Marten Arens

Marten Arens , also Arians , (born probably in Delft ; died around September 14th and September 17th, 1575 in Emden ) was a Dutch carpenter.

Live and act

Arens, who may have learned from Willem Danielsz van Tetrode in Delft, helped design the Antwerp City Palace from 1561 to 1564. From 1564 to 1565 he was busy building the City Hall of The Hague. At an unknown point in time between 1566 and 1571, he went from Delft to Emden, where it is first documented on March 18, 1571. During this time he worked for the new gun foundry, which had existed for two years. In the following years he worked as a carpenter for the city of Emden. In 1573, for example, he repaired the old Bonness mill, which he demolished in 1754 and rebuilt it on the yellow mill pen.

On March 7, 1574 William of Orange issued a mandate according to which all Dutch people who had fled the Spanish had to return. Disregard of the instruction was a punishable offense. In April and May 1574, 3,000 people from Emden and the surrounding area returned to the Netherlands. The Magistrate of Emdem asked the Mayor and Council of Delft to exclude Arens from this mandate. The reason they cited was that Martens had been working as a city carpenter for many years and was absolutely needed for the construction of the new town hall .

Arens therefore did not have to go back to the Netherlands. He then apparently fully concentrated on building the town hall in the town hall building, which was built on June 10, 1574 after the foundation stone was laid by Mayor Petrus Medmann. Arens names older literature as the builder of the Emden town hall; Friedrich Ritter corrected this later. In his opinion, Arens was only active as a carpenter and only planned and took over extensive woodwork. In fact, Laurens van Steenwinkel was the real builder.

From November 8, 1574, Arens worked on the building's wooden tower, which he could not finish. In 1775 there was an extraordinarily strong outbreak of the plague in Emden , from which Martens also became infected and died. On April 24, 1576, his former wife was paid the fee for the draft of the town hall tower made by her deceased husband.

The artistic importance of Marten Arens has long been overrated. Today this is more questionable.

literature

• Martin Tielke: Arens, Marten . In: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. Vol. 2. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich 1997, ISBN 3-932206-00-2 , p. 18 ( online, PDF ).