Historic old town of Wetzlar
The historic old town in Wetzlar is the city center of the former imperial city that emerged in the early Middle Ages and as a whole is a registered cultural monument . It shows a large variety of historical traces and urban structures that identify the old town area as particularly worthy of protection. Even if some of the historical building fabric was lost as a result of the renovation of the old town in the 1960s, the historical streets and often late medieval street cross-sections remain almost unchanged in the entire area within the medieval wall ring.
All protected cultural monuments in the area of the old town are shown in the list of cultural monuments in the entire historical old town .
history
At an unknown point in time, Wetzlar acquired the market rights and thus the right to raise market tariffs. Over the years, a market settlement developed on a hill, which later became the cathedral hill with the Marienstift. It was a magnet for traders and craftsmen. When the church was first built before 897, it was then also a possible meeting place for believing Christians. There the Konradiner Gebhard , Count in der Wetterau and from 904 Duke of Lorraine, had a Salvator Church (Erlöserkirche) consecrated as early as 897, which replaced earlier buildings. At the beginning of the 10th century, the Marienstiftes ( Wetzlar Cathedral ), a collegiate monastery , was founded by Gebhard's sons Hermann I , a later Duke of Swabia , and Udo I , Count in the Wetterau.
Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa established an imperial bailiff in Wetzlar and in 1180 put the citizens of Wetzlar on an equal footing with the citizens of Frankfurt. Wetzlar became a free and imperial city at the same time . To protect the city and to secure the Wetterau as a realm of land, he rebuilt or expanded the existing Reichsburg Kalsmunt high above Wetzlar. According to Karl Metz, the old imperial castle Kalsmunt is said to be an early Roman foundation. Charlemagne built this castle for Zedler around the year 785 in order to be able to keep the city in check. H. the city already existed at that time. She is said to have been called Carols Mons (Carlmund or Carlmont) by him, the current name has the following meaning: Kals- = Karls and - munt = vassal , d. H. a feudal man of the Franconian court. Other sources consider the name to be pre-Germanic or Celtic.
In this growing city, branches for the administration of the Wetzlar possessions of the nearby Altenberg and Arnsburg monasteries were established in the 13th century . The court of the Marburg Teutonic Order, founded around 1285, also had a function as a collection point for the income from the lands and mills that belonged to the order in the city of Wetzlar and its surroundings. Tithe barns , a hostel for the accommodation of friars traveling through, an Elisabeth chapel and an administrator's house belonged to the local property of the Teutonic Order. The monks of the Franciscan order also settled in Wetzlar in the second half of the 13th century. They had been assigned land on the edge of the old town, where the Wetzbach flowed into the city, to build their monastery and the monastery church.
A building erected in the middle of the 14th century as a town hall was the seat and office of the Reich Chamber of Commerce (1689 to 1806) after several renovations . The court later moved to the so-called ducal house opposite and then to the Von Ingelheim'sche Palais until it was dissolved in 1806 . After another renovation, this building was used as a barracks and later as the main post office. After they moved out, it was used, among other things, as a restaurant and residential building.
Old town today
Today the old town is protected as a cultural monument within the walls of the 13th century for historical and urban planning reasons as a whole under the Hessian Monument Protection Act.
The old town is the location of the most important sights of Wetzlar with the Romanesque cathedral , the museums and the carefully restored half-timbered houses. The old town stretches down to the Lahn and the old Lahnbrücke with its alleys and small squares . The stone Lahn bridge was first mentioned in 1288. The almost complete ensemble of historical buildings and residential buildings in the old town with half-timbered houses and stone buildings from the Romanesque ( cathedral ), Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque periods is largely preserved and largely restored as it was towards the end of the 18th century depicted. There are the places Buttermarkt / Domplatz , Fischmarkt , Eisenmarkt , Kornmarkt and the former Franziskanerhof , now Schillerplatz . The around 50 particularly noteworthy buildings include: a wall stand on Brodschirm from 1356, the Alte Münz on Eisenmarkt, the Roman Emperor (a former theater and ballroom from the 15th century), the Haus Zum Reichsapfel , the former court of the German Order , Today the City Museum, the Lottehaus , Charlotte Buff's home , the Jerusalem House , in which Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem shot himself and thus achieved a sad fame as Werther , the princely Palais Papius , which houses a collection of historical furniture, compiled by Irmgard von Lemmers -Danforth ,
The city center, which has remained largely unscathed, was once surrounded by a city wall with five gates and eight towers. Carefully restored half-timbered houses form an attractive contrast to beautiful baroque buildings from the time of the Imperial Chamber Court. With the more than 700 year old stone Lahn bridge and the cathedral, which is unique in its stylistic diversity, they shape the unmistakable image of the old town. From the cathedral it is only a few steps over the fish market to Wetzlar's oldest half-timbered house on Brodschirm . The city offers a historical tour starting here, which leads over medieval marketplaces and steep stairs, through narrow streets and romantic corners and introduces a total of 43 interesting buildings with historical backgrounds in the old town of Wetzlar.
The old town is surrounded by an almost complete ring of parks, called plants, which are primarily named after the Wetzlar twin cities. These are the Avignon facility and the Schladming facility in the south, the Colchester facility in the west and the Siena Promenade in the east. The ring is closed in the north by the rose garden , a historic cemetery area. Here, among other things, is the unspecified grave of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem , the model for Goethe's Werther . The rose garden is the location of the Wetzlar open-air theater .
Also in the old suburbs of Langgasse and Neustadt , connected to the old town by the Alte Lahnbrücke , there are still some interesting historical buildings. However, the new town in particular lost its medieval character in the 20th century as a result of four-lane road construction.
Museums
The Lottery House (2011)
Reich Chamber Court Museum
Jerusalem House
The museums, which are run by the city and funded by the city, reflect the city's multifaceted history:
The City and Industry Museum is a multifaceted museum with exhibits from the medieval and early modern history of the city and evidence of regional industrial culture (heavy industry, optics and precision engineering, mining), including the Karsten Porezag Collection , a nationwide unique collection of historical mine lamps. In addition, this museum provides an insight into the prehistory and early history of the region and presents evidence of the Celtic era .
Two museums are dedicated to Goethe's environment. The Lotte-Haus is a memorial for Charlotte Kestner, b. Buff as a reminder of the time when Goethe was often a guest here. Thanks to extensive monument preservation studies, it was possible to reconstruct the former Teutonic Order House in Wetzlar approximately in the state in which Johann Wolfgang Goethe found it at the end of the 18th century. Thousands of Werther tourists from all over the world visit this building every year . The Jerusalem House is another memorial for Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther . Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem once took his own life in this building , presumably out of lovesickness. Jerusalem was one of the real models of Werther . As described in Werther , the memorial today features “ Emilia Galotti opened on the desk”. Today the restored old building houses the Wetzlar museum administration as well as the Goethe Werther collection.
The Irmgard von Lemmers-Danforths collection shows European living culture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods , compiled and made publicly accessible by the Wetzlar pediatrician in the princely palace , the so-called Palais Papius (named after Franz von Pape , called Papius, an assessor at the Imperial Court of Justice). It is one of the most important collections of historical furniture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The Museum of the Reich Chamber of Commerce is the only museum of legal history in Germany. It is supported by the Gesellschaft für Reichskammergerichtsforschung e. V. and the city of Wetzlar. A number of high-quality exhibits on the constitutional history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation are presented there. A research center of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History is also assigned to the museum .
Another house has been added with the Viseum since 2007: 14 optics, precision mechanics and sensor technology companies from Wetzlar and the surrounding area have founded the House of Optics and Precision Mechanics. You introduce yourself with interactive tests, experiments and high-tech products to get to know.
Wetzlar Cathedral and other sacred buildings
→ Main article: Wetzlar Cathedral
The cathedral (Marienstift) is one of the landmarks of Wetzlar. Construction of the cathedral, which has not yet been completed, began in 1230. It is the successor to a Salvator Church consecrated in 897 and this is already the successor to a previous church. This late Romanesque collegiate church was only 40 years old when it was decided around 1230 to build a new, much larger church in its place. The new church, a three-aisled hall church with transept and choir, should be visible from afar with a planned double tower facade with high openwork pointed helmets. There were disputes between the city and the monastery because of the construction financing and so the second tower was no longer completed.
The cathedral was the name of the collegiate and parish church from the end of the 17th century. The name prevailed during the time of the Reich Chamber Court (1689–1806), when the Elector Archbishop of Trier Stiftspropst , the cathedral was also a bishop's church .
The building looks like a "book in stone about medieval architectural styles". Despite its centuries of construction and despite the fact that the tower was not completed, it presents a cohesive picture today. Another special feature of the cathedral is that it is used ecumenically (in equal parts by the Protestant and Catholic Church).
The Michaeliskapelle is a double chapel south of the cathedral choir, which was built around the year 1250. It was used as a former construction hut for the cathedral and later as a charnel house or ossuary . A large crucifixion group (1509) stands on the west wall.
The Franciscan Church , a monastery founded in 1263, is also known as the Lower City Church . The choir is still used for church services. The nave of the church is profaned .
The Hospital Church is a church built by JL Splittdorf in the years 1755–1764 with a remarkable structure of the pulpit, organ above the altar and three-sided galleries. The first mention of the hospital suggests that it and the accompanying chapel were built in the middle of the 13th century.
City fortifications and defense towers
In places you can still see a well-preserved city wall , which not only protected the old town but also the suburbs. The course of the curtain wall is now mostly lined with parks. Several small gates and five strong gates allowed access. Considerable remains of the city fortifications, a circular wall with an original length of around 1.7 km at an average height of 10 m to 11 m, from the 13th and 14th centuries are still preserved. For example, a fortification tower known as the tailor's tower or Säuturm , the Kalsmuntpforte as the city gate to the former suburb of Silhofen and large parts of the city wall. The watchtowers at that time were assigned to the Wetzlar guilds with their respective wall areas, where they were jointly responsible for maintaining them and, if necessary, for defense. It was the tailors' guild that was responsible for the tailor's tower with wall area derived from it. The name Säuturm instead of tailor's tower came about because pigs (sows) from the local farmers were driven to pasture outside the city wall through its tower gate. Later, the so-called Säuwaadskirmes (Säuwaad equals Sauweide), an old traditional folk festival, was celebrated on this pasture or meadow . It is perhaps the oldest and longest cultivated folk festival in Wetzlar and existed there until mid-1960, later relocated to the grounds of the Klosterwaldsportplatz. The two towers of the Landwehr , the Garbenheimer Warte, built in the 14th century on two heights east and south of the city ( converted into the Bismarck tower around 1900 ) and the Brühlsbacher Warte are now observation towers.
literature
- Irene Jung: Wetzlar. A little city history. Sutton Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-715-0 .
- Andreas Schäfer: An old settlement landscape reveals its secret. The discovery of a ceramic band settlement with earthworks in the Lahn valley near Wetzlar. In: Hessen Archeology. 2.2002. Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1817-X , pp. 33-36.
- August Schoenwerk: History of the city and district of Wetzlar. 2. revised u. exp. Edition. by Herbert Flender. Pegasus Verlag, Wetzlar 1975, ISBN 3-87619-005-3 .
- Eckehart Schubert: The Bilstein and the Theutbirg basilica. Leaflet to the ramparts and the pre-Romanesque church building near Wetzlar-Nauborn. 1999, ISBN 3-89822-149-0 .
- Eduard Sebald: The cathedral to Wetzlar. 1989, ISBN 3-7845-5291-9 .
- Heinrich Gloël : Goethe's time in Wetzlar. Pictures from the Reichskammergericht- and Wertherstadt. Reprint (Will printing) of the Mittler edition, Berlin 1911. Wetzlar City Administration, Wetzlar 1999.
- Herbert Hahn: Studies on the history of the imperial city Wetzlar in the Middle Ages. 1984, ISBN 3-88443-141-2 .
- Karl Metz: The Kalsmunt, early and late Roman research on Aliso - Halisin - Solisin and the origin of the city of Wetzlar. Schnitzler's book printing and bookshop, Wetzlar 1940.
- Eduard Brüdern: The Wetzlar Cathedral. 2nd Edition. Langewiesche publishing house, 2001, ISBN 978-3-7845-5191-3 . (from the series: The Blue Books)
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. City of Wetzlar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1900-1 .
- Gustav Faber: Travels through Germany. Twelve journeys through German history and the present. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-458-33295-2 .
- Magnus Backes, Hans Feldtkeller : Art travel guide Hessen. Special edition. Gondrom Verlag, Bindach 1988, ISBN 3-8112-0588-9 .
- Knaur's cultural guide Germany. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0703-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse: Wetzlar Historic Old Town , accessed on March 9, 2014.
- ↑ In Peter Bohrer, Heppenheim, families and relatives of the ancestors of the Counts of Beilstein….
- ↑ In Peter Bohrer, Heppenheim: Families and relatives of the ancestors of the Counts of Beilstein….
- ↑ a b c City history: an unspectacular beginning. ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Karl Metz: Der Kalsmunt, early and late Roman research on Aliso - Halisin - Solisin and the origin of the city of Wetzlar. City of Wetzlar 1940.
- ^ Johann Heinrich Zedler, Johann Peter von Ludewig and Carl Günther Ludovici: Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts ...
- ↑ Johann Heinrich Zedler, Johann Peter von Ludewig, Carl Günther Ludovici: Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts ... pp. 1451–1478, here p. 1477.
- ↑ Historical tour through the old town of Wetzlar. ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Viseum Wetzlar - House of Optics and Precision Mechanics. ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Wetzlar Cathedral. ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
Districts: Old Town | Neustadt | Hauserberg | Büblingshausen | Lump head | Stoppelberger Hohl | Nauborner Strasse | Silhöfer Aue / Westend | Altenberger Strasse | Dalheim | Dillfeld | Niedergirmes
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