Konrad Rossbach

Herborn town church redesigned by Konrad Rossbach

Konrad Rossbach (also: Conrad and: Roßbach, Rosbach) was a builder of the late Renaissance who worked in the environment of the Wetterau Counts Association .

biography

Almost nothing is known about Konrad Rossbach's personal biography. At the beginning of the 16th century it is referred to contemporary as "from Hanau". This is probably not an indication of origin in the sense of a place of birth, but the designation of a (temporary) stay. The period of his proven work extends to the years between 1591 and 1618.

Starting position

He worked in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He mainly built in the counties of Hanau-Münzenberg and Nassau-Dillenburg . At the time of the Reformation, both territories had turned towards the Calvinist orientation. The existing stock of church buildings in both territories was still medieval and thus Roman Catholic . The Calvinist church service, however, required - in contrast to the church service based on the high altar according to the Roman Catholic liturgy - a church room oriented towards the pulpit and a sermon service. The existing churches had to be fundamentally rebuilt. Konrad Rossbach carried out these modifications in many cases. A typical feature of his conversions are additional built-in galleries , if there was enough space, several on top of each other.

buildings

Church renovations

Evangelical town church Dillenburg

Galleries built into the Herborn town church by Konrad Rossbach

• Evangelical town church Dillenburg , 1594–1597
• Marienkirche , Hanau, approx. 1597 ( completely burned out in World War II )
• Evangelical town church of Herborn , 1598–1601
• Nikolaikirche in Siegen , 1601–1606
• Parish church in Freudenberg , 1601–1606
• Parish church Nieder-Eschbach , 1617/18

More buildings

• Conversion of the old Herborn town hall to the college of the high school (1591–1599)
• Possibly work on the Hanau City Palace for Count Philipp Ludwig II.
• Konrad Rossbach probably expanded Beilstein Castle from a castle to a residence between 1607 and 1618 .

literature

• Reinhard Dietrich : Konrad Rossbach - a master builder of the Renaissance in Hanau? . In: New magazine for Hanau history (2011) = messages of the Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 eV, pp. 3–7.