Harburg Town Hall
The Harburg town hall is a building that was built from 1889 to 1892 according to plans by Christoph Hehl in the neo-renaissance style as a town hall for the then independent city of Harburg (Elbe).
It is located in today's Harburg district , which has belonged to Hamburg since 1937 and is the seat of the district office of the Harburg district and the seat of the district assembly there .
history
Older town halls in Harburg
The Harburg town hall is now the third location in the city's history. The first town hall was located at Harburger Schloßstraße 36 and was completely destroyed by bombs in World War II. Only the portal of the two-storey building with its characteristic roof turret was re-listed in 1733. The sandstone portal with the city coat of arms flanked by lions is now on an outer wall of the main building of the Hamburg Archaeological Museum . A special feature of the portal is a readable rhymed inscription in the upper field, which is a chronodistichon : Some letters are highlighted and add up as Roman numerals , the year 1733.
" W AS HE V TE RATH V N D STA D T
A V F E I GNE COSTS BA V EN
BE W AHR I EHO V Æ HAN D
A V F W E LC HE WI R V ERTRA V EN"
The building had already lost its actual function with the construction of the new town hall, but was still used as a council cellar until it was destroyed in 1944 . The Ratskeller had already been established by the council in 1567 and served as a source of income for the city. As early as 1800, David Christopher Mettlerkamp reported on a lightning strike in the Ratskeller and the lightning discharge created on it in a pioneering analysis for research into it.
The town house on Sand , built in 1830, with a mayor's apartment, council scales, fire engines and administration rooms replaced the old town hall in Schloßstraße.
The town house soon became too small due to the rapidly growing population due to industrialization. After today's town hall and other administrative buildings had taken over their tasks, the first Harburg “high-rise” was built in 1928 for the Stadtsparkasse (today the Hamburger Sparkasse building), the clinker brick facade of which is based on the Hamburg office buildings of the time.
Planning, construction and development (1888 to 1944)
The place at the Bassin was chosen as the new town hall location , a former mill pond which had to be greatly reduced in size for the construction. The choice of location illustrates the gradual relocation of the Harburg center from the Elbe at Harburg Castle to the south with the other newly built state buildings (the post office and a school that was destroyed in the war) at today's Harburg Town Hall Square ( 53 ° 27 ′ 32.2 ″ N , 9 ° 59 ′ 1.9 ″ E ).
After a competition held in 1888 (judges including Paul Wallot , Heinrich Köhler ) in which, in addition to the room layout, the style of the Flemish Renaissance and the facade material were specified, the building was built between 1889 and 1892 according to the designs of Hehl, who was more of the Hanover School and which was influenced by Neo-Gothic . The originally estimated construction costs of 300,000 marks were considerably exceeded with 544,200 marks. However, the contemporary, representative interior was donated in part by Harburg citizens, of which, for example, there are still banisters on the main staircase and a richly designed door to the great hall.
The facade of brick surfaces and decorative elements made of sandstone is adorned with the female allegories of justice (Justitia) and wisdom (Prudentia) and corresponding attributes. Further facade details (partially preserved) show mottos and refer to trade, industry and shipping and the coats of arms of the Duchy of Lüneburg, the Kingdom of Hanover and Prussia as well as cities such as Celle and Lüneburg refer to history. Finally, two portraits on the consoles of the pillars above the entrance portal show Hehl himself (left) and his role model Conrad Wilhelm Hase .
Shortly after the town hall was completed, a residential building with a mayor's apartment in the Renaissance style was added to the north (Julius-Ludowieg-Str. 7).
Due to a lack of space, a three-storey administration building was also built behind the town hall in 1903 (Harburger Rathausplatz 4), which stylistically adapted to the town hall. In addition, a villa-like house for the mayor was built in 1910. It was converted into a police station in the 1930s, which also used the neighboring administration building. Both houses are still used today by the district authorities (building authority).
In 1927, another direct extension was built on the back of the town hall (destroyed in the war) for the merged city capital and tax office of the city, which in the same year became the city of Harburg-Wilhelmsburg . Due to the Greater Hamburg Law , Harburg-Wilhelmsburg passed from the State of Prussia to the Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 1937 and became part of the Hamburg community in 1938. The town hall thus lost its original function, but remained the seat of administrative authorities until the district was re-established after the end of the war.
Destruction and Reconstruction (1944 to the present day)
In 1944 the town hall was badly damaged by bombs. After the end of the Second World War, it was rebuilt until 1951. At the same time, an extension for the telephone switchboard was built on the administration building, which after its destruction was built without the elaborate volute gables and the two ridge turrets.
The town hall itself has been restored inside according to more modern and functional aspects. At the same time, Carl Ihrke created a new artistic design for the colored glass windows in the stairwell and in the conference room. The motifs of the windows refer to the post-war period and the construction of the destroyed apartments, industry and the harbor in Harburg. Externally, the facade of the south wing and the roof were made in a greatly simplified form. The balustrades and obelisks of the main cornice and the high turret are missing today. A clock originally installed in the roof turret was instead installed in the central gable at a point where the Harburg city arms used to be. The shield holder, two sculptures in the form of city guards, now flank the clock.
The sculptures and clock became the fourth wall of a living room as part of a temporary art project by the Harburger Bahnhof art association in October 2009. The Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi erected a scaffolding tower in front of the town hall and built a room accessible to visitors around this part of the facade, which he furnished with a contemporary living room furniture in great detail.
The two flagpoles in front of the town hall were donated by the manufacturer Heinrich Traun in 1895 and show the coats of arms of Harburg and Prussia on the base. The wooden trunks of the 15-meter-high masts had to be replaced for the first time in 2009 and, after the bases were dismantled and checked, they were re-erected with the restored ornamental tips in June 2010.
justice
wisdom
Harburg town hall: flagpole base with Harburg city arms (2011)
Harburg town hall: flagpole base with Prussian eagle (2015)
Pictures of the Harburg town hall
Old Harburg town hall from 1733 - around 1890
Old Harburg town hall from 1733, (approx. 1900)
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Harburg Town Hall (completed in 1892) Floor plan 1st floor
Harburg town hall around 1892
Harburg town hall around 1900
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Harburg town hall
Harburg Town Hall in June 2014
Harburg Town Hall in October 2015 (built- 1892)
Hh-harburg-town hall
Harburg Town Hall 2009
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See also
- Hamburg-Harburg Rathaus station , the nearby S-Bahn station
Web links
- History and special features ( Memento from September 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Work report of the Helms Museum for the period from January 1, 1961 to December 31, 1962 . In: Willi Wegewitz (Ed.): Harburger Yearbook . No. 17 , 1961, ISSN 0722-6055 , p. 119-134; here 122 .
- ↑ Die Welt, October 11, 2009 "Bring the town hall clock into your living room"
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt, September 24, 2009 "Masts fall after 114 years"
Coordinates: 53 ° 27 ′ 34 " N , 9 ° 58 ′ 47" E