Cologne Rent Chamber

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Historical rent chamber in the old town hall building
Chest of the rent chamber at the end of the 15th century (Zeughaus Köln)

The first Cologne Rent Chamber, set up by a council commission in the historic Cologne City Hall, was a municipal fund and took over the management of the financial issues of the medieval city. Transferred to the municipal level, it functioned similarly to the court chamber , which was responsible for direct income at the competent authorities of the sovereign financial administrations. As a rule, the chamber was under the leadership of a mayor who resigned after a year in office and who was then able to work as rentmaster . He last administered the office in the Rentkammer, which was reconstructed in today's historic town hall and can be viewed there. Until the end of the 14th century, the city administration only had the so-called "Saturday rent chamber". It was named after the day of the week (later followed by the "Wednesdays" - and the "Friday pension chamber") on which main payments were made. Another name, the "Goddestagsrentkammer", was mentioned in connection with the repairs made to it, which the master stonemason and urban circulation Peter von Sieberg directed in 1591.

The 19th century Cologne local historian Johann Jakob Merlo is dedicated to these financial processes . He made the expenditure books of the Cologne Rent Chamber the subject of his treatises.

The room of the historic Rentkammer in the old town hall is on the ground floor of the town hall tower. Its basement, which the city has used as the first archive since it was built , is the only part of the building that has been preserved in its original substance.

The duties of a rent master, the later “rent bureau”, are performed today by the city treasurer . The tax offices developed from the lordly court chambers .

Today's Cologne Rent Chamber is currently being used by the city for the civil wedding ceremony after its true-to-original restoration has been completed .

Literature / sources

  • Carl Dietmar: Die Chronik Kölns , Chronik Verlag, Dortmund 1991, ISBN 3-611-00193-7
  • Johann Jacob Merlo: The output book of the Wednesday rent chamber in Cologne for the years 1370 to 1380 . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine 39, 1863,
  • Johann Jacob Merlo: From the output book of the Wednesday Rent Chamber in Cologne for the years 1500-1511 . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland 41, 1866,

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hans Vogts, Das Kölner Wohnhaus up to the beginning of the 19th century , Volume II, pages 672 ff
  2. ^ Carl Dietmar: Die Chronik Kölns , p. 126
  3. ↑ Information brochure "The Cologne City Hall", the City of Cologne