New Town Hall (Leipzig)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southwest view of the New Town Hall (2011)
General view from the south (2010)
New town hall and town house (right) from Burgplatz (2008)

The New Town Hall in Leipzig has been the seat of the city administration since 1905. It is located on the southwest corner of the inner city ring within sight of the Imperial Court building , the seat of the Federal Administrative Court . The 114.7 meter high town hall tower is the tallest in Germany and one of the city's landmarks . It can be climbed as part of a guided tour.

The building ensemble consisting of the town hall (Martin-Luther-Ring 4-6) and the associated townhouse ( Burgplatz  1) has a total of 1,708 closed rooms on a net floor area of ​​approx. 65,870 m². The then largest new town hall building in the German Empire is still the largest secular building of its kind in Germany and worldwide.

history

As early as the 1870s there were first considerations to assign the city administration housed in the old town hall a new domicile, which should do justice to the growing importance of Leipzig, which has become a big city . After several plans were rejected, the city acquired the Pleißenburg from the Kingdom of Saxony in 1895 . The University of Leipzig opened an observatory in its tower in 1794 , which was relocated to the Johannistal in 1861 after it was no longer able to meet its original purpose due to the dense development.

In the competition, in which 51 architects from all over the Reich took part, it was determined that the silhouette of the Pleißenburg tower should be retained as a well-known Leipzig landmark. In 1897, the first prize in the tender, in which the participants submitted their designs anonymously, went to the architect and Leipzig City Planning Director Hugo Licht . The sculptor Georg Wrba was commissioned with the sculptural design of the new town hall .

The foundation stone was laid on October 19, 1899. After almost six years of construction, the New Town Hall was opened on October 7, 1905 - in the presence of the Saxon King Friedrich August III. - handed over to its destination. In 1912 the town hall was opened across Lotterstrasse with an additional 300 rooms. The extension, which was also built under the direction of Hugo Licht, is connected to the New Town Hall by a two-storey building bridge (popularly known as the civil service track ).

The destruction caused by the air raids on Leipzig in World War II was removed by 1949.

architecture

The building complex designed in the style of historicism made of light gray, Main Franconian shell limestone forms an irregular pentagon over an area of ​​over 10,000 m². The tower stands on the base of the old Pleißenburg tower. From the fourth floor, 250 steps lead to the upper tower corridor with the possibility of viewing. On the south-west facade are the five statues "Craft", "Justice", "Book Art", "Science" and "Music" by the artists Arthur Trebst , Johannes Hartmann , Adolf Lehnert , Josef Mágr and Hans Zeissig . The town hall clock, which is illuminated blue at night, contains the Latin inscription MORS CERTA, HORA INCERTA ( death is certain, the hour uncertain ), popularly “the clock will definitely go wrong”. The female gable figure above the clock symbolizes the truth. The west gable, on the other hand, has the theme of "The Official Secret" by Johannes Hartmann.

The Ratskeller Leipzig is located in the vaulted cellar , a restaurant that emerged from the earlier historic wine cellar. There is also a public canteen.

Goerdeler memorial

At the south-western tip of the New Town Hall there is a memorial to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , one of the leading forces in the civil resistance against National Socialism and Mayor of Leipzig from 1930 to 1937. It was erected on September 8, 1999, 55 years after his death sentence Passed to the public. The monument consists of a five meter deep bell shaft with a diameter of 2.75 meters. A bronze bell hangs in this. Quotations from letters, newspapers and writings by Carl Friedrich Goerdeler can be found around the shaft in chronological order.

literature

Web links

Commons : Neues Rathaus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Tower ascent and guided tours in the New Town Hall at leipzig.de
  2. World record for the largest town hall built for this purpose (by number of rooms) on rekord-institut.org
  3. Hans-Joachin Ilgauds and Gisela Münzel, The Leipzig University Observatories on the Pleißenburg and in the Johannistal: Astronomical Schools of World Reputation, ed. from Leipziger Geschichtsverein, Beucha 1995, p. 18. ISBN 3-930076-11-X
  4. Ingrid Leps: Highly appreciated and highly controversial - Lecture on Georg Wrba in Wurzen Cathedral. Detailed report in the Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, May 23, 2015, p. 30
  5. http://leipzigenthaben.de/neues-rathaus-2/
  6. History of the Ratskeller ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Ratskeller Leipzig; Retrieved January 5, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ratskeller-leipzig.de
  7. Leipzig canteen

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 9 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 21 ″  E