Ponikauhaus

The Ponikauhaus on Rathausplatz in Kempten

The Ponikauhaus (also Ponickau-Haus , Jenisch-Ponikauhaus or Genossenschaftsbank ) is a stately patrician palace in Kempten . The listed building that closes the west of the Rathausplatz is considered the imperial city counterpart to the throne room of the prince abbot's residence of the prince monastery of Kempten . The imperial city and the prince monastery were separated by the city fortifications and two competing cities with the same name. Today the representative building with the address Rathausplatz 12 is the seat of the Allgäuer Volksbank . The Stern-Apotheke is located on the west side after Heinrichgasse , and today's Hotel Fürstenhof on the east side after Hallgässele .

history

The current building emerged from two houses, called "P 73" and "P 74" . These properties were later referred to in the building authority register as “ Gerberstraße 13” and “Rathausplatz 10” . The oldest document for the two houses dates from 1499. An earlier development cannot be ruled out. Possibly the so-called “Saltzhaus am Markt” with stalls was located there, as can be seen from Stiftkemptischen documents from 1196. In the 12th and 13th centuries, barrels with wine, sacks of rock salt, slices of salt and spices were stored in the vaults of the building .

The dyer Hans Holdenried is proven to be the first house owner. He bought the house in the 15th century for his craft business and as a residential area. Holdenried had to do without a business expansion, as he did not receive a permit. He was also not allowed to hang up his dyed fabrics to dry on the town hall square. This was unthinkable on the representative square. The Holdenried family were among the wealthy citizens of the city.

In the 16th century the building came into the hands of the city, which sold it in 1571 to a city architect named Lienhart Häl. At the same time, the merchant Joseph König, a patrician, built it together with the neighboring house. After his death, his son of the same name, who was married to Sabine Mayr, the daughter of the incumbent mayor Peter Mayr, took over the house and built a new building. Joseph König the Younger was followed in 1602 by his eldest son, Tobias König. He left the house to his brother David in 1624.

David's son Joseph did not survive the conquest of the city by the imperial troops on January 13, 1633. The great-grandfather's coat of arms was lost. The entire facility was also destroyed. According to the archived council minutes, the mayor Wolfgang Leonard Jenisch bought the house in 1655. The Jenisch patrician family also took over the adjoining house and combined it into one unit around 1740. The mighty, representative facade was given a baroque gable. In the upper middle part of the property, the magnificent ballroom was set up in the Rococo style in the 18th century, the elaborate staircase was added and its own water pipe was installed. Thereupon the house remained in the possession of the Jenisch for several generations.

In 1804, the duplex came to Christoph Friedrich von Ponikau through inheritance, marriage and exchange , who kept it until 1830. The name of the house goes back to this inheritance. The noble family Ponikau , who came from Saxony , played a rather short role in Kempten without any further significance. In 1830/31 the entire property was transferred to the city of Kempten, which, following various tenants and interim owners, sold it to the baker Ferdinand August Ackerknecht for 21,000 guilders. The supposedly very honest baker wanted to make as much capital as possible. In 1867, for example, he created additional living space in the two-storey high ballroom with the insertion of a false ceiling. The elongated windows facing the town hall square had to be divided, and stucco work and paintings were also destroyed. The upper third of the former state hall could only be reached through the attic. From then on, the condition of the room with its paintings and stucco deteriorated. The state rooms of the house were forgotten. In 1916, what was then the Kempten savings and advance payment association , which later became the Allgäuer Volksbank , bought the building for 58,000 Reichsmarks . Banking operations began on October 1, 1916. The south facade was renewed in 1928. The Allgäuer Volksbank was unclear whether the building should be restored and secured or left to decay. The bank decided to restore the premises. In 1957 the south facade including the interior was restored as much as possible, but the facade structure, formerly a fresco comparable to the facade painting of the royal houses , was removed and replaced by a modern design in brown. It wasn't until 1982/83, when enough capital was available, that the ballroom was renovated. Among other things, the painter and restorer Josef Lorch was commissioned to freshen up the paintings by Franz Georg Hermann .

architecture

The groin vault on the ground floor

Fall of the Phaeton in the stairwell

The three-storey house, divided into eleven window axes, has a rectangular bay window over the first and second floors, which ends with a barred balcony. The large dwelling with arched windows has a curved, semicircular closed gable. The facade and window division is asymmetrical because two buildings were combined. This is particularly noticeable in the right part of the dwelling, which is much wider. The rear part of the building, which adjoins Gerberstrasse, has a dwelling with a hipped roof and dormers with a curved roof.

inside rooms

The interior of the building is shaped by the Rococo. The groin vault on the ground floor is partly designed with stucco ribs over bevelled pillars with a profiled spur. At the north end of the first floor is a remarkable rectangular staircase. The ballroom on the upper floors is the counterpart to the throne room of the royal residence. The rooms contain lavishly designed rocaille cartouches . The almost free-spirited imperial city wanted to show the monastery city with the ceiling paintings and the stucco that it too is powerful and that art did not always have to be based on a Christian basis. When designing the Ponikauhaus, the citizens of the Reichsstadt took up various scenes from Greek mythology .

Stairwell

The staircase, which was elaborately designed around 1741, contains frescoes by Franz Georg Hermann and stucco by Johann Georg Üblhör . There, two flights of stairs unite over a ledge in front of the outer wall to form a wide middle course, equipped with wooden parapets made of square balusters . Rocaille decorations are located on the paneled undersides of the stairs, in the covings and vestibules . The fall of the Phaeton comes from Hermann , this fresco on the ceiling of the stairwell is framed by Üblhör's stucco oval.

Ballroom

The middle picture of the ballroom: "The imperial city of Kempten invites the gods of Olympus to a feast"

Hermann and Üblhör also worked at about the same time in the large ballroom. This hall is the counterpart to the throne room of the Abbey City Residence and is an expression of the Imperial City's self-confidence and aspiration.

Piece

Between Corinthian pilasters with rounded corners, there are three basket-arch windows on the southern narrow side, which flood the room with light. On the long sides there are two narrow and two wide, alternating intervals. The narrow central interval on the east side jumps out over a stucco marble chimney with corner volutes . The mirror vault has a grooved cornice in the corners with overlapping picture cartouches. A Jenisch coat of arms can be seen above the central window between putti and a crested cartouche. In the niche opposite there is a drapery under three putti. The long sides are provided with rocaille , fields in damask pattern and rough plaster above the cornice . Cartouches of a putto with a laurel wreath are set between rocaille volutes above the fireplace . A putto with a trumpet decorates the wall opposite .

Frescoes

The frescoes painted by Franz Georg Herman are mainly figurative representations with allegories and the central painting. The imperial city of Kempten invites the gods of Olympus to a feast .

Allegories

In corner cartouches , allegorizing women with putti symbolize the four seasons with the four elements.

Spring : A tender virgin holds a bird's nest with newly hatched birds in her right hand. In the other she is holding a small bouquet of flowers. The left breast is as free as your left leg. She wears a silk, almost transparent outer dress. A flying bird symbolizes the element air.
Summer : a mature woman lays her left arm on a grain of wheat. The right hand holds a sickle skyward, the origin of becoming. Behind this sickle is represented mother earth, a symbol of this season.
Autumn : A mother holds fruits in her hands as a sign of the season of harvest. Behind the female figure are two angelic children who are happy about the early autumn rain. One of the children holds out his little hand to him. The other child is holding a scarf over his head. The rain is the symbol for the element water.
Winter : An aging lady is dressed in a red coat. Flames lick from a vessel. The melancholy expression on the face is supposed to represent the suffering and plagues of winter, but at the same time also point to the problems of old age.

Center image

The middle picture

The central image on the mirror vault bears the signature “1741 F. g. Herrmann. pinx ”and shows how the imperial city of Kempten invites the gods of Olympus to dinner . The gods of Olympus hover on clouds and look down at the satyrs who are feeding .

Eastern part

A rectangular oriel protrudes towards the Hallgässele in the east between the Ponikauhaus and the Fürstenhof . On the first floor of the eastern part there are sandstone columns with capitals on an octagon base. A large angel's head protrudes from the arch of the stairs. On the first floor there are stucco work from 1600 with partly heavy, circular cassettes . Rosettes , bands and flowers decorate the lintels and the joists . On the second floor, a large, eight-pointed star forms a coffered ceiling. Other, later divided rooms have four passports . On the third floor of the eastern part there is a wooden coffered ceiling painted with flowers.

Individual evidence

^ Wolfgang Haberl: Allgäu, Ausserfern, Kleinwalsertal, Bregenzerwald. Lexicon of the Euregio via salina. Verlag Tobias Dannheimer, Kempten, 2002, p. 184. ISBN 3-88881-038-8
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 33.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 15.
^ ^A ^b ^c Alexander Duke of Württemberg: City of Kempten (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VII.85 ). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 , p. 62 .
↑ ^a ^b Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rococo Jewel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 69.
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 9.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments - Bavaria III - Swabia . 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich-Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03116-6 , pp. 576 f .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Michael Petzet : City and district of Kempten . 1st edition. tape 5 . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, p. 57 f .
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 53.
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 56f.
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 58f.
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, pp. 60f.
↑ Johannes Goldner: Allgäu Rokokojuwel: The State Hall in the "Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus" in Kempten. Kempten 1983, p. 62f.

literature

Johannes Goldner: Allgäu rococo jewel: the state room in the “Jenisch-Ponikau-Haus” in Kempten. Kempten 1983.
Friedrich Zollhoefer: From the history of a patrician house: The so-called "Ponikau House". In: Allgäuer Geschichtsfreund , No. 56, Kempten 1957, pp. 12–28.
Ponikau-Saal In: The beautiful Allgäu , 9th year, Kempten 1941.
Article on the Ponikauhaus in the Allgäuer Tagblatt by FH Hacker, No. 143, 1930.