Hotel Hollaender Hof (Heidelberg)

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Hotel Hollaender Hof

The Holländer Hof is an inn in Heidelberg with a long history.

history

Holländer Hof at Neckarstaden
Detail from the Heidelberg panorama by Matthaeus Merian (1620)

The first reliable mentions of an inn on the site of today's Holländer Hof date back to the late 16th century. References in the literature to earlier use as a hostel - so prominent in Thorbecke, The oldest time of Heidelberg University (1386 - 1449) - are not provided with evidence; the document books of the university and the Count Palatinate as well as editions of earlier city documents do not allow any definite conclusion. It is also possible and likely that the names of the hostels will change, so that naming them without specifying the location cannot help to ensure security. Nevertheless, it can be described as very likely that a hostel already existed at this prominent place in the city, which received traffic from north of the Neckar , from Bergstrasse and from the Odenwald .

On the well-known Merian stitch it can be seen that at the site of the current building at the beginning of modern times, two or three parcels looked towards the Neckar. This is supported by the information from the so-called "Stegenbuch" from 1607 - this is a list of properties that owed the local lord, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, a land charge as recognition for the rulership that was actually his. The corner house facing Steingasse - from the bridge to the left side of the - was listed in 1588 as the Inn zum Schwert , its owner was a Wendel Geiger, who lived there himself with his wife, two servants and two maids. The hostel and its host were judicially subordinate to the mayor of the city. Between 1588 and 1607 this parcel is still referred to as the Inn zum Schwert, owned by a Jonas Kistner - who no longer lived here himself, but on the main road between Heu- and Kettengasse. In the Stegenbuch the name Herberge zum Schwarzen Adler can be found for 1607 , whose landlord Melchior Beckher had to pay an annual base rate of five hellers.

In the middle of this row of houses facing the Neckar, the hostel looked towards the bear , to which the two middle gables on the Merian stitch must be assigned. In 1588 the bear was entertained by Jacob Klein, who lived there with his wife and four children. He too belonged to the mayor's court. Martin Hennis is named as the landlord for 1607, who paid an annual interest of nine Hellern.

In a directory from the late 18th century, only two separate parcels are listed on the front of the Neckar. On the one hand, there is the corner house Zum Schwarzen Adler - plot No. 217, towards Steingasse - which belonged to a master baker Georg Stumpf around 1773 (a Georg Bussemer is documented on July 2, 1771); the lot had 9 rods, 2 shoe and 3 inches. Lot No. 216, for which on June 23, 1766 the master baker Christoph Spahr is named as the owner of the baking justice. This lot measured 18 rods, 7 shoes, 10 inches, so it was about twice the size of the neighboring one.

At least temporarily, there seems to be no guest operation. An incomplete recording of the data is quite likely, especially since the name Zum Schwarzen Adler was retained for the corner house in Steingasse, which was at least unusual for a pure bakery, and the house was already three-story at that time - and thus too big for a bakery . Corresponding arguments can also be made for parcel 216: it is strikingly large and not only includes the front facing the Neckar - which corresponds to today's house - but also parts of the building in Haspelgasse, for which in 1588 the baker Georg Walter with his wife, child and Is called servant.

In 1787 a new house was built at this point, which was apparently intended specifically for the guest business. At that time it was still operated under the name Goldener Hecht , which was later transferred to the neighboring restaurant.

The name Holländer Hof has been in use since 1836. The house was the meeting point of the Society Der Engere around the poet Josef Victor von Scheffel and the brick house pastor Christoph Schmezer . Louis Spitz and his heirs ran the house until 1888. From that year the house was owned by the Herberge zur Heimat association and was managed by various administrators. At that time, a hikers' hostel in the back of the house counted as a hostel for home. In 1904 the house, which had previously been three-story like its neighbors, was extended by one floor, giving it its present-day appearance. From 1910 at the latest, the Holländer Hof is officially run as a “Christian hospice”. This remains until the end of the war, when the hotel is occupied by the invading US troops on April 1 or 2, initially for residential purposes - a fate that has befallen most of Heidelberg's hotels in these days. The occupation lasted almost ten years, the troops only cleared the house in January 1955 and it was one of the first larger Heidelberg houses to resume hospitality. In the following years it was run again under the principle of the “Christian hospice” and reopened as a hotel in 1981 under its current management and extensive renovation work. The building is a historical monument.

Famous guests

Elector Friedrich IV wrote in his diary on June 24th, 1598: "Have we been to the Schwerz garden in the Wirtz?"

On August 2, 1817, the university held a gala dinner in honor of Jean Paul .

During his stays in Heidelberg after 1854 Joseph Victor von Scheffel stayed several times in the Holländer Hof, several of the poems in the volume “Gaudeamus” were written here, one of which even refers to the hotel by name.

Wilhelm Busch was a guest in 1871 and signed a contract with a Heidelberg publisher over dinner.

  • Victor von Scheffel, Gaudeamus, Part IV. Heidelbergisch

  • Numero eight.
    (In the Holländer Hof in Heidelberg.)

Web links

Commons : Hotel Holländer Hof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Bridge book from the city and office of Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, General State Archives, 66/3495.
  • Albert Mays / Karl Christ (ed.): Population directory of the city of Heidelberg from 1588 (New archive for the history of the city of Heidelberg and the Rhenish Palatinate, vol. 1), Heidelberg 1890.
  • Albert Mays / Karl Christ (ed.): Population directory of the fourth quarter of the city of Heidelberg from the year 1600 (new archive for the history of the city of Heidelberg and the Rhenish Palatinate, vol. 2), Heidelberg 1893.
  • Friedrich IV. Of the Palatinate: Diary 1596–1599 (Cod. Pal. Germ. 631, fol. 84v).
  • Address books of the city of Heidelberg, various editors, Heidelberg 1839 ff.
  • Michael Buselmeier: Literary tours through Heidelberg. A city history in walking, Heidelberg 2007.
  • State Office for Monument Preservation (publisher): Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Baden-Württemberg, city district of Heidelberg , Thorbecke-Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-7995-0426-3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ web book by city and department Heidelberg , Karlsruhe, Generallandesarchiv, 66/3495
  2. ^ Albert Mays / Karl Christ (ed.): Population directory of the city of Heidelberg from 1588 (New archive for the history of the city of Heidelberg and the Rhenish Palatinate, Vol. 1), Heidelberg 1890.
  3. ^ Michael Buselmeier: Literary tours through Heidelberg. A city history in walking, Heidelberg 2007.
  4. ↑ For the following cf. Address books of the city of Heidelberg, various editors, Heidelberg 1839 ff.
  5. ↑ Reinhard Hoppe: 750 years of Ziegelhausen 1220–1970, Heidelberg 1970, pp. 60–63.
  6. ↑ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, 6 ed., Vol. 9, 1907 explains this as "[...] the name of inns in large cities, seaside resorts, etc. that are run under certain (Christian) house rules (club houses)."
  7. ↑ Heidelberger Tageblatt of January 12, 1955
  8. ↑ Diary 1596–1599 (Cod. Pal. Germ. 631, fol. 84v).

Coordinates: 49 ° 24 ′ 47 "  N , 8 ° 42 ′ 33.5"  E