Mühlenplatz (Solingen)
The Mühlenplatz is a central square in downtown Solingen . The name of the square is derived from the former city windmill , which existed north of the city from 1515 to 1860. Since the last renovation at the turn of the last millennium, the square has been dominated by the Clemens Galleries .
description
Mühlenplatz is located between Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse, Goerdelerstrasse and St. Clemens Church in the north, Hauptstrasse in the east, Kölner Strasse in the south and the Clemens-Galleries shopping center in the west.
The Clemens Galleries are piled up in a semicircle around the oval square, which is accessed by stairs on the main street side, being a little lower down . There are water features in the middle of the square . The location of the former windmill now corresponds roughly to the center of the square.
history
Origin of the windmill
The city of Solingen, which had achieved some fame since the Middle Ages through the manufacture of swords and other cutlery , had been the seat of the Solingen office since 1363 and had city rights from 1374 . After 1450 the city center was fortified. Water-powered mills, powered by the numerous streams, were a few around the city. However, a windmill did not yet exist at the beginning of the 16th century.
The construction period of the windmill from 1515 to 1516 fell in a period of economic boom, which was demonstrated by the skyrocketing tax revenues. Specific reasons for building the windmill could have been that they wanted to make themselves independent of the surrounding water-powered mills, which might have stood still in frost or drought . Furthermore, the construction of the windmill could be due to an increased need for flour to be ground . The city of Solingen also ensured fair prices for the population by setting up a forced windmill in which all bakers had to grind and was able to influence the price of bread, which is so important . A wind mill instead of a water mill was built, as the geographic conditions did not allow a water mill , there were no streams in the city, the city was on a ridge . A post mill was planned, i.e. a mill in which the entire mill house stands on a single pole.
In front of the Neutor, on a piece of land belonging to the urban territory north of the city wall, which was on a hill, a windmill was an obvious choice. The land had been in the possession of Altenberg Abbey for a century and a half , which had bought the Solingen Fronhof in 1363. Both parties signed a contract on November 10, 1516, according to which the city took a long lease of land for its windmill and in return paid two Malter rye Gerresheimer Maßes (around four hundredweight ) annually . If payment was not made, the mill would go to the monastery, which in turn undertook not to erect any buildings or plant trees in the vicinity of the mill. Before construction began, the city also had to ask Duke Johann for permission, as the exploitation of wind resources was a sovereign privilege. Johann approved the construction of the windmill against an annual payment of three Malter rye (six hundredweight), which had to be paid to the Burg Kellnerei .
16th to 18th century
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After the windmill was built, all Solingen bakers were obliged to use the forced mill. You could only refrain from doing this if the miller felt himself unable to grind the grain within a certain period of time. So that the monopoly position of the miller did not become a disadvantage - he was not a city official, but merely leased the mill from the city - a maximum price was set for the flour.
All in all, the mill had an eventful history, as it lay unprotected at the gates of the city and was used as a guard post during the Thirty Years' War . Grain was not milled in these times, otherwise there would have been a danger that it could end up in the possession of the enemy. In times of peace, the mill often needed repairs or it even had to be rebuilt from scratch after storm damage . Since 1740, in addition to the windmill, there was a horse-powered horse mill , which was in operation until the 1790s. In 1788 the windmill was destroyed again and could no longer be used. At first they couldn't bring themselves to build a new one, but in the end they built a new mill, this time as a more robust Dutch windmill made of stone , with only the blades turning. But this new building was expensive and risky, large loans had to be taken out and there were no secure prospects for the future. Urban forced windmills were hardly in vogue at that time.
The name Mühlenplätze has been used for the area where today's Kölner Strasse joins the main street since the 17th century.
19th century to 1944
After the introduction of French law at the beginning of the 19th century, the mill was no longer a forced windmill. In 1809 the freedom of trade was introduced, a mill obligation meant the exact opposite, so that it was abolished in 1811. This resulted in a further deterioration in the mill income and the city finally sold the mill in 1817 for 3,300 Reichstaler to a bakery community, even if only part of the mortgage on the mill could be paid with it.
After the secularization of the monasteries in 1803, many of their properties passed to the state. So also the ground on which the windmill stood. For hereditary tenants such as the baker's community, the rule was that the land in hereditary lease passed into the possession of the leaseholder in return for payment of a basic rent to the state. In 1828 the bakery community made a redemption payment of 274 Reichstalern 15 silver groschen , which corresponded to the monetary value of the taxes of twenty years.
In 1815 the Neutor was the last city gate to be demolished. A northern suburb had not been able to develop due to the windmill and developed only slowly in the first half of the 19th century. The first new houses were not built until 1826/1827, including the Catholic Church (today around the corner of Hauptstrasse and Kasinostrasse). Until the middle of the 19th century, the mill was still taken into account when building new buildings and was not built in the main wind direction . In the 1850s, the Brüderstraße (today Mummstraße) was laid out and houses were built on until the first half of the 1860s. That was the end of the windmill. It was shut down in 1856 and finally demolished in 1860.
Due to the enormous growth of the population, a lot was built in Solingen. The place where the mill had stood was built on all around, even if there were still gardens in the middle. Around 1900 the development gave way almost completely to more modern commercial buildings of historicism . In 1929 the Tietz department store (now Kaufhof ) opened its branch; the closure of the department store on March 31, 2019 has been announced. The Gasthaus zur Dehle , a slated half-timbered house from the time before the Neutor was demolished, was demolished in 1933 in order to expand the street.
On November 4th and 5th, 1944, the old town was almost completely destroyed in several air raids on Solingen during World War II, and the mill square was also a heap of rubble.
Post-war until today
The immediate post-war period was characterized by countless discussions about relocating the city center, so that reconstruction was initially a long way off. Solingen dealers didn't want to wait that long. On the private initiative of the Solingen architect Wilhelm Klein, a business community was founded in 1949 , which, after it became clear that the city center should be rebuilt in its old location, built a temporary business district made of barracks on the Mühlenhof . A reorganization plan for the inner city, which provided for an eastern bypass road (Goerdelerstraße), was only decided in the same year. The Mühlenhofviertel was successful and attracted many customers. As more and more shops moved to the newly built buildings in the city center in the following years, the barracks district was finally demolished in 1961.
As the first shop in the newly constructed building, the Kaufhof opened on September 28, 1950 on the ground floor just four months after the old ruins were torn down and before the upper floor was completed. In 1956 another floor was added. The Deutsche Bank building that survived the bombing was rebuilt in 1955 with the remains of the previous building. The Clemenskirche received new concrete spikes for its destroyed towers by the architect Dominikus Böhm . The war memorial in front of Deutsche Bank was demolished on November 30, 1955.
Due to the rapidly increasing traffic, one deviated from the original plans to rebuild the Mühlenhof. Instead, it was to become part of a two-lane road ring, which, with Goerdelerstrasse, Ufergarten and Kölner Strasse, was to lead once around the rebuilt old town. The city of Solingen decided on this variant after an appraisal in 1962, after an appraisal by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce , which provided for a one-way ring around the old town, could not convince those responsible. A traffic junction was created on the Mühlenhof, where Goerdelerstraße merged with Hauptstraße. To the north of the Kaufhof, the new Mühlenplatz was built, which was shielded from the main road by green spaces. The construction work was completed in 1966. In the years that followed, rallies and demonstrations often took place on Mühlenplatz. The chess games also established themselves quickly. In 1976 the weekly market was relocated from the Neumarkt , which had been converted into a bus station, to Mühlenplatz.
After extensive discussions in politics, from 1997 the Mühlenplatz was again subjected to profound changes. The plan was to build the Clemens Galleries, a large, new shopping center with a redesigned Mühlenplatz. In this context, the four-lane road across Mühlenplatz should also be dismantled. Anchor tenants of the center should include the citizens' office , the city library and the adult education center . The Dutch Multi Development Corporation (MDC) was found as an investor for the project . On 28 September 1997 was in the square departure party instead. The official start of construction was on February 4, 1998, and the complex was opened on April 27, 2000.
Since the opening of the Hofgarten shopping center on Graf-Wilhelm-Platz in autumn 2013, the Clemens Galleries have had numerous departures, and customer frequency has also decreased continuously. The new investor Sunrise announced on September 28, 2015 that it would be redesigning the Clemens galleries into the MyUrbanOutlet Solingen outlet center . The building is also to be given a new look with numerous glass surfaces. Construction started in April 2016, the opening was planned for October 2016, but has been delayed for an indefinite period.
literature
- City of Solingen: Von der Mühle zum Mühlenplatz 1515–2000 , self-published, Solingen 1999
- Heinz Rosenthal: Solingen. History of a city, from the beginning to the end of the 17th century. Volume 1, Verlag Braun, Duisburg 1969, DNB 457973358
- Ralf Rogge, Armin Schulte, Kerstin Warncke: Solingen - Big City Years 1929–2004 . Wartberg Verlag 2004. ISBN 3-8313-1459-4
swell
- ↑ a b c d e f City of Solingen: From the mill to the mill square 1515 to 2000 . Self-published, Solingen 1999.
- ↑ Kaufhof closes in March 2019 report in the daily newspaper Rheinische Post , local section Solingen, from May 4, 2018, accessed on May 4, 2018.
- ↑ Ralf Rogge, Armin Schulte, Kerstin Warncke: Solingen - Big City Years 1929-2004 . Wartberg Verlag 2004. ISBN 3-8313-1459-4
- ↑ Solinger Morgenpost: Clemens galleries become outlet centers. September 29, 2015, accessed March 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Solinger Tageblatt : My Urban Outlet is missing the draft horse , from September 16, 2016, accessed on November 10, 2016
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 '27.2 " N , 7 ° 5' 2.5" E