Main building of the University of Rostock
The main building of the University of Rostock is a representative of the Mecklenburg neo-Renaissance , it was built between 1867 and 1870. The listed main university building is located in Rostock city center directly on Universitätsplatz, where the rectorate, parts of the administration, the university archive and the theological faculty are housed.
history
Previous buildings
The property on which the main university building is located has been available to Rostock University since it was founded in 1419. The first university building, the “Great College”, was built during this time. Since the Faculty of Philosophy was located in this building, the building was also called the "Philosophical College". It was destroyed by fire in 1565. The successor building was opened as early as 1567, and due to its white paintwork, the building was given the name “White College” since 1649 at the latest. Remodeling and renovation work was carried out for the first time in 1792. In the 19th century the dilapidation of the house became more and more apparent. The unadorned facade and an increasing lack of space were also criticized. The first plans for a new building with an expanded area were drawn up by the builder Carl Theodor Severin (1763–1836), but these could not be implemented. It was decided to add an extension. In 1827 Severin was commissioned to build a library wing as an extension to the south side of the "White College", which for the first time also housed lecture halls. More construction work should follow. Due to the increasing importance of the natural sciences, a chemical laboratory was built in the courtyard behind the White College in 1833/34. Due to dilapidation, it was demolished in 2006. These construction activities suggest that the university was tempted to centralize its buildings around what was then Blücherplatz (now Universitätsplatz). Since the 1830s, planning has concentrated on building a “new museum”, where the university collections as well as laboratories and lecture halls for natural sciences should be housed. Grand Duke Paul Friedrich (1800–1842), court architect Georg Adolph Demmler (1804–1886) and the grand ducal government commissioner for university affairs, Vice Chancellor Carl Friedrich von Both (1789–1875), acted as the main actors. Both negotiated with the city of Rostock about the assignment of land on Blücherplatz and the former monastery rose garden, and in 1841 he received approval for this. The new building should be the south wing of a new building and not stand in a unit with the White College. During the construction of a new main building, a north wing, identical to the Neues Museum, was to be built on Kröpeliner Strasse. Demmler presented his design for the Neues Museum in 1842. The building architecture corresponds to historicism, construction began in 1844. Four portrait medallions in the middle of the first floor indicate that the building was used for natural science: Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), René Descartes (1596–1650), Otto von Guericke (1602–1686) and Carl von Linné (1707–1642) 1778). They symbolize the supraregional orientation of the Mecklenburg State University.
Building history
There was no construction activity between 1844 and 1866/67. The Grand Duke concentrated on expanding the Schwerin Palace . The revolution of 1848/49 also affected Mecklenburg and caused personnel restructuring. Under Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II , Hermann Willebrand (1816–1899) became the new court architect in 1851 . At the end of 1864, the rector and the council of the University of Rostock wrote a “Pro Memoria” to the sovereign, they justified a new building with the dilapidation of the White College and the growing need for space. A building appraisal followed in 1865 and finally the demolition of the White College in 1866. The new building design came from Willebrand, and Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch (1801–1883) was responsible for the image program on the new building . The foundation stone was laid in March 1867, just in time for the Grand Duke's silver jubilee. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on November 8, 1867, and the new main building was opened on January 27, 1870. The facade and roof of the New Museum and the main building were extensively restored between 1991 and 1996 in accordance with the requirements of listed buildings. In 2006, the second phase of the basic renovation of the main university building, the interior renovation, began. The company for construction and real estate in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was appointed as the owner's representative.
building
location
In the middle of the city center , the building is surrounded to the north by Kröpeliner Straße , to the east by Universitätsplatz , to the south by the cloister courtyard and the Zoological Institute (formerly the Higher Appeal Court) and to the west by the University Church and Kleiner Katthagen street . Also to the west is the inner courtyard behind the central building and the right wing of the main building.
architecture
Today's main university building consists of three parts: the main building from 1870, the New Museum from 1844 and the courtyard extension (formerly the library wing) from 1827. The main building, in turn, is divided into right and left wings and a central building. The central building, architecturally clearly delimited by the central projection, includes the entrance portal with a large vestibule and the auditorium above. During the interior renovation, the original skylight was restored in the auditorium. The number of floors differs in all three parts of the building, the courtyard extension has three, the New Museum four and the main building five floors (counting without a basement). In the main building in particular, the storeys stand out through a different facade design. The ground floor was provided with a basement , rough ashlar blocks with a terracotta red paint. The old pink of the first floor differs from the red tone of the plinth area. The second and third floors stand out from the facade with a light gray background with a subtle dark gray decor. Windows and painting are more complex than in the other areas. The attic is located under a flat hipped roof . The main university building is considered to be one of the main works of the Mecklenburg neo-Renaissance. There is an architectural break between the Neues Museum and the main building. The building alignment, number of floors, window arrangement and building height have been adjusted, but the difference between historicism and neo-renaissance is clearly recognizable. The main building is characterized by the use of the so-called Johann Albrecht style , which is rich in terracotta decor. The pictorial program should include three phases of university development: the founding time 1418/19; the Johann Albrecht period in the 16th century (renewal in the spirit of the Reformation) and the structural renewal under Friedrich Franz I (1756–1837) and Friedrich Franz II in the 19th century.
Image program of the facade
Representatives of the ruling house, the university, the city of Rostock and the clergy are represented on the facade, but with different weightings. City and clergy are each represented only once. The full sculptures were made by Christian Genschow and Gustav Willgohs . The portal bears the Latin inscription: "DOCTRINA MULTIPLEX VERITAS UNA" ("The doctrine (is) varied, the truth (but only) one"), above it the Schwerin bishop with a shepherd's staff, Heinrich II. Von Nauen , enthroned in the central projection . He was a co-founder of the university and obtained the necessary approval from the Pope. Heinrich Katzow († after 1428), mayor in the early days of the company, appears as the city's representative to the right of the portal . Its counterpart on the left is the founding rector Petrus Stenbeke († after 1419). At the level of the third and fourth floors, in the central elevation, there are the full sculptures of the founding dukes Johann IV († 1422) and Albrecht V († 1423), directly above there are two medallions with the heads of Friedrich Franz I and Friedrich Franz II . In the transition from the fourth to the fifth floor, the inscription: “IN HONOREM DEI FRIDERICUS FRANCISCUS II HANC DOMUM ACADEMICAM ASMD CCC LXVII CONDIDIT” (“In the glory of God, Friedrich Franz II built this academic house in the year of salvation 1867”). The coat of arms of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin forms the upper end .
The ducal innovators of the 16th century Johann Albrecht I and Ulrich III. are attached as full sculptures on the north side of the facade. The portraits of the humanist Nicolaus Marschalk (1470–1525), the philologist and founder of the university library Nathan Chyträus (1543–1598) and the orientalist and librarian Oluf Gerhard Tychsen (1734–1815) can be seen in the immediate vicinity .
On the facade there are also portrait medallions of people who were responsible for the state university in the grand ducal government: on the main facade Minister August Wilhelm Ferdinand von Schröter (1799–1865) and Vice Chancellor Carl Friedrich von Both, and on the courtyard side, court building officer Hermann Willebrand, architect Carl Luckow and site manager Adolf Prahst (1829–1919).
Four statues on the third floor symbolize the four founding faculties: medicine, theology, law and philosophy. The university sector is also represented by the theologian and polymath David Chyträus (1531–1600), the lawyer Ernst Cothmann (1557–1624), the physician Jacob Bording (1511–1560) and the philologist Johannes Caselius (1533–1613).
When the White College was demolished, two coat of arms stones of the Bülows , family of the Bishop of Schwerin, were found in the ground . Today they are on the north side of the courtyard extension, where they flank the courtyard entrance to the building.
Picture program inside
Auditorium
The sixteen portraits in the auditorium show, among others, David Chytraeus for the theological faculty (the only one represented inside and outside the building), the lawyer Johann Oldendorp (approx. 1488–1567), the physician Janus Cornarius (1500–1558), the historian Albert Krantz (1448–1517), the mathematician and physicist Joachim Jungius (1587–1656), the botanist Heinrich Friedrich Link (1767–1851), the mathematician Peter Johannes Hecker (1741–1835), the lawyer Adolf Dietrich Weber (1758– 1817), the physician Samuel Gottlieb Vogel (1750–1837) and the theologian Heinrich Müller (1631–1675).
The lordly founders and innovators were supposed to be displayed on the wall surfaces at the front of the auditorium, but there are still no history paintings there, and no agreement could be found on the content.
Stairwell
The nine busts in the stairwell are dedicated to the ancient Greek and Roman scholars: Homer , Aeschylus , Sophocles , Demosthenes , Plato , Aristotle , Virgil , Cicero and Seneca .
foyer
In the foyer of the main building there was initially an atlantic clock (1710) made by order of the Prussian King Friedrich I. The sculpture was created by Johann Samuel Nahl and the clockwork by the Berlin manufacturer Louis Le Roy. She came to Rostock via Duchess Louise Friederike, who moved into her widow's residence in the Rostock palace from the end of 1786 . She cultivated a friendship with the university librarian Oluf Gerhard Tychsen, to whom she gave the atlantic clock as well as part of her book collection. Tychsen originally had the clock set up in the reading room of the White College. After its demolition, the atlantic clock found its new place on a console in the middle niche of the front wall in the vestibule. The atlantic clock has been in the new building of the university library in Rostock's Südstadt for several years.
The decoration of the entrance hall changed several times, there was an equestrian statue of Duke Friedrich Franz, a Hitler bust, a Goethe bust or the sculpture "Wisdom" by Ludwig Brunow . In addition, various memorial plaques were placed on the walls for the victims of fascism, as well as for Arno Esch and Hans Moral . The relief "On the responsibility of the human being" by Jo Jastram was relocated to the outside area after the renovation, it is now in the courtyard of the main building.
As part of the interior renovation, the foyer was to be redesigned with an “ Art in Architecture ” competition . Only at the second attempt could a winner be found in the Rostock artist Wolfgang Friedrich. His design showed a life-size bronze sculpture as the embodiment of Metis , goddess of implied knowledge.
Treasury
In preparation for the 600th anniversary of the University of Rostock, a treasury was set up on the ground floor of the right wing. It has been open to the public since the main building was reopened in 2013. In addition to an outline of the university's history, archive materials are also shown, for example the insignia, the certificate of foundation and the university's enrollment book. There are also changing special exhibitions.
See also
literature
- Angela Hartwig, Ernst Münch : The University of Rostock, history of the "lamp of the north" in pictures. Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-394-7 .
- Gisela Boeck, Hans – Uwe Lammel, Ernst Münch, Wolfgang Eric Wagner: From Collegium to Campus. Places Rostock university and science history. Rostock 2010, ISBN 978-3-934116-62-7 .
- Wolfgang Schareck, Andrea Bärnreuther (Ed.): 6 to 600 - for the reopening of the main building of the University of Rostock. Rostock 2013, ISBN 978-3-86568-991-7 .
- Kersten Krüger, Ernst Münch (ed.): The main building of the University of Rostock 1870–2016 (= Rostock studies on university history, volume 30). University of Rostock, Rostock 2016, ISBN 978-3-86009-356-6 . ( Digitized version )
Web links
- Operation for construction and real estate MV, University of Rostock - renovation of the main university building on February 7, 2012
- Operation for construction and real estate MV, technical handover after the complete renovation of the main university building on January 29, 2014
- Operation for construction and real estate MV, time travel with the "time machine" from October 14, 2016
- University of Rostock, university history
Individual evidence
- ^ Atlantenuhr, collections of the University of Rostock
- ↑ Enrollment of a goddess ( memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. University of Rostock, October 18, 2013.
