Town Hall (Herford)
.jpg)
The town hall of the East Westphalian city of Herford has been the municipal administration building since 1917. Further municipal offices are located in the Technical Town Hall . The market hall was built at the same time as the town hall.
location
The town hall is located in the city center in the old town between the cathedral church and the main office of the Sparkasse Herford . Opposite is the market hall, which was built at the same time and in the same architectural style. The space between the buildings is called Rathausplatz.
building
town hall
.jpg)
The three - storey neo - baroque building consists of an 87 m long and 30 m high main wing and a 48 m long and 23 m high side wing on the east and west side with different floor plans. The middle part of the main wing is expanded like a tower, but only rises above the rest of the building by an attic floor and a roof turret . It is 40 m to the top of the ridge.
In this central part are the large and small meeting rooms, where the council and committee meetings are held. The ground floor is slightly elevated above the basement, so that it can only be reached by stairs from the Rathausplatz. There are also stairs on the side wings. All three stairs lead to a terrace, which is located above the basement in front of the main wing and extends from the western to the eastern wing. From the terrace you get to the ground floor via further steps. The Ratskeller is located in the basement of the east wing.
In the east wing there has been an honorary niche next to the staircase since 1957 , reminiscent of the city of Landsberg an der Warthe . The text in the niche reads: Landsberg Warthe 1257 1957 unforgettable home .
The town hall and the market hall have been a listed building since November 4, 1981.
Zellentrakt Memorial
In the former police detention rooms, which were also used by the Gestapo from 1933 to 1946, the "Zellentrakt memorial", a memorial to the victims of National Socialism, has been located since 2005. Changing exhibitions are shown there. On July 18, 2005, the official opening of the memorial took place by the then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel .
Market hall
The market hall opposite the town hall is a 72 m long single-storey building in the same architectural style. It consists of a longitudinal wing, two transverse wings that run in the middle in the direction of Elisabethstrasse and a transverse wing on the west side with a tower. The largest width is 28 m, the height to the roof ridge is 11 m, to the top of the tower it is 20 m.
The large market hall is located in the longitudinal and transverse wings, while the small market hall can be reached through a door in the transverse wing on the west side.
In the 1980s the hall was converted into a multi-purpose hall and used for numerous events. To do this, the market stalls had to be dismantled.
At the end of August 2019, the market hall was reopened with a new concept after two years of renovation. The realignment of the hall aims at the original main use as a market with the profiling of a fresh market with products from the region as well as the strengthening of the market as a meeting place. In addition to food and flowers, there are also gifts, food and drinks at mostly fixed stands. A show kitchen and an event room can also be rented. Civil weddings can be carried out in a wedding hall. The newly designed tourist information center for the city of Herford is now located in the small market hall.
Fountains and monuments in the area of the Rathausplatz
The abbey fountain , reminiscent of Herford Abbey , stands on the town hall square near the west wing of the market hall .
During archaeological excavations between 1988 and 1990, the 5.60 m deep old abbey fountain was discovered in front of the town hall in the eastern part of the town hall square.
Since 1998 the city history or imperial abbey monument of the imperial abbey town of Herford has been located next to the east side of the market hall . It is supposed to represent the singular relationship between the monastery and the city, the condominium (since 1256).
Since 1999, a plaque on the small market hall has been commemorating the deportations that started there . From there, between 1941 and 1945, Jewish Herford men and women were transported to the collection point in Bielefeld, the starting point for transport to ghettos and extermination camps.
The town hall square is 52 m wide and 100 m long. Including the town hall terrace, the area is 35,000 m².
history
Prehistory town hall
Until 1878 the old town hall of Herford was on the old market. It was demolished at the insistence of the mayor at the time, Ludwig Quentin , as he no longer found the appearance of the Renaissance -style house in keeping with the times. In addition, more space was needed for the weekly market on the old market and the building obstructed exits from the surrounding streets.
After the demolition of the old town hall, the city administration moved into various buildings, such as the Neustadt town hall , the former district court (today Herford district court ), the old community school at Arndtstraße 10 (today Volksbank branch), the former office building of the Schönfeld factory on Münsterkirchplatz 1, the former district office at Elisabethstraße 9, the former factory of the Böckelmann company at Münsterkirchplatz 7 and various residential buildings.
Prehistory market hall
Since 1838 there has been a regular weekly market on the Old Market. Even after the old town hall was demolished in 1878, the area was no longer sufficient, as up to 200 horse-drawn vehicles drove to the old market, which made the space and traffic conditions increasingly chaotic. In addition, there were problems with storing the market tables and transport trolleys on days when there was no weekly market. Therefore, the city administration decided to build a market hall in part of the Schönfeld spinning mill on the old abbey site. In this context, the square in front of the rest of the former abbey building was redesigned, stables were set up and 50 market tables and 15 market benches were newly procured. On December 16, 1901, the weekly market took place there for the first time on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. A coffee bar opened there in 1903, from 1904 there was a water pipe to the hall and the stables and in 1905 poultry was slaughtered in a separate area. In 1911 the Monday market was moved to Tuesday and in 1911 a separate fish market was set up on Thursdays.
planning
Due to the “untenable” accommodation of the city administration, the city authorities decided in 1911 to build a new city hall. The city planning authority should initiate the invitation to tender for an ideas competition. However, the location was still open until then. In early 1912, the city decided to use the site of the former Schönfeldschen spinning mill, which was located in the building of the former monastery. The architect Paul Kanold won the tender .
In 1913, the city administration decided to build the new market hall at the same time as the town hall (also according to Kanold's plans).
construction
In the winter of 1913/1914, the buildings on the construction site were demolished by employees of the municipal vehicle fleet and the construction site set up. Construction of the town hall and the market hall began on April 5, 1914.
At the same time, part of the Münsterkirchplatz was to be demolished, as it was on a hill that was higher than the Rathausplatz and the neighboring streets “Auf der Freiheit” and Elisabethstraße. In August 1916, when the construction of the town hall was already well advanced, the lowering began. It lasted until February 1918. Since then, a flight of stairs from the town hall square has led to the cathedral church, which was formerly on the ground floor.
From the end of 1916, the municipal offices gradually moved to the town hall, the last at the beginning of January 1917. The keys were handed over from Paul Kanold to Mayor Wilhelm Busse on February 7, 1917.
Almost all of the construction work therefore took place during the First World War .
From 1917 to 2017
First of all, the "war-important" offices moved into the town hall, such as the food office, the war support office, the billeting office and the military office. In addition, storage rooms were kept in the basement for the war kitchen set up in the market hall . A clothing store for children and the issuing office for food stamps were also required. Other institutions were the War Welfare Service, which paid support to the families of soldiers and fallen soldiers, and the local coal station, which regulated the distribution of coal and other fuels.
In addition, more than half of the city's civil servants and employees were drafted into military service and many of them died in the war. Therefore the administration could only be maintained with auxiliary staff.
Many of the additional offices remained in operation until the early / mid-1920s when they were gradually dissolved. This also included the Housing Office, which during the war also arranged for refugees from occupied territories to find apartments and, after the war, provided affordable housing for those in need.
The Ratskeller was opened on April 4, 1920.
On July 16, 1921, Lord Mayor Busse, murdered on June 29, 1921 near Heidelberg, who had opened the town hall four years earlier, was laid out in the town hall.
During the Nazi period from 20 January 1933, the local government and the local council were brought into line . Many city workers have been laid off, transferred or retired. In August 1933, Friedrich Kleim was appointed Lord Mayor of the NSDAP .
After the first soldiers had moved into the newly built Herford barracks in October 1935, the first swearing-in of recruits was carried out on Rathausplatz in November 1935.
On December 13, 1941, the deportation of Jewish citizens began from Rathausplatz .
During the Second World War , war-related offices were set up again. In addition, some of the basement rooms were converted into air raid shelters . The town hall was manned by a guard on the nights of war.
On 4th / 5th April 1945 the city and the town hall were taken by American troops. The city treasurer Tiemann was appointed by the military government as provisional lord mayor.
On May 15, 1945, British units replaced the American soldiers. From then on Herford belonged to the British zone .
On January 21, 1946, the first meeting of the city council appointed by the military government took place.
On 22./23. On January 1st, 1946, the CDU was founded in the town hall within the British zone. Participants were the Mayor of Herford, Friedrich Holzapfel, and Konrad Adenauer , who took over the chairmanship.
In 1950, the Restitution Court "Board of Review" (BOR) was built for the British zone of occupation in the town hall, which in December 1955 together with the refund dishes of American and French occupation zones to the Supreme Restitution Court was merged (ORG), headquartered in the town hall. It took care of the return of expropriated Jewish property. On October 1, 1960, the company moved to a building belonging to the Herford housing association on Berliner Straße / corner of Petersilienstraße. From there it was moved to Munich in 1984.
In 1978 an elevator was installed on the north side of the town hall.
On the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of the city, a general renovation of the town hall took place in 1989. In addition, archaeological excavations were carried out on Rathausplatz and Münsterkirchplatz from 1988 to 1990 under the direction of Matthias Wemhoff .
In 2004, the former police prison became a branch of the city archive and became the "Zellentrakt memorial".
From 2010 to 2017 extensive renovation work was carried out on structural damage and energy measures as well as roof and window renewals were carried out.
100 years town hall of the city of Herford
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the town hall, numerous events were held in and on the town hall and on the town hall square in 2017. As part of this celebration, a puzzle of the Herford town hall was brought out in cooperation with the city of Herford and the Ravensburger company . The photographer Christian Verheyen provided the photo free of charge.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Dimensions and data under the heading: Completion and dimensions
- ↑ List of architectural monuments in the city of Herford (PDF; 78 kB)
- ↑ a b Zellentrakt memorial
- ^ A place of learning for humanity , Neue Westfälische , July 19, 2005
- ↑ Market hall
- ↑ Peter Steinert, Angelina Kuhlmann: The renovated market hall in Herford is unofficially opened. Accessed August 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Christoph Laue: A market hall is something special , in: HF-Magazin, local history contributions from the Herford district, August 29, 2019
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 57.7 " N , 8 ° 40 ′ 12.1" E