear the name and thus express a connection to Hamburg. Ships, an office building in Mönckebergstrasse , the Hammonia-Bad an der Mundsburg , the Hammonia relay in the Hamburg regional soccer league and the Hammonia asteroid were also named in this way.
Despite the wide range of uses in the last centuries up to the present day, the exact origin is unclear, especially since the actual Latin city name in the medieval chronicles is mostly Hamburgum or Hammaburgum .
Emergence
In a document written in Latin from the year 834 by Pope Gregory IV , the city name appears for the first time as Hamaburg , which is derived from the Hammaburg , which was destroyed in 845 . Excavations suggest that this building, which is at least documented in writing (the location is still unclear), already had one or more predecessors, because the Saxons had settled on the Geest ridge between the Alster and Bille in the centuries before. The Old Saxon word hamme / ham for a raised, wooded area protruding into the marsh on the bank of a river or swamp can be reconciled with this location. In the 14th century, sales documents name a piece of forest as Hamm .
In the Middle Ages, the name experienced a number of variants such as: Hammenburg (12th century), Hamborch (1232), Hamborg (1236), Hammenburch (first city seal), whereby Hamborch and Hamborg still exist today as spelling in the Low German language . In addition, there are changing Latin names: Hamburgum, Hammaburgum, Hamburga, Hammipolis, Hammonis castrum, urbs Jovis.
The last names indicate a development to give the city name a completely different meaning. So urbs Jovis means nothing else than city of Jupiter. As early as 1370 Heinrich von Herford wrote about the establishment of a diocese in the castle of Hammon . Here, too, Hammon stands for the Roman god Jupiter (compare also the Egyptian god Amun or Ammon, who became Jupiter with the Romans). Hinrich Boger immortalized Hamburg as the city of Hammon in a poem in 1478 . It thus falls into a time of blossoming German humanism , in which the goddess Luna also serves as an example for Lüneburg as the namesake. In contrast, Albert Krantz , the “historian of the north”, tried in vain to refute this nonsensical Jupiter derivation. Another dubious derivation names a Hammon (also Hamy, Hamoys) as the alleged deity of the Saxons. It is assumed, however, that this god did not exist to lend the cities of Hamburg and Hamm his name, but rather that a local god was invented, as Jupiter was too far-fetched for many.
With the Reformation , the role of Mary as the actual Christian patron saint of the city began to fade. It finally disappears from the Hamburg coins in the second half of the 17th century. The Mariendom was consecrated to her and the two Mariensterne of the Hamburg coat of arms should also bear her name. At the same time, there is presumably a growing desire for an identity-creating figure to represent and patronize the city.
In 1624 it was an engraver who first portrayed Hamburg as a woman. In the centuries that followed, this female figure appeared again and again as a decorative accessory on cityscapes and maps in the taste of the time. Finally, on February 21, 1710, the name Hammonia appears for the first time in writing. In a cantata for the Petrimahlzeit (banquet during the annual redistribution of offices in the Senate), the poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes names Hammonia, the city's patron goddess. Hamburg had now found its national allegiance.
see also: National Allegory Germania , Bavaria , Berolina , Saxonia (Saxony) , Brunonia etc.
presentation
The figure of Hammonia is usually depicted with a crenellated wall crown, the other attributes that accompany the female figure change. Sometimes it bears the heraldic shield , sometimes the rod of Mercury , sometimes an anchor or a steering wheel is added to it.
music
The Hamburg anthem , written in 1828, is sometimes also called Hammonia, because the refrain is: Heil über dich, Heil über dich, Hammonia, Hammonia! One of the best-known songs by the cult Hamburg-born Heidi Kabel is “Hammonia - My Hamburg, I love you”.
literature
The image of Hammonia was also derived from Heinrich Heine's description of the encounter with the city goddess in “ Germany. A winter fairy tale ”. In the final chapters ( Caput 23ff ) he describes the nocturnal meeting with her, which he meets on the Drehbahn, a side street of the Gänsemarkt . The goddess is corpulent, drunk and sentimental. At the end of his trip, he reads the future of Germany from the nightware she inherited from Charlemagne .
Hammonia's name not only appears in poetry and fiction , but has also been used repeatedly in recent times as a synonym for Hamburg, even on non-fiction titles. In 2001 a comic appeared under the name Asterix schnackt Hamburgisch - Hammonia-City .
Portraits
- Due to a Palladio exhibition in the Museum of Hamburg History in 1997, a sculpture from the 18th century was moved to the inner courtyard of the museum and identified for the first time as a representation of Hammonia.
- A mosaic is installed above the town hall entrance and in the phoenix hall, which is dedicated to the Hamburg fire , a picture of the Hammonia above the ruins of the city.
- The fountain on Hansaplatz in St. Georg is interpreted partly as a Hammonia, partly as a representation of the Hansa.
- On the occasion of the opening of the Speicherstadt by the Kaiser on October 2, 1888, statues of Germania and Hammonia (by Aloys Denoth), which were lost in the Second World War , were erected on the Brooksbrücke . In 2003, Jörg Plickat placed new sculptures from Hammonia and Europe on the newly built Brooks Bridge.
- A statue of Waldemar Otto has been on the stock exchange since 2005 , replacing the destroyed sculptures from 1841 (August Carl Kiss) in the gable field.
- A sculpture is attached to the House of Seafaring - the Hammonia with a lion.
- The Oberpollinger department store in Munich's pedestrian zone has a sculpture of Hammonia on the middle of three gables (flanked by two Hanse cogs on the other two gables). The artists Heinrich Düll and Georg Pezold paid their respects to the hometown of the department store founder Max Emden .
Coins and medals
At least since 1754 ( Gaedechens : No.1885 (I.51) ) the figure has been used regularly on medal-like coins in the city.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Germany. A winter fairy tale on Wikisource
- ^ Josef H. Biller, Hans-Peter Rasp: Munich - Art & Culture. City guide and manual. Ludwig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7787-5125-5 , p. 307.
