Paulsplatz (Frankfurt am Main)
| Paulsplatz | |
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 View from the cathedral tower over Paulsplatz to Paulskirche |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Frankfurt am Main |
| District | Old town |
| Created | 1833 |
| Confluent streets | Bethmannstrasse / Braubachstrasse , Berliner Strasse , Neue Kräme , Römerberg |
| Buildings | Paulskirche , Alte Börse (†), Städtisches Gymnasium (†) |
The Paulsplatz is a place in the Old City of Frankfurt am Main . It is bordered in the north by Berliner Strasse , in the east by Neue Kräme , in the west by the north building of the Old Town Hall (built 1900-08) and in the south it connects Bethmannstrasse and Braubachstrasse . Since the war damage in 1944 , its character has changed significantly due to the loss of several important buildings such as the Old Stock Exchange and several town houses on the Neue Kräme. Since then, Paulsplatz has been directly connected to the Römerberg in the south .
Paulsplatz is dominated by the classicist Paulskirche , built from 1789 to 1833 and the seat of the Frankfurt National Assembly from 1848 . Like the Neue Kräme and the Römerberg, the square is a pedestrian zone . The eastern part is covered with plane trees, under which several street cafes set up their tables in summer. In addition to various summer street festivals, the Frankfurt Christmas market takes place on Paulsplatz, as well as on Römerberg and in Neue Kräme .
history
The Frankfurt Barefoot Monastery, first mentioned in a document in 1270, was located on the site of today's Paulsplatz until the 18th century . Reformation sermons have been held regularly in the Barfüßerkirche since 1526 . In 1529 the last eight Franciscan conventuals left the monastery to lead a civil life in the future. The monastery was handed over to the city council. The Barefoot Church became the main Protestant church in Frankfurt, where important theologians such as Philipp Jakob Spener and Johann Friedrich Starck as well as musicians such as Georg Philipp Telemann worked. From 1542, the municipal high school was set up in the monastery buildings north of the church .
In the 18th century the buildings became too small, and their dilapidation was also noticeable. In 1782 the Barefoot Church was closed and demolished in 1786. In 1789 the construction of the church began under the city master builder Johann Georg Christian Hess , who dragged on until 1833 due to the Revolutionary Wars .
While the Gothic building of the Barfüßerkirche was oriented in an east-west direction, the new church was an oval central building with a tower in the south, which also formed the main entrance. In front of the tower a new square was created, the Paulsplatz . In the west and east it was only connected to the main north-south axes of the old town by two narrow streets: via Paulsgasse to the west with the Grosse Kornmarkt and via Wedelsgasse with Neue Kräme and Römerberg .
In the west, east and north the Paulskirche was surrounded by dense buildings. In 1838 the city high school left the medieval monastery buildings, which were soon demolished. In their place, a block of houses was built between the Neue Kräme and the Paulskirche, at the northern end of which the Alte Börse was located from 1840 to 1952 .
The old stock exchange
The most important building on Paulsplatz, next to Paulskirche, was the Alte Börse , built between 1840 and 1843 by Jakob Friedrich Peipers (1805–1878) according to plans by the Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler , the first building in Frankfurt specially designed for the up-and-coming securities trade. The late classicist building was a two-storey cube made of red and white sandstone . The old stock exchange was also the seat of the Frankfurt telegraph office . As early as 1879, the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce, responsible for the stock exchange, moved into a new building, which is still known today as the New Stock Exchange in Neustadt . The old stock exchange was taken over by Saalbau GmbH and used as a meeting room. In 1944 the building burned down in a heavy bomb attack. The remaining outer walls were removed in 1952.
The unified monument
The unity monument has stood on Paulsplatz in front of the Paulskirche since 1903 . In 1898 the city of Frankfurt announced a competition:
“The share, what poetry and song, what the champions of political freedom, the men of science, the universities and the founders of the economic unification of Germany ( Zollverein, etc.) had in the unification of the German people in the period of preparation from 1815 to 1864 should, as far as possible, be expressed artistically by means of sculptures or reliefs, otherwise by means of inscriptions. The defense of the German Nordmark ( Schleswig-Holstein ) is also to be commemorated "
The commission appointed by the magistrate decided on the design by the architect Fritz Hessemer and the sculptor Hugo Kaufmann .
A three-sided obelisk made of the same material rises above a four-tier travertine substructure , which is crowned by an allegorical bronze figure . On pedestals around the base were three larger-than-life pairs of bronze figures. The first group, the free bourgeoisie or the struggle for freedom , showed a young fighter who loosens the chains of a tired older fighter. The next group consisted of an allegorical alma mater who quench a young man's thirst for knowledge by giving him something to drink from a bowl. The third group, the freedom song , again depicted two men, the older with a lyre , the youth with a sword, a representation to honor the role of the singing movement in unity. The groups of figures were melted down in 1940 as a metal donation from the German people .
There are three relief panels between the pedestals : the first depicts the exodus of the fraternities and militants for the liberation of Schleswig-Holstein, on the second a young man bids farewell to his family. Underneath is the words of Ernst Moritz Arndt : “We are defeated, not defeated. You don't succumb in such a battle! ”. The third relief shows a group of men forging a sword ; one of them bears the features of Bismarck .
It remained open who the allegory embodies on the top of the obelisk. Contemporary reviewers describe the female figure, on whose shield the words “be united” are written, as Klio , the muse of epic poetry, but also as Germania . On October 18, 1903, the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , Mayor Franz Adickes inaugurated the monument.
literature
- Georg Hartmann, Fried Lübbecke (Ed.): Alt-Frankfurt. A legacy. Sauer and Auvermann publishing house, Glashütten 1971.
- Fried Lübbecke : The face of the city. According to Frankfurt's plans by Faber, Merian and Delkeskamp. 1552-1864. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1952.
Web links
- The old stock exchange destroyed in the war. altfrankfurt.com
- 360 ° panorama of Paulsplatz and Römerberg
swell
- ↑ Competition of the Frankfurt magistrate from April 2, 1898
- ↑ Hessemer, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 16 : Hansen – Heubach . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1923, p. 596 .
- ↑ Otto Kellner : Kaufmann, Hugo . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 20 : Kaufmann – Knilling . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 8-9 .
- ↑ a b Our pictures . In: Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein (Hrsg.): Art and craft . Journal for applied arts and crafts since 1851. Volume 54, issue 4. Munich 1904, p. 118 ( digitized version [accessed April 12, 2013]).
- ↑ Our pictures . In: Arts and Crafts . 1904, p. 119 ( digitized version [accessed April 12, 2013]).
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 40 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 53 ″ E