Nordertor

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Nordertor, north side (2013)
Nordertor, south side (1972)

The Nordertor ( Danish : Nørreport) is a city ​​gate that once bounded the city of Flensburg to the north. It was an important part of the former Flensburg city fortifications . Today it is a symbol of the city.

history

Previous construction

Since 1345 at the latest, the city ​​wall of Flensburg with the associated city gates and gates has been gradually built . An access gate to the city was also built to the north. However, not much is known about this predecessor of today's Nordertor, the Norderpforte (Norderporte) . It was located 100 meters further south at Norderstraße 122. In a city view by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg , which was made around 1572, the shape of this previous building was apparently recorded. The Norderpforte, like its later successor, served primarily as a control gate for people entering and leaving the city, which was closed at night.

In Flensburg city gates and gates could be found on all arterial roads. In addition to large gates, there were also smaller gates on the paths to the city field and to the port, if there was a fortification to the port. In addition, the city ​​fortifications were connected to the Duburg fortress, which had been high above the city since 1411 . The most important gates were the Red Gate on the arterial road to the south, the Frisian Gate on the main road to the west, the Kompagnietor to the port and the Johannistor on the eastern city limits. In addition, there were gates between the central parts of the city, protected by a city wall, around St. Marien and St. Nikolai on the one hand, and the districts of Ramsharde (New Gate) and St. Johannis (Mühlentor), which are only surrounded by palisades .

Coat of arms of Christian IV and coat of arms of Flensburg on the north side of the Nordertor

Erection of the north gate

Today's gate was built when the urban development in the northern part of the city of Ramsharde had expanded a few hundred meters to the north. The exact date of the construction of today's Nordertor is not certain, as there is no clear source that says when it was built. Therefore the numbers fluctuate between the years 1595 and 1596. The Nordertor consists of red brick , an archway and stepped gables .

Two panels were attached to the north side of the gate . The left panel bears the coat of arms of the Danish King Christian IV (1577–1648) and underneath the Latin motto : Regna Firmat Pietas - "Piety strengthens kingship". The Flensburg city coat of arms is on the right panel . The gate is also adorned above the Flensburg coat of arms with the German inscription Friede nourished, Unfriede verzehrt . The date of a later renovation is obviously noted above the city arms. On the blackboard you can read Renov. 1767. The city gate was renovated during the time of King Christian VII (1749–1808). The left panel is said to be the older of the two panels, which presumably dates from the time when the Nordertor was built.

Dietrich Nacke, who was Flensburg's mayor for St. Marien from 1587 to 1595 , died on June 23, 1595. In his will, he ordered the establishment of a poor house at Nordertor, which was built as an extension shortly after the gate was completed. The Nackestifts building existed as a one-story building with a gable roof , which was directly connected to the north gate to the east.

Loss of meaning and danger

Until 1796 the Nordertor also formed the northern boundary of the closed development. It was only at this point in time that the no longer tenable building ban on the city field outside the walls was lifted. Since then, the new town has emerged immediately north of the Nordertor , extending to the fork of the old main road into the country roads to Aabenraa and Bau .

Since 1881, some residents of the Nordertor as well as city councilors have repeatedly spoken out in favor of demolishing the Nordertor because they classified it as a traffic obstacle. For the demolition, residents of the city offered 5,250 Reichsmarks that they had previously collected. A report commissioned by the city council claimed that the gate was not an ornament of the city and recommended the desired demolition. Around 1890, however, the neighboring Nackestift was torn down instead to improve traffic management and rebuilt in Stiftstrasse .

Almost all of the other city gates in Flensburg had already been torn down in the 19th century, most recently the Red Gate in 1872. Except for the Nordertor, only the Kompagnietor has survived. However, the Kompagnietor as the seat of the Schiffergesellschaft (company) and the city scales had in the meantime received other functions. But the requests to demolish the Nordertor that were subsequently submitted were consistently rejected by the Prussian district president in Schleswig. So they looked for another solution to the traffic problem: Originally the development on the west side of Norderstraße reached up to the gate, in 1890 the outbuildings of the Nordertor were demolished. The neck post on the east side of the gate, in which the poor houses of the northern part of the city had been located until this time, was also torn down. The Nackestift at Junkerhohlweg was rebuilt from the old stones from the poor house extension . After the demolition, the route was led around the north gate to the east, which again provided space for the increasing traffic and the preservation of the north gate was ensured. Apparently, after the traffic problem had been solved by the demolition work, the demolition of the Nordertore was finally stopped by the mayor Hermann Bendix Todsen and the responsible Prussian state authority . Extensive restoration work was to follow in the following century .

Rescue in the 20th century

Line 1 of the Flensburg municipal tram on a special trip on October 8, 1972

On October 31, 1902, the district president in Schleswig forced an order to include 2,400 Reichsmarks in the city's budget. The monument was to be secured with this money. In 1903, a complaint by the Flensburg City Council against the Schleswig government decision, which forced the Nordertor to be preserved, was dismissed. Then the repair work began. The electric tram has been going around the gate since 1907 . It was not until shortly before the First World War that the north gate was completely overhauled. In 1913/14 the gate was renovated by the architect Paul Ziegler and fitted with a clock. In the 1920s, the square was closed again by an attractive administration building in red brick. During the heavy daytime attack by US bombers on May 19, 1943 , the Nordertor was damaged in World War II. After the demolition of the administration building in the 1970s and the interim loss of the neighboring houses to the west of the gate, the urban situation in the area around the Flensburg landmark was perceived by some as unsatisfactory. Also in the 1970s, the last tram drove around the Nordertor. Around 1990 the square on which the Nordertor stands was then largely redesigned. The Nordertor lost its status as a kind of traffic island. The clock set into its walls, which could also be seen on the two postage stamps that appeared, was removed and later installed in the steeple of St. Michael’s Church . The road to the Nordertor was redesigned with paving stones. Walls, which are supposed to suggest a city wall and also offer more effective noise protection from road traffic, were built on both sides of the Nordertor. In addition, glass arcades were built in front of the new walls. Later the walls were torn down on one of the two sides and a building was built; this also removed the glass arcade on the left. This building served as a branch for the local savings bank. Many citizens did not see the redesign as an improvement, especially since the glass arcades quickly became dirty and unsightly.

21st century developments

The Nordertor clock on the St. Michael Church on the south side of the church tower (photo 2014)

Civil weddings have been offered in the Nordertor since 2004 , as an alternative to weddings in the actual registry office in Villa Besenbruch .

In 2007/08, the nearby Phenomenta Science Museum was expanded. The old facade of the Sparkasse building was covered by aphenomenta extension, which now adjoins the Nordertor. The glass arcade on the west side and the associated wall section were removed during this construction project. Furthermore, access from thephenomenta to the gate was created. The Nordertor is now part of the Phenomenta building complex and is used by them. The extension met with criticism from many citizens, in particular the smooth blue glass facade of the new building is still controversial in Flensburg today. Another similarly designed, planned extension was no longer realized. On the square directly in front of the Nordertor, called Nordertorplatz, a river bed made of rust-colored metal was also created, in which a trickle slowly splashes in front of it. However, many of the citizens of Flensburg regretted this redesign. The fountain that Paul Ziegler had attached to the side of the Nordertor was removed.

Since 2013, a building with a similarly modern design as thephenomenta on the west side, only a few meters away from the Nordertor, directly above the address Neustadt No. 1, at the beginning of Gartenstrasse has been planned. This residential project called Skolehaven (sometimes also called Skolegaarden ) was realized from 2016 to 2019 as part of the redevelopment and planned redevelopment of the new town.

Landmark function

In addition to the Flensburg city arms, the Nordertor symbolizes the entire city and is often used in a similar way to the city arms. It illustrates the border location of Flensburg, as the gateway to the north. The use of the Nordertor as a landmark is otherwise similar to that of the Lübeck Holstentor . In addition to the Nordertor, there are other urban landmarks today. The steamship Alexandra is a maritime landmark. The Flensburg-Mürwik water tower often symbolizes the entire east bank of the city. For the local large district Mürwik serving Naval Academy Mürwik , the "Red Castle" as a landmark.

Stamp motif

DBPB 1966 275 Nordertor structures, Flensburg.jpg
DBPB 1966 274 Nordertor structures, Flensburg.jpg


In 1966 the gate appeared on a postage stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost and Deutsche Bundespost Berlin. Initially, the value category of (30 Pfennig ) in the Deutsche Bauwerke permanent series was a supplementary value , and the stamp appeared in green.

The postage increase that followed shortly afterwards meant that standard letters should now cost 30 pfennigs instead of 20. As a result, the stamp with the Nordertor became the "bestseller" of the Deutsche Bundespost for the next few years, and it was now issued in red, as was still the norm for standard letters at the time.

  • Badge of the Flensburg Beautification Association, Beautiful House 1975, on a house on Südermarkt

  • Formerly set up fountain as it was at Nordertor in 2013

  • The north side in summer 2011

  • Today the Nordertor is almost completely covered by the concrete structure of thephenomenta from the west side

  • South side of Nordertor 2015 with the new facade of thephenomenta building on the left and glass arcades on the right

  • The Nordertor with the built-up Phenomenta at night (2015).

  • The Nordertor 2002 in the Christmas season, still free standing

literature

  • C. Mühlke: The preservation of the north gate in Flensburg. In: Die Denkmalpflege , Volume 5, No. 4 (March 18, 1903), pp. 25–26.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City wall and city gates. Read and workbook on the history of Flensburg for home and non-life lessons .. from the University of Flensburg ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.8 MB), page 5
  2. ^ Broder Schwensen (ed.): Flensburg around 1600: Selected contributions. Flensburg 2006, page 228
  3. ↑ City wall and city gates. Read and workbook on the history of Flensburg for home and general education .. from the University of Flensburg ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.8 MB), page 10
  4. ↑ Broder Schwensen in: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg !. Flensburg 2009, article: Nordertor
  5. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, page 22
  6. ↑ Heinz Taufel, Kay Wohlsen: Flensburg , glossary: ​​Nordertor
  7. ↑ Cf. Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (Hrsg.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, page 50
  8. ^ Broder Schwensen (ed.): Flensburg around 1600: Selected contributions. Flensburg 2006, page 233
  9. ↑ Heinz Taufel, Kay Wohlsen: Flensburg , glossary: ​​Nordertor
  10. ↑ Werner Scharnweber: Flensburg , 44
  11. ↑ See Flensburg street names . Society for Flensburg City History, Flensburg 2005, ISBN 3-925856-50-1 , article: Am Nordertor
  12. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, page 428
  13. ^ Broder Schwensen (ed.): Flensburg around 1600: Selected contributions. Flensburg 2006, page 229
  14. ^ Broder Schwensen (ed.): Flensburg around 1600: Selected contributions. Flensburg 2006, page 229 ff.
  15. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Engelsby, Mürwik, Jürgensby -j city history on the doorstep , February 5, 2009; Retrieved on: April 14, 2017
  16. ↑ Cf. Broder Schwensen and Bernd Köster [eds.]: Paul Ziegler - Magistratsbaurat in Flensburg 1905–1939. Flensburg 1998, ISBN 3-925856-31-5 . (= Small series of the Society for Flensburg City History , Volume 29.), page 45
  17. ↑ Marsch und Förde, Nordertor ; Retrieved on: April 15, 2017
  18. ^ Eva-Maria Bast and Jørn Precht: Flensburger Secrets , Überlingen 2016, page 181
  19. ↑ Marsch und Förde, Nordertor ; Retrieved on: April 15, 2017
  20. ↑ Broder Schwensen in: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg !. Flensburg 2009, article: Nordertor
  21. ↑ Broder Schwensen in: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg !. Flensburg 2009, article: Nordertor
  22. ^ Eva-Maria Bast and Jørn Precht: Flensburger Secrets , Überlingen 2016, page 181
  23. ^ Lutz Wilde : Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2, Flensburg, page 348
  24. ↑ Broder Schwensen in: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg !. Flensburg 2009, article: Nordertor
  25. ↑ Hermann Bendix Todsen apparently only gained political importance after 1890. His objection can therefore only be made after the problem has been solved. See Eva-Maria Bast and Jørn Precht: Flensburger Secrets , Überlingen 2016, page 181
  26. ↑ Broder Schwensen and Bernd Köster [eds.]: Paul Ziegler - Magistratsbaurat in Flensburg 1905–1939. Flensburg 1998, ISBN 3-925856-31-5 . (= Small series of the Society for Flensburg City History , Volume 29.), page 272
  27. ↑ Marsch und Förde, Nordertor ; Retrieved on: April 15, 2017
  28. ↑ Broder Schwensen and Bernd Köster [eds.]: Paul Ziegler - Magistratsbaurat in Flensburg 1905–1939. Flensburg 1998, ISBN 3-925856-31-5 . (= Small series of the Society for Flensburg City History , Volume 29.), page 272
  29. ^ Lutz Wilde : Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2, Flensburg, page 140
  30. ↑ Marsch und Förde, Nordertor ; Retrieved on: April 15, 2017
  31. ↑ Heinz Taufel, Kay Wohlsen: Flensburg , glossary: ​​Nordertor
  32. ^ Eiko Wenzel: Zeitzeichen, Architektur in Flensburg after 1945, p. 48
  33. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Guided walk: Flensburg - City of Fountains , from: 4th August 2017; Retrieved on: April 17, 2017
  34. ^ Lutz Wilde : Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2, Flensburg, page 140
  35. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Flensburger Norden: The Gartenstrasse blooms , from: March 19, 2016; accessed on: November 6, 2019
  36. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Top-Regional series: How a new city is being created in Flensburg Neustadt , May 14, 2019; accessed on: November 6, 2019
  37. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Great interest in Neustadt plans , from: August 16, 2013

Web links

Commons : Nordertor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 47 '44 "  N , 9 ° 25' 48.5"  E