Town hall (Mühlhausen / Thuringia)

The Mühlhausen town hall is located between the lower and upper market in Mühlhausen / Thuringia , partly above the alluvial moth stream. There are still remains of the medieval stables in the courtyard . The oldest, Gothic part of the town hall can be recognized by the pointed arch above Ratsstrasse.

Town Hall, south wing (Renaissance)

Transition to the Gothic wing

Town hall portal

General

The oldest surviving city seals date back to 1260 and 1278. The town hall itself was first mentioned in 1310. Since 1251 the city had its own jurisdiction . The town hall also served as a mint and imperial city archive.

history

The two-storey gothic core building, which was probably started after the assault on the royal palace in 1256, served as a market hall, like the bread arbor and meat hall on Obermarkt , until the guild was lifted . In the basement of the Gothic building there was a town hall chapel, which is now used as a registry office. At the beginning of the 14th century, a Gothic extension was built on the west side. The town hall on the upper floor was extended and the large council chamber was built next to it. The council chamber is richly designed. The wooden partition wall to the town hall hall has a late Gothic painting, the other walls are decorated with Renaissance paintings. The west side shows a representation of the quaternions with the year 1572. The wooden door has several inscriptions and bears the year 1571. The town hall has a painted barrel vault from the 17th century. In the town hall hall there is also a relic of the GDR historical misrepresentation : The picture Thomas Müntzer, painted in 1960, by the painter Wilhelm Otto Pitthan shows a representation of the Eternal Council in front of the Gothic painting of the council chamber. Müntzer founded the Eternal Council on March 17, 1525 in the Marienkirche (Mühlhausen) .

The core building was extended to the east around the middle of the 16th century. The chancellery (approx. 1570) and the silver chamber were set up next to the town hall hall. The south wing was built towards the end of the 16th century. The Renaissance portal (1596) of the south wing is the main entrance today. The Imperial City Archive has been located in the south wing since 1614. A few years later, a solitary building was erected north of the core structure. The three-storey north wing also has an ornate Renaissance portal (1606). At the beginning of the 17th century, another extension was built on the west side (west wing).

The last extension to the old town hall took place at the beginning of the 18th century on the north side of the core building. This building houses the Ratskeller. In 1874 the north wing was connected to the core building by a walkway on the second floor. In 1912/13 a new staircase was built in the south wing.

Imperial City Archive

The archive on the mezzanine floor of the south wing has a very well-preserved facility from the early 17th century. It documents quite completely the administration of the city and its relations with German kings since the 14th century. The holdings also include the Mühlhausen legal book based on the law of the empire (around 1220).

Similar buildings

Similar to the town hall in Mühlhausen built over a brook, the town hall built over a former city gate between the towns in Warburg (Westphalia) and the bridge town hall in Bamberg represent political compromises between two regional authorities. In Mühlhausen this was used to mediate between different market areas, in Bamberg between secular and spiritual urban areas and in Warburg between the two formerly independent cities of Warburg-Altstadt and Warburg-Neustadt, which only merged into one city in 1436.

literature

Ernst Badstübner : The old Mühlhausen. Art history of a medieval city . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-7338-0055-9 , pp. 205 .
The town hall of Mühlhausen in Thuringia, contributions to the history of architecture and art, Mühlhausen museums / Mühlhausen history and monument preservation association, 2000.