Military Riding Institute Hanover

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German EmpireWar Ensign of Germany (1903-1919) .svg Military Riding Institute Hanover
Military Riding Institute Hannover from a bird's eye view around 1878

Military Riding Institute Hannover from a bird's eye view around 1878

country Germany
successor Cavalry School Hanover
local community Hanover
Coordinates : 52 ° 24 '  N , 9 ° 44'  E Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '39 "  N , 9 ° 44' 19"  E
Opened 1866
Military Riding Institute Hannover (Lower Saxony)
Military Riding Institute Hanover

Location of the Hanover Military Riding Institute in Lower Saxony

The Hanover Military Riding Institute , originally called the Royal Prussian Military Riding Institute , was created in 1866 when the Prussian Military Riding School was moved from Schwedt / Oder to Hanover . It was initially housed in military buildings in downtown Hanover until a new barracks was built in the suburb of Vahrenwald in 1876 . The military riding institute, which was subordinate to the cavalry inspection, served the theoretical and practical cavalry training. It was the center of military riding and riding instructor training in the German Empire , which exerted considerable influence on equestrian sport.

history

Artillery barracks at the Steintor around 1850, the first location of the Military Riding Institute in Hanover
The barracks around 1896, same viewing direction as the picture above
1906 with a view of the main building on Vahrenwalder Strasse

In 1816 a teaching cadron was established in Berlin . In their place there was a military riding school in Schwedt / Oder in 1849 . After the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia in 1866, this was expanded to become the Military Riding Institute and relocated to Hanover. There the facility was initially located in the city center at the Marstall on the Hohe Ufer and at the artillery barracks at the Steintor . The training and riding took place far outside the city on fields near Isernhagen . From 1867 to 1871 Hermann von Alvensleben was head of the military riding institute in Hanover.

The premises in the city center were in the long run too narrow, and enormous space requirements arose due to the installation of further cavalry regiments in the German Empire, of which there were around 80 at this time. From 1876 the facility was based in the newly built barracks in Vahrenwald. The officers and NCOs of the cavalry regiments were sent to Hanover for one to two years for systematic training of horse and rider. The training included drag hunts, game hunts, long-distance rides and relay rides over long distances.

The military riding institute had a pack that was commanded by Rittmeister Reinhold von Eben from 1889. In 1925 his book The Hunting Riding was published . The successful tournament rider Wilhelm von Hohenau served in the institute; The free corps leader and well-known rider from hunting races, Hans Jauch, was temporarily assigned to this place. At the Institute, there was a Fox Hound - pack for drag hunting .

Immediately before the beginning of the First World War , the riding institute was disbanded during the mobilization . The officers who completed their two-year training here returned to their regiments . During the war the institute continued to exist as a reduced military riding institute . Afterwards the training as an officer riding school was continued with courses for a short time. Operation was difficult due to the lack of horses. In September 1919, the Reichswehr decided that the Hanover Military Riding Institute should be transferred to the cavalry school. The dissolution took place at the end of 1920. On January 1, 1920 the Reichswehr founded the Hanover Cavalry School as a successor institution, which was in accordance with the Versailles Treaty .

meaning

Numerous cavalrymen and excellent riders were trained in the Military Riding Institute in Hanover. From 1906 the military riders of the institute in Hanover successfully took part in horse races at the Große Bult racecourse in Hanover, with which they made a name for themselves. In the German Empire, the Hanover Military Riding Institute was regarded as an elite cavalry school, where the most talented officers were trained. Here was this:

“Best and most famous riding area in the monarchy. It is the paradise of the cavalry officers, and what Heidelberg is for the students, that Hanover with its military riding school is for the lieutenants. "

In addition to the institute in Hanover, there were other riding institutes in Soltau, Paderborn, Dresden and Munich at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Important impulses for the training of horses, officers and NCOs of the cavalry came from all institutions . At that time, this branch of arms was still of considerable military importance, as there were around 110 cavalry regiments up to the First World War . After the war there were 18 cavalry regiments in the Reichswehr.

building

Panoramic view over some of the barracks buildings that have been preserved, in the foreground one of the riding arenas, to the left of it a stable wing, to the right behind the large riding arena on Rosenbergstrasse
Plan of the facility around 1896 with an extension area north of Dragonerstraße
Former stable building

On a barren and sandy piece of land in Vahrenwald , a spacious barracks for around 200 soldiers with stables for around 400 horses was built between 1874 and 1876. The architects Eduard Schuster and Ferdinand Wallbrecht designed the military buildings, including the royal riding arena . The builder Wallbrecht was paid, among other things, by receiving former military land at the Marstall and at the Steintor, on which he built residential and commercial buildings. The barracks on the 5.5 hectare walled property in Vahrenwald were made from 8 million red bricks and 60,000 m² of sandstone , among other things . Among them was the two-story director's house with apartments on the ground floor for the director of the officers' riding school and the director of the cavalry non-commissioned officer school. Married riding instructors lived upstairs. The NCOs and men lived in the three-storey barracks house, around 80 m long and 13 m wide . In addition, there were numerous functional rooms such as business rooms, a fencing room and an infirmary. The individual rooms were occupied by ten men (crews) or around seven men (NCOs). In the basement of the barracks there were kitchens and dining rooms . The wings of the building housed apartments for officers and sergeants . There were extensive stables on the site, which rectangularly enclosed the barracks building. The teams were responsible for the care of around 400 horses, for which there was also a sick stable with space for 20 animals. The officers and NCOs were trained in horse riding, fencing, shooting, gymnastics and as riding instructors. In the inner courtyard there were six covered riding lanes that were integrated into the stables. In addition, there were riding arenas on the farm, which were equipped with walls, hurdles and moats for practicing.

Vahrenwalder Park on the site of the former Hanover Military Riding Institute

In 1893 the barracks area was expanded to increase troops. For this purpose, an area of about 1.5 hectares, lying north of the barracks and still undeveloped, was bought on Dragonerstraße . Extension buildings such as a residential building, a stable with a covered riding arena of around 90 m in length as well as a gymnastics and fencing hall were then built. The riding arena and the jumping garden on the property had a length of about 170 m.

During the Second World War , the barracks were badly damaged in the air raids on Hanover . After the war and the end of military use, commercial use prevailed, including from 1950 to 1994 as a motor vehicle depot for the Deutsche Bundesbahn (Kbw Hannover). Many barracks were also demolished. The Vahrenwalder Bad from 1981 and the Vahrenwalder Freizeitheim (around the 1960s) were built in the western area of ​​the former barracks area directly on Vahrenwalder Straße . At the beginning of the 1990s, the interior of the former barracks was converted into a district park called Vahrenwalder Park . Today there are still individual red brick buildings from the military buildings on Dragonerstraße, which are in a well-renovated condition. Among them is the Royal Riding Hall as one of what was once seven riding halls on the site.

literature

  • Medical authority of the Royal Prussian War Ministry (Hrsg.): Description of the Hanover garrison from the standpoint of the health system. Berlin 1896
  • Karl-Heinz Estermann, Ernst Walther (arrangement): Chronicle Vahrenwald. 1183–1981 , booklet accompanying the exhibition “Hannover-Vahrenwald” 1981, ed. from the Vahrenwald working group, Hanover, [1981], therein:
    • o. V .: Kgl. Preuss. Military Riding Institute Hanover, taken from the commemorative publication for the 40th anniversary of the Association of Former Riding School Students 1922–1962 , pp. 167–176
    • Colonel a. D. Zimmermann von Siefart: Kavallerie-Schule Hannover , pp. 177-189
  • Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Dragonerstraße. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 100f.
  • Ludwig Schulte-Huxel: The pride of the cavalryman. The Military Riding Institute in Hanover (1867–1914). In: Sport in Hanover. From the foundation of the city until today. Ed .: Niedersächsisches Institut für Sportgeschichte, Hoya eV , 1st edition, Hannover: NISH, 1991, ISBN 3-923478-56-9 , pp. 37–43
  • Helmut Knocke: Cavalry School. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 343.
  • Wolfgang Leonhardt : List and Vahrenwald. Two distinctive districts of Hanover . Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-3333-7 . ( Book-on-demand publication)
  • Bernhard von Poten , Military Riding Institute in Hanover in Concise Dictionary of All Military Sciences , Volume 7, S.11

Web links

Commons : Military Riding Institute Hannover  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kavallerieschule In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 343
  2. Reinhold von Eben: The Hunting Riding. Weber, Leipzig 1925. (Reprint: Olms, 2000, ISBN 3-487-08227-6 )
  3. Dressage blog on the Military Riding Institute Hanover ( Memento from June 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Wilhelm Meyer-Förster: Heidenstamm , 1903
  5. ^ Description of the Hanover garrison from the standpoint of the health system, Berlin 1896, p. 126