Magdeburg Town Hall
The old town hall of Magdeburg is located on the old market in the center of the city. The New Town Hall stands a few meters to the north and is also used as the town hall.
history
.jpg)
A Magdeburg town hall was mentioned for the first time in 1244. It was built in the course of the expansion of the former warehouse / department store of the furriers' guild and was intended to serve as a symbol of self-government for city citizens. Of that building, only the Ratskeller survived the numerous destruction, which is still used today as a restaurant.
In 1293 that town hall fell victim to a fire, but was rebuilt that same year. That new council building reflected the increasing power of the city citizens against the previous archbishopric influence. That building housed a large festival and assembly hall, several towers and arcades in the south and north. The guild house of the furriers was built right next to the town hall and even had its own entrance to the council building. In 1540 the town hall was renovated together with the Magdeburg Roland and the Magdeburg rider standing in front of it . The building was also expanded and a 16 hundredweight bell was hung in the town hall tower.
The town hall burned down during the destruction of Magdeburg in the Thirty Years War . The city archive was also destroyed in this fire, so that there are hardly any documents from before that date. Reconstruction began around the middle of the 17th century. However, it took years for the destroyed city to recover from the effects of the war and so the work was not finished until 1713. In 1820 the tower of the town hall had to be demolished because it was dilapidated and a new one was built. A little later the town hall received a new pendulum clock, and in 1827 a lightning rod . Over time, the town hall became too small for the growing administration, so that in 1889 a new municipal office building was built east of today's Old Town Hall . At the end of the 19th century, the town hall was connected to the city's power grid. At that time, the administration again reached spatial limits, so that between 1905 and 1907 today's New Town Hall was built north of the Old Town Hall. The municipal savings bank, the city library and the city archive (which can still be found here today) moved in here.
The old town hall was badly damaged by the air raids of September 28, 1944 and January 16, 1945, and the new town hall burned down. It was not until 1950 that the reconstruction of the two town halls began and the municipal service building was demolished. The town hall was largely built in its historical form (i.e. without the various modifications and additions of the past centuries). The construction work was not completed until 1979. In 1970 the bronze town hall door by the sculptor Heinrich Apel was installed, which shows scenes from Magdeburg's history.
Carillon
On September 28, 1974, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the GDR, a carillon was inaugurated in the tower of the old town hall on the initiative of the then Lord Mayor Werner Herzig .
The carillon consisting of 47 bronze bells from the Apolda company Schilling - designed by Apolda's last master bell founder Franz Peter Schilling and his wife Margarete Schilling - was the first of its kind in the GDR. The total weight of the bells is around 6 tons, the largest weighs 975 kg, the smallest 10 kg. The four-octave carillon sounds automatically every full hour between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. It is played by a carilloneur once a week (Friday at 10 a.m.).
use
Both the old town hall and the new town hall are used as town halls for the city of Magdeburg. The New Town Hall houses, among other things, the city archive and the offices of the public order office. The office of the mayor of Magdeburg and the offices of the city council groups are located in the old town hall , as is the Otto von Guericke meeting room . The cellar of the old town hall has been used as a restaurant since 1631 and is now called the Ratskeller. The city's golden book is kept in the town hall .
Worth seeing
In addition to the entire facade of the old town hall, some details are worth seeing. The bronze door by the sculptor Heinrich Apel shows scenes from the history of Magdeburg. In the left area of the facade stands the Magdeburg Roland, built in 2005 . The gilded statue of the Magdeburg rider stands directly in front of the town hall .
literature
- Margarete Schilling : The Magdeburg Glockenspiel. Magdeburg 1978, without ISBN
Web links
- Homepage of the Rathausglockenspiel
- Carillon portrait on the homepage of the Deutsche Glockenspielvereinigung e. V.
- Photograph of the inauguration of the Carillon in 1974
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '53.1 " N , 11 ° 38' 23.2" E