Mönchsturm (Frankfurt am Main)

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The monk 's tower and the Dominican monastery (left) on Faber's siege plan in 1553. To the right, the Fronhofturm and the Staufen wall
Dominican monastery, Mönchsturm and Judengasse on Merian's bird 's eye view plan, 1628
The former Dominican monastery and the stump of the Mönchsturm, which collapsed 77 years earlier, after the west side of Judengasse was demolished in 1872
Foundation walls of the Mönchsturm on July 27, 2011 under the torn open Kurt-Schuhmacher-Strasse

The Mönchsturm was a defense tower of the city ​​fortifications of Frankfurt am Main . It was located on the southeast side of the city on the Staufen wall, which was no longer directly used for military purposes at the time of construction and was built in the 12th century , in the immediate vicinity of the Dominican monastery to which it owes its name. On the other hand, the Jewish ghetto, the Judengasse , was laid out in the 15th century , so that the tower stood exactly between the monastery and the ghetto and towered over the latter during its existence.

The tower was built in 1356 and raised again in 1406. At the time of the abandonment of the city fortifications and the construction of the Fischerfeldviertel , the Mönchsturm collapsed in 1795 ; its tower stump remained until the eastern side of the Judengasse was demolished in 1884/85.

The tower stood behind the choir of the monastery church on a property not open to the public. Due to the inhuman confinement in the Jewish quarter, its east side was built up with narrow back courtyards. The direct vicinity of the ghetto and monastery repeatedly led to conflicts. For example, the steps from the monastery in the area of ​​the monk's tower protruded beyond the city wall to the area of ​​the Jews.

Its neighboring tower to the south was the Fronhofturm , built in 1350 and designed in a similar way , the next tower in the northwest was the Bornheimer Pforte at the northern end of the Fahrgasse , where it meets the Konstablerwache square today . The section of the Staufen wall there has been preserved to this day. A small gate was later set up between these two, through which the little Judenbrückelchen offered a third, central access to the Judengasse over the moat, which has now been built over. The other two gates were at both ends of the street, at the Bornheimer Pforte in the north and at the Judenmarkt in the south.

The tower had a round floor plan and a smooth, cylindrical tower shaft, above which was a cantilevered platform protected by battlements. A high, conical spire formed the end .

The Mönchsturm and its entire urban environment, with the exception of the Dominican Church, have now completely disappeared from the cityscape. Shortly before the tower collapsed in 1793, construction of the Fischerfeldviertel began. The ghetto obligation was lifted in 1811, the Judengasse was torn down in 1869/70 (west side) and 1884/85 (east side). The breakthrough in Battonnstrasse , which was routed north of the monastery, brought modern city traffic into this urban quarter. The Judenmarkt ( Börneplatz from 1885 ) at the southern end of Judengasse was transformed into a large city square with representative buildings of the Jewish community. The most radical change was the destruction of the old town in the bombing war in March 1944 , followed by reconstruction. With the layout of the wide Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse , entire quarters disappeared from the city map.

The former location of the Mönchsturm is usually no longer recognizable on site. The rebuilt choir of the Dominican Church, which forms the western wall of Börneplatz, offers orientation. The tower stood roughly in the middle of today's carriageway on Kurt-Schumacher-Straße, between the monastery building to the north of the church and used by the Evangelical Regional Association on the west side and the entrance to the Museum Judengasse on the east side. At the end of July 2011, during construction work to renovate Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse, remains of the tower were rediscovered below street level. The reconstructed floor plan of the Mönchsturm was marked by a ring of paving stones in the asphalt pavement - similar to what happened previously at the former location of the Ulrichstein on the banks of the Main in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen .

literature

  • Fried Lübbecke : Faber's siege plan of Frankfurt a. M. 1552 . Annual gift for members of the Association of Friends of the Old Town in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt 1945, p. 26 .
  • Hans-Otto Schembs : The Börneplatz in Frankfurt am Main . Ed .: Magistrate of the City of Frankfurt am Main. Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-7829-0344-7 .

Web links

Commons : Mönchsturm (Frankfurt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article “Monument protectors discover the tower of the Staufen wall” from July 26, 2011 in the online presence of the Frankfurter Neue Presse , accessed on July 27, 2011
  2. ↑ Article “Tower of the Staufen Wall discovered” from July 27, 2011 in the online presence of the Frankfurter Neue Presse, accessed on July 27, 2011
  3. ↑ Article “A piece of the Middle Ages” from July 27, 2011 in the online presence of the Frankfurter Rundschau , accessed on July 28, 2011

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 '44.7 "  N , 8 ° 41' 17.2"  E