Royal House (Leipzig)
The royal house (until 1904 Apelsches Haus or Apels Haus ; temporarily also Thomésches Haus ) is a culturally and historically significant town house on the south side of the Leipzig market (since 1885 Markt 17, previously Markt 2). It was built around 1560 and lavishly rebuilt in the baroque style in 1706/07 while retaining the old structure according to plans by the master builder Johann Gregor Fuchs . After the client of the new owner, the wholesale merchant Andreas Dietrich Apel , it was initially called Apelsches Haus or Apels Haus . It got its current name when it was converted into a commercial building in 1904. The name is reminiscent of the Saxon Elector and King of Poland Augustus the Strong , who stayed in the royal house on his numerous visits to Leipzig.
history
The previous buildings of the royal family had been in the possession of important Leipzig traders and merchants since the middle of the 15th century, the first proof of ownership dates from 1459. In 1507 the house was rebuilt for the first time by its owner Dietrich Monia. From 1639 the building was known as Helffrichsches Haus , named after the husband of the owner at the time, Paul Helffrich. From 1631 to 1661 there was a small guardhouse in front of the building, which can be seen well on contemporary cityscapes. In 1664 the respected physician and university rector Gottfried Welsch acquired the house, until it was bought by Apel in 1704 it was owned by the Welsch family of scholars. At that time it was called the Welschische Haus .
Little is known about the appearance of the house before the fundamental renovation at the beginning of the 18th century by Andreas Dietrich Apel. Two engravings from 1595 and 1615 only show that its roof with two rows of skylights and four large chimneys protruded over the neighboring houses. Around 1610, the house was almost the entire ground floor engaging cross-vaulted hall and a Renaissance - Wendelstein from porphyry from Rochlitz , which is still preserved.
The plans that have been preserved show that during the baroque renovation of 1706/07, among other things, the windows were increased, the shutters changed and a roof bay was added. As the most important innovation of the façade to the market at the central axis, a three-story wooden bay window befindlichem to Altan , who from a Balustergeländer is limited, pre-hidden.
After Apels death in 1718, the house was owned by the Leipzig family Thomae for generations. In the 19th century, among others, Christian Friedrich Lehmann, piano manufacturer and owner of Lehmanns Garten (formerly Kleinbosischer Garten ) owned the royal house.
In 1904 the Export Association of the Kingdom of Saxony had the building converted into a commercial building, and from 1907 the association had its headquarters in the house. Between 1906 and 1913, the American Theater was located in the royal house. The architect Gustav Pflaume demolished all the side and rear buildings in 1915/16 and converted it into a trade fair building, with the cross vault on the ground floor being partially removed. The roof, which originally comprised an attic decorated with vases and the aforementioned roof bay, was replaced by a modern saddle roof with two rows of windows. The baroque facade, on the other hand, was largely preserved, as was some of the stucco ceilings in the interior.
In 1932 the architect Curt Schiemichen created a passage on the ground floor, which originally leads to Petersstrasse , and since 1963 to Messehofpassage after being partially destroyed in the war . Today the royal house is used as a commercial and office building.
The shop window and outer façade of the first floor have undergone major changes since the middle of the 19th century; under Schiemichen, the base below the three-story bay was removed in 1932. In the mid-1990s, the facade was largely restored to its baroque state.
Historical meaning
The royal house is especially famous as the guest house of the city of Leipzig for high-ranking visits between the 16th and 19th centuries. After the city rented the first floor, the Saxon Elector Christian I and 1631 Elector Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg were guests in the house. In 1692 the wedding between Elector Johann Georg IV and Eleonore von Ansbach-Brandenburg took place in the building. There is also evidence that August the Strong stayed overnight at his regular trade fair visits to Leipzig and the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1698 in the royal house. August the Strong also celebrated his birthday here several times. In 1699, Margrave Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Bayreuth and Sophia von Sachsen-Weißenfels were married in what was then the Welschisches Haus. The Prussian King Frederick the Great stayed at the royal house twice during the Seven Years' War , where he received the Leipzig literature professor Christian Fürchtegott Gellert on September 18, 1760 . For high-ranking guests, a wooden makeshift bridge was built several times in the 18th century between the royal house and the Old Town Hall, which is diagonally opposite . This was so large that soldiers could stand on the bridge for the regents passing by.
In the run-up to the Wars of Liberation , Jérôme Bonaparte , brother of the French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte and King of Westphalia , stayed in the building in 1809 . During the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in 1813, the Saxon King Friedrich August I stayed here with his family and entourage. Napoléon Bonaparte visited him after a lost battle on October 19, 1813 in the royal house, and it was from here that the French emperor fled the trade fair city. Friedrich August I was arrested on site on the same day, the royal family remained in the royal house until they left for Berlin on October 23. After that, the building became the headquarters of the allied Governor General of Saxony, the Russian Prince Repnin-Volkonsky . On October 15, 1820, the commander-in-chief of the allies, Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg , died during a visit to the site of his victory over Napoleon in the royal family. During the journey of homage to the Saxon King Anton , his wife Maria Theresa of Austria succumbed to a brief and serious illness here on November 7, 1827, ending the history of the royal family as accommodation for official guests of the city of Leipzig.
In the adjacent transverse building there was a large ballroom in the second half of the 18th century, which Johann Adam Hiller's Musikübender Gesellschaft used as a venue for concerts from 1775 until the move to the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1781.
literature
- Siegfried Moltke: The "royal house" in Leipzig . In: Leipziger Calendar 1908. Illustrated yearbook and chronicle . Georg Merseburger, Leipzig 1907, pp. 183–198.
- The capture of King Friedrich August on October 9, 1813 . In: Leipziger Calendar 1913. Illustrated yearbook and chronicle . Georg Merseburger, Leipzig 1912, pp. 137–142.
- Waltraud Volk: Leipzig. Historic streets and squares today. Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1977, p. 113.
- Horst Riedel: royal family . In: ibid .: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . PRO Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 311.
- Wolfgang Hocquél : Passage in the royal house . In: Ders .: The Leipziger Passagen & Höfe. Architecture of European standing . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2011, ISBN 978-3-86729-087-6 , pp. 50-51.
- Alberto Schwarz: Das Alte Leipzig - Stadtbild und Architektur , Beucha 2018, ISBN 978-3-86729-226-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Müller: House book for Nienborg's Atlas (= sources and research on Saxon history . Volume 11 ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-05-003126-3 , pp. 21-22 .
- ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 18. Leipzig Part 2 , pp. 458–459 with floor plan.
- ↑ Ralph Nünthel: John Nitzsche cinematograph and film. The history of the Leipzig cinema pioneer, his company and his technology . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 1999, ISBN 3-930076-85-3 , p. 94 .
- ^ Johann Jakob Vogel : Leipzigisches Geschicht-Buch or Annales [...] Lanckisch, Leipzig 1714, p. 875-876 .
- ^ Johann Jakob Vogel : Leipzigisches Geschicht-Buch or Annales [...] Lanckisch, Leipzig 1714, p. 927-928 .
- ^ Moltke, p. 188.
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 22.9 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 30.3 ″ E