Matthaikirchhof
| Matthaikirchhof | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 The Matthäikirchhof from the south (around 1930) |
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| basic data | |
| location | Leipzig |
| district | center |
| created | 13th Century |
| history names | Barefoot Kirchhof, Neukirchhof |
| buildings |
built over , Matthäikirche (until 1950), "Round Corner" |
| use | |
| user groups | pedestrian |
| square design | Richard Wagner Monument |
| Technical specifications | |
| space | 1.9 hectares |
The Matthäikirchhof is a partially built-over square in downtown Leipzig . Here lay the beginnings of the settlement history of the city . After extensive destruction during the war and subsequent demolition of the area, this place lost its urban character due to the construction of an extension building for the district headquarters of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR and the People's Police in the 1980s. In the medium term, the forum for freedom and civil rights and a new building for the central archive for the Saxon Stasi documents are to be built heredevelop. The square is named after the Matthäikirche , which was demolished in ruins in 1950 .
location and shape
Today only a short residential street bears the name Matthäikirchhof; it is the remainder of the churchyard of the time. Originally, Töpferstraße branched off at the north-west corner of the square and Kleine Fleischergasse ended at the south-east corner, which can still be seen. In addition, two cul-de-sacs connected to Grosse Fleischergasse at the north end of the east side and to Dittrichring at the end of the south side . The western entrance is formed by the Klinger staircase with the Richard Wagner monument . The slightly elevated square (on the Barfussberg ) was characterized by small-scale residential buildings and numerous handicraft businesses.
story
A Slavic castle arose from the 11th century on the hill in the northwestern part of today's inner city as part of a settlement, the urbs Libzi . The castle later became a monastery of the Franciscans , who as a mendicant order were also called "barefoot". Hence the name of the adjacent barefoot alley. The later square was created from the cemetery of the old monastery church. A residential building adjoining to the east is already occupied after 1224. After the new construction of the Franciscan monastery in the 15th century, the churchyard was almost completely finished. The square was first mentioned in 1503 as a barefoot churchyard.
In 1536, Duke George of Saxony decreed that the cemetery near the Johannish Hospital would become the city's general burial ground. Thus, the cemetery of the monastery could no longer be occupied. In the course of secularization , the monastery was dissolved and sold in 1539, but could only be vacated in 1543 due to the resistance of the monks. As a result, the long choir of the church was demolished in 1543 and the area that had been vacated on the eastern side was transformed over time into the town square with a lively market activity that soon followed. The other monastery buildings were also demolished and 18 new houses were built south of the old church using the stones, which from then on dominated the west side of the square. The empty, remaining church was used from 1552, among other things, as a warehouse for blue colors.
From the end of the 17th century, the citizens of Leipzig campaigned for the church, which was becoming increasingly dilapidated, to be put back into operation. This upgraded and rebuilt sacred building, now called the Neukirche, was consecrated in 1699 and was given a decorated entrance portal on the square side. In the course of the 18th century, numerous buildings were redesigned in the Baroque style and one or two storeys were added - the chronicler Friedrich Gottlob Leonhardi remarked in 1799:
“The new churchyard is a beautiful, open, oblong square, surrounded on one side by the church and massive houses, but on the rest by mostly wooden buildings. On it is a large, well-made stone fountain with the statue of Neptune, and during the fairs the foreign potters have their wares for sale here, and the grain traders have their place of sale.”
This Neptune fountain was erected in 1713 after a year of construction without any figurative decorations and was given the figural decoration of a fountain from Neumarkt in 1747 and now formed the center of the square now known as Neukirchhof . It was also essential for the water supply for the surrounding houses, since only one house was supplied by the " Rohrenfahrt ", the municipal water network. The Neptune Fountain thus became an important meeting place in the district. The mathematico and mechanico Jacob Leupold worked in a workshop in the Götzisches Haus (later Matthäikichhof 33) from 1715 until his death in 1727. He developed the finest measuring instruments, scales and "Lufft pumps". He also built the hay scale on the Brühl .
From 1771 at the latest, the daughters of the Thomaskantor Johann Sebastian Bach , Catharina Dorothea, Johanna Carolina, Regina Susanna and Elisbeth Juliana Frederica Bach, who had died more than 20 years earlier, lived in the Blauer Stern (Neuer Kirchhof No. 298) .
Seven years before the defeat in Leipzig, the French General Davout occupied the city on October 18, 1806 and the Neukirche was converted into a prison camp. Only in 1810 could it be used as a place of worship again, before it was set up as a military hospital three years later during the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and, after extensive damage from hostilities in the final hours of the battle, could only be put back into operation in January 1820.
On January 1, 1822, the lodge of the Masonic lodge Balduin zur Linde was opened in the building at Neukirchhof 266, in which people such as Robert Blum and Albert Lortzing were members. The lodge house existed until 1847 at Neukirchhof. The churchyard was also the home of important Leipzig residents such as Carl Friedrich Zöllner , who died here in 1860 in house no. 34, which later became the Zöllnerhaus . A large funeral procession is documented for September 27 of the same year.
Despite the numerous conversions and conversions of the old monastery church, the area has hardly changed compared to the rest of the city and has retained a remarkable intimate character, since the large trade fair events also passed by this location. The Neukirchhof area had a sheltered, idyllic, special existence, untouched by major traffic routes. Around 1865, apart from the church building, he had no public buildings, no pharmacy and only a few inns. In order to counteract this situation, the city decided to extend the Töpferstrasse , which was named as such from 1869, to the churchyard area. For this purpose, the so-called tower house with the ghost gate and other buildings were demolished. The city hoped that better connections to the western side up to Theaterplatz, today 's Richard-Wagner-Platz , would revitalize this district, but this had only a limited effect.
The square underwent another transformation when, at the end of the 1870s, it was decided to rebuild and redesign the church again due to the enormous increase in population in the city. The conversion by the architect Oscar Mothes included a short polygonal choir on the east side , which protruded about 8 meters into the square, and a modified neo -Gothic entrance area. On September 19, 1879, the building was named after the Apostle Matthew . The Neukirchhof was only renamed Matthäikirchhof at the end of 1894 .
The Leipzig real estate company "Pro Patria" planned a fundamental and radical redesign of the area around the Matthäikirchhof. In addition to a large central square between the Matthäikirchhof and the Große Fleischergasse, this “modernization” envisaged six axes about 20 meters wide branching out in a star shape. If this project had been implemented, a considerable part of the oldest and most valuable buildings in the city such as Barthels Hof , the Großer Blumenberg , Weber's Hof , the Matthäikirche or the Kaffeebaum would have been demolished. The radical nature of the project was reflected, among other things, in the plan to completely level the Barefoot Mountain. Initially, there were hardly any interventions against the project from the Leipzig Council or the citizenry – only when the Centralblatt of the building administration , which appeared in Berlin , on May 15, 1897 , did inner-city criticism grow.
"In place of its most picturesque, most interesting old district, the city of Leipzig would be gifted with a complex of chilling ugliness. Six desolate, boringly straight roads of almost the same width break up the terrain in the plan. [...] All the valuable advantages of the old part of the city [...] would be sacrificed to a questionable enterprise aimed solely at material gain."
The city council did not approve the project. This did not mean, however, that the city's decision-makers fully recognized the cultural significance of their old buildings, as can be seen from the structural losses in other parts of the city, such as the old Thomas School , the Roman House or Richard Wagner's birthplace .
The citywide demolition policy continued unabated. From 1904 to 1911, eleven houses on the west side of the churchyard and 15 houses along Kleine Fleischergasse were demolished in favor of various large complexes such as Wünschmanns Hof or the Lipsia House . For 1910 Georg Wünschmann did not carry out new building plans for the large corner property between Matthäikirchhof and Grosse Fleischergasse. The conversion work on the Promenadenring resulted in a further shielding of the area and it remained isolated from the main trade fair and business events in the city. One curiosity was the high number of undertakers - eight such undertakings are recorded in the 1920s.
Further plans, also in the course of the concept of the Ring-City by Stadtbaurat Hubert Ritter , were not carried out. They envisaged a tower house, an opening on the west side and, among other things, an unobstructed view of the church. According to Georg Wünschmann's ideas, Wünschmann's courtyard should also be replaced by a 59 meter high building with "illuminated advertising". It didn't come to that.
During the National Socialist era , "slums" such as the area around the Matthäikirche and the Naundörfchen were to be demolished and the area "socially cleaned up". A representative administration building in the style of National Socialist architecture was planned , which was to take up the entire north side and the Großer Blumenberg . The residential buildings on the west side were also available for a planned expansion of fire insurance. With the outbreak of the Second World War , however, those plans were no longer implemented.
The neighborhood around the churchyard was also a place of lively Jewish life. At the end of the 1930s, however, the Golden Heart at Grosse Fleischergasse 28 became a “ Jewish house ”, in which numerous Jewish families were forced to live very close together. From January 21, 1942, more than two dozen people were deported to concentration camps. The profiteer from the previous expropriation and exploitation of the Jews was the auction house Klemm, which auctioned off Jewish property worth over 2.2 million Reichsmarks from 1938 to 1944 . At a criminal trial in Dresden in 1948, Hans and Karl Klemm were sentenced to two and a half and two years in prison, a ten-year occupational restriction and confiscation of their assets. The building of the auction house in Grosse Fleischergasse still stands today.
The Matthäikirchhof was almost completely destroyed in an air raid by the Royal Air Force in the morning hours of December 4, 1943. Despite the immediate proximity to the main fire station, the ongoing fires could not be extinguished because the majority of the units had been ordered to Berlin and the water connections of the external fire services called in as a result did not fit. Days later there were isolated fires. For example, the shop of the piano manufacturer Grotrian-Steinweg in Wünschmanns Hof burned down on December 6th . Before the end of the war, the Matthai congregation still hoped that the church would be rebuilt. However, the last service was celebrated on August 1, 1948 and the ruins were blown up two years later from November 27 to December 20, 1950. A new building elsewhere was rejected.
The art historian and archaeologist Herbert Küas carried out extensive excavations on the site from 1949 to 1956. Already shortly after the end of the war there were numerous plans for the redesign of the area. Initially, new construction of public buildings and a new theater building for the destroyed old theater were planned at this point. Later, a new building for the second Gewandhaus , which was demolished in 1968, was to be built on this site. The deficits in the design and the decision to build a new building on Karl-Marx-Platz left the urban space, which had been cleared of rubble, lying fallow. None of the designs made any reference to the historic street structure. The first partial development took place in 1957 in the form of an extension to the round corner, which partially occupied the area of the old church. In the house there was a cinema and a bowling alley for State Security employees. The school museum has been located here since 2000 . It is under monument protection.
Finally, on November 2, 1979, the first foundation stone was laid for an extension building for the district headquarters of the GDR state security and the People's Police , which had been based in the Round Corner since 1950. On January 25, 1980, the foundation stone was laid for an expansive enclosure made of four concrete beams, a four to seven-storey support beam construction of the unified storey building (VGB). The simple industrial building type, which makes no reference to the historical location, was handed over on September 19, 1985. The building seems very shielded, directed towards the city center - especially since the ground floor zone is completely windowless. The courtyard was guarded and not open to the public. The name of the "ear castle" came into being in the vernacular . The architecture critic Arnold Bartetzky described the complex as a "fortress-like shielded realm". After reunification , the employment office was set up in the building.
situation today
Today, the Matthäikirchhof appears as a built-over space shielded from the city center and the ring road. The dominant extension building is mostly empty. It is in need of rehabilitation due to rainwater damage, among other things, and is only partially used by municipal stakeholders today. The monument protection report for the new buildings is expected in spring 2022. The demolition costs for the buildings would be around 2.1 million euros. A demolition demanded by many would create the necessary space for a new mixed use. A partial preservation of individual art in the building was advocated in the public participation. The mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung , has also discussed the settlement of a still unknown company.
Since December 1998, the Matthäikirche monument by the Leipzig artist Matthias Klemm has stood near the site of the former church.
future of the area
It is planned to realize a forum for freedom and civil rights on a third of the area and a new building for the central archive for the Saxon Stasi documents. The Matthäikirchhof is also intended for living space and the "Future Center for European Transformation and German Unity". Furthermore, a citizen participation process, which is still ongoing, was initiated with numerous civil, political, social and scientific actors in order to evaluate further possible uses. The development project at the Matthäikirchhof is funded by the federal government through the “National Urban Development Projects” program. With a total volume of 2.25 million euros, it is also a central point in the 2023 work program of the city of Leipzig. Urban planning frameworks were already fixed in 1991 by the Leipzig City Council in the "Conservation Statute Inner City". For example, historical building lines should be aimed for, as should the preservation of historical property sizes. A "new individuality" should succeed through the small-scale development and strict criteria for high-quality architecture.
Others
On the east side of the old churchyard stood the smallest or narrowest house in Leipzig with house number 35 next to the customs officer's house from 1641 on the site of a slip or a narrow alley. The width was only 2.5 meters and from 1661 it counted as an independent town house . In the 1930s, three parties were listed in this house. It was completely destroyed in 1943.
literature
- Horst Riedel: City Lexicon Leipzig from A to Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 385.
- Heinz-Jürgen Böhme: The Matthäikirchhof Leipzig , City of Leipzig, 2021.
- Herbert Küas: The old Leipzig from an archaeological point of view , Leipzig 1976, p. 448.
web links
- Matthaikirchhof. In: Leipzig Lexicon. Retrieved August 29, 2021 .
- History of the Matthäikirchhof. Retrieved August 29, 2021 .
- urban planning and competitions. Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
- Forum for Freedom and Civil Rights. Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
itemizations
- ↑ Friedrich Gottlob Leonhardi: History and description of the district and commercial city of Leipzig , Leipzig, 1799, p. 107
- ↑ Paul Holstein: From the old Matthäikirchhof , Leipzig calendar, 1907, p. 257f.
- ↑ Leipzig Observer, April 1, 1939
- ↑ Arnold Bartetzky : Give the fortress to the people. FAZ , May 8, 2021, retrieved December 13, 2021 .
- ↑ a b c Matthäikirchhof participation process. Retrieved 31 January 2022 .
- ↑ Andreas Tappert: Will a large corporation settle in Leipzig's Matthäikirchhof? Leipziger Zeitung , January 31, 2021, retrieved December 13, 2021 .
- ↑ Mathias Orbeck: What will become of the former Stasi new building? Leipziger Volkszeitung , September 23, 2021, retrieved December 14, 2021 .
- ↑ Matthaikirchhof. Retrieved 31 January 2022 .
- ^ " Bürgerverein Pro Leipzig e. V.: Pro Leipzig on the LZ article “Citizen participation on the future of the Matthäikirchhof”. Leipziger Zeitung , September 24, 2021, retrieved December 13, 2021 .
Coordinates: 51° 20′ 29.3″ N , 12° 22′ 16.2″ E