House Traar

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View from the south

Haus Traar is a former manor in Krefeld-Traar , An der Elfrather Mühle 241. It was the namesake for the formerly independent place, which is now a district of the North Rhine-Westphalian city ​​of Krefeld . Built by aristocrats as a manor in the middle of the 13th century, it soon came into the possession of the Teutonic Order for around 500 years . After the secularization , the property was also used as an agricultural estate by all subsequent owners . After the abandonment of agricultural use, all farm buildings were converted to residential purposes from 1992 onwards.

history

Coat of arms of Are and coat of arms of Rode

After clearing and settlement of the area and the construction of the first farms in the 10th century, a moated castle Are and the knights of Are (te Are = Traar) were first mentioned in a document dated June 11, 1255. The coat of arms of Are showed three eagles on a silver shield between a green crossbar. Shortly after construction, the castle was given to the Teutonic Order by the builders Albert von Are (ter Are = Traar ) and his wife Aleidis von Rode (Rode = Rath ) in 1274 because of childlessness . Despite several challenges to the donation by relatives, it was not possible to get the property back. Only a final settlement documented in 1293 settled the dispute. The property remained in the ownership of the Teutonic Order until the secularization in 1802. Haus Traar was incorporated into the Ballei Koblenz . Later it formed the Traar and Rheinberg Commanderies together with the Ordenshaus in Rheinberg . The coat of arms with the cross of the Teutonic Order at the entrance gate still reminds of the past as a manor .

Bird view from 1760

All buildings were destroyed by two fires, in 1584 during the Truchsessian War and in 1641/42 by Hessian-Weimar troops. The reconstruction and the further leasing to Johann Halfmann auf Arrh began in 1647. The manor house was rebuilt in 1664 and the chapel in 1669. In 1715 it was temporarily the official seat of the commander in the manor house. The property had state parliament rights , but not jurisdiction or hunting justice.

Henoumont family at Haus Traar , painting by Wilhelm Krafft , 1835

After the left Rhineland became French with the Peace of Lunéville in 1801 , the manor passed into the possession of the French domain administration in the course of secularization; the tenant of Haus Traar replaced the annuity of a Malter rye to be paid annually to the Marienhospital in Bockum with a one-off payment of 450.75 francs to the French state. After the final expropriation of the Teutonic Order by the French, Carl Joseph Henoumont (born 1750 in Bissen / Luxemburg and from 1773 professor of law at the University of Düsseldorf) and his wife Maria Anna von Daniels bought the property for 20,000 francs. A few years after the acquisition of the manor house, the new landlord was "assassinated" shot through the window and died on June 12, 1816 of the wounds. His nephew of the same name became his heir († 1869). The so-called Gut Traar was leased to the Libbertz / Heggels family from 1816. The Henoumont family built the farm buildings in 1817, laid out the linden alley along with the bridge over the Kendel , and in 1830 rebuilt the manor house in its current state. She donated the property for the construction of the Traar parish church St. Josef in 1834. From 1844 it also came into the possession of the Rath House, which is within sight . Haus Traar then went by purchase to Karl Anton Schmitz in 1857 and in 1874 by inheritance to his son-in-law Max Winkelmann, the then mayor of Lobberich, whose son Karl Winkelmann took it over in 1895. From his widow Agnes, b. Baumann acquired it in 1928 by the Krefeld manufacturer Oskar von Beckerath, a descendant of the banker and politician Hermann von Beckerath . Oskar von Beckerath appointed the farmer Ludwig von Holtum as administrator, who was able to achieve considerable breeding successes at Haus Traar. The owner of Beckerath regularly claimed high losses from Gut Haus Traar to the tax office, so that in 1939 he was assumed to be a hobby rather than an intention to make a profit. In 1949, in an application for a reduction in the unit value, as a justification for the poor agricultural yields, he stated that the groundwater level had sunk by several meters as a result of coal mining on the Lower Rhine since 1928. In 1950, Oskar von Beckerath offered the property, which is now under monument protection, for sale and had it described in an exposé as the very best business with 200 acres of the best floors and first-class buildings.

Peter Weber, a farmer in Bad Godesberg , bought the Haus Traar estate by means of a contract of sale dated March 6, 1951 with buildings and 49.8 hectares of land at a price of 290,000 DM plus living and dead inventory. The Weber family had previously been forced to vacate the “ Plittersdorfer Aue ” estate leased from majorate owner Robert von Carstanjen because of the imminent construction of the new American HICOG housing estate after Bonn had become the federal capital in 1949 . With the controversial compensation payments from the USA, Peter Weber was able to buy Haus Traar. The brothers Friedrich Peter and Helmut Weber took over the farm from their father in 1959. In 1969, radical changes resulted from the construction of today's federal motorway 57 through the fields belonging to Haus Traar. In several instances, the Weber brothers up to the Federal Court of Justice led a process for a fair compensation regulation, because formerly large fields were divided into small plots that were only partially usable by the construction of the motorway. Due to the changed requirements of modern agriculture and the needs of the nearby metropolis (residential areas, motorway construction, water protection zones, local recreation areas), after more than 750 years, agricultural use was given up in 1990 by the last active farmers, the brothers Friedrich Peter and Helmut Weber. With the exception of the manor house and the chapel, they sold all buildings and properties to the city of Krefeld in 1990. The farm buildings were then converted into condominiums and large parts of the former arable land were leased for golf course use. After two generations in the hands of the Weber family, the owner of the manor house changed for the last time in 2009. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Krefeld.

House Traar Lageplan.svg
About this picture
Site plans as of 1760, 1873, 1955, 1980, 2009 (red = residential buildings, gray = farm buildings and other)

description

Entrance gate

Gate and manor house

A Baroque portal from the second half of the 17th century leads into the inner courtyard. It consists of two masonry, diagonally supported pilaster posts , each crowned by a lion as a shield holder with the coat of arms of the Teutonic Order on sandstone capitals . The pillars and walls are made of brick, the pieces of jewelry are made of sandstone. The heavily weathered sculptures were replaced by replicas in the late 1990s .

Mansion

Mansion

The manor house is a two-storey building made of plastered brick with seven axes (length 19.80, width 10.60 meters) with a gable roof over a wooden cornice and a central door. The new building from 1664 had curved stepped gables at the sides , a central gable above the west facade and a slim eight-sided turret at the northwest corner. The year of construction is evidenced by the inscription "ANNO 1664" formed from iron anchors on the main facade . The current shape goes back to a renovation around 1830 (change of door, roof, dormers , removal of the turret, new stairs inside). During this construction work, the wooden front door with a skylight and an ashlar frame with a coat of arms was installed. In 1993 the manor house of the Weber family was refurbished in keeping with the preservation of the historical structure and furnishings and converted for contemporary use. In particular, the installation of a second staircase made it possible to divide the approximately 450 m² of usable space into individual units. During the renovation, the oak windows could no longer be used after a service life of 160 years and were replaced by profiled wooden windows of the same dimensions. Noteworthy is the preserved roof construction made of changed oak from the 17th century in the form of a collar beam roof with a reclining chair , the up to 50 cm wide oak floorboards on the ground floor, the internal staircase and the doors from the renovation at the beginning of the 19th century.

Halfmannshaus

In place of a thatched half-timbered building, a two-story brick house was built in 1760 ( anchor pins ), with four to three axes and a crooked hip roof . It was renovated in 1860 (keystone above the entrance) and served as the house of the administrator, also known as Halfmann. The name Halfmann is derived from the condition that previously half of the harvest had to be leased to the gentleman. In addition, manual and clamping services also had to be performed.

Farm buildings

Barn (1980)

The farm buildings with stables, smithy and barn were built in brick in 1817 and later. After the abandonment of agricultural use in 1991, the property including arable land was sold to the city of Krefeld. An investor converted the farm buildings into condominiums with a preservation order. Due to the necessary installation of many windows, the construction of an underground car park and the conversion of the paved courtyard area to small-scale garden use, the agricultural character has been lost. The wooden barn with what was once an impressive roof structure was also lined up, provided with windows and converted into an apartment building. The Elfrather Mühle golf course was built in the mid-1990s on the arable land belonging to the estate and a hotel complex now operated by the Novotel chain was built on the former orchards . The hotel is the successor to a riding facility that was built and operated by the then estate owner von Beckerath at the end of the 1970s. Another building was built in 1965 on the site in the western part in place of the former greenhouses in the style of the time as a detached single-family house.

chapel

Chapel and Halfmannshaus

The chapel is a single-nave brick building from 1669 with a longitudinally rectangular hall of 6.40 × 4.75 meters and a polygonal, half-height and subsequently added sacristy . The roof consists of a curved, slate-covered hipped roof with a six-sided roof turret with a curved pointed hood . The inside is flat. The long sides are pierced by two arched windows with old glazing. A wide arched opening in the west leads into the narrow vestibule, which extends over the entire width of the chapel. This was obviously installed later, because the floor slabs go under the narrow inner wall, the inner beam is not exposed in the room and the door opening is of an unusual shape. A wooden ceiling beam running the entire width of the building has an inscription that has misled some historians:

Haus Traar ceiling beams chapel thumb.png
Chapel window
Altar and oil lamp

ANNO 1256 HAS CONRAD ARTZBISCHOF ZU COLLEN CONFIRMIRT CUM OMNI IURE THE TRANSPORT OF THE CAPPELLES TO ARE TO THE CHURCH OF GERMAN ORDER FROM THE NOBLE OWNERS OF CASTRI IN ARE AND FAMILIES DE ARE, WHICH IN ANNO 1584 BURNED DOWN IN 1584 FROM THE LORD'S FIRED FRIDAY 1669 FROM BUDLENBERCH, GENANT SCHIRP TO LUNTENBECK, BUILT AGAIN ON PREVIOUS PLACE TO HONOR GOD AND ALL HOLY.

At the time of the reconstruction in the 17th century, they had a file from 1256, which documented the transfer of the patronage of the chapel in Are to the Teutonic Order. In the opinion that it was about the Lower Rhine Traar, this was mentioned in the inscription. However, the document referred to Are Castle near Altenahr, so the first part of the inscription does not apply.

The glass windows consist of painted panes or a series of panes set in lead with coats of arms and sayings of the respective owners. For example, an inscription reads:

JOHANN CASPAR FROM GOD'S MERCY ADMINISTRATOR OF THE HIGH MASTERTHUMB IN PRUSSIA, MASTER OF THE GERMAN ORDER IN TEUTSCH AND WHICH LANDS, MR. ZUE FREUDENTHAL AND EULENBERG. ANNO 1670.

In the course of the new roof covering and the removal of the ivy on the south facade, the historical windows were completely protected and stabilized with safety glass in the 1980s.

The altarpiece is a painting on wood (height 2.25, width 1.90 meters) from the 18th century and shows a Madonna medallion carried by putti in front of a canopy-like fabric curtain. The brass oil lamp (height 46 cm) is signed BAERLO 1716.

Moat, gardens and parks

Map with gardens and parks, drawn by Geometer Zirkel in 1873

After the Ice Age, the waters of the melting glaciers had found their own way and flowed through the eroded valleys. Then the Rhine, which oscillates during floods, did the rest and created new deepenings typical of the Lower Rhine (“ Kendel ”). In the Traar area these are the Niepkuhlen , the Traarer Kendel (formerly also called Traarbach) and the Löhken. Using the watercourse of the now dried up Traarbach, protective moats with a drawbridge were created around the property. The map from 1760, a picture of the Henoumont family from around 1835 and the geometer plan from 1876 show the changes in ownership in the 18th and 19th centuries. Around 1717, in addition to kitchen gardens, the first pleasure and ornamental gardens were laid out, reminiscent of a preserved cast-iron roundabout already shown on the 1876 plan. In the 19th century, the complex was expanded into a lavish landscape park , including the moats surrounding the two areas of the property . This stretched south and north of the building as a forest park , which was criss-crossed by ditches and clearings. With avenues and groups of trees, the park included fruit and vegetable gardens as well as the surrounding arable landscape. Today the avenue of lime trees planted in 1834 and some individual trees are protected as registered natural monuments. Only two garden gate posts are reminiscent of the former flower garden. The moats are protected as a ground monument, but they have fallen dry due to the lowering of the groundwater in recent decades.

literature

  • Eva Brües: Krefeld. Volume 2 (= The monuments of the Rhineland). 1st edition. Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1967, pp. 94-97.
  • Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 3, Department 4. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1896, pp. 147-149.
  • Karl Emerich Krämer : Castles in and around Krefeld . 1st edition. Mercator, Duisburg 1981, ISBN 3-87463-091-9 .
  • Karl Rembert: On the history of the house and the community of Traar. In: The home. Journal for Niederrheinische Heimatpflege . Volume 17, issue 4, Krefeld 1938.
  • Ceremonial address for the centenary of the parish church of St. Josef Krefeld-Traar, given on November 17, 1984 by Theodor Giesberts
  • Theodor Giesberts: House Traar. In: Theodor Giesberts, Bernd Giesbertz (Ed.): Traar. A house and home book. Krefeld 1986, pp. 14-51.
  • Guido Rotthoff: The Middle Ages. In: Reinhard Feinendegen, Hans Vogt (ed.): Krefeld - The history of the city. Volume 1: From the early days to the Middle Ages. Krefeld 1998, pp. 410-411.

Web links

Commons : Haus Traar  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Rembert: On the history of the house and the community of Traar. In: The home. Journal for Niederrheinische Heimatpflege. Vol. 17, issue 4, Krefeld 1938, p. 337.
  2. ^ Hermann Keussen (ed.): Document book of the city of Krefeld and the old county of Moers. Uhrig, Krefeld 1938–40, vol. I. - Keussen gives the source: Düss. St.A., Cologne St. Kunibert n.70 Or.Pgm. Translated by Stollwerck-Pannes, Hohenbudberg 93-95. - Knipping, Regesten 3, 251 n.1849.
  3. ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet : Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. Elberfeld, Düsseldorf 1846; Vol. 2., Certificate No. 660, p. 388 .
  4. ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. Elberfeld, Düsseldorf 1846; Vol. 2., Certificate No. 941, p. 557 and p. 558
  5. ↑ Newspaper clipping of unknown origin
  6. ↑ Tax office Krefeld-Uerdingen a. Rh .: Letter to Oskar von Beckerath ( DjVu ) August 3, 1939
  7. ^ Oskar von Beckerath: Application for an update of values ( DjVu ) May 13, 1949
  8. ^ City of Krefeld, Building Regulations Office: Monument Protection of Haus Traar , September 29, 1950
  9. ^ Exposé Haus Traar , 1950
  10. ^ Purchase contract Haus Traar ( DjVu ) Roll of documents No. 97/51 for Cologne, March 6, 1951
  11. ↑ OLG judgment 13 U 212/69 ( DjVu ) Martin Carstanjen against Friedrich-Peter and Helumt Weber, March 19, 1970
  12. ↑ Supreme Court ruling III ZR 149/75 ( DjVu ) Federal Republic of Germany against farmer and farmer Peter Helmut, September 30, 1976 Weber
  13. ↑ according to the statement of the Lower Monument Authority of the City of Krefeld
  14. ↑ Site plan 1760: reconstructed from a bird's eye view drawn in 1760 by Mthias Ehmans
  15. ↑ Site plan 1873: drawn from Geometerplan Title: Recorded and drawn Kempen in May 1873 The Geometer Kinkel
  16. ↑ Site plan 1955: drawn from the site plan around 1930 and interview with contemporary witnesses
  17. ↑ Site plan 1980: drawn from land register plan March 9, 1985 and interviewing contemporary witnesses
  18. ↑ Site plan 2009: drawn from the 2009 aerial photo
  19. ↑ so also with Clemen (1896) and Rembert (1938)
  20. ↑ Eva Brües: Krefeld. Volume 2 (= The monuments of the Rhineland). 1st edition. Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1967, p. 95.

Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 58.1 ″  N , 6 ° 36 ′ 15.3 ″  E