Hanau Justice Building
The justice building in Hanau was built from 1908 to 1911. It was the last large judicial building that the Prussian monarchy built. It still serves as the seat of the regional and local court and the Hanau public prosecutor's office .
Building history
prehistory
The judicial building replaced a courthouse from 1842, which was located in Bangert and was ultimately only used by the Hanau district court, as well as another temporary courthouse on Neustädter Markt , the former consistory , which housed the Hanau district court. The courthouse from 1842 was a free-standing, three-story building with a large boardroom that was two stories high. This building was destroyed in World War II.
construction
Planning for a new, once again common justice building for both courts began at the beginning of the 20th century. The city of Fulda , which belonged to the district of the regional court, filed claims that the court would be moved there. Hanau outdid this desire with a generous concession towards the Prussian state: In 1906 it provided the building site, most of the approx. One hectare large former German cemetery , which had been closed in 1846, an area of approx. 7000 m², free of charge Building land available, undertook to lay out the rest as a park, to maintain it together with the green areas of the judiciary free of charge and also bought the courthouse from the state from 1842 for 300,000 gold marks , which is said to have been twice its value.
Work on the justice building began in September 1908. On October 13, 1911, the building was handed over to its intended use. The costs for the new building amounted to 1 million marks .
Reconstruction and structural changes
During the Second World War, the justice building was badly damaged by the air raid on Hanau on March 19, 1945 , after which it was rebuilt in simplified forms. This lasted until 1954, although before the currency reform of 1948 there was enough money but no building material. Then it was the other way around. In addition, the adjoining parish hall of the Walloon-Dutch Church was included in the complex. It initially served the public prosecutor's office and later housed the land registry . It was rebuilt for these purposes and was named “Courthouse B”, while the original construction was named “Courthouse A”. In 1964, a new building was added to “Courthouse A” as an extension, which at the rear was connected to the east wing of the building to the west. Extensive renovation and repair work was carried out from 1994 onwards.
Due to the lack of space, a number of departments had to be outsourced over a long period of time. These included the family court , the departments for insolvency proceedings and foreclosure as well as the registry court of the local court. The new construction of court building C, which was completed in early 2010, accommodated all of these outsourced offices and also the Hanau Labor Court , which was closed on December 31, 2011.
building
The first draft for the buildings came from Paul Thoemer . Friedrich Bode was responsible for the detailed planning and site management . As a result, the Hanau Regional Court is broadly similar to the Berlin Superior Court , also a design by Paul Thoemer.
Urban planning situation
The construction site was so large that all buildings, including a court prison, could be conveniently housed here. The property was between Nussallee, Katharina-Belgica- Strasse, Kinzig and Fischerhüttenweg. The generously proportioned inner courtyards also formed reserve areas for later additions, which were also made after the Second World War. The floor of the cellar was laid out at street level, as the groundwater is very high here because of the Kinzig. The high-lying cellars were leveled by embankments. It was a four-wing complex. The representative side of the justice building extends along Nussallee. Together with the office wing to the west, it is 54 m long here.
The prison, on the other hand, was on Katharina-Belgica-Strasse, which curves slightly backwards so that it could hardly be seen from the front. It originally had space for 65 prisoners and was demolished for the new construction of Courthouse C. In terms of urban planning, the justice building dominates Nussallee. It fits in with a number of mainly state institutions that existed along this axis: Starting from the Westbahnhof and the main post office on Kanaltorplatz , these were the Reichsbank branch , the St. Vinzenz hospital and the district office for the Hanau district . There were also a number of villas around the courthouse.
Exterior view
The building shows neo-baroque shapes on the outside , but inside an eclectic mix of styles between historicism and art nouveau elements . It is plastered, the edges, walls and other highlighted components, however, are made of red sandstone from the Miltenberg area .
Starting from the main wing at a right angle to the north, there is a one-hip office wing with a clear concave curve to the east and ending in a pavilion. The east facade of the main building and the pavilion in turn form the corner projections of this office wing from the east , which thus becomes a second show facade. It also frames the park, which consists of the rest of the German Cemetery and the historical grave monuments erected here. In the period of reconstruction after the Second World War, the neo-baroque was seen as an aberration of taste, so that the restoration of the corresponding decor was largely dispensed with.
Interior design
The representative main building is accessed through the main portal, behind which there is an anteroom with a staircase that overcomes the height difference between street level and the ground floor. In a vaulted coffered ceiling made of sandstone . The interior of the building initially impressed with the richly decorated main staircase, located at the rear in the central projectile, which was partly painted in color. The five-armed staircase, also largely made of red sandstone from Miltenberg, leads around four fluted columns to the upper floors. Since the roof of the building was made flatter during the reconstruction after the Second World War, the stairwell has lost its height. The main staircase on the first floor opened up the centrally located jury court room via a portal, above which a half-length figure of a Justitia with a code of law and a sword in relief was emblazoned. The paintings in the stairwell and in the jury room were carried out by Rudolf and Otto Linnemann .
The jury room, which was three storeys high, was paneled and furnished with very dark wood. A heavy oak coffered ceiling stretched over him . During the reconstruction after the Second World War, the original vaulting of the hall, which had occupied the area of the attic, was dispensed with; during the last renovation, the hall was divided by a false ceiling. In the main building there are also all other conference rooms, the court of lay judges on the ground floor, the civil chambers above and the hall of the large criminal chamber, which was lit on two floors through the attic. A barrel vault spanned the great criminal chamber. Part of the walls was painted with allegorical representations and geometric patterns, also by the Linnemann brothers. When it was rebuilt after the Second World War, the shapes throughout the building were then greatly simplified. The concentration of the conference rooms in the main building also served to keep visitor traffic as far away as possible from the other parts of the building: the audience is guided through the building via a separate entrance and staircase. The conference rooms used for criminal proceedings are accessible to the accused by a separate access route that is strictly separated from the rest of the traffic.
The facility is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .
literature
- Otto Kästner: The architecture of German regional courts between 1900 and 1920 . Diss. Frankfurt am Main 2012.
- Otto Kästner: On the architecture of the Hanau district court. In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2015, pp. 146–155.
- Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 227 ff., ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 .
- Felix Lesser : The court system of our homeland in the 19th century and the Hanau district court. In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home . Hanau 1954, pp. 181-185.
- NN: The new buildings of the Königl. Regional and local court in Hanau . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 22 (1912), pp. 413-420.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ NN: The new buildings , p. 413.
- ↑ Kästner, p. 117.
- ↑ Lesser, p. 183.
- ↑ Kästner, p. 117.
- ^ NN: The new buildings , pp. 413, 417.
- ↑ On this in detail Lesser, pp. 184f.
- ↑ Lesser, p. 184.
- ↑ NN: Worth knowing .
- ↑ NN: Worth knowing .
- ↑ Kästner, p. 184.
- ^ NN: The new buildings , p. 416.
- ^ NN: The new buildings , p. 417.
- ^ NN: The new buildings , p. 417.
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 8.2 ″ N , 8 ° 54 ′ 41 ″ E