Town Hall (Düren)
The town hall of Düren is located in the district town of Düren in North Rhine-Westphalia .
There were several town halls in Düren. The first town hall comes from the late Romanesque period . It was built at the beginning of the 13th century. The location and appearance of this structure are uncertain. Before the year 1333, this first imperial town hall must have been replaced by a new building, since a document from this year describes the location of a private house as being above the "old" town hall (supra curia antiqua). No documents are to be determined about this building either.
The town hall, built in 1520, seems to have been the most splendid town hall in Düren since it was built in Düren's heyday after the transfer of the Annahaupt (1501) and before its destruction by Emperor Charles V (1543). The materials name the year of construction 1520 and the mayor Gerhard Harper as its builder. The following must be highlighted as special identification: the polygonal stair tower protruding from the facade in the central axis of the market front and the wooden bell tower rising from the roof zone . Up until 1944, on the north side of the last town hall, you could still see the remainder of a late Gothic tracery frieze that matches the friezes on the former Düren bay window .
Received invoices from 1546 and reports of the destruction of the city in 1543 suggest that the timber and roofing of the late Gothic town hall went up in flames on the day the city was conquered, but that the masonry was essentially preserved. It is believed that no new building was built during this time, but only a restoration of the condition of 1520. On the other hand, the open vestibule reproduced by Wenzel with its four arcades on the main front, which existed until the 18th century , seems to be newly built .
This 16th century town hall with its magnificent vestibule has stood for over 200 years without any major changes being made. Little is known about the structural condition and repairs, for example in 1752 and 1770 from files in the Düren city archive.
In 1752 the master mason Albert Steinberger made a cost estimate for four new windows, a door with two skylights , two cellar windows, a flagstone flooring, etc., and in the same year the master locksmith Peter Mendel delivered an iron gallery “in front of the town hall”, which apparently had become dilapidated Should replace the balustrade of the porch. A cost estimate by the town architect Heinrich Crevelt for the repairs to the roof windows and the tower of the town hall dates from 1770 . On this occasion one also learns that the old roof of the town hall, which at that time was still a double roof and had no fewer than 33 windows, a large number of dormer windows , which is also suggested by Wenceslaus Hollar's depiction of 1634. The old town hall was also called "Haus Schwert" in the past because a figure with a sword stood inside the town hall, symbolizing justice, because the jury and bailiff had its seat in the town hall .
The mayor and magistrate of the city of Düren apparently only approached the major building project of 1788/1790 by force. When studying the individual council minutes, one does not get the impression that there is an excessive need for representation or the addiction to substitute a modern building for an outdated one under all circumstances. Rather, the condition of the late Gothic town hall made a renewal appear to be an urgent and unavoidable measure solely for structural reasons. Money was tight and the cheapest of all proposals is chosen over and over again, and attempts are made to reuse as much of the stone and wood as possible. Initially only the front of the market is to be demolished, but then the Weierstrasse side must also disappear. One can believe the city fathers of Düren, who have to answer to the elector for funds raised, that they did not approach their building project recklessly. The negotiations dragged on from 1785 to 1788 with the drafting and discarding of plans and cost estimates, until on April 4, 1788 a contract was finally reached with the foreign master builder Franz Klausener from Burtscheid . He is the builder of the last town hall, which was completed in 1790.
According to the construction files, the town hall was built in 1790 on the foundations of its predecessor and served as a storage cellar. The town hall had three entrances on the market side. The windowed door on the left on the street corner was closed, the right entrance to the neighboring wine house, which was also windowed, finally served as access to the police station . The doors each had two wings, as did the main portal . To the right of the entrance door to the guardroom, there were two iron rules, the remains of which were no longer found in the rubble in 1945. The larger of the two sticks was 68.8 cm long, a measure that roughly corresponded to the Brabant yard or Prussian yard used in Düren . The smaller stick was 32.8 cm, so not quite half of the larger stick, which was the Steckelle or Prussian cubit. The sole use of this unit of measurement was ordered as early as 1538.
The city arms above the town hall had to be made illegible in 1798 at the instigation of the French occupiers . After notification of the materials, it was covered with mortar . The city arms consisted of the two heraldic animals eagle and lion . From the symmetrically formed eagle the imperial eagle of the city of Düren, which was pledged to Count Wilhelm IV of Jülich in 1242 , where the lion in the coat of arms comes from.
The old syringe house , built around 1610 in Weierstrasse, was demolished in 1887 to expand the town hall . On March 25, 1891, the extension building with the meeting room, city archive and city library was put into use. The foundation stone for the extension was laid on September 6, 1888 and the architect was Heinrich Wiethase .
In the wooden bell tower, which was supplied with slats, hung the storm and fire bell from the 16th century, with the inscription: STORM IND BRANDGLOCK I AM SAMPT VAIGTGERICHT VKVNT I MIN KLANGK SCARED EDERMANN SCHAFF DIR GEN SCHAIT KOEME HIE VAN . The bell, which was still in use until 1910, also previously rang the sessions of the Blood and Vogt Court. The fire buckets, which were stored there to extinguish fires, were also stored in the roof structure . The town hall was completely destroyed during the air raid on Düren on November 16, 1944.
After the rebuilding of the heavily destroyed city center had been tackled, planning of a new town hall began in 1953/1954. In the first years after the Second World War , the city administration was spread over several buildings.
In mid-1954, the city council announced a competition to obtain designs. The Mettmann- based architect Denis Boniver emerged as the first prize winner through a unanimous decision of the jury from the competition with 74 designs . By also unanimous resolution of the city council on January 20, 1955, his design for the construction of the new town hall was selected.
On October 17, 1956, around seven months after the start of construction, the foundation stone was laid in the central wing of today's town hall. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on March 8, 1957. The opening ceremony by City Director Hans Brückmann and Mayor Heinrich Spies took place on January 9, 1959. At this ceremony, the district craftsmen handed the mayor a chain of office made from gold and silver obtained in Maubacher Bleiberg . The City Director commented on the opening with the words: "I, Düren, am back!"
The town hall comprised around 41,000 m³ of enclosed space and contained around 200 office and ancillary rooms for the entire city administration, a ticket hall, three meeting rooms, a meeting room, rooms for the city and district archives and other municipal facilities. A striking feature is the city coat of arms above the clock, which was only installed in September 1958, in which 25,000 mosaic stones made of Milanese glass are processed. A tub fountain was installed in front of the town hall on the eastern side. According to the 1959 bill, the total construction costs amounted to DM 4,942,475.25. As part of the local reorganization in 1972, the town hall had to be renovated and expanded for around DM 2 million. In the 1980s there were 30 offices outside the town hall. The situation later eased through the establishment of the city square.
The Town Hall is a symbol of the architecture of the 1950s since July 4, 1989 under monument protection . Between March 19 and July 9, 2012, all employees moved to other, partially rented office buildings in the city area because the town hall had to be completely renovated. Most of the staff moved into the former telecommunications office "Am Ellernbusch". The renovation work was completed in 2015. The reopening took place on July 13, 2015.
literature
- The old and the new town hall in Düren , commemorative publication for the inauguration of the new rest house on January 9, 1959, published by the city of Düren in 1959
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 9.9 ″ N , 6 ° 28 ′ 57.2 ″ E