Main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich
The main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich has been the central building of the university since it was built in 1835 . It houses facilities such as the rectorate, the student chancellery and a large number of lecture halls . The first building on Ludwigstrasse was built between 1835 and 1840 by the architect Friedrich von Gärtner ; 1906–1909 a major expansion of the building in the direction of Amalienstraße was carried out by German Bestelmeyer .
In terms of art history, the Gärtner building is one of the important and early representatives of the round arch style , a variant of historicism , while the extension by Bestelmeyer can be seen as an important building of Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism in the broader sense.
After the Second World War , the large auditorium in the gardener's building was the provisional meeting place of the Bavarian Parliament, among other things, the Bavarian constitution was adopted here.
Urban integration
The main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University forms the western end of a uniformly designed, forum-like square at the northern end of Ludwigstrasse in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich . According to the ideas of the client Ludwig I, the northern, monumentally designed entrance to the then residential city of Munich was to open here at the time of construction . For reasons of symmetry, the main building on the opposite side of the square was therefore supplemented by an ensemble of similarly designed buildings. a. through the Georgianum . Today, the square itself consists of the parts of Geschwister-Scholl-Platz in the west in front of the main building and Professor-Huber-Platz on the east side of Ludwigstrasse. Since 1906, the main building has also been accessed through a second main entrance from Amalienstraße, where other university institutes and the Academy of Fine Arts are located.
Today the main building forms the center of a campus-like concentration of many university facilities.
Building history
Historical forerunners of today's main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University
→ Main article: History of the Ludwig Maximilians University
The Ludwig Maximilians University has existed as an institution since 1472. In that year Ludwig the Rich founded the first Bavarian university in Ingolstadt . The former beneficiary's house, the so-called high school, served as the main building there . Other university buildings included the anatomy building, which was rebuilt between 1723 and 1736 . In 1800 the university was relocated to Landshut . The former Dominican monastery served as a university building there . In 1826 the Ludwig Maximilians University was relocated to Munich by order of King Ludwig I. The university was housed in the Wilhelminum until the main building, which still exists today, was rebuilt by the architect Friedrich von Gärtner on Ludwigstrasse .
The new building by Friedrich von Gärtner (1835–1840)
In 1826, King Ludwig I decided to build a new building for the Ludwig Maximilians University, which was to be built at the northern end of Ludwigstrasse, which was only half completed at the time. For this purpose, Ludwig I asked three architects in the form of a competition to create a first draft for the new building according to his ideas. The architects selected were: Johann Gottfried Gutensohn , Franz Christian Gau and Joseph Thürmer .
Friedrich von Gärtner , who is now one of the most important architects under Ludwig I in Bavaria alongside Leo von Klenze , was not involved in the building project at that time. It was not until 1827 that Friedrich von Gärtner was commissioned to submit a draft for the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and ultimately prevailed against the planning drafts of his colleagues, including Leo von Klenze.
Gärtner's rectangular space formation and the corresponding peripheral development in contrast to the circular arc arrangement according to Klenzes' proposal were particularly convincing with regard to the cost savings. The university had to occupy the west side, as the east area of the square is interrupted by the Veterinärstraße. With the square shape of the square, the shape of the university as a three-wing complex was automatically determined, just like that of the two-wing complex on the square opposite. Although the architects had freedom in designing the building, they were still subject to a precise spatial program that Ludwig I prescribed.
The construction project was initially suspended and only resumed in 1832. It can be assumed that the planning of the new building was postponed again by two years due to the financial crisis and that construction could only begin in 1835. The foundation stone was laid on August 25, 1835, on the occasion of the 49th birthday of King Ludwig I. At the same time, the foundation stone was laid for the new building of the duchy Georgianum diagonally opposite .
First extensions and extensions by 1906
Gärtner's university building was only designed for a capacity of around 1,500 students. However, the number of students rose to around 4,500 by the turn of the 20th century. As early as 1873, the first complaints about the continuously growing lack of space were heard, so that further extensions were soon necessary.
The first construction work took place during the reign of King Ludwig II , when the aula tower, which still exists today, was built between 1878 and 1881 at the rear of the south wing. In addition, between 1892 and 1894, the Physics Institute was added to the south wing as a western continuation of the Aula wing. Another major construction project was Emanuel Seidel's extension , which was built between 1897 and 1898 as a western continuation of the north wing along Adalbertstrasse . Other buildings within Munich that also belonged to the university, but were not connected to the main building wing, were also purchased or built. So z. B. the anatomical institute built between 1905 and 1907 near the Sendlinger gate or the university library (1892).
In addition to these measures, attempts have been made to counteract the increasing problem of lack of space by purposefully buying land since 1886. Above all, attempts were made to acquire properties on Amalienstrasse and Adalbertstrasse, i.e. in the immediate western connection to the gardener's building, in order to develop a contiguous area for another new university building. As early as 1902 the university owned ten properties, and in 1907 the last pieces of land were acquired so that the planned new building could begin.
The great expansion by German Bestelmeyer (1906–1909)
In 1906–1909 the university building was fundamentally expanded westwards towards Amalienstraße. The young architect German Bestelmeyer provided the plans .
The expansion coincided with the time when Bestelmeyer was working as an assessor at the Royal Agriculture Office. Before he received the order to expand the LMU, Bestelmeyer took part in various architecture and monument competitions. This resulted in collaboration with artists who were later involved in equipping the extension, such as the painter Wilhelm Koeppen (mosaic floor in the atrium) and the sculptor Bernhard Bleeker (portrait sculptures of Ludwig I and Prince Regent Luitpold on the inner staircase of the atrium). Bestelmeyer's extensive equipment program, however, required a whole team of visual artists, so Josef Flossmann , Hermann Hahn and Ulfert Janssen (sculptures in the auditorium) were also involved. The facade sculptures were created by Georg Albertshofer . Together with Koeppen and Janssen, Bestelmeyer even went on a study trip to Florence , the occasion of which was the artistic furnishing of the auditorium.
It is noteworthy that the original, far more conventional design for the expansion of the LMU did not come from Bestelmeyer, but from his superior, Oberbaurat von Stempel . Ultimately, however, Bestelmeyer's design was convincing, and so it was implemented. From April 1, 1906, Bestelmeyer took over the management of the construction office for the extension of the LMU. After the extension had been successfully completed, Bestelmeyer was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy by the university management in 1909 .
War destruction and reconstruction
During the air raids on Munich in World War II , the entire forum complex and the main building were severely destroyed. Especially during the attack on July 13, 1944, the main building suffered very serious, but differently distributed, damage from high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs. The roof zones were almost completely lost. Friedrich von Gärtner's old building burned down and was most seriously damaged. Its façade on the second floor of the central area received a five-axis wide flaw. The shield wall above the main staircase was also destroyed, and Bestelmeyer's new room furnishings for the rector's office on the first floor of the gardener's building were lost. The northern extension from 1897/98 on Adalbertstrasse was largely destroyed. On the other hand, the entire extension by German Bestelmeyer, where numerous details such as lighting, doors with fittings and floor surfaces are still preserved in their original form, was significantly less damaged. One of the few larger halls that survived the war in Munich undamaged is the Great Aula redesigned by Bestelmeyer. One reason for this much better preservation of the younger parts is likely to be the extensive use of the new and fire-resistant material concrete for ceilings and vaulted shells.
As a result of the bombing in 1944, teaching could only be rudimentarily maintained.
After the war, only a makeshift restoration of the building took place without the large atrium, so that the university was able to resume operations in the summer semester of 1946. The subsequent reconstruction was mainly carried out in 1946–1951 by the University Building Authority and largely followed the concepts of Friedrich von Gärtner and German Bestelmeyer. By 1953/55, the facade on the forum side and the central vestibule on the first floor of the gardener's building were reconstructed true to the original. The vestibule on the 2nd floor was redesigned. Most of the damage to the entire university building had been repaired by 1958, and on June 12, 1958, the ceremonial reopening of the restored atrium was celebrated. The repair cost a total of approx. 8,500,000 DM (taking into account inflation , this corresponds to approx. 20,200,000 EUR today).
1958–1960 the north wing of the Bestelmeyerchen Ehrenhof on Amalienstraße was extended to the north by a lecture hall building and received the facade system of the neighboring old building on the outside. 1960–1962 the remaining gap between Adalbertstrasse and the Gärtner building in the east was supplemented by a new wing in the form of international modernism. In 1961 the facade of the gardener's building received 14 new scholarly medallions, which continued the older series of 44 medallions. As the last major change to the main building so far, a subway entrance was built into the north wing of the uranium plant in 1972.
Building description
inner space
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The interior opens up to the visitor through the main entrance on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz. Gärtner's building encloses the square on three sides and runs even further north along Ludwigstrasse. The staircase leads to the first floor, where the typical arched style of Gärtner is evident. As in the entrance area, columns support a groin vault . A light-flooded corridor with typical arched windows connects to this “anteroom” to the left and right. Bestelmeyer's extension opens the originally central staircase, which divides the gardener's building into a north and south half, to form an atrium and expands the floor plan to a three-wing complex that includes two inner courtyards. Bestelmeyer's style is already evident in the atrium. But many other structural details also suggest a kind of synthesis of Art Nouveau with Byzantine influence. The columns in the atrium each show a different, imaginative capital, and various mosaics and animal motifs can be found throughout the Bestelmeyer building. The entrance on the Amalienstraße side is also interesting here, as it takes up the round arch motif in a distant manner, but connects with Bestelmeyer's animal motifs.
Works of art around the building
The viewer opens up a diverse and varied selection of works of art around the main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University.
Atrium and vestibule
If you enter the main building of the University of East (Geschwister-Scholl-Platz), you can see three mosaic fields in the vestibule of the gardener's building , which were implemented according to a design by Wilhelm Köppen (1876–1917), which was implemented during the redesign of the main building German Bestelmeyer was active in the years 1909/10. Köppen's mosaic also adorns the floor in the atrium of the main building. The mosaic follows a polygonal structure. The head of Medusa forms the central motif, which is framed by a star circle. In the surrounding square fields, alternating eagles and snakes , eight in total, are worked into a circle. Two statues by the sculptors Knut Åkerberg and Bernhard Bleeker from 1911 flank the staircase in the atrium of the main building. You can see King Ludwig I (Knut Åkerberg, in the north) and Prince Regent Luitpold (Bernhard Bleeker, in the south). The entrance door of the Auditorium Maximum , on the first floor on the side of the atrium, shows a mosaic field by Julius Diez . You can see the goddess of science. The zodiac signs and the symbols of the faculties form the background . Another mosaic work by Köppen is the wall fountain with a clock in the vestibule of the Bestelmeyer extension in the west of the Auditorium maximum towards Amalienstraße.
Organ by Georg Friedrich Steinmeyer (1960, "White Rose Organ")
In the atrium of the main building, opposite the Audimax, was the mosaic The Fountain of Science by Julius Diez until it was destroyed in World War II . In the place of the mosaic, an organ from GF Steinmeyer & Co. ( Oettingen ) was built as Opus 1999 at the endeavors of the then rector Joseph Pascher in 1960 and inaugurated on February 23, 1961 with a concert by the Munich cathedral organist Heinrich Wismeyer , who also received the acceptance report had written. This organ bears its special name in memory of the White Rose resistance group . The instrument has 26 registers (1680 pipes, 3 transmissions in the pedal) on two manuals and pedal. 2012–2013 the organ was renovated and cleaned by Markus Harder-Völkmann ( Neubiberg ). She can be heard regularly in concerts in cooperation with the White Rose Foundation and "Uni-Kunst". The disposition:
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
- Electropneumatic actions, mobile gaming table.
Large auditorium
The large auditorium is on the first floor in the south wing of the gardener's building . The Apollo mosaic in the apse there is also the work of Wilhelm Köppen. The mosaic is divided into five wall panels. In the middle you can see Apollo with the sun chariot , which is pulled by four horses. The two fields to the left and right of Apollo show the gods (from left to right) Hera , Athene , Hermes and Aphrodite . Underneath extends a plinth frieze, which in Apollo's case bears the following inscription, from Sophocles Antigone : “ΑΚΤΙΣ ΑΕΛΙΟΥ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΟΝ ΦΑΟΣ.” (Ray of the sun, most beautiful light.) Köppen's signature is under the horses of Apollo. In addition to the mosaic, busts of Maximilian I. Joseph , Ludwig I. , Maximilian II. , Ludwig II. , Otto I. , Prince Regent Luitpold and Ludwig III are lined up under the base frieze .
UniGalerieLMU
The UniGalerie of the Ludwig Maximilians University has existed since May 2008. The gallery rooms are located in the entrance area of the student office in the main building. In addition to providing a platform for contemporary artists, especially LMU graduates, exhibitions with historical works of art from LMU's own holdings are also designed and implemented. The UniGalerieLMU cooperates with "Kunst am CAS" and the project "Art Collection of the LMU".
White Rose Memorial
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→ Main article: White Rose Memorial
The main building houses the Museum Denkstätte White Rose which is run by the White Rose Foundation eV and is reminiscent of the student revolts in Nazi Germany at the University of Munich.
use
Historical use
At the time it was built, the main building housed the headquarters of the university management and administration, as well as almost all of the rooms that were necessary for university teaching. In Gärtner's building there were already twelve lecture halls, numerous seminar rooms, various scientific collections, workshops and other rooms that were available to the various faculties and were mainly located on the ground floor and first floor of the north and south wings. The rooms in the middle wing on the first floor were almost exclusively reserved for the university management. Among other things, the rooms of the administrative committee, the office, the secretariat and the splendidly furnished rectorate with its own anteroom were housed there. The large auditorium was specially built in the south wing for representative purposes, extending from the first to the second floor. The second floor mostly housed the university library.
Todays use
The main building still serves as the university's headquarters today. Both the university management and large parts of the administration as well as individual institutes are still located in this building. Most of the university lectures take place in the numerous lecture halls.
literature
The main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University in the literature about Friedrich von Gärtner (among others architects)
- Klaus Eggert: The master builder King Ludwig I. The main works of Friedrich von Gaertner , Munich 1963.
- Oswald Hederer: Friedrich von Gärtner. 1792-1847. Life, work, pupil. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7913-0105-5 .
- Winfried Nerdinger (Ed.): Friedrich von Gärtner. An architect's life. 1791-1847. With the letters to Johann Martin von Wagner. Klinkhardt & Biermann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7814-0333-5 .
- Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building. Unpublished master's thesis of the LMU, Munich 1985 (a copy is available in the library of the Architekturmuseum der TU München)
- Heinz Thiersch: German Bestelmeyer. His life and work for architecture. Georg DW Callwey Verlag, Munich 1961.
- Florian Koch: German Bestelmeyer (1874–1942), architect. Tradition as an illusion of permanence. The southern German church building, romantic-retrospective traditionalism in sacred buildings of the twenties and thirties. Munich 2001. (Dissertation, LMU Munich 1999)
The main building of the Ludwig Maximilians University in the inventory of monuments
- Heinrich Habel (Ed.): City of Munich. Ensembles, architectural monuments, archaeological site monuments (= monuments in Bavaria. Government districts. Bd. 1,1.) R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-486-52391-0 .
- Heinrich Habel, Johannes Hallinger, Timm Weski (eds.): State capital Munich. Center. (= Monuments in Bavaria. Independent cities and districts. Vol. I.2 / 1, third volume 1.) Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87490-586-2 .
- Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bavaria, Part IV: Munich and Upper Bavaria. 3rd edition, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-422-03115-4 .
Other relevant literature
- Hans-Dieter Nägelke: University building in the German Empire. Historicist architecture in the process of building consensus among citizens. Ludwig Verlag, Kiel 2000, ISBN 3-93359809-5 .
- Anja Hoffmann: Monumental painting in the field of tension between historicism and Art Nouveau. The work of Wilhelm Köppen (1897-1917). Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn 2009. ( online ls PDF)
- Luise Dirscherl (Ed.): The Ludwig Maximilians University Munich in the past and present . Publishing house Lutz Garnies, Haar 2010.
Web links
- uni-muenchen.de - Official website of the LMU
- State Building Authority Munich 2: The main building of the LMU on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz
- Technical University of Munich: Construction plans of the main building of the LMU by Friedrich von Gärtner
- UniGalerieLMU
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building , Munich 1985, p. 13 ff.
- ^ Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building , Munich 1985, p. 19 ff.
- ^ A b c Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building , Munich 1985, p. 24f.
- ↑ a b Florian Koch: German Bestelmeyer, Munich 2001
- ^ Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building , Munich 1985, p. 29 ff.
- ^ Luise Dirscherl (ed.): The Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich in the past and present . Verlag Lutz Garnies, Haar 2010, p. 149.
- ^ Nadia von Seckendorff: The University of Munich. Friedrich von Gärtner's building , Munich 1985, p. 29.
- ↑ Heinrich Habel, Johannes Hallinger, Timm Weski (eds.): State capital Munich. Middle (= monuments in Bavaria. Independent cities and districts. Vol. I.2 / 1, third volume 1). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87490-586-2 , p. 279.
- ^ University publication server of the ULB Bonn: Anja Hoffmann: Monumental painting in the field of tension between historicism and Art Nouveau. The work of Wilhelm Köppen (1897-1917) , Diss. Bonn 2009, (PDF; 1.8 MB) pp. 96–99 (June 27, 2012)
- ↑ The White Rose Organ in the atrium of the LMU - a sounding memorial . Accessed May 14, 2018.
- ^ Harder-Völkmann, Markus: The "White Rose" organ of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . Accessed May 14, 2018.
- ↑ Stein, Claudius (ed.): The Weisse-Rose-Orgel of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMUniversum, Volume 14), Haar / München: Lutz Garnies, 2014.
- ↑ University art . Accessed May 14, 2018.
- ^ University publication server of the ULB Bonn: Anja Hoffmann: Monumental painting in the field of tension between historicism and Art Nouveau. The work of Wilhelm Köppen (1897-1917) , Diss. Bonn 2009, (PDF; 1.8 MB) pp. 101–102 (June 27, 2012)
- ↑ Website of the UniGalerieLMU ( Memento from June 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (June 27, 2012)
- ↑ Construction plans for the main LMU building by Friedrich von Gärtner (July 3, 2012)
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 3 ″ N , 11 ° 34 ′ 49 ″ E