Town hall Dillingen / Saar
The town hall Dillingen / Saar is the town hall of the Saarland city of Dillingen / Saar in the district of Saarlouis . It was built according to the plans of the Charlottenburg architecture professor Wilhelm Franz in a mixture of Neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau elements as the town hall of the village of Dillingen between 1906 and 1908. The Dillingen architect Kurt Faber (* 1929) took care of the extension between 1974 and 1978.
prehistory
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In the 1870s, the prosperity of the village of Dillingen grew strongly. The population increased from 2600 to 5300 from 1877 to the turn of the century. On April 1, 1897, the communities of Dillingen and Leases left the association of the Fraulautern mayor and were combined to form an independent mayor of Dillingen. Together, both communities now had 5,667 inhabitants. The Dillinger Hütte pushed the establishment of its own mayor's office in Dillingen for economic reasons.
Within a few years, rural communities became a flourishing community. The financial resources that flowed into the municipal treasury from the tax power of the Dillinger Hütte made it possible to implement larger structural plans.
Old Town Hall
Planning and construction
On December 28, 1904, the Dillingen municipal council decided to build a new town hall. So far, a house on the market square (now known as the “Red Square”) was used as an administration building. The building site should be in the “In der Aht” district near the train station, the new Protestant church and the Imperial Post Office. In addition, a high school was to be built nearby. The building site was partially owned by the municipality of Dillingen. Another property was obtained from Dillinger Hütte as part of a property swap. Since two private landowners only wanted to sell to the community at high prices, the community of Dillingen resorted to expropriation , which was completed in February 1906.
In June 1906 the local council approved a loan of 220,000 marks for the new building.
The old town hall in Dillingen, which was built between 1906 and 1908, can be considered an impressive building from the historicist era. The newly built town hall building was primarily intended to meet the increased requirements of the community administration, but also to satisfy the ambitious industrial city's need for representation.
The red sandstone, slate-roofed town hall was designed by Wilhelm Franz, professor at the Royal Technical University in the then still independent city of Charlottenburg , in a mixture of Neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau elements. Before teaching in Charlottenburg, Wilhelm Franz had been a city councilor and government builder in St. Johann an der Saar and had directed the construction work on the St. Johann town hall , which was designed by Georg von Hauberrisser . Both Franz and Hauberrisser got to know and appreciate each other during the construction of the New Town Hall in Wiesbaden .
As a result of his workload at the Technical University of Charlottenburg, Wilhelm Franz was assisted by the architects Alwin Heinker and Kurt Witzschel, who had made a name for themselves in St. Johann through the construction of numerous new buildings. The names of the two architects Franz and Witzschel are immortalized in a cartouche on the main gable.
The building contractor JW Witt from Dillingen, who was also commissioned to build the Saardome a short time later, was awarded the contract to build the town hall at a local council meeting. He had made the cheapest offer with 71,926.30. In addition, the following companies were commissioned:
- Reinforced concrete work: Krutina & Möhle from Malstatt
- Carpentry work: Marx company from Dillingen
- Central heating: Körting company from Hanover
- Plumbing work: Maurer from Saarbrücken
- Roofing work: Company Six from Saarbrücken
- Carpentry work: Felbel-Chassé from St. Johann
- Glazing work: Mexer company from St. Johann
- Sculpture work: Schneider company from St. Johann
- Panel work: Seyffarth company from St. Johann
- Drainage work: Fitter Kröner from Dillingen
- House painting, painting and wallpapering work: Maus-Holz from Saarlouis
- Artificial glazing in the meeting room: Geck company from Wiesbaden
- Artificial glazing in the stairwell: Binsfeld company from Trier
inauguration
On Sunday, March 29, 1908, the newly built town hall was inaugurated with festive services in the Catholic parish church of St. Johann in Dillingen and the Protestant church . Then a pageant, made up of the Dillinger associations, music bands, choral associations, the local council, the officials of the municipal administration, invited and the village population, moved from the old administration building on the market square through the flag-adorned Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße (today Johannesstraße) and Kaiser-Friedrich -Straße (today Merziger Straße) to the new town hall, where Mayor Matthias Schmitt gave a speech in front of the building. Immediately afterwards, the neighboring new grammar school (after war damage and renovation, today the gymnasium Merziger Straße), which was also designed by Wilhelm Franz (construction manager Kurt Witzschel, St. Johann), was inaugurated.
Architectural design
Exterior construction
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In terms of urban planning, the Dillingen town hall formed the center of an urban complex consisting of a train station, high school, tax office, church, post office, city park and residential buildings until it was destroyed in the Second World War .
From the outside, the building shows a sandstone facade in the historicizing style, in which Art Nouveau elements are also incorporated.
The main façade in the basement is two-story and broad. The representative main floor plan with entrance stairs, balcony with arched balcony console, council chamber window and mid-house gable with single-storey corner bay window has been shifted to the right. In its arrangement and design, it corresponds to the corner bay tower of the Rothenburg town hall, which, however, has three storeys.
The right corner bay corresponds to a smaller risalit on the left side of the facade with a gable and a polygonal stand bay. The side fronts are also crowned with gables. In the middle of the façade rises on the high, dormer-decorated roof structure with a turret with a clock tower, arched gallery and tail hood with weather vane. The design of the roof ridge is reminiscent of Franconian town hall buildings of the Renaissance, such as Schweinfurt or Rotenburg ob der Tauber
The steep tent roof with an attic floor is covered with slate. The entrance portal, which is accessed via a wide staircase, is decorated with a wrought-iron foliage grille with gilded elements. The grilles and the slightly curved transition between the wall and the council chamber balcony take on Art Nouveau forms and Germanizing wickerwork with knot patterns .
The black eagle of the Kingdom of Prussia is emblazoned in gold mosaic on the main gable. The eagle's head wears a closed royal crown, its fangs hold a scepter adorned with an eagle and a blue orb crowned with a cross. On his chest are the initials of the first Prussian king Friedrich I : "FR" for "Fredericus Rex". Above it is the inscription “ God with us ”. "God with us" has been the motto of the Prussian royal family , the German emperors and part of the Prussian and later the German military emblems since 1701 . Nobiscum deus ("God with us") was the battle cry of the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire , in German this phrase was first used by the Teutonic Order . The motto God with us is a literal translation of the Hebrew name Immanu-El (עמנואל) and alludes to the oracle of salvation of the prophet Isaiah for the Judean king Ahaz in 733 BC. Chr. (Isaiah 7,14 LUT etc.), which was later interpreted as messianic (cf. Matthew 1,23 LUT ).
Four life-size figures rise above the motto in front of a gold mosaic background. From left to right are shown: a kneeling miner with hammer and chisel, a female figure looking to the left, who is carrying a model of the city in her hands, as a personification of the community of Dillingen, a steel worker looking to the right with iron tongs and a gear, a kneeling coal miner with a miner's lamp .
Main front, old town hall
Main gable of Metz station
Worms, main station, main gable
Aachen, main station, main gable
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The line of the main gable shows clear parallels to the neo-Romanesque main gable of the Metz train station , the Worms central train station and the Aachen central train station . The stylistic reference made with the reception of massive styles to the epochs of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, idealized under Kaiser Wilhelm II, served to legitimize and glorify the contemporary empire and was intended to evoke a time in which the Holy Roman Empire was powerful and the ruling house one had been absolute and not a constitutionally restricted one. This program applied particularly to Alsace-Lorraine, which was annexed from 1870, but was also popular in neighboring Saarland. The choice of the architectural style and the materials used was consciously used as a symbol of the power of Germanness.
The left gable of the main facade is adorned in the pointed field with two seated eagles looking at each other and holding their wings tightly against the body. The arch structure on the first floor shows parallels to the facade of the Goslar Imperial Palace . The rustication -designing the facade cited buildings of Staufer era .
Boardroom
The meeting room has a height of 6.5 meters, a width of 7.10 meters and a length of 14.20 meters. A three-arched arcade separates a spectator area.
A quote from the Prussian statesman and reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein in Gothic script appears as a large-format inscription above the arcades : “The whole should exist through active shared responsibility for everyone”. At the Congress of Vienna, Stein strongly encouraged the incorporation of the Saar places, and thus also Dillingens, into the Kingdom of Prussia.
The lower parts of the wall are paneled with wood. In the upper part, the walls merge into the white mirrored ceiling in a groove decorated with wooden ribs.
Inside, the glazing and the large-format wall paintings of the old conference room are impressive.
The historicist glass paintings, which were destroyed in the Second World War , were redesigned in 1951 by the Freese glass studio in Saarbrücken. The left window in the arcade shows couples of different ages: on the far left a girl with a bouquet of flowers and a boy, then a bridal couple under a laurel garland. Next to it, under a green tree, you can see a couple with a toddler in their mother's arms, while the man gently strokes his wife. To the right of this is an old married couple: behind a seated old woman in a blue dress who seems to be knitting stands an old bearded man in green clothing.
The bay window glazings represent different birds:
- a raven with writing utensils (paper, ink glass and quill pen ): In Nordic mythology , the raven symbolizes wisdom .
- an owl on a book: In Greek mythology the owl is considered a bird of wisdom and a companion animal to the goddess Athena .
- a falcon on a branch: In Celtic mythology , the falcon was considered a transmitter between this world and the hereafter.
- a crowing rooster on a mound of earth: In popular belief the rooster is the symbol of fighting spirit and readiness to fight, also of vigilance and sunrise .
- a penguin on bluish ice floes
The door to the council chamber balcony shows on the left the Caduceus as a symbol of trade and commerce and on the right the cogwheel and governor as symbols of industry. Above the door, in the glazing, is the quote "Work is the citizen's adornment, blessing is the price of effort." From the poem Das Lied von der Glocke by Friedrich Schiller from 1799.
The windows next to the door to the council chamber balcony show typical handicrafts from Dillingen:
To the left of the door to the council chamber balcony are shown (from left to right):
- A roofer with bricks and a ladder
- A locksmith at the workbench
- A blacksmith at the anvil
To the right of the door to the council chamber balcony are shown (from left to right):
- A metal caster at the furnace
- A farmer with a scythe and sheaves of corn
- A miner in the shaft with a goods cart
To the right and left of the window of the council chamber balcony are large sandstone chimneys.
On the side of the hall opposite the arcade wall, there is a splendid neo-Renaissance sandstone portal in the middle. In the Supraporte symbols of law and justice are shown (scales, sword of justice, Code). To the left of the door frame hangs the Dillinger community coat of arms as a wooden relief, to the right of the door frame the coat of arms of the Lorraine dynasty Lenoncourt , which provided the Lords of Dillingen from 1657 to 1743 and founded the Dillinger Hütte in 1685 .
The Lenoncourt coat of arms is also in the overhang of the neo-renaissance portal of the entrance door to the council chamber.
To the left and right of this front door hang two large wall paintings. They show aspects of Dillingen's history. The themes of the murals are:
- To the right of the front door: "The return of the Lords of Siersberg and Dillingen from the lean-out ceremony in the Liebfrauenkirche zu Trier on January 17, 1333" You can see a partly mounted knight at the foot of the Siersburg in a snowy, wintry landscape. The depicted scene is reminiscent of the violent disputes in the 13th and 14th centuries between the Archdiocese and Electorate of Trier and the Duchy of Lorraine. In 1282 Duke Friedrich III. of Lorraine received the Siersburg from Archbishop Boemund II of Saarbrücken as a fief in Trier's Church of Our Lady . In 1333, Duke Rudolf of Lorraine and Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg were supposed to meet to agree on the controversial fief of the Siersburg. While Baldwin appeared with all the documents supporting his claim, Duke Rudolf stayed away from the meeting and did not send any deputies. So the fiefdom was awarded to Kurtrier .
At the lower edge of the painting there are twelve historical coats of arms related to the history of the city of Dillingen : the coat of arms of the Dukes of Lorraine , the coat of arms of the Electorate of Trier, the coat of arms of the Counts of Saarbrücken , the coat of arms of the bailiff of Niedbrück , the coat of arms of the noblemen von Siersberg , the coat of arms of the Lords of Siersberg, the coat of arms of the noble lords of Siersberg (younger line), the coat of arms of the Bechel von Siersberg dynasty, the coat of arms of the Esch von Siersberg dynasty, the coat of arms of the bailiff von Hausen, the coat of arms of the Zand dynasty of Merl and the coat of arms of the Bailiwick of Siersberg. The coats of arms are surrounded by explanatory banderoles with dates of rule.
- Left of the front door: "The old castle and the Dillinger hut in 1909". At the lower edge of the painting, the Dillingen municipal coat of arms (right) and the coat of arms of the Lenoncourt dynasty (left) are shown.
The creator of the two paintings was the Charlottenburg landscape and architectural painter Otto Günther-Naumburg , who, like Wilhelm Franz, was also a professor at the Royal Technical University of Berlin. After being damaged in the Second World War, the two paintings were restored by the Dillingen painter Heinrich Faißt, who also created two large paintings in the Dieffler parish church of St. Josef and St. Wendelin .
Planning for an extension
In the 1960s and 1970s, the old town hall became too narrow for the increased needs of the administration. Offices had to be outsourced. Therefore, the foundation stone for an extension was laid in 1976. On New Year's Day 1978, the city administration moved to the larger New Town Hall, which is located nearby. The two buildings are connected by a corridor on the first floor. Since November 1, 1978, the old town hall has housed the Dillingen police station.
Town hall extension (New Town Hall)
The New Town Hall was built by the Dillinger architect Kurt Faber (* 1929) in the years 1974–1978 in honeycomb-like shapes. It is connected by a bridge to the old town hall, which the Charlottenburg professor Wilhelm Franz designed in the historicist style at the beginning of the 20th century .
The following artists took care of the design of the administrative building: the object artist Werner Bauer from Saarbrücken, the reference sculpture made of colored steel in Merziger Strasse and the wooden conference room doors, the sculptor Eberhardt Killguss from Beckingen the landscape sculptures in the outdoor area (basalt steles, moraines - pebbles , granite cube pavement ) and the Entrance door of the town hall made of enamel and ceramics and several sculptures in the city library, Karl Unverzagt from Grünstadt the wall design made of overglazed andesite panels in the foyer and stairwell, the town hall architect Kurt Faber the ceiling and wall design in the meeting room, the St. Wendel sculptor Heinz Oliberius the bronze meeting room crucifix (1 m × 0.95 m × 0.10 m), the Wadgasser sculptor Lothar Messner the wall design on the 2nd floor made of Formica underprint, the Saarbrücken sculptor Max Mertz the relief on the 3rd floor, the Dillingen painter and graphic artist Karl Michaely the oil painting “Mensc h-Familie-Industrie “on the 4th floor. Max Mertz and Dorothea Zech furnished the mayor's room.
literature
- Jo Enzweiler (Ed.): Art in Public Space, Saarland, Volume 3, Saarlouis district after 1945, essays and inventory , Saarbrücken 2009.
- Art Association Dillingen in the Old Castle, Dillingen / Saar (Ed.): Art Guide Dillingen / Saar , Dillingen 1999, pp. 24–27.
- Aloys Lehnert: Festschrift on the occasion of the granting of city rights to the municipality of Dillingen-Saar on September 1, 1949 , Dillingen / Saar 1949.
- Aloys Lehnert: History of the City of Dillingen / Saar , Dillingen 1968.
- Edith Ruser: Art Nouveau architecture in Saarland , Saarbrücken 1981, pp. 80–81, p. 100, p. 116.
- Gertrud Schmidt: 100 years of the historic meeting room, Old Town Hall Dillingen , Dillingen 2008.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gertrud Schmidt: 100 Years of the Historical Meeting Room, Old Town Hall Dillingen, Dillingen 2008, p. 3.
- ^ Franz Josef Röder: From the history of the institution, in: Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Dillinger Realgymnasium and the inauguration of the new building in Dr.-Prior-Strasse, ed. v. Senior Teacher Dr. Aloys Lehnert, Dillingen / Saar 1953, pp. 81–101, here p. 82.
- ↑ Gertrud Schmidt: 100 Years of the Historical Meeting Room, Old Town Hall Dillingen, Dillingen 2008, pp. 4–7.
- ↑ a b Gertrud Schmidt: 100 Years of the Historical Meeting Room, Old Town Hall Dillingen, Dillingen 2008, p. 8.
- ↑ Haldon, John; `` Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, '' p. 24; Taylor & Francis, Inc., 1999; ISBN 978-1-85728-495-9 . Books.google.com, (Retrieved July 24, 2009).
- ↑ Edith Ruser: Art Nouveau Architecture in Saarland, Saarbrücken 1981, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the border area. Public construction in Alsace-Lorraine (1871–1918), Saarbrücken 2000, pages 121–136, especially p. 128.
- ^ Manfred Berger: Historische Bahnhofsbauten, Volume 2, Berlin (East) 1987, pp. 91–94.
- ^ Lutz-Henning Meyer: 150 years of railways in the Rhineland, contributions to the architectural and art monuments in the Rhineland, Volume 30, Cologne 1989, pp. 524-526.
- ↑ Railway building in Worms, in: Altlas for the journal for construction (1906, sheet 1-4)
- ^ Manfred Berger: Historische Bahnhofsbauten, Volume 3, Berlin (East) 1988, pp. 223-227.
- ↑ Zeitschrift für Bauwesen (1906), sheet 1.
- ↑ Anton Jakob: The Siersburg in the course of the centuries, Saarlouis 1958, p. 37.
- ↑ Gertrud Schmidt: 100 Years of the Historical Meeting Room, Old Town Hall Dillingen, Dillingen 2008, pp. 11–12.
- ↑ University Library TU Berlin: Collection of digitized course catalogs 1874 to 1950 ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Art Guide Dillingen / Saar, ed. from Kunstverein Dillingen im Alten Schloss, Saarbrücken and Dillingen 1999, p. 17.
- ↑ www.dillingen-saar.de
- ↑ Karl Unverzagt: Screen wall and painting, Landau 1985.
- ↑ Jo Enzweiler (Ed.): Art in Public Space, Saarland, Volume 3, Saarlouis district after 1945, essays and inventory, Saarbrücken 2009.
- ^ Art Association Dillingen in the Old Castle, Dillingen / Saar (Ed.): Art Guide Dillingen / Saar. Dillingen 1999, pp. 24-27.
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 '12.4 " N , 6 ° 43' 24.4" E