Electoral Mainz Lieutenancy
The Kurmainzische Lieutenancy is a baroque , three-storey four-wing complex around an inner courtyard from the 16th to 18th centuries. It is located on the corner of Government Street and Meister Eckehart Street in the center of Erfurt .
From 1699 to 1802 the plant was the seat of the kurmainzischen governor that from here on behalf of the Prince Archbishop of Mainz administered the city of Erfurt. During the Erfurt Prince Congress from September 27 to October 14, 1808, Napoléon Bonaparte lived and worked in the Lieutenancy and met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , among others . The plant was among the Prussians rebuilt into an administrative building and served from 1816 to 1933 as a government building , where the regional council of the administrative district of Erfurt was sitting. From 1933 until 1940 the building was used by the Secret State Police ( Gestapo ).
In the GDR from 1954 the administration of the Erfurt-Land district was in the Lieutenancy . After the reorganization of the state of Thuringia in 1990 and intensive renovation work, the Lieutenancy has housed the Thuringian State Chancellery and the seat of the Thuringian Prime Minister since 1994 .
history
Under Electoral Mainz rule (1664–1802)
The Kurmainzischen governors , who administered the city of Erfurt on behalf of the Kurmainzer government from 1664 to 1802 , initially had their seat in the house at Zur Himmelspforte in Marktstrasse 6. Over time, however, the location turned out to be insufficiently representative and they began to to look for another building. The three interconnected patrician houses Zum Güldenen Rost , Zum proud Knecht and Zur Güldenen Lichen in what was then Vitigasse (today Government Street) were found, which had a worthy, representative character and sufficient living and working space. In 1694 the governor Johann Jacob Waldbott von Bassenheim bought the 16th century houses for 1200 Reichstaler. However, the high costs for further repairs meant that the move was delayed and the house at the Breiten Herd on the fish market was briefly proposed as the new seat for the governor. In the end, the building complex in Vitigasse was held fast and in May 1699 began to rebuild and beautify it. Shortly afterwards, on June 15th, the newly elected governor Gottfried Philipp Josef Faust von Stromberg was able to move into the building, which has since been called the Lieutenancy. The nearby Wigbertikirche was elevated to the court and burial church of the governors of Erfurt.
His successor, Philipp Wilhelm von Boineburg , had the Lieutenancy expanded into a four-wing complex from 1713 to 1720 by the fortress builder Maximilian von Welsch . A risalit-like forward central building and the baroque wing were added to the existing Lieutenancy, as well as a wing with stables and coach houses in the north and a side wing with a brewery in the west. The planned orangery in the eastern side wing and a governor's garden in the inner courtyard could not be carried out due to lack of funds. The Renaissance wing, the name of the original Lieutenancy, was used for residential purposes, and a reception, audience and meeting room was set up in the Baroque wing. Together, the two wings and the central building have since formed the complex's representative main building. The governor Anselm Franz Ernst von Warsberg finally created the aristocratic seclusion and spatial freedom that his official residence had lacked until then. For this he turned to the Electorate of Mainz government several times with the words: “He could not endure that the neighborhood was observing all his actions and beings if he were not able to dress up in his retirade room on the corner or with someone to speak without being seen and overheard by them. ” Thereupon, between 1733 and 1740, he had several houses south of the Lieutenancy, on Lohbank (today Neuwerkstrasse) and in Vitigasse (today Government Street) bought up and demolished. Two guard houses were then built on the edge of the newly created forecourt and a deer enclosure planted with trees was created inside. Due to this use, the green area still bears the name Hirschgarten today . Around 1780 game was stopped in the deer garden and it was converted into the first public park in Erfurt.
Under the last Elector of Mainz, Karl Theodor von Dalberg , the Lieutenancy developed into an intellectual and social center. Together with his friend Karl Friedrich von Dacheröden he held from 1786 every Tuesday from 17 to 20 am in the governor's office Assembleen (meetings) were to those invited people from the upper middle class and educated. The guests had the opportunity to exchange ideas mentally and culturally. Ruling princes and lords or famous personalities such as Friedrich von Schiller , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Christoph Martin Wieland and Wilhelm von Humboldt , with whom Dalberg was friends, sometimes appeared at the meetings . In 1791 the daughter of his friend Dacheröden Karoline married Wilhelm von Humboldt in the bay window of the baroque wing of the Lieutenancy.
Under Prussian (1802–1806), French (1806–1814) and Prussian (1814–1945) rule
Through the Franco-Prussian special treaty of 1802, Prussia received from France as compensation for the areas east of the banks of the Rhine, including the Eichsfeld and Erfurt. Thereupon Prussian troops under the generals von Voss and Wartensleben occupied the city of Erfurt. The Kurmainzische Lieutenancy served the Prussians as a government building in which the Prussian military governor sat and administered the exclave of Erfurt.
After the defeat in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt on October 14, 1806 and the capitulation of Erfurt, the city came under French rule. The Lieutenancy continued to be used as a government building and was now the seat of the Imperial French Governor. He had the task of administering the province of Erfurt, which had previously been founded from the Principality of Erfurt and the County of Blankenhain and belonged to the imperial domain. Between September 27 and October 14, 1808, Napoléon Bonaparte organized the Erfurt Prince Congress , to which he invited his main ally, Tsar Alexander I , and his German allies. During this time Napoleon worked and lived on the first floor of the Lieutenancy, which was named the Imperial Palace for the occasion . His study, which was mainly used for diplomatic negotiations, was in the Renaissance wing, and his bedroom as well as the waiting and audience room were in the Baroque wing. The ballroom in the central building was used as a dining room, for larger receptions and for church services. The interior decoration was embellished on the occasion of the congress with tapestries , bronze figures, chandeliers , knickknacks , carpets from Paris and furniture from Gotha . The focus of the congress was on the negotiations for an alliance between the two emperors, which was signed by both parties on October 12th. Afterwards Napoleon recognized the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia as well as Finland to the tsar and in return the tsar left Napoleon to Spain and committed himself to Russian assistance in an attack by Austria on France.
In addition to diplomatic negotiations, the daily reception of famous personalities between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. was part of the daily routine. On October 2, 1808, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had the opportunity to meet the French emperor in the bay room of the baroque wing and talk to him for a whole hour. According to Goethe's account, Napoleon praised his appearance at the beginning of the conversation with the words Vous êtes un homme (in German you are a man ). In the evening every day at 6 p.m., dinner was taken with the invited monarchs and princes and then after 7 p.m. theater performances were attended in the former university ballroom (since 1871 Kaisersaal , in relation to the establishment of the German Empire) in the Futterstraße. At the end of the Erfurt Princely Congress , the French military governor moved into the government building again and the valuable equipment borrowed for the congress was brought back to Paris.
After the Congress of Vienna (1814/15), Europe was reorganized. As a result, the Kingdom of Prussia received the province of Saxony and the city of Erfurt, among others . From January 1, 1816, the Lieutenancy served the Prussians as the seat of the Prussian government president, who had to administer the Erfurt administrative district formed in 1816 . The renaissance wing housed the presidential official residence and the baroque wing housed the royal room , which was reserved for visits by the Prussian royal family. Between 1818 and 1825 and at the end of the 19th century, the Lieutenancy with its courtyard buildings, the brewery in the west and the stables in the north were converted into an administration building with offices. As a result, the character as a residence was lost forever. Between 1918 and 1919 the building was the seat of the Erfurt Workers 'and Soldiers' Council for a short time and between 1933 and 1940 the seat of the Gestapo . The American military administration moved into the building on April 12, 1945, and a little later on July 3, 1945, the Soviet headquarters for Erfurt.
Use after the Second World War
In the GDR, the Kurmainzische Lieutenancy was the seat of the Erfurt-Land district administration between 1954 and 1990 and, according to plans from 1986, should be used for events in the neighboring House of Culture . In the course of the construction work for the never completed Palace of Culture, various houses in Eichenstrasse and the western guard house, which was rebuilt in 2008 with donations, were demolished. With the turnaround in 1989/90 and the reorganization of the federal state of Thuringia , the Lieutenancy was selected as the seat of the Thuringian State Chancellery and the Prime Minister . After three years of renovation and reconstruction work, the building was finally officially handed over to the then Thuringian Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel on March 4, 1995 .
architecture
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The Kurmainzische Lieutenancy is a baroque , three-storey four-wing complex around an inner courtyard, the Palaishof, and dates from the 16th to 18th centuries. The representative main building is located in the south and consists of the Renaissance wing , the risalit-like central building and the baroque wing. Initially, the Lieutenancy consisted of a small complex of houses, the current Renaissance wing, and was only later expanded into a four-wing complex by the master builder Maximilian von Welsch . In doing so, he adopted architectural elements such as corner blocks, window frames and the storey heights of the old governor's office in the new baroque building, creating a symmetrical and uniform overall facade on the main building in the south.
The Renaissance wing has a round oriel running over two floors , the underside of which is pear-shaped and decorated with various reliefs . These show, among other things, a Landsknecht in the left part, the namesake of the house Zum proud Knecht . A male bust growing out of the facade carries the bay window and presumably represents a portrait of the sculptor and builder. Next to it there is an inscription relating to the builder with the words: "Meisster Valten Wild 1540 steynmetz" . The baroque wing has a rectangular bay window decorated with putti as a counterpart to the round bay window and is adorned in the area of the windows by flat gables with reliefs and decorative garlands . The main entrance to the Lieutenancy is in the central building and is flanked by two bearded herms . They support the balcony above with its curved parapet and its two life-size robed figures by the sculptor Gottfried Gröninger. Two pilasters with tendrils, volutes and two putti surround the balcony door . The windows of the central building are adorned with flat gables with reliefs and putti and bordered on each side by pilasters. In the main cornice is the coat of arms of the Archbishop of Mainz and Elector Lothar Franz von Schönborn, who was in power at the time of construction . A so-called frontispiece , a gable triangle with an inset ox-eye, extends above it . Several farm buildings adjoin the main building to the north. They consist of a side wing with the former brewery and the north wing with the former horse stables and coach houses and were converted into office buildings through renovations in the 19th century and in 1930. Originally, a side wing with an orangery was planned parallel to the brewery , but this was never carried out. Only now, between 1993 and 1994, the gap was filled with the construction of a kitchen building in the Welsch style and a gate system. Around the same time, the north courtyard was created in front of the north wing, which is used for commercial purposes and as a parking lot.
The main portal in the central building leads to the Grand Vestibule , the large entrance hall from which the newly created Citizens' Hall is located on the ground floor to the west. It is open to the public and is used for exhibitions and receptions. A two-flight staircase leads from the large entrance hall to the ballroom Grande Salle , which is 9.43 meters high and has an area of 205 square meters and extends over the second and third floors of the central building. The walls are adorned with Corinthian pilasters and the ceiling with a baroque painting, which is believed to have been made by the painter Carlo Ludovico Castelli. It shows an assembly of figures in heaven, in the middle of which stands a high throne with a female figure. Each individual figure embodies a positive or negative human characteristic. The painting is surrounded by four medallions , each of which shows a seated female figure and depicts the subject of architecture, wealth, trade and success. The stucco work on the ceiling and cove was made by the sculptor Gottfried Gröninger, who installed them between 1718 and 1722 based on the designs of the plasterer Johann Peter Castelli. To the west of the ballroom are several salons of the Baroque wing, the Antichambre (reception room), the Chambre d'Audience (audience and bay room) and the Chambre de Parade (meeting room). They were originally furnished with baroque furniture and with tapestries and tapestries . The first floor in the Renaissance wing has niche windows facing the street and fluted columns in front and houses the office of the Thuringian Prime Minister.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Blaha: From the town house to the imperial palace: the Kurmainzische Lieutenancy in Erfurt . Bayerische Vereinsbank, Dept. Public Relations and Advertising, Munich 1992, p. 33
- ↑ Birgit Kummer: Searching for traces in history . In: Thüringer Allgemeine , August 3, 2007.
literature
- Walter Blaha: From the town house to the imperial palace: the Electoral Mainz Lieutenancy in Erfurt . Bayerische Vereinsbank, Public Relations and Advertising Department, Munich 1992.
- Georg Dehio (Hrsg.): Handbook of the German art monuments Thuringia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 27 ″ N , 11 ° 1 ′ 45 ″ E