Seckbach town hall
The Seckbach town hall is one of the most beautiful preserved half-timbered houses of the rural late Renaissance in the Frankfurt am Main area . The monument has lost its former function since Seckbach was incorporated into Frankfurt. After alternating mixed use, it is considered today community center used. It is located in the historical town center, surrounded by other half-timbered houses, on the corner of Hofhausstrasse and Rathausgasse.
history
The representative council building of Seckbach was built in 1542 at a central location in the town center as part of the reconstruction work after the great conflagration of 1531. At the time the town hall was built, the community of Seckbach belonged to the county of Hanau . It is very similar to the town hall of the neighboring municipality of Bergen, the Spilhus. Its Gothic ground floor, however, dates back to between 1300 and 1350, while the upper half-timbered floors were extended in the High Renaissance style between 1520 and 1530.
The beams of the half-timbered building of the Seckbach town hall were originally coated with a lye made from the serum of ox blood , slaked lime, iron oxide ( hematite ) and linseed oil (recipe example), which gave them an intense red-brown color. This color was traditionally used by farmers for wooden floorboards and half-timbered beams and was cost-saving. A wooden roof turret with a domed roof and weather vane took up the freely hanging fire bell , which alerted the village in the event of a fire. It could be operated from inside the town hall with a cable.
An open hall of the house at ground level served as a market and court hall at the time. A dungeon for evildoers is said to have been set up in one corner. The ground floor was bricked up at a later point in time, enclosing the former open hall. How the Seckbach town hall with the open hall might have looked can be seen, for example, with a look at the town hall of Michelstadt in the Odenwald . A staircase led to the first floor, which had a small porch facing the street. Its windows were used by the community servant to call out news and official announcements. However, he also announced this on his walk through the village after drawing attention to himself with a bell. The Great Hall, also located on the first floor, was presumably reserved for the council meetings and court sessions of the Seckbach community. The other rooms of the town hall should the former mayors of Seckbach, the municipal clerks and the municipal treasury, possibly the gendarmerie - sergeants have served.
In the 1660s, Seckbach formed a joint Lutheran parish with the not yet incorporated Frankfurt village of Bornheim, whose church services initially took place in the Seckbach town hall until, from 1673, alternative quarters were found on the upper floor of the manorial wine press on nearby Wilhelmshöher Straße 158. These Lutheran services displeased the pastor of the church in Kirchberg, which was still in existence at the time between Seckbach and Bergen, which was reformed according to Zwingli's teaching . This mountain church St. Elisabeth was originally the parish responsible for the towns of Bergen, Enkheim and Seckbach. The Seckbach Lutheran School, which was established in parallel to the Lutheran congregation in the 1660s, also held its lessons in the town hall until 1709. Later, a change was made to the newly built Lutheran school building at Wilhelmshöher Straße 135, which still exists today next to the Marienkirche .
In 1688 the town hall was extensively restored and possibly also renovated. This was documented by a stonemason who worked the year 1688 into a stone that is located under a window on the west side of the building. In 1767, the councilors from Seckbach considered it necessary to rebuild the council building, as it no longer met the changed requirements. The hall on the ground floor was divided into two rooms by a partition wall. A large entrance gate was broken into the masonry facing Rathausgasse. The year was documented in the upper border of the archway. The windows on the first floor were changed, the porch was given a polygonal bay window with a stone console supported by four massive curved wooden beams.
1848
The spirit of 1848, which strived for freedom rights in the wake of the French Revolution (1789), was also expressed in Seckbach after the March Revolution . On July 14th, 67 Seckbach citizens signed a petition against the incumbent mayor Caspar Müller, which they sent to the Kurhessisches Kreisamt. They accused him of " not being up to date with the current awareness of the times " and of finding neither skill nor good will for " the current, freer shaping of public life ". They therefore demanded his removal from office and new elections for the local executive committee. The proposal was unsuccessful, Müller remained in office and dignity until 1864 before he was replaced by JP Zeh on August 26th of that year.
1866-1871
The village registry office was also housed in the town hall. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, in which the Seckbachers were on the defeated side of the German Confederation under the leadership of Austria , the future Seckbacher spouses had to go to the town hall from 1867 onwards under Prussian aegis and only afterwards in to be married to the Church. Before that, the church wedding had priority.
1871-1900
At the end of the 19th century, the Seckbach volunteer fire brigade , founded in 1873, moved its equipment to the ground floor of the town hall and benefited in particular from the large gate entrance to Rathausgasse for its wooden pump truck. The gables of the house were clad in slate, the half-timbering, with the exception of the bay window, was concealed under plaster in line with contemporary tastes. However, this external condition did not last long.
On September 26, 1883, the German Crown Prince Friedrich was greeted in Seckbach at the town hall when he and his entourage were on their way to the maneuver near Bergen.
On April 1, 1886, Seckbach resigned from the office of Bergen and the district of Hanau and was added to the district of Frankfurt and the district of Wiesbaden . On the same day Seckbach received the first mounted gendarme, whose guardroom was in the town hall.
The concrete plans for the incorporation of the rural community Seckbach under the last mayor Johann Phil. Kappes V. by the city of Frankfurt am Main under Lord Mayor Franz Adickes go back to the year 1893. The last of Seckbach's municipal council before the incorporation in the town hall consisted of 17 citizens.
On June 11, 1896, the local council and the gendarme in the town hall were confronted with the fact that the field rifleman had shot a schoolboy who was enjoying the cherries in a tree. For this, the Feldschütz was sentenced on October 29th to one year and four months in prison by the Frankfurt jury.
In 1896, the town hall arranged for around 3,000 Seckbach residents to receive a drinking water supply, which had already been completed in October 1897. It was fed by the four springs Draisborn, Klingen, Pfingstlohr and Wüst, which rose from the Lohrberg . Two valve wells were built for public use. Fifteen underground hydrants served the fire department in the future. Seckbach's water supply was acquired by the city of Frankfurt in 1902.
According to the Seckbach address book from 1898, before the incorporation, in addition to the local board, there was a mounted gendarme, a local police officer, the community coffers with a community calculator and a state tax collector, the mayor, who also acted as registrar and his deputy, the arbitration office Arbitrator and deputy, the orphan council, the local taxators, the Imperial Post Agency with a postal agent and a postman, the Protestant church council with parish and presbyterial members, the church calculator and builder as well as the bell ringer. In addition, there was a Protestant toddler school with a teacher, the elementary school with the Protestant pastor as the school inspector, the teachers, the Seckbach waterworks with a machine operator, the Spar- und Hülfs-Verein as a registered cooperative, the Spar- und Loose-Casse , the savings and play company, the local health insurance fund, the Germania health and death benefit fund, the health insurance and death benefit fund, the health aid association, the horse insurance fund, the cattle insurance fund, the compulsory fire department, the voluntary fire department, the Germania choral society, the Choral society Heiterkeit, the choral society Liederlust, the men's choral society, the warrior club, the gymnastics club and the music club.
1900-1918
As a result of the incorporation on July 1, 1900, the Seckbach town hall lost its previous function, because Seckbach no longer needed its own mayor and council. However, the city took over all the employees of the former rural community Seckbach. The former mayor Kappes became district chairman of Seckbach.
On September 4, 1900, the city council of Frankfurt discussed the future use of the Seckbach town hall. According to the decision of the city council , offices were set up on the first floor for the district administrator , the tax administrator and the registrar . An apartment was provided for the official.
Seckbach had to wait another decade for a sewer system, paved roads and sidewalks. The streets and alleys around the town hall were still frequented by pedestrians, traders, farmers, children, chickens, geese, horses, carts and agricultural machinery, a thoroughly village-like picture. Several names of streets and alleys as well as those of the school changed after the incorporation.
The fire brigade was allowed to keep the syringe room on the ground floor of the town hall even after the incorporation. There was also a guardroom for the gendarmerie sergeant and a detention center. For the new rooms, walls were drawn, a support beam was moved and new windows were broken into the masonry. Plaster and slate were removed from the town hall facade, so that the half-timbered structure came into its own everywhere. In 1901, all renovation work cost 10,900 Reichsmarks, a very generous amount for the time.
This also included the large town hall clock between the two small windows under the roof ridge , which was replaced on September 7, 1901 due to a defect and connected to the former fire bell. This now struck on the quarter and on the hour. The fire bell on the town hall was no longer necessary for alarms, since a fire telegraph (fire alarm) from Siemens & Halske was set up in front of Wilhelmshöher Strasse 135/137 , the Hannes . It worked via a fire alarm loop using Morse code . According to the incorporation agreement, he connected Seckbach directly with the nearest Frankfurt fire station in Bornheimer Burgstrasse.
On July 8, 1904, the laying of gas pipes from Heddernheim via Bornheim to Seckbach began. On November 5th, the first gas lights burned around the town hall.
1919-1933
Civil marriages took place in the Seckbach town hall until March 31, 1920. The Weimar Republic , however, brought about a change on this point. After this time, the couples and witnesses had to go to the registry office in Frankfurt am Main. The tax administration also moved to downtown Frankfurt a few years later. The vacant rooms in the Seckbach town hall were used by the field police and the reporting office.
1933-1945
During the twelve years of the Millennium , dictatorial flag decorations waved on the town hall building: blood-red banners with a swastika. In the Reichstag election of March 6, 1933, which was deemed not to have been manipulated, the Seckbachers voted for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) with a majority of 1,167 out of 2,169 votes . The framed likeness of Adolf Hitler hung in the town hall . The SA and Hitler Youth marched in front of the town hall . The Hitler Youth had set up their HJ home right next door at Hofhausstrasse 14, the former Café Zimt. In the time after the war, the Seckbach post office moved there (later Hintergasse 1). The SA met in the side building of Hofhausstrasse 8, which still exists today. During the Second World War (1939–1945) there was also destruction and bomb craters in Seckbach during the air raids on Frankfurt am Main , but the town hall was spared.
1945–1990
The former community servant's apartment inside the town hall was inhabited until the 1960s. After the last residents moved out, the Seckbach old people's club used the premises of the town hall between 1968 and 1975, but from a structural point of view under conditions that were not age-appropriate. The club then moved into its own house at Zeuläckerstraße 1, the former district pool.
The Seckbach volunteer fire brigade gave up the syringe room in the town hall in 1976 when the new building for vehicles and equipment in Zeuläckerstraße was completed.
At the end of the 1970s, the town hall was externally renovated on the occasion of the upcoming 1100th anniversary of the first documentary mention of Seckbach in 880. For the time being, however, this did not change anything in terms of the general structural condition. For the anniversary, the Seckbach painter and graphic artist Erich Dittmann made a historicized drawing and a painting of the scenery at the town hall, the drawing adorns the cover of the published Festschrift.
In September 1990 the field police and the reporting office in the Seckbach town hall were closed. The citizens of Seckbach were referred to Bergen in the future.
1990 until today
In the same year, Saalbau GmbH took over the building from the city of Frankfurt am Main and had it renovated, stabilized and modernized in the interior until 1993 under the supervision of listed buildings. Since then, the old building has been supported by a steel corset weighing several tons with a weight of 500 kilograms per square meter, thus protecting it from deterioration. The ceilings with a clearly visible difference in height of up to 25 centimeters were straightened as far as possible, fire protection panels were installed and electrical cables were drawn in in accordance with VDE regulations, ventilation pipes were integrated, rotten half-timbered beams were replaced and the stairs were made more convenient.
The modern community meeting that has now been created in a historical setting was initially so little used that the company considered selling it in 1995. As a direct reaction to this request, the Förderkreis Historisches Rathaus Seckbach e. V. founded, which now maintains and operates the building together with Saalbau GmbH with a corresponding usage concept as a multifunctional community center and meeting place. In the meantime there is a resolution of the Frankfurt city council, according to which the city would have to agree to a planned sale, should this ever be discussed again.
The Seckbach town hall is available to groups of citizens such as associations, parties, schools and for family celebrations. Civil weddings or the establishment of civil partnerships are possible on Fridays. Since 1998, this has been building on the historically documented options of the town hall. A small kitchen is available and a catering service can be booked if required. The rooms that can be used today are spread over three floors and offer space for a maximum of 100 people.
Events
For some time now, jazz in the town hall has been the motto when it gets a little louder in the historic building on some days. In front of the town hall, the carnivalists Die Meckerer from the ranks of the local gymnastics club create a good atmosphere when on 11.11. at 11:11 a.m. symbolically the keys of the town hall and thus the power to the Seckbacher fools and fools.
Usable space
With the current designation of the individual rooms of the town hall, efforts have been made to provide local references.
The weed
Foyer, 43 m² - Until the end of the 19th century, a goose pond or drinking trough was called weed. The Seckbacher Weed was on the right of the Zur Krone inn in Wilhelmshöher Strasse, diagonally opposite and within sight of the town hall.
Klosterblick and Zentgraf
Club room I, 49 m² - In the building at Hofhausstrasse 3, directly opposite the town hall, Cistercian monks from the Arnsburg monastery were housed during the Frankfurt market days . Centgraves were used for public service tasks by the count and were considered to be their deputies. In centering court for the 19 villages of the county Bornheimer mountain they were aldermen.
The grandchildren
Club room III, 22 m² - from this room you can see the gable of the half-timbered house at Wilhelmshöher Straße 158. In this former manor house, the tenth part of the grapes from the Lohrberg vineyard was handed over and pressed.
The waiting field
Club room IV, 63 m² - North of the Lohrberg is the Wartfeld with the Leopold Column in the Seckbacher district. The Wartfeld surrounded the Berger Warte , the highest point of Seckbach. The honor column for Leopold II. Was by Landgrave Wilhelm IX. Set up by Hessen-Kassel (later Elector Wilhelm I of Hessen-Kassel ) in memory of the visit of the newly crowned head and the electors in 1790 at the Berger Warte.
Artistic representations
The Seckbach town hall from the time of the rural Franconian late Renaissance is not only liked to look at and photographed because of its prominent appearance, but is also drawn, painted and embossed on plaques.
In particular, the draftsman and painter Erich Dittmann , who lived in Seckbach for many years , was happy to take on the subject in a historicizing way and shows his motif in the period around 1900. Such a drawing and an oil painting can be accessed via the two external links given in the individual references respectively.
TV Seckbach had a plaque with the relief-like front view of the town hall minted on the occasion of its 100th anniversary in 1975, a perspective representation of the town hall with the neighboring building adorns the commemorative coin 1100 years Seckbach, which was minted in 1980.
Transport links
The building is located in the immediate vicinity of the main thoroughfare of today's Frankfurt district of Seckbach , Wilhelmshöher Strasse , which runs between the Frankfurt districts of Bornheim and Bergen-Enkheim . The parking situation in the center of Seckbach is precarious because of the limited space. The use of public transport is therefore strongly recommended. The historic Seckbach town hall can be reached directly with the RMV -Linienbus 43 within the framework of local public transport . The building is located exactly between the Zentgrafenschule and Draisbornstraße stops. You can walk to it in about 3 minutes. A slightly longer walk results from the terminus Leonhardsgasse if you use bus line 44. In this case the walk is about 5 minutes. It's about an 8–10 minute walk from the Atzelberg-Ost terminus of the RMV bus route 38.
literature
- Rochelmeyer, Folker: Seckbach und seine Umgebung , Frankfurter Sparkasse from 1822 - Polytechnische Gesellschaft (ed.), 1972, 84 p., Illustrated
- Gerner, Manfred: Fachwerk in Frankfurt am Main , Kramer, 1979, 119 pages, illustrated, ISBN 3-782902-17-3
- Rochelmayer, Folker (chronicle): Festschrift 1100 Years Seckbach, 880-1980 , Festschrift 1100 Years Seckbach e. V. (Ed.), 1980, 151 pp., Illustrated
- Masala, Lino / Rödel, Volker / Risse, Heike / Schomann, Heinz: Monument topography City of Frankfurt am Main , Magistrat der Stadt Frankfurt, Untere Monument Authority (ed.), 1986, 798 pages, illustrated, ISBN 3-528-06238-X
- Sauer, Walter: Seckbacher history (s) , Kultur- und Sportring Frankfurt a. M.-Seckbach 1954 e. V. (Ed.), Frankfurt am Main 2000, 164 p., Illustrated
- 50 years of culture and history association 1954 Frankfurt a. M.-Seckbach e. V. , dto. (Ed.), Ibid., 2004, 53 p., Illustrated
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Town Hall In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Individual evidence
- ^ Seckbach town hall on: frankfurt.de
- ^ Frankfurter Neue Presse, Frank Dussmann, 460 years full of history (s), article, December 23, 2006
- ^ The town hall of Seckbach, essay with building record, published in: "Heimatliche Bauweise", supplement to the trade sheet, June 1911
- ↑ Historical building research , expert opinion, FM Saltenberger & M. Grossbach, Frankfurt am Main 1992
- ^ Historical town hall Seckbach on: saalbau.com
- ↑ Support group for the historical town hall Seckbach e. V., ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2009 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. on: rathaus-seckbach.de
- ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau, Ilo Reuning-Daniel, Marriage with a monastery view, article, October 2005
- ↑ Erich Dittmann: Seckbacher Rathaus, drawing on: erich-dittmann.de
- ↑ Erich Dittmann: Seckbacher Rathaus, oil painting on: erich-dittmann.de
Web links
- Saalbau GmbH, Seckbach town hall
- Seckbach historical town hall support group V.
- Culture and History Association 1954 Frankfurt a. M.-Seckbach e. V.
- 360 ° panorama of the Trausaales with bay window in the Seckbach town hall
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 41.5 ″ N , 8 ° 43 ′ 37.1 ″ E