Town Hall (Neckarzimmern)

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Town hall in Neckarzimmern, behind it the former rent office

The town hall in Neckarzimmern in the Neckar-Odenwald district in northern Baden-Württemberg goes back to the New Castle of the Barons of Gemmingen , located below Hornberg Castle , and was inhabited by them from the 17th century to 1930. In 1932 it came into the possession of the municipality, which has since used it as the town hall.

history

Castle of the Barons of Gemmingen

Although it was built as a stately castle, there are very few sources about the early history of the building, so that its origin has to be inferred from the context of the history of ownership of the place, from technical research findings and from news and findings on the surrounding buildings.

Reinhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg (1576–1635) acquired Neckarzimmern with Hornberg Castle as the previous seat of local rule in 1612. There were probably farm buildings belonging to the castle in the village. In 1615 Reinhard von Gemmingen had a stately farm building erected at the branch to Burgweg, today's rent office , which was extended in 1634 and became the estate in 1660/61 . Basement is documented. According to dendrochronological findings , the New Castle was built in 1657 parallel to the Rent Office as a timber-framed building with a window core.

It is not known when exactly the von Gemmingen family moved their residence from Hornberg Castle to the valley. In the older literature it is generally assumed that the family took up residence in the valley soon after the Hornberg Castle was acquired, but there are no buildings that could be used as a manor. There was at most one administrator's apartment in the rent office. A no longer verifiable predecessor of the New Palace would be the first mansion in the valley . However, Reinhard's son Weiprecht von Gemmingen (1608–1688) still lived in the castle in the second half of the 17th century. The castle does not seem to have been completely uninhabited until 1738.

The New Palace was structurally redesigned around 1750 . The facade was given regular windowing instead of the previous bay windows, and the entire area was plastered in order to simulate a massive building. While large parts of the building were previously reserved for commercial purposes, around 1750 the top floor was also expanded for residential purposes. The original half-hip roof was rebuilt, creating the high gable facing the street. All previous facilities that might have served the administration of the property were moved to the rent office. The older literature assumes this construction phase around 1750 as the first construction of the castle, which was refuted by the dendrochronological findings of the timber, which is around 100 years older, as well as thermographic findings of the half-timbered structure.

In 1873 the castle was again extensively renovated and received its present appearance. The building was given a new main portal, which, like the old one, was not oriented towards the inner courtyard, but towards the garden next to the building. The new portal side received a new facade with regular windowing and a dwelling above the portal zone. The entire facade was redesigned in the style of eclecticism . The ground floor was redesigned in a representative way and was given a floor level about one meter higher. The rooms received herringbone parquet or plank floors with a cross division and stucco ceilings. A new stairwell was drawn in behind the new entrance. The static problems caused by the deep installation were absorbed with cast iron supports and steel beams. The upper floors were little changed during the renovation in 1875 and seem to have been relieved in the following time by the more intensive use of the ground floor.

Administrative seat of the municipality

A town hall has been occupied in Neckarzimmern since 1596. The first town hall was located south of the church and had to give way in 1857 to the expansion of the road from Gundelsheim to Neckarelz (today's B 27 ). As a replacement, a new town hall was built at Hauptstraße 35 from 1858, but in the early 20th century it could no longer meet the administrative requirements.

Around 1930 the von Gemmingen family moved back to Hornberg Castle, which is now habitable again. On June 1, 1932, the Reich waterways administration , which was then involved in the Neckar canalization , acquired the New Palace and began converting the rooms into offices. Soon afterwards, the municipality of Neckarzimmern came into possession of the castle through an exchange of land for a surcharge, while the old town hall and the old schoolhouse of the municipality went to the state. The community continued the renovation of the palace, including two large school halls and apartments for teachers on the upper floors.

After a new school house was built in the late 1950s, the students moved out of the New Palace . The school halls were converted into additional offices for the municipal administration with partition walls. The apartments on the upper floors were retained, but were structurally separated from the rest of the building so that they could only be reached via the back entrance.

The last major renovation to date followed in 2000/01, which primarily aimed at a comprehensive structural strengthening of the building and the preservation and alignment of the historical components.

description

The New Palace is a two-storey building with a solid base and a half-timbered full storey above it, as well as two gable storeys. The building is covered by a gable roof. The main entrance was created in 1875 and is located on the eight-axle northwestern eaves side, above it a crowned by a flat circular gable Zwerchhaus formed. The rear entrance on the south-eastern side of the courtyard, which is reached via a single flight of stairs, is the original main entrance to the building. The windows on the ground floor on the eaves side and all windows on the south-western gable have window roofs , flat on the ground floor, segmental arches on the first floor, and triangular gables on the gable floors. The gable itself ends with a segmental arch at the top and is crowned by decorative elements on the side.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rüdiger Lenz: The older town halls of the community Neckarzimmern. In: Badische Heimat 2004. Heimatkalender for Neckartal, Odenwald, Bauland and Kraichgau , Heidelberg 2004, pp. 208–210.

Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 3.2 ″  N , 9 ° 8 ′ 7.2 ″  E