Cologne cathedral bomb

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27,500 bricks: Cathedral bomb 1943–2004

The so-called Cologne Domplombe was a brick wall that closed a statically critical bomb damage to the north tower of Cologne Cathedral . An aerial bomb damaged the support pillar so badly in November 1943 that the stability of the tower was endangered. The crater was closed with bricks until the spring of 1944, which remained visible on the north tower for 60 years. As the last major war damage, the seal was not repaired until 1995 to 2005 and faced with stone. Some experts had called for it to be left undisguised as a memorial against the war.

Creation of the brick seal

April 1945: Damaged cathedral with seal

From May 30, 1942, the bombing raids on Cologne began during World War II , and they continued until 1945. The cathedral was badly damaged by about 70 bomb hits, including 14 heavy aerial bombs. Of the 22 vaults in the nave and transept, nine were destroyed and six heavily damaged. The gable of the north transept fell down; all window tracery were damaged and the large west window destroyed.

On November 3, 1943, a formation of ten bombers flew over Cologne to hit Cologne Central Station, which had been largely undamaged, but strategically important . In the attack, which missed the station, the cathedral was badly damaged. An explosive bomb tore a large hole in the statically important corner pillar of the north tower. The hole was made about 10 meters high and about 10 meters high; A total of 82.8 cubic meters of brickwork was blown out. The vibrations had also loosened the stones below the hole, so that there was a risk that other components could fall apart. The damage threatened to collapse the entire tower; In a first estimate, those responsible assumed that three tons of iron, ten tons of cement and 45,000 bricks would be required for the backfill. The Dombauhütte was because of the size of the damage and the restrictions imposed by the war economy is not able to perform the backup alone.

Pioneers of the Pioneer Replacement Battalion 253 from Cologne-Westhoven under the leadership of Commander Paul Börger cleared the rubble the day after the bomb hit and seem to have continued to support the security work afterwards. Cathedral builder Hans Güldenpfennig worked out a safety plan together with structural engineer Wolfgang Schorn and commissioned the Cologne building contractor Wildermann and Schorn to do the work on the construction site. Dutch forced laborers may also have been used. From November 5, 1943 to spring 1944, the hole was closed with around 20,000 bricks. The so-called Domplombe remained visible on the north tower until 2004; During the renovation it was found that the masonry was very solid and the mortar was extremely hard.

Facing blocks in front of bricks: Domplombe 2000
823 ashlar stones: Dome bomb since 2005

Seal as a memorial

Neither Willy Weyres (cathedral master builder 1944–1972) nor Arnold Wolff (cathedral master builder 1972–1999) had ever planned to leave the brick seal uncovered. But it was not until the mid-1990s that the other urgent restoration work allowed the seal to be clad in stone again. This was also intended to repair the last major visible war damage to the cathedral. However, the cathedral chapter had to submit a separate application to the city curator in 1995 because the cathedral as a whole - including the brick seal - was placed under monument protection in 1982. As a result, it was publicly discussed whether the brick seal should be preserved as a memorial for the Second World War. Cathedral builder Arnold Wolff and Cathedral Provost Bernard Henrichs , on the other hand, advocate healing the damage in the public debate. The city curator released this in March 1996 because the seal was not worth protecting under monument law. In retrospect, the cathedral builder Peter Füssenich , appointed since 2016, said , “It would not have harmed the cathedral if the seal had been retained in its previous form. It has been a trace of history. " There was no structural need to clad the brick wall, it was an aesthetic decision.

Cladding with ashlar

Newly found leaf tendrils: 35 capitals of the Cologne Domplombe (2004/05)

The entire construction project for facing the brick seal lasted around ten years from 1995 to 2005. “The amount of work required to replace the cathedral seal corresponded to the construction of a village church.” Obernkirchen sandstone was chosen as the material, which was also used as a building material for the north tower in the 19th century would have. The stonemasons of the building works processed 103.7 cubic meters of stone with a weight of around 250 tons into 823 blocks. 124 of them are elaborate sculptures depicting finials , pinnacles and capitals. Steinmetz Willi Bauer worked for the Fialtürmchen 25 small finials. For 35 of the flower and leaf capitals, Steinmetz Markus Schroer found modern designs in historical silhouette instead of the lost originals. He chiseled the leaf shapes u. a. of clover, thistle, hops, columbine, bougainvillea and black-eyed Susanne in the stone. The leafy tendrils of postmodernism, barely visible to the naked eye from the cathedral plate, are thus the most recent architectural stone carvings on the cathedral. The figures of the saints depicted - including Cordula , Christophorus , Katharina and Nikolaus - were faithfully reshaped by the stone sculptors based on the plaster models by Peter Fuchs from the 19th century.

In March 2004, the stonemasons began to move the new stone. First, the bricks were broken out to a depth of around 30 centimeters. It turned out that the work had been carried out very solidly in 1943, so that the bricks were difficult to remove. Some adjacent stone from the 19th century were so badly damaged by the bomb that they had to be replaced. Finally, the newly created ashlar was moved and the remaining brick seal was covered. The relocation work was completed in August 2005 in good time before World Youth Day .

See also

Portal: Cologne Cathedral  - What Wikipedia knows about the cathedral

literature

→ Main page: Bibliography on Cologne Cathedral (in the portal: Cologne Cathedral )

  • Niklas Möring: Cologne Cathedral in World War II (Masterpieces of Cologne Cathedral 10), Cologne 2011
  • Marion Wohlleben: Can a repair measure be worthy of a monument? The Cologne Domplombe as an example , in: Yearbook of the Cologne History Association, vol. 69, issue 1, p. 113ff

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 45th Cathedral Report October 2003 - September 2004, p. 9ff
  2. ↑ Niklas Möring: The Cologne Cathedral in World War II, Cologne 2011, p. 71
  3. ↑ a b Die Dom-Förster, film by Carl Dietmar and Thomas Förster, WDR 2004, with many authentic film recordings, invoice from the construction company dated March 10, 1944 and other documents
  4. ^ Arnold Wolff: The Cologne Cathedral, edited and supplemented by Barbara Schock-Werner, Cologne 2015, p. 60
  5. ↑ Niklas Möring: The Cologne Cathedral in World War II, Cologne 2011, p. 72
  6. ↑ Who Was the Savior? ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ "And there stood the cathedral" Interview by Domradio with the former cathedral builder Barbara Schock-Werner on May 8, 2020
  8. ↑ 9500 Weisweiler clinker and 18,000 bricks Dutch format, which the invoice of the construction company u. a. Listed under the section: Walling up the destroyed buttress on the north tower of the tower, costs: 10,183.32 Reichsmarks for scaffolding the construction site, the material and 82.84 m³ of masonry. See Die Dom-Sealing, a film by Carl Dietmar and Thomas Förster, WDR 2004. In the end, only 20,000 bricks were built into the sealing.
  9. ↑ Niklas Möring: The Cologne Cathedral in World War II, Cologne 2011, p. 72
  10. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 45th Cathedral Report October 2003 - September 2004, p. 9ff
  11. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 45th Cathedral Report October 2003 - September 2004, p. 9ff
  12. ↑ Marion Wohlleben: Can a repair measure be memorable? The Cologne Domplombe as an example , in: Yearbook of the Cologne History Association, vol. 69, issue 1, p. 113ff
  13. ↑ e.g. Helmut Fußbroich from the Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege, cf. Zeit.de: The disturbing seal
  14. ↑ Ksta.de: The seal in the north tower is pulled
  15. ^ Koeln Architektur.de: Threshold instead of plate. Interview: Architecture with Peter Füssenich, the new Cologne cathedral builder
  16. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 45th Cathedral Report October 2003 - September 2004, p. 9ff
  17. ↑ Hüttenmeister Uwe Schäfer in a Focus interview. focus.de - sculptor and stonemason.
  18. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 44th Cathedral Report October 2002 - September 2003, p. 9ff
  19. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 44th Cathedral Report October 2002 - September 2003, p. 10
  20. ↑ Barbara Schock-Werner: 45th Cathedral Report, October 2003-September 2004, p. 12