Londoner Hof (Aachen)
The former Londoner Hof was a representative three-winged city villa built by Laurenz Mefferdatis from the 18th century at Kleinkölnstraße 18 in Aachen city center, whose actual origins date back to the 15th century. Of the commercial building that stands there today, only the original ground floor from the time of Mefferdatis and the approximately 1700 m² floor plan have been preserved, after which the building was listed in 1977 .
history
The property was first mentioned in a document in 1485. Between 1713 and 1740, on behalf of the ruling Aachen mayor Leonhard Joseph von Lamberts zu Cortenbach, the old building was completely renovated in two construction phases by the baroque master builder Laurenz Mefferdatis . The new building then served as a model for further inner-city city villas for wealthy merchants and aristocratic families.
Four years after the death of Baron von Lamberts zu Cortenbach, the building was converted into an inn in 1768 and was henceforth called "Cour de Londres". After the outbreak of the French Revolution , the London court initially served as a meeting room for the aristocratic forces of Europe striving for a counter-revolution. After the final occupation of Aachen by the French in 1794, the seat of the prefecture of the Département de la Roer was established here from 1800 to 1814 . Like the adventurer Casanova in previous years, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte was a regular guest at the “Cour de Londres”.
After the French left in 1814, the new Prussian government temporarily took over the building as its official residence. A little later, until the renovation of the Aachen City Hall , the Londoner Hof served as an alternative quarter for the first Aachen city government.
Three years after the First World War , the General German Trade Union Federation took over the property, which was banned and demolished by the National Socialists in 1933. During the war years, the London court was bought in 1940 by an Aachen family who wanted to set up a furniture store there. But it was not until December 1944, after Aachen had already been liberated, that the reconstruction of the building, which had been almost completely destroyed in the Second World War , could begin and the furniture shop opened. After the furniture store was relocated outside Aachen in 2004, the building complex has since included a shop for oriental home decor.
Building description
The London court is regarded as the prototype for the inner-city mansions built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The construction with Cour d'Honneur and central floor plan is characteristic. The London Courtyard was a two-story, seven-axis building with a three-axis risalit, which was closed off by a classic gable. This building was “one of the rare courtyards in Aachen. […] For the history of building in Aachen, the floor plan is more important than the architecture (Fig. 29). The middle wing contains anteroom and hall on the upper floor, vestibule and garden room below, and an anteroom and staircase in the wings. The hall, bedroom and the adjoining guest rooms in the side wings are arranged in a symmetrical pattern along the central axis and connected by doors in the same line; it is the first example of an enfilade (basic motif of baroque room composition) in Aachen. This floor plan barely achieved any significant improvement in Aachen in the course of the 18th century. "
The Wylre'sche Hof corresponding to this type of building is still preserved in its complex.
In 1977 the former London court was entered in the list of monuments by the Rhineland State Conservator :
"Kleinkölnstrasse 18, Londoner Hof"
1713 and 1730 (Mefferdatis) reconstruction;
Only the ground floor section of the two street axes of the wing buildings is preserved of the 3-wing town courtyard; Reconstruction on old foundations without the 3-axis central projection. "
Since July 14, 2016, a bilingual plaque, financed by the two partnership committees Aachen- Reims and Stolberg- Valognes , reminds of the importance of the building during the French era with the following inscription:
“From 1800 to 1814, the prefecture of the French Roer department, which was named after the river Rur, was located in this building. The department comprised the four districts of Aachen, Cologne, Krefeld and Kleve. The administrative seat was Aachen. ”-“ En cet endroit était installée la Préfecture du département français de la Roer (d'après la rivière du même nom) from 1800 to 1814. Le département comprenait les arrondissements d'Aix-la-Chapelle, de Cologne , de Crevelt et de Clèves. Aix-la-Chapelle en était le chef-lieu . "
As part of the Ways Against Forgetting project , another plaque commemorates the break-up of the General German Trade Union Confederation in 1933:
“The trade union building has been here since 1921. On May 2, 1933, the Nazi government banned and smashed the trade unions. The SA occupied this house and kidnapped two trade unionists "
Web links
- Brief description of the London court
- Großmann furniture store is sold . In: Aachener Nachrichten of November 20, 2003 (with historical description)
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Faymonville among others: The art monuments of the city of Aachen. III: The secular monuments and the collections of the city of Aachen. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1924, p. 782, Fig. 64 Mittelbau, Kleinkölnstr. 18 .
- ^ Paul Schoenen: Johann Joseph Couven. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 86, p. 154.
- ↑ Reinhard Dauber : Aachen villa architecture. The villa as a building task in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bongers, Recklinghausen 1985, p. 12f.
- ^ Günther Borchers (Ed.): Landeskonservator Rheinland. List of monuments. 1.1 Aachen city center with Frankenberg quarter . Edited by Volker Osteneck with the assistance of Hans Königs . Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1977, p. 99.
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 36.7 ″ N , 6 ° 5 ′ 10 ″ E