House Forward
The house Vorwärts in Sandstrasse 4–5, right next to Bremen Cathedral , is one of the oldest buildings in Bremen's old town. Since 2005 the building has served as a science house for the association of the same name as a showcase for science. Before that, the association “Vorwärts” had its domicile here for over 120 years . The building has been a listed building since 1973.
history
The cathedral area and its possessions fell into Swedish ownership after the Thirty Years' War through the Peace of Westphalia . Both the Swedish crown and later George III. , Elector of Hanover, had their property administered in Bremen and reported on their condition and rental income. These documents allow, among other sources, a comprehensive overview of the properties of the diocese at the time. In the registry of the cathedral chapter from 1726, for example, 158 houses are listed with street names. Since house numbers were not yet known at the time, the objects were given sequential numbers in the lists.
At the end of the 18th century, the cathedral area housed a colorful mix of poor and rich people. In addition to workshops and apartments for craftsmen and workers, there were schools for the poor , widows' houses and orphanages, but also increasingly - because of the central location - houses of the educated bourgeoisie acquired by the diocese.
In 1846 the Vorwärts association was founded. The initiative came from the businessman Johann Caspar Koop, who had the idea of founding an educational association for cigar makers. Together with the editor of the Bremer Zeitung Dr. Karl Theodor Andree held the first meeting on December 20, 1846 in the house at Buchtstrasse 57 and 144 people declared their accession and elected a board with Franz Münnich as chairman (president).
Sand road 4 and 5
-Braun-Hogenberg.png)
Sandstrasse runs on the north side of the cathedral from Domshof to Violenstrasse (formerly Buchtstrasse). The street name refers to the dune sand at the height of which the street runs. The Bremen dune has its greatest height here around the Petri Cathedral. The development is already visible on a map by Braun and Hogenberg from 1588. Since the appearance of the buildings on city maps and views of the 16th and 17th centuries was only inaccurately and very schematically depicted, the appearance of Sandstrasse 4–5 is not recognizable. The buildings can only be identified on the more precise city maps from 1750 and 1794. The gap between the individual houses, initially formed by a courtyard or simple sheds, was gradually built over; this also applies to house no. 3, which later belonged to the Vorwärts association (today the State Office for Monument Preservation). The building complex only got its present form in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The house at Sandstrasse 4 , the gable facing south towards the cathedral, has been used as a cliff school , also known as a poor school or cathedral side school, since the 1670s . The schoolteacher at the time is a man named Tamao or Tammaei. It has been used as a school at least since 1712 because the respective schoolmasters are known by name. Teaching was not a respected profession at the time, they had to make a living at the Klippschule with the income from school fees, but the rent was paid by the cathedral structure. The living conditions in this house, which was called a `` Bude '' and was given a first storey of half-timbered buildings after 1745, were also very simple. Only Hermann Rautenberg made a career at this school; after a few years, in 1802 he was promoted to master typist and arithmetic at the German cathedral school. In 1818 Senator Dr. Franz Friedrich Droste jun. the house and the school are moved to Violenstrasse 6.
In 1834 Droste sold the house to the "decoration painter" Anton Rosenkranz and the "musician" Johann Diedrich Weingardt. They expand it into two apartments and in the same year it will be given house numbers 4 and 4a.
After further changes of ownership in both houses, house no. 4 was sold by the widow Friedrich Heim to the Vorwärts association in 1897. The estimated value was 18,000 marks, she leaves it to the association, apparently because she considers the work of "Vorwärts" worthy of support, for 15,000 marks.
House No. 4a, which the tailor Johann Ferdinand Steinbach acquired in 1865 for 5,500 thalers, is sold to the Vorwärts association in 1908 by his widow for 20,000 marks.
The house Sandstrasse 5 , as well as No. 4, is on plans and drawings in the "Floor plan of the old town Bremen", which Johann Christian Danckwerth made in 1750 at the request of the royal house with floor plans, elevations of the individual floors, as well as facade and profile views, so precisely described that today one can have a precise idea of what it looked like at that time. After that, house no. 5 is an unadorned, two-story building. At this point the house does not have a dormer, or no longer has it, and the winch in the roof cannot be seen either.
The first verifiable tenant has been Dr. Albert Gröning (1675–1737), councilor from 1720 until his death. For the repair of the house he pays 600 Reichstaler advance, from 1712 the rent amounts to 60 Reichstaler annually. His widow Kunigunda Coch lived until her death in 1759 in the house that her husband had previously lived in for 30 years.
It is not certain whether Senator Dr. Franz Friedrich Droste sen. is the direct lease successor. In any case, in 1796 he signed a ten-year lease for 85 Reichstaler per year.
There are no rental contracts for the period from 1808 to 1818 (the cathedral area has been part of Bremen since 1803).
Dr. Franz Friedrich Droste jun., Son of Senator Droste senior, buys the house at Sandstrasse 5 in October 1818 (and No. 4 in December 1818) from the city of Bremen. In addition to him, the lawyer Johann Ludwig Carl Meister also resided there from 1813 to 1817.
The merchant Heinrich Levin Rooge bought the building from the heirs of Franz Friedrich Droste in 1851 for 10,575 Reichstaler, but did not live in it himself and in 1853 sold it to the Vorwärts association for 11,000 Reichstaler.
On the other side of the street, at the corner of Sandstrasse and Buchtstrasse, the doctor and astronomer Heinrich Olbers lived at the end of the 18th century and set up a small observatory there in 1799/1800. The house no longer exists today.
Age determination
A plaque attached to the west gable dates the construction of the Sandstrasse 5 building to around 1790. Rudolf Stein , monument conservator in Bremen from 1952 to 1964, states that it was built around 1805. The former head of the Office for Monument Preservation, Dr. Hans Christoph Hoffmann, classifies the main building fabric between 1650 and 1700. And Wilhelm Lührs, former archive director of the Bremen State Archive, has committed himself to before 1750.
In connection with conversion plans, parts of the building were examined dendrochronologically in 2001 by the University of Hamburg . Oak wood that was felled between 1495 and 1499 was found in part of the roof structure. A winch installed in the attic also dates from this time. An expert opinion by the restorer Heinrich Kleine corroborates the finding: the wood shows no signs of a second use in this building and the construction of the roof also suggests it was classified around 1500. Another source considers it more likely that the new building was in the 19th century Roof beams from another house were used.
A further investigation using the radiocarbon method in a Kiel laboratory showed that the oaks for the roof structure were felled around 1434. However, it is not known how long the wood was stored before construction.
It is assumed that this part of today's Haus Vorwärts already had two floors at the end of the 15th century.
House Forward
Sandstrasse 5
After the acquisition of Sandstrasse 5 by the “Vorwärts” association in 1853, minor alterations were initially carried out, and in 1859 the first gymnasium was built and further extensions and alterations were made.
The building received its decorative gable, planned by the architect Wilhelm Hermann Lüninghusen and pointing towards the Domshof, in 1882 after Wilhadistraße was laid out and the neighboring building to the west was demolished. The facade was in need of renovation and the new stepped gable is now, so to speak, the club's flagship. On the ledge Johannes Gutenberg , the inventor of the printing press, with a book in his left hand. Including a beehive, which is supposed to symbolically highlight one of the most important principles of the association, diligence. And in addition, quotes from Friedrich Schiller and Johann Caspar Lavater on boards under the windows on the first floor:
"You must strive restlessly forwards, never stand still tired, you want to see the completion."
"Those who do not strive forwards are not serious about themselves."
Under the ledge it says in gold letters: Association Forward. and 1846 , the year the association was founded.
After pieces of cornice fell from the gable in November 1924 and an examination revealed the severe weathering of the upper part, it was repaired in a simple form in 1925. The financial situation of the association after the First World War did not allow construction work on a large scale. In 1991/92 the State Office for Monument Preservation had the gable reconstructed based on Lüninghusen's documents so that the original design from 1882 was restored.
Sandstrasse 4
After the acquisition in 1897, a large hall was built in House Sandstrasse 4, for which two old layers of beams were replaced and the facade was changed. The construction work is so extensive that the building now resembles a skeleton and the costs are around two thirds of the purchase price. The hall, which later served the club as a singing hall, was given modern gas lighting, double windows with bronze handles and a ceiling in a “somewhat richer version”, as can be seen in the order to the painter.
The coat of arms was probably also attached to the house during this renovation. It is dated around 1800 and shows the symbols: beehive (for hard work), owl on book (for learning), fruit basket (for the fruits of learning), tear bar , square, compass and paper roll (for ingenious study) and the Bremen coat of arms . Symbols that represent the educational work of the association “Forward”.
The decorative front to the Sandstrasse was probably built around 1819 by the then owner Dr. Franz Friedrich Droste jun. was commissioned, who had hand-held festivities worth 7,000 Reichstaler approved for the house and property. When the association bought the house, the facade was already equipped with the three-storey central projection , the pilasters on the upper floors, the triangular flat gable and the sandstone reliefs above the door and the lower windows.
Sand road 4a
Up until 1908, house No. 4a, in which the Steinbach family still lived, was enclosed by the club's buildings. It is not known whether major renovations will take place after the sale to the club. After the Second World War , a pub with drinks was built there, which in 1972 was granted the license for a "beer and food business with unlimited bars and dance events".
Further use
In 1910, two years after the purchase of the house at Sandstrasse 4a, the board of directors had plans to demolish the houses and build a new clubhouse, but these were not implemented. A partial demolition for the widening of the sand road intended by the city - the association had concluded an assignment contract with the city of Bremen for this in 1916 - was no longer necessary due to a new line layout including the front gardens opposite.
In 1970, the association ceded its buildings to the city of Bremen and acquired a plot of land in Violenstrasse from it for the construction of a new club house. The move takes place in 1973.
The buildings were used by the police from 1974 to 2000, and from 1982 to 1984 the almost 100-year-old gymnasium was demolished for the construction of the Violenstrasse multi-storey car park.
In 2004, Dr. Hübotter Wohnungsbau GmbH, owned by Bremen-based contractor and patron Klaus Huebotter, took over the building and carried out a renovation in line with historical monuments and the conversion to the "House of Science".
Todays use
Under the name "House of Science", exhibitions, lectures and discussions on current topics from science and research take place in the building and insights into the work of universities, colleges and research institutes are given.
The sponsors of the association Haus der Wissenschaft eV are: University of Bremen , Jacobs University Bremen , University of Bremen , University of Bremerhaven , University of the Arts , Fraunhofer Institute, Max Planck Institute , Alfred Wegener Institute , Bremen Marketing Society and the Wittheit zu Bremen .
Individual evidence
- ^ Monument database of the LfD
- ^ Herbert Black Forest: The large Bremen Lexicon. Supplementary volume A – Z , 1st edition 2008, p. 190
- ↑ Roof truss analyzes http://www.wissenschaftsjahre-bremen.de/_Haus_der_Wwissenschaft_aelter_als_vermutet.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Maike Grimbo: House Forward - From the clip school to the workers' education association to the house of science . January 2005, on behalf of Dr. Hübotter Grundstücks – GmbH
- Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 31.6 " N , 8 ° 48 ′ 36.7" E