Nickel Hoffmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Relief portrait of Nickel Hoffmann above the arch of the inner entrance to the Stadtgottesacker Halle

Nickel Hoffmann (also Nikolaus Hofmann, * around 1510, verifiable from 1536; † 1592 ) was a stonemason , sculptor , master craftsman and building contractor, one of the most important masters between the late Gothic and Renaissance in Central Germany.

life and work

Nickel Hoffmann was involved in the Mansfeld mining and was able to achieve relative prosperity at a young age. The Saxon cities of Torgau, Pirna and Halle an der Saale were his preferred jobs. He was also recognized as a citizen in Pirna and Halle. Its church and town hall buildings are best known.

Work in Torgau

Around 1536 he made sculptural and ornamental work on wing C in Hartenfels Castle in Torgau . In 1543/44 he again took part in work on Hartenfels Castle, but this time on wing B.

Work in Pirna

There is evidence that Hoffmann worked as a master in 1539/40 at the latest . In 1540 he became a citizen in Pirna , where he also received orders from the council. In 1555, when he was mainly working in Halle an der Saale, he was one of the signatories of the order of stonemasons in Pirna.

Work in Halle on the Saale

He resumed the work on the market church in Halle / Saale , which was interrupted in 1542/43 . It has not been proven whether Hoffmann was already planning the work from Torgau. It is believed that from 1545 he took over the construction management with Jakob Hans from Komotau as foreman, who was later replaced by Thomas Rinckler. In addition, he probably ran a sculptor's workshop on his own in the Frauenkirchhof and supplied a considerable amount of goods for the construction of the church. The church was completed under his leadership by 1554. It was equipped with a vault, a gallery was built and the towers could be raised. Hoffmann can often be proven as a foreman on this building.

During the construction period he became a citizen of Halle an der Saale in 1550. As in Pirna, he also took on orders from the city council. Among other things, he built the Stadtgottesackers facility from 1557 and the carriage building on the market around 1580. Between 1554 and 1557 he completed the vaulting of the Moritzkirche . In 1558 he built an intermediate arbor at the town hall in Halle and in 1568 he was responsible for expanding the town hall tower.

The portal of the Ratswaage in Halle, which was previously ascribed to Bogenkrantz , is now ascribed to Nickel Hoffmann.

Other places of activity

Hoffmann built the south part of the town hall in Merseburg in 1561 and the town hall in Hof in Upper Franconia from 1563 to 1566 . 1568 followed a short activity as the oldest master master in the construction of the Augustusburg under Hieronymus Lotter . In the years 1563 to 1569, through the mediation of Paul Widemann , he was able to secure the contract for the construction of the new choir of St. Marien zu Zwickau together with his brother Philipp Hoffmann.

This was followed by the construction of the town hall in Schweinfurt in the years 1569 to 1572. This was his main work in terms of room grouping, facade structuring and detailed work and is considered a brilliant achievement of German Renaissance art. In 1570 he examined in Rothenburg o./T. the town hall building.

Honors

In court and in Schweinfurt is Nicholas Hofmann street named after him in Halle (Saale), the nickel-Hoffmann-Straße.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, nickel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofmann, nickel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stonemason, sculptor, master craftsman and builder
DATE OF BIRTH around 1510
DATE OF DEATH 1592