Town hall St. Johann
The town hall St. Johann is the town hall of the Saarland capital Saarbrücken . It was built as the town hall of the then independent town of St. Johann an der Saar between 1897 and 1900 based on the designs of Georg von Hauberrisser , who also designed the New Town Hall in Munich . The St. Johann town hall is the largest neo-Gothic secular building in Saarland .
Building history
Preliminary planning in the context of urban development
Demographic and economic development
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The former town hall of St. Johann and today's town hall of Saarbrücken was built in an area northwest of the historic city center, the development of which did not begin until between 1880 and 1900. During this time, the city of St. Johann experienced an economic and demographic expansion. The population of St. Johann almost doubled between 1875 (10,940 inhabitants) and 1900 (21,266). At the beginning of the 19th century, the population was still around 2099. Since the 1860s, St. Johann has outstripped the sister city of Saarbrücken in terms of inhabitants.
The neighboring villages of Malstatt (1802: 450 inhabitants) and Burbach (1802: 269 inhabitants), which were still small at the beginning of the 19th century, also grew enormously in the years after the establishment of the empire in 1871 . In 1875, both parishes had a combined population of 12,487. With the establishment of the Burbacher Hütte (1856) and other iron processing companies, the area in the north and north-west of St. Johann became a rapidly growing residential area for the workers employed there.
At the turn of the century in 1900, the two small neighboring villages of St. Johanns had become a town with 31,195 inhabitants (Malstatt-Burbachs census in 1875). From 1850 onwards, the construction of the railway (from 1849) and the Saar coal canal (1866) as well as the introduction of modern shaft construction in coal mining had led to an unprecedented economic boom in Saarland's economy and industry. Because of the favorable municipal taxation, numerous industrial and trading companies settled here. At the same time, numerous public buildings were built, such as the railway directorate, the city post office, an electricity company, the mine directorate, a slaughterhouse, the Volksgarten and the indoor swimming pool.
This urban development had already started in 1852 with the construction of the station about one kilometer west of the old city center.
Urban planning and administrative requirements
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As a result, the focus of the construction work was primarily on the western part of the city expansion in the area of today's Bahnhofstrasse. In 1861, the St. Johann building inspector Seyfarth created a first development plan in order to structure the eastern and northern terrain of the city expansion. Seyfarth planned a street grid for the purpose of maintaining the most uniform, marketable properties possible. A street axis (e.g. today's Kaiser- and Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße) was to extend from the station forecourt, which expanded into larger squares at two points. One of these planned places was probably intended as the location of a new town hall for St. Johann.
The starting point for St. John's situation was the fact that in the Second Peace of Paris in the Definitive Tractat of November 20, 1815, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia , Emperor Franz I of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia the annexation of St. Johann and Saarbrücken to the Kingdom of Prussia had been determined. The French municipal constitution remained, which administratively combined the municipalities of St. Johann, Saarbrücken, Burbach, Malstatt, Rußhütte and Brebach into a mayor's office based in Saarbrücken. The up-and-coming St. Johann soon tried to free itself from this tight administrative corset.
In 1859, confirmed by the royal Prussian cabinet order of May 3rd, St. Johann finally managed to separate itself administratively from Saarbrücken and become an independent municipality. Since then, the St. Johann schoolhouse in Kronenstrasse (today after the war destruction, the fountain in front of the old Protestant church St. Johann) has also served as a provisional town hall.
This provisional arrangement and also the renting of additional rooms could not cope with the diverse new administrative tasks of the up-and-coming city in the long term and the call for a central building became louder and louder towards the end of the 19th century. The new town hall building to be built was primarily intended to meet the increased requirements of the city administration, but also to satisfy the ambitious merchant town's need for representation, as was then formulated in the commemorative publication for the inauguration of the new town hall:
“ Because the citizens of a city have an impersonal representation of their being and their will only in their town hall. "
However, an inventory plan by the St. Johann surveyor Müser from January 1880 shows that Seyfarth's plans from 1861 did not correspond to the reality of the structural development of the urban expansion. Outside the area around Bahnhofstrasse, the planned urban development growth had not yet taken place. So far, new developments had only formed on the old arterial roads (Dudweilerstraße, Nauwieser Straße, Mainzer Straße), as Seyfarth's development plan was not legally binding.
In this unfortunate situation, the St. Johann city administration called in March 1888 the well-known German city planner and Cologne city architect Josef Stübben to draw up an urban development plan. As Stubben due to overload the St. Johann contract rejected, could the Mainz city architect Eduard Kreyßig win, which is already the late nineteenth Mainz and Strasbourg had mitgeplant urban expansion.
From April to October 1888 Eduard Kreyssig created an overall urban planning concept of 125 hectares and a projected living space for 25,000 people for St. Johann with a straight road network, ring roads and central squares with public spaces (unfortunately no longer to be found in the archives, but reconstructable through contemporary reviews) Buildings. The urban development highlight of this urban expansion was to be a central square north of the old St. Johann market, which the city administration had already acquired and which was intended for the construction of a new town hall.
According to Kreyßig's plans, a 20-meter-wide north street (today's Johannisstraße) should run towards this planned town hall. However, Kreyßig's plans in this regard were not implemented. Instead, today's Johannisstrasse was shifted to the east and narrowed in order to gain space for the construction of the Protestant Johanneskirche , the tower of which was to be aligned with the axis of Kaiserstrasse.
This change to the plan was already drawn in in 1890 in the planning concept of the city architect Tormin. Tormin also drew the planned St. Johann town hall on the south side of the square with a protruding, slightly to the right shifted central projection , which was a reaction to the shifting of Johannisstrasse. So the new St. Johann town hall was still being planned as a point-de-vue of a major street axis.
Change of plan according to the principles of "picturesque town planning"
The above-described change of plan to Kreyßig's conception falls just at a time of the urban planning paradigm shift and is clearly justified by this: Kreyßig's urban planning ideas for the city expansion of St. Johann were among the most important practical ones through the publications of the urban planner Camillo Sitte (1843-1903) Textbooks of European urban planning belong (especially 1889, The city-building according to its artistic principles), literally swept from the table. Instead of geometrically circled urban plans created on the drawing board, cities should now be built according to the principles of “picturesque town planning” based on historical cityscapes.
According to Sitte's recommended models of the square groups with church and palace, such as in Modena and Perugia , the St. Johann town hall square has now been designed with an asymmetrical position of the church square area and town hall square area as well as a uniform neo-Gothic style choice and sandstone as a building material. The town hall facade and the side church facade should formally relate to one another in a wide diagonal.
The 74 m high tower of St. John's Church, which corresponds to the tower of the town hall, contained four bells that were cast from captured French cannon ore from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. They were named after the emperor, the empress, Chancellor Bismarck and St. John (city patron) and had the sole chiming function on the town hall square until the town hall tower carillon was installed. The “alliance of throne and altar” of the strictly monarchist Protestantism of the imperial era can hardly be expressed more sensibly than through the mutual relationship between town hall and church.
To complement the ensemble, the Saarbrücken architect Gustav Schmoll (1881–1916) built a neo-Gothic residential and commercial building with a stepped gable (Rathausplatz 3) based on the model of the Roman in Frankfurt am Main , which clearly relates to the stepped gable of Hauberrisser's council hall wing .
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Directly after this (Rathausplatz 4–6), the architect Wilhelm Noll, who was the site manager at the St. Johann town hall building, had built a group of houses with bay towers and rich tracery balconies (neo-Gothic / neo-Renaissance / Art Nouveau doors and gables) in 1902.
The St. Johanner Platzgruppe is therefore a direct reaction to the urban planning principles of Camillo Sitte and represents an architecturally significant example of this phase of European urban development.
However, the originally planned largely closedness of the Rathausplatz was severely disrupted by the breakthrough from Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße to Rathausplatz. It was only through the construction of the Stadtsparkasse (Rathausplatz 9) by Walther Kruspe (stacked floor from 1962) in the 1920s (1928–1829) that the opening of the eastern front of the square could be optically minimized again.
In 1873 a so-called town hall collecting fund had already been set up, which was financially supported by members of the urban upper class and communal investments at the local private banks Kiessel, Lazard and Schlachter, but prevented the stock market collapse of 1873 and the following, known as the founder crash economic and financial depression phase a rapid progress of the plans for the new construction of the St. Johann town hall. The crisis was preceded by an overheating of the economy, which had been favored by several factors - in the newly founded German Reich mainly due to the euphoria regarding the won war against France in 1870/71, the resulting reparations from France of around five billion francs and the merger of the German states and Hanseatic cities without Austria and Luxembourg through the establishment of an empire.
planning
It was not until the 1890s that the financial foundation for the new town hall was given, so that on May 11, 1896, the building and road committee, represented by MPs Merz, Franke, Karcher, Röchling and Franz and chaired by Mayor Neff, discussed a possible new town hall building The following decided:
“First of all, the question was discussed what needs and for what extent of the enlargement of the town hall building should be set up. It was believed that one had less to stick to the number and size of the rooms in the new town hall buildings of other cities to be used for comparison than to base a relevant calculation on the extent of the rooms currently used by the city. It should therefore be taken into account that first of all the total amount of the areas currently used for all administrative purposes should be doubled, which would result in spatial conditions that would adequately satisfy present needs and those of the very near future. An addition of 50% to this area or 3 times the size of the area found first was declared to be the desirable room size for the new town hall. If the current office rooms are tripled with the size of the so-called area, a further expansion of the office rooms would be given by building a service apartment for the mayor on the third floor of the town hall, if the time for this is given by the St. VV [city council] . The mixed committee recommends this facility against one vote only in consideration of this technically possible, at low cost, enlargement and the security that the mayor can achieve at the same time in view of his housing procurement. The mixed committee then took a position on the question of whether a town cellar should be provided in a basement storey of the town hall; it was believed that this could only be done if, after the most suitable rooms for archives, policemen and policemen had been placed on the basement storey Servant's apartment as well as for elected and economic purposes is to be made redundant. The committee was then of the opinion that, given the nature of the present building, it was not possible to furnish the building in such a way that rooms were to be laid out on both sides of a central corridor. Because of the arrangement of the rooms, it was of the opinion that the office rooms for the police, registration and tax offices should most appropriately be located in the wing located after Betzenstrasse with a special entrance from Betzenstrasse, and that on the ground floor: 2 rooms, 2 rooms for the local health insurance fund as well as the registry office, all other rooms are to be placed on the first and second floors; in particular, the entire rooms of the building authority are to be brought to the top floor in consideration of the more favorable lighting conditions. An area of approx. 150 m² is required for the St. V. [City Council] meeting room, which is to be housed in a prominent location in the building. The consultation rooms may be placed immediately after this. On the basis of a preliminary sketch drawn up by the building authority, a cost of 400,000 M [ark] is deemed sufficient for the entire execution, including the interior furnishings and construction management. The committee considers it desirable that the current town hall property, if no excessive demands are made, should be enlarged at a favorable opportunity by purchasing the Dörr'schen and, if necessary, also the Pabst'schen property. With regard to the execution, the mixed committee stuck to the previously expressed intention to refrain from tendering and to negotiate with a tried and tested architect and specialist for the production of a preliminary project, based on the proposal of the municipal building authority. "
Overall, the administrative area should be doubled, if not even tripled, only single-hip, windowed building wings should be built, the conference room should have an area of 150 m² and be positioned in an excellent location, the construction costs should be limited to 400,000 marks and no tendering should be made, but one a proven architect should be hired directly.
As a result, on May 15, 1896, the St. Johann city council, chaired by Mayor Paul Neff, passed a resolution to build a new large administrative and representative building:
- The new town hall has three times the area that has been available to the city administration so far.
- An apartment for the mayor is to be planned.
- For the creation of a preliminary project, 1000 marks and the travel expenses incurred are made available for the architect.
- The order goes to Professor Hauberrisser in Munich.
Commissioning Georg von Hauberrisser
The fact that the contract to build the new town hall had been awarded to the well-known Munich architect Georg von Hauberrisser without an architectural competition was also a peculiarity at the time and spoke for Hauberrisser's fame.
The town halls of Munich (1867–1909), Wiesbaden (1884–1890) and Kaufbeuren im Allgäu (1879–1887), which were built according to his plans, served as references . The town halls of Landsberg am Lech , Landshut and Ulm had been expanded and restored by him.
In the Saarland, Hauberrisser built two more buildings: In 1903 the Junkerwald estate in Niederwürzbach for the royal Bavarian councilor Dr. Karl Ehrhardt (rebuilt in its original form after being destroyed by fire in 1955) and the Villa Rexroth in St. Johann at Schillerstraße 13 (today Bismarckstraße). Today the modern gallery is located here . The building was popularly known as the “White House” when it was the official residence of the Saarland Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann from 1947 to 1955 . The building was demolished in 1965.
Presumably, when Georg von Hauberrisser was awarded the contract for the new town hall, his direct acquaintance with the St. Johann city councilor and government master builder Wilhelm Franz , who had already got to know Hauberrisser's architectural skills while building the new town hall in Wiesbaden, played a role.
Wilhelm Franz, who was first trainee lawyer in Wiesbaden (1893) and then from 1894 head of department in the municipal building department, wrote in a letter to Mayor Neff dated September 26, 1906:
“ When we signed the contract, I knew Mr. Hauberisser as a capable artist and, in particular, from the management at Wiesbaden City Hall, I knew that he would be modest in his fee claims. I took advantage of that in our favor. "
The architect, who comes from Graz in Styria , agreed to the commissioning because the third construction phase of the Munich town hall on Marienplatz , on Wein- und Landschaftsstraße (built 1898–1905) had not yet started. Hauberrisser visited the town of St. Johann and the planned building site at the end of June (28/29) 1896.
After discussions with some members of parliament and city planning director Wilhelm Franz, it was decided to change some of the provisions of the St. Johann city council. Now the decision was made to put the facade on Betzenstrasse at an angle, waived an intended official apartment for the mayor and decided that a possible expansion of the town hall should be planned from the outset in a “future project”.
Hauberrisser, who drew all the designs himself in the manner of a medieval master builder and never employed a construction office in his entire career, sent a completed preliminary design in neo-Gothic style to Mayor Neff just two weeks later (July 14, 1896) . The preliminary draft provided for a total new building area of 864 m 2 .
On July 30, 1896, the St. Johann city council decided to accept Hauberrisser's preliminary project, and a short time later, on September 3, 1896, the contract with Hauberrisser was concluded by the city architect Franz. The content of the contract was formulated in several paragraphs:
- As the architect, Hauberrisser is responsible for the artistic direction of the building in every detail.
- The St. Johann municipal building department under the city master builder Franz is responsible for the technical construction management and execution.
- The structural calculations are carried out by the municipal building authorities. However, Hauberrisser takes responsibility for this.
- Construction began on March 1, 1897.
- The fee matters are regulated according to the existing Hamburg norm for architects as a basis.
- Any disputes between the city of St. Johann and the architect Hauberrisser must be resolved outside the legal process by an arbitration tribunal. Contractual penalties can be imposed under certain conditions.
Neo-Late Gothic design
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At the beginning of the 19th century, the almost continuous style development in architecture was broken off. Political turmoil such as the French Revolution and the armed forces of Napoleon as well as the socio-economic changes caused by industrialization promoted the idea of nationalism and a return to national specifics. The discovery of the architecture of the Middle Ages through art history and the preservation of monuments was combined with a romantic, longing feeling for the medieval epoch as a time in which church and state appeared powerful and dignified.
The Baden architect and architectural theorist Heinrich Huebsch had already broken with the classicist architecture of the early 19th century in his architectural theoretical text “In which style should we build?” In 1828. Indeed, when he asked the question “In which style should we build?”, Hübsch was certain that the modern round arch style was the ultimate option. Even so, his question clearly puts into words the problem that first appeared in art history in the 19th century.
The moment the question was asked it became more and more meaningful and it became more and more difficult to answer it clearly. The epoch of historicism, which assesses classicism of the early 19th century as cold and poor, borrowed from all epochs of Western art and, the older the century got, made use of an increasingly lush formal language. To date, Huebsch's question has not found a satisfactory answer; at most partial answers. These partial answers consisted, among other things, of convention schemes for special construction tasks, which were sometimes officially required, but mostly resulted from a tacit agreement between those involved in the construction.
With regard to the construction of new town halls, it seemed obvious to those responsible in the 19th century to fall back on the forms of medieval Gothic, since in this epoch urban self-government had been fought for against secular and clerical feudalism.
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Hauberrisser's town hall in St. Johann is designed in the architectural expressions of the late Gothic. By revisiting the Gothic and the Renaissance, the bourgeoisie in the German Empire, which had been newly founded in 1871, tried to reconnect to an epoch of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which fell in 1806 and which had been shaped by the rise in the importance of the bourgeoisie as a social class and which influenced urban culture in Germany had led to a first bloom. By taking up the two architectural styles in a historicist style, an era was celebrated in which the bourgeoisie began to assert itself socio-politically, economically and administratively against the nobility and clergy.
In similar neo-late Gothic architectural forms, which were already more strongly influenced by the decorative forms of the early Renaissance, the Stuttgart town hall by architects Heinrich Jassoy and Johannes Vollmer was built around the same time as the construction of the St. Johann town hall (competition tender 1894, building 1901–1905). As in St. Johann, the interior of the town hall was furnished with richly designed neo-late Gothic furniture and the tower with a carillon. However, while several construction phases had to be planned in St. Johann , a large four-wing complex could be built in the financially stronger capital of the Kingdom of Württemberg .
- Gothic inspirations by Hauberrisser
Trier main market with the tower of St. Gangolf and Steipe
Frankfurt am Main, Römer
Bacharach, St. Peter
In a letter dated July 14, 1896, which accompanied the design for the town hall in St. Johann, Hauberrisser wrote: “For the architecture I choose the Gothic, as the style characteristic of a German town hall. As can be seen in individual houses, this style was already present in St. Johann in the past. [...] Corner turrets and battlements are characteristic and occur in Frankfurt, Trier, and Bacharach. "
It should be noted, however, that in Hauberrisser's time St. Johann was a town strongly influenced by the baroque of the architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel (1694–1787) and only sparse remains of Gothic forms (e.g. corner house at St. Johanner Mark No. 8, today the restaurant “ Tante Maja ” or the Gothic house on Türkenstrasse, which was demolished in 1906). Since there were practically no “characteristic” Gothic corner turrets and battlements left as a model in St. Johann, Hauberrisser used Gothic architectural models from the greater region, as mentioned in his accompanying letter, when designing the St. Johann town hall: Trier (z B. Steipe , Tower of St. Gangolf ), Frankfurt am Main (e.g. Römer , Steinernes Haus , Canvas House ) and Bacharach (e.g. Tower of St. Peter ).
Canvas House, Frankfurt am Main
Stone house, Frankfurt am Main
The cubature models of the council chamber building in St. Johann (but without its high decorative gable) could have been the canvas house or the stone house in Frankfurt's old town. Both buildings were bought by the city of Frankfurt in the years before 1900 because of their historical importance and memorable design and, like the Römer, were extensively restored in the following years and enriched with historicizing elements.
Hauberrisser had obviously convinced the city council of his competencies to such an extent that he was given almost the greatest possible freedom in terms of disposition. High construction costs were also not spared in order to be able to meet the architect's design ideas. For example, at Hauberrisser's request, the roof tiles were obtained from a brickworks known to the architect, the Kolbermoor clay works in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps.
construction
- Floor plans of the individual floors with planned extension
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design of the basement with extension (1896)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for the ground floor with extension (1896)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for the first floor with an extension (1896)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for the second floor with an extension (1896)
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Laying of the foundation stone
After the foundation work by the St. Johann construction company Dörr , the foundation stone was laid on March 22, 1897, the 100th birthday of the Prussian king and later Emperor Wilhelm I , who died in 1888 . The Saarbrücker Zeitung described the event in an exuberant tone:
“The city of St. Johann could not choose a nicer day for laying the foundation stone for the new town hall than March 22, when our entire population remembered the heroic emperor in a purified, elevated national feeling, suppressing everything that otherwise separates us like, felt one in the happiness under the scepter of the Hohenzollern. Shining spring sunshine lay promisingly over the place on which a new ornament of our cities will soon rise. Present for the celebration were Professor Hauberrisser from Munich, the heads of our authorities, the mayor of Saarbrücken with a large number of city councilors, many guests and thousands of St. Johann citizens who wanted to attend the ceremonial act with pride and joy.
The Uhlan band played the jubilation overture by Weber , whereupon, accompanied by the orchestra, the assembly sang the chorale “Now thank all God”. The last sounds of the old hymn had scarcely faded away when Mayor Dr. Neff climbed the speaker's platform, which was decorated with flags in the German colors, and gave roughly the following speech in a strong, expressive voice:
“When, after a number of good years, a farmer has filled his storerooms with the fruit of his fields, the result of his hard work, then only then does he think of expanding his barn, only then does he seriously take up the idea of making his house more comfortable and more beautiful to design. In other words, St. Johann, which, thanks to the economical financial management of our previous generations, is currently developing favorably. Today we can say that we have a secure outlook into the future, and now the ardent wish of our citizens, which has long been directed towards the building of a new town hall, can come true after a number of other necessary facilities have been set up had to. I only remind you of the planned expansion of the city; it happened and we could now start the task of decorating our town hall in a dignified manner. Such a decision seemed justified in view of the conditions in our city. A cursory glance at the site, which so far forms our town hall, shows that there are insufficient rooms, the administrations themselves are distributed. What we have striven for for so many years is now to be implemented quickly, a town hall to announce to the coming generations of the happy upswing of the city of St. Johann. For all these reasons, we have refrained from a public tender this time. We put the work in the hands of an artist who emerged from the Vienna School and created the town hall in Wiesbaden and Munich. He has the well-founded reputation of a master of the Gothic and he is the creator of the building whose cornerstone we want to lay. But we all feel proud that we are allowed to do this today, on a day on which the consecration of great, beautiful memories rests. Something of it may be lowered as a favorable premonition to the building and the strivings in it. What consecration wishes are it now that I would like to express on behalf of the city administration and as one of them. For now I want to say:
Everything depends on God
People do nothing;
God give your blessings
Then the house towers high!
Our town hall is to become the center of a striving bourgeoisie, which keeps its mind directed towards the preservation of ideal goods. A fresh, happy, free citizenship should prevail here, the front is against those currents which now do not want to do justice to the merit that the bourgeoisie has. A German bourgeoisie with their noble aspirations will find refuge in this town hall. My concern and that of the mayor of the future at this point should be that there is no difference whether rich or poor, there is no difference which belief or which political position the individual is. The citizens of the Rhineland still see a patriarchal relationship in the noble sense between the citizen and the mayor; he is still the father of the city. The word should be right here:
I run out of advice
So I'm going to the town hall.
We want to build a building in the Gothic style, the lines of which taper upwards; this being directed upwards indicates a striving for the highest goal, which can only be achieved if everything that happens here is of benefit to the state. We want to cultivate a selfless devotion to the great fatherland, to the Hohenzollern throne and the German Empire. You reaffirm with me that this should be so by shouting 'His Majesty, our Emperor, live high!' "
The gathering enthusiastically received the cheers to sing the national anthem. Again, Mayor Dr. Neff took the speaker's podium and announced a unanimous resolution by the city council, according to which Mr. Justice Riotte, brewery owner Gustav Bruch and Commerce Councilor Emil Haldy were made honorary citizens. (Applause and loud cheers). (...) "
After the award of honorary citizenship had been publicly justified, a certificate was sunk in a metal can in the foundation stone. Hauberrisser's blueprints, coins, newspapers, the Saarbrücken war chronicle, an address book and numerous other documents were also incorporated into the rifle. Then politicians and civil servants as well as the architect Georg von Hauberrisser performed the symbolic hammer blows, proclaiming mostly patriotic-monarchist ordinances. The ceremony ended with the singing of the Deutschlandlied. Then you could still see the model of an equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the installation of which was planned for future times.
Major General Eduard von Pestel , from 1869 to 1874 commander of the Uhlan Regiment “Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden” (Rheinisches) No. 7 and since 1896 an honorary citizen of St. Johann, formulated in a congratulatory telegram from Berlin on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone that the representative design of the City Hall documented St. Johann's claim to leadership among the cities of the region in a euphoric saying: "Long live the Saar capital as it is, will be and was."
Construction delays
Hauberrisser, who worked on numerous large buildings at the same time, was delayed in delivery several times with regard to the construction drawings. When the final construction drawings for the tower were still missing during the construction of the town hall in the late summer of 1899, city architect Franz wrote a letter to Hauberrisser on October 6, 1899:
“ There is no one here who understands why a tower that was half-finished in the spring is not completely finished in a summer and autumn, and why its connection with the rest of the building hinders completion. "
Then on November 9, 1899, the expected plans finally arrived.
inauguration
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From June 23 to 25, 1900 the inauguration of the town hall took place. Mayor Neff had announced in the St. Johanner Zeitung of June 16, 1900 the festival order for the town hall inauguration. For the inauguration of the new St. Johanner town hall, Neff had called on the citizens of the town to participate actively in an advertisement in the St. Johanner Zeitung on June 22, 1900:
“ Following the request already made in the festival regulations to beautify the feast of the town hall inauguration by flagging the houses, I ask the citizens to express their participation in the patriarchal feast also by general participation in the illumination. The hour for the start of the lighting is to be set as 9½ in the evening. "
On Saturday, June 23, 1900, the townspeople of St. Johann were greeted by the trumpeter corps of the Uhlan Regiment Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden No. 7 and the chapel of the 8th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 70 with the chorale “ Nun thank all God “awakened. The St. Johann children had no school. From 10 a.m., a pageant went from the old mayor's building through the streets decorated with garlands of oak leaves and fir green on white masts and a sea of German imperial flags (Fassstrasse, St. Johanner Markt, Marktstrasse, Bahnhofsstrasse, Reichsstrasse, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse , Kaiserstraße, Stephanstraße) to the Rathausplatz, which was decorated with the flags of the German states. The chapel of the 70th Infantry Regiment marched ahead, followed by the St. Johann schoolchildren who had to wave small imperial flags made of paper. They were joined by the builders involved in the new town hall. This was followed by the two cycling clubs "Blitz" and the "St. Johanner Radfahrerverein von 1887 ”, then the St. Johann volunteer fire brigade , the Protestant workers' association, the Catholic journeyman's association, the naval association, the military association of former thirties, the military association of former hunters and riflemen and the Ulan chapel. The military associations were followed by the choir communities "Cäcilia", "Eintracht", "Harmonie", "Liedertafel", "Rheingold", "Sängerbund" and "Teutonia" with their club flags. The pageant was decided by the Gambrinusverein, the gymnastics club and the men's gymnastics club.
Arrived at the town hall square, a concert took place in the presence of invited guests of honor, the heads of the Saarstädte authorities, the commanders of the regiments stationed on site, the delegations of the officers' corps, some members of the state parliament and Reichstag as well as the former city council members. At 11 o'clock, announced by blaring herald fans from the battlements of the town hall tower, and the ensuing choir singing " The heavens boast of the mighty honor", the town hall architect, Georg von Hauberrisser, handed over the keys to the mayor. The celebration had to be interrupted due to a short but heavy rain shower. The handover of the keys was followed by the handover of the building by the site manager Wilhelm Franz to Mayor Neff in the town hall ballroom. The act of consecration in the town hall festival hall closed with a common cheer for Kaiser Wilhelm II, while the crowd gathered in front of the town hall sang the imperial hymn " Heil dir im Siegerkranz " and "Now thank all God". The interior of the town hall, which had not yet been completed, the figurative decorations and the design of the town hall ballroom were still missing and had been provisionally decorated with paintings by the decorative painter Niesch and with lavish plant decorations by the St. Johann head gardener Eckardt. At 2 p.m., a banquet took place in the St. Johann gymnasium on Landwehrplatz, which was completed in 1897 (since 1982 the “Alte Feuerwache” theater of the Saarland State Theater), for which chairs and tables had to be borrowed from the neighboring city of Saarbrücken. The place card cost 20 marks per person. Mayor Neff had ordered tails and a white bandage for the participants with regard to men's clothing.
On Sunday, June 24th 1900, a forest festival was celebrated in the Weinhumes department on the occasion of the city hall inauguration in the St. Johann city forest, which was musically framed by choral societies and the music corps of the two city regiments. On this day, too, St. Johann was illuminated at night and an evening concert took place in front of the town hall. The three-day festival came to a close on Monday, June 25, 1900, with the main exercise of the volunteer fire brigade and a concert in Baldes' garden. The regional newspapers (Saarbrücker Zeitung, Neue Saarbrücker Zeitung, St. Johanner Zeitung, St. Johann-Saarbrücker Volkszeitung) outbid each other in the detail of their reporting and in some cases even published special supplements in which the town hall was described as an “outstanding work of art ... The prosperity of the city and its prosperity and prosperity, ”was proudly praised.
Furnishing according to Hauberrisser's designs
Rathaus St. Johann, Hauberrisser's draft for the arrangement of the furniture in the mayor's room
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the paneling of the commission room (1903)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the mayor's desk (1900)
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the high desk in the mayor's room (1902)
Lectern in the town hall ballroom with thistle tendrils in flat-cut decor
wrought iron coat rack
Candlesticks in the ballroom
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While the construction work was progressing as expected, Hauberrisser had designed all the interior furnishings, as with all his buildings: the mayor's room and council chamber received neo-Gothic furniture, the other administrative rooms were furnished in the neo-renaissance style. However, the long absence of the necessary furniture design drawings strained the patience of city architect Franz. Franz complained about Hauberrisser's "continued delay" and wrote in a letter to the Munich architect on March 19, 1901:
“ It's really ironic when you see the old furniture in the new house and it is extremely annoying to answer the 100 questions about why the furniture is not finished yet. "
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for chairs in the marriage room (1901)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for a chair (1906)
Town hall St. Johann, design by Georg von Hauberrisser for a cupboard in the great hall
It was not until August 1903 that the requested furniture design drawings arrived bit by bit in St. Johann.
Disputes between the city and Hauberrisser
When a new fee structure for architects came into force in 1901, Hauberrisser demanded a higher fee from the city of St. Johann, to which the city administration did not react. Thereupon, Hauberrisser wrote directly to Mayor Neff in a letter dated December 26, 1902:
“ I 'maybe' built the most beautiful town hall in Germany for you. After three letters about my low payment on account, I am suspected of having asked for more than what I did and that must offend me. "
In response to this letter, the city administration tried to clear up the unpleasant matter by giving the Munich architect a so-called “honorary gift” of 10,000 marks. Although Hauberrisser accepted the money, he insisted that the matter should be clarified with the fee schedule. When Hauberrisser threatened to file a lawsuit, the city finally transferred another 587.17 marks to Hauberrisser. On March 5, 1908, Hauberrisser recognized the St. Johann settlement and concluded a letter to Mayor Neff in conciliatory terms:
“ This matter should now also rest. "
Hauberrisser visited the St. Johann town hall on 12./13. February 1903 and was appalled by numerous works carried out on its building. In a letter to Mayor Neff dated March 9, 1903, he wrote:
" 1. The switch closings are horrific monsters. - Never made a drawing for it.
2. The glass paintings in the mayor's room - incomprehensible how an institution like Linnemann can supply such oversized ornaments for the corner windows.
3. Registry office - dreadful ornaments, as they would have been made 60 years ago.
4. Unsightly stairwell windows, poorly successful ornaments, unsightly color effect, especially the blue.
5. Windows in the stairwell not good, ornaments that are too heavy, not belonging at all. Now, with these glass paintings, which should be the main decoration, the town hall and its interiors are botched. Tearing it out and throwing it away would be the right thing to do. "
However, the objects complained about stayed in their place and Hauberrisser's rebuke went unheard.
When Hauberrisser demanded a down payment on his fee in July 1903, the city administration replied that there was still a lot of work to be done and urged the architect to work faster. Hauberrisser was informed that Kaiser Wilhelm II had announced that he would be visiting St. Johann and that the town hall with the furniture would have to be completed by then. Thereupon Hauberrisser wrote laconically in his reply from August 1, 1903: "When will the Kaiser come and when will I get money?"
If Hauberrisser's new building was initially limited to 400,000 marks, the cost level had climbed to 750,000 marks on July 13, 1903. When the new Hauberrisser building was completed, the construction cost should have been around 800,000 marks.
Executing builders
The following companies were involved in the construction and design of the town hall:
- Masonry work: Building contractor Johann Keller, St. Johann
- Stone carvings: Carl Schultheiß, St. Johann
- Carpentry work: Josef Jost, St. Johann
- Roofing work: Ludwig Güth, St. Johann
- Plumbing work: Ludwig Wagner, St. Johann
- Plastering work: Baum & Cierpka, St. Johann
- Glass work: M. Meyer, St. Johann
- Carpentry work: August Reiss and Ludwig Ph. Reiss, St. Johann
- Wooden ceiling in the mayor's room: Müller, Saarbrücken
- Locksmith work: J. von Bracht, Adolf Stürmer, Phil. Burgemeister, Wilhelm Bender, Ed. Reuther, all St. Johann and Rudolf Sorg, Saarbrücken
- Painting work: Julius Niesch and Chr. Woytt, both St. Johann
- Gas and water pipes: Franz Neisius, St. Johann
- Electrical systems and lightning rods: Saarbrücker Elektrizitäts-Aktien-Gesellschaft
- Central heating: Bechem and Post (Hagen / Westphalia)
- Sewerage: Peter Urschel, St. Johann
- Slab floor of the corridors: Ubach and Seyfarth, St. Johann
- Granite work: Granite works in Bibersberg in the Fichtel Mountains
- Figural and ornamental sculptures (models): Simon Korn and Anton Kaindl , Munich
- Implementation of the models by Korn and Kaindl in Stein: Wilhelm Schneider, Peter Burger, Wilhelm Brüssow, all St. Johann
- Wood carving inside: Karl Pelizäus, St. Johann
- Furniture: Felbel and Schaffe, Karl Schneider, August Reis, Karl Bartsch, L. Hexamer, St. Johann
- Copper driving work: Hygin Kiene, Munich
- Construction management: Wilhelm Franz
- Site manager: Nolte
Expansion, expansion and destruction
City Hall
With the merger of the three Saar cities of Alt-Saarbrücken , St. Johann and Malstatt-Burbach in 1909, the building was promoted to the city hall of Saarbrücken. With 105,000 inhabitants, the newly founded city of Saarbrücken was at that time the fifth largest German city on the left bank of the Rhine. The Hauberrisser building soon proved to be too narrow for the administration. Hauberrisser had already designed a future model for the St. Johann town hall in the wise foresight of future administrative space requirements: the building was to be expanded into an irregular four-wing structure with an inner courtyard. Shortly before the First World War , the planning of extensions began. In 1911, a first extension wing was planned in Betzenstrasse. In 1913, city building officer Julius Ammer planned an extension in Kaltenbachstrasse, which was expected to be completed in 1919. Due to the world war, these plans were not carried out. Almost immediately after the end of the First World War, the city council met to discuss an application that provided for the construction of a courtyard wing as a job creation measure. The application was rejected on November 18, 1919.
Expansion in the 1920s
Central elevation of the new meeting room
Bay tower to the right of the central risalite
Entrance area, lights in the style of crystalline expressionism
Entrance hall
Railing in the style of crystalline expressionism, behind it the portal to the second council chamber
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At the beginning of the 1920s, the City Planning Office, under the direction of City Planning Officer Julius Ammer (1880–1946, in office 1912–1924 / 25), was commissioned to draw up drafts for an extension.
On June 13, 1922, the city council decided to expand the town hall by adding a wing in Kaltenbachstraße to Gerberstraße with four full floors and a loft. The facade should be given a “richer design” and the building should contain two meeting rooms for commissions and a new council chamber. Because of the intended spatial separation, a separate building was to be built for the Stadtsparkasse.
In contrast to the three-storey old building, the 75 m long symmetrically structured building wing (offices and new meeting room with side galleries), also built from red sandstone between 1922 and 1928 under the mayor of Hans Neikes (term of office 1921–1935), has four floors. According to the ideas of the town planning council Kruspe from 1925, a pentagonal complex was to be built:
“ This will keep its main front on Rathausplatz and will continue to be on Kaltenbachstrasse, Gerberstrasse, the Betzengässchen to be broken through and Betzenstrasse. A courtyard wing divides the enclosed courtyard into two large courtyards, one of which in turn is divided into two parts by the single-storey intermediate building of the new city main ticket office. (...) At the confluence of Betzengässchen with Gerberstraße - visible from Bahnhofsstraße and emphasized by special architecture - there is an entrance hall, to which the corridors of the individual building wings connect like rays. "
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From then on, the old council chamber was only used for representational purposes. (Due to lack of space, city council meetings are now taking place in the congress hall.) The new wing of the building has a mighty central projectile and polygonal bay windows and reinterprets Hauberrisser's neo-Gothic decorative shapes in the expressionist style of its time. The five-axis, symmetrical central projection, the central three axes of which are wider than the accompanying outer axes, is adorned in its gable with two allegorical statues of women in crystalline forms. The artistically forged wall anchors mark the year "1923".
The central projection is designed without interruptions by a towering column system. The pillars are closed by cup-shaped capitals. The slender struts in between are terminated in geometrically abstract, flower-like frieze band patterns. The narrow areas between pillars and struts are filled with tall rectangular lattice windows. On the third floor, the windows have parapet fields that take up the motifs from the capitals and the frieze bands.
The design of the polygonal oriel towers by Julius Ammer flanking the central projection and resting on consoles seem to be clearly inspired by the two 13th-century pagan towers of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . The upper part of the towers is formed by small triangular gables that rise above a frieze band.
Flute player with raven at the portal
Warrior with dog at the portal
Lantern on the facade
The base zone comprises the basement and the ground floor. In the middle is an entrance gate that is accentuated by truncated columns. The pillars are adorned with three-dimensional diamond patterns and carry two male figures: a flute player with a raven and a warrior wrapped in a cloak with a knight's helmet at whose feet a dog crouches. A wrought-iron lantern with thorn-bush-like jagged decorations indicated the entrance to the town hall's wine cellar.
The interior of the extension shows expressive Gothic forms that further develop Hauberrisser's style in more modern forms.
Portraits of the honorary citizens of the city of Saarbrücken adorn the walls of the hallways.
Expansion in the 1930s
Extension of Kruspe in Gerberstrasse
Rathausarkade on the corner of Kaltenbachstrasse and Gerberstrasse
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Since the city administration required additional space in the 1930s, the city's senior building officer Walther Kruspe (in office 1924–1939) took over the construction management for a second extension. This extension in Gerberstrasse was financed with funds from the Nazi job creation program “Bread for the Worker”. The four-storey building, also made of reddish sandstone, lacks virtually all architectural ornamentation except for an arcade hall on the ground floor and was inaugurated on June 27, 1937 by Mayor Ernst Dürrfeld (term of office: 1935–1937). The plans from 1936 envisaged a large perimeter block development including the houses in Bahnhofstrasse. Similar to Hauberrisser's New Munich City Hall, the ground floor area of Bahnhofstrasse and Betzenstrasse in St. Johann was to be reserved for shop fittings. But the short extension on Gerberstraße remained, the final staircase of which fell victim to the most recent extension by Helge Bofinger.
Second World War
The tower carillon, acquired in 1935, was dismantled and melted down during the Second World War in 1941 as part of the metal donation by the German people for war purposes. On the occasion of the upcoming birthday of Adolf Hitler , Field Marshal Hermann Göring issued a call for metal donations by the German people on March 27, 1940.
When Saarbrücken was bombed in 1944, the St. Johann town hall also received a serious hit in the right facade of the square. The roof, all gables and the top floor were destroyed. Only the polygonal bay tower survived the bombing raids. The gable of the bay window and half of the battlements of the Hauberrisser old building in Kaltenbachstrasse were also destroyed.
Saarbrücken was regarded as an important transshipment point for supplies to the western front as well as an important iron industry production site and was therefore an important war destination for the Allies. Among the numerous attacks, the daytime attack by the United States Army Air Forces on May 11, 1944 was particularly devastating. The climax of the bomb destruction, however, was the attacks of October 5, 1944. The Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force , Air Marshal Arthur Harris , led a massive strike against the city. A bomber formation dropped explosive bombs and stick incendiary bombs over the city in several waves. The attack, which lasted just over 30 minutes, triggered a huge firestorm that killed numerous people or made them homeless.
Time after World War II
reconstruction
The bomb damage could be repaired from 1948 under the head of the building department Peter Paul Seeberger and under the mayor of Franz Singer (1946–49), Heinrich Barth (1949) and Peter Zimmer (1949–1956).
The roof was given dormer windows in two levels so that the former storage facility could be used as an administration office. The formerly curved copper hood of the mayor's bay was replaced with a neo-Gothic tracery parapet. Importing the Palatinate sandstone (approx. 100 cubic meters) built by Hauberrisser was not possible at that time. Thus, lighter sandstone from Alsace was used, which is still visible today on the third floor and the three gables of the western administrative wing. In December 1952 the Saarbrücker Zeitung reported on the progress of the work:
“You shouldn't think it was possible, but it is a fact: many people from Saarbrücken didn't even know that our city's town hall is still showing damage that can be attributed to the war. We've chatted with a number of people over the past few days who honestly admitted that if they hadn't noticed the scaffolding that was being erected in front of the building, they would absolutely have said that “nothing was missing” in the town hall. A sign that we generally (sic!) Only observe very superficially. It was probably even less noticeable that an entire gable in Kaltenbachstrasse (sic!) Does not yet show its old face again, and that several minor damage can be found on our town hall. As we learned in the course of a conversation with the head of the building authority of the city of Saarbrücken, Oberbaurat Seeberger, and graduate engineer Schmidt, a general renovation of the building will be linked with the reconstruction of the destroyed part of the town hall, so that the building can be rebuilt after all work has been completed will have his former face again.
About four weeks ago work began on setting up the construction site; the real work has been going on for a fortnight. The destroyed part of the town hall, which has a length of about 20 m, will retain its old appearance with the front facing town hall square, the rear front will experience some small changes that are related to a more functional interior design. Perhaps the objection arises here and there that it would have been cheaper to have the destroyed section of the building rebuilt in a modern form - this impression must be countered by the fact that such a conversion would significantly impair the overall appearance of the town hall. If it had been a total reconstruction of a completely destroyed building, one would certainly not have hesitated to erect a modern, yet appealing, functional building; With the present partial destruction - even if it is not a completely styleless Gothic building - a restoration of the old picture seems to be justified.
It goes without saying that the reconstruction will be carried out within the framework of the possible (sic!) Structural improvements: For example, the wooden roof structure in the remaining parts is to be replaced in the section to be rebuilt by a coffin lid structure made of concrete. If the advantage lies in the fact that the fire risk, which is always acute in the attic, is reduced to a minimum (sic!), On the other hand it can be emphasized that a better spatial utilization of the attic is achieved. In this context, it will be of interest that the reconstruction will result in a total of 14 new rooms.
The red sand stones used in the construction of the town hall (by the Munich architect Professor Hauberrisser) - who incidentally also built the famous Munich town hall - cannot be used for the work now in progress; therefore, they resorted to red sandstone from Alsace, with which the Strasbourg (sic!) Minster was also built. The restoration of the battlements and the three missing front gables will be tedious; one still hopes (if long and intense periods of frost do not thwart the plan) that the reconstruction work will be completed by the middle of next year. As already mentioned, in the course of the work the makeshift gable in Kaltenbachstrasse (sic!) Is to be restored in its previous form, and several tracery fillings (sic!), Which were also damaged by splinters or shelling, will be renovated. The tower, which also has splinter wounds and on which several battlements have been torn by the air pressure of the bombs, will also be rebuilt, the spiral staircase inside the building has to put up with the repair or replacement of 17 steps. In total - a remarkable figure - 100 cubic meters of stone material are expected, which will have to be procured for the complete repair of the Saarbrücken town hall.
We are certain that all of us Saarbrücken will be happy that one of the most beautiful and, above all, most distinctive buildings in our city will be back in its familiar face in the foreseeable future. "
In 1953, the restored part was handed over to official use.
Arcade installation in the 1960s
- Portals of the St. Johann town hall converted into arcades
Former entrance portal to the Ratskeller with a drinking citizen, sculptor Heinrich Wagner from St. Johann (1907)
Former passage to the inner courtyard, portal with Landsknechte and coat of arms-bearing angel, sculptor of the Landsknechte: Wilhelm Schneider (1907), sculptor of the coat-of-arms angel: Heinrich Wagner (1907); The passage was originally closed with a richly profiled, double-winged wooden gate from 1899.
Old Regensburg town hall , Gothic entrance portal with mercenaries looking out of niches
Arcade in Betzenstrasse, former passage to the inner courtyard
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From 1962/63, as a result of the widening of Betzenstrasse (the pavement had been slammed into the street ), a neo-Gothic pedestrian arcade was built along the street under the mayor of Fritz Schuster (1957-1976), also under Peter Paul Seeberger , after a Wilhelminian style building Neo-Renaissance (Betzenstrasse No. 7), on whose gable Georg von Hauberrisser had to build, could be demolished.
The former entrance to the town hall courtyard was converted into an arcade arch. The former gate entrance is decorated with an angel bearing the St. Johann coat of arms. He is surrounded by mercenaries with halberds leaning on consoles. The sandstone work was carried out in 1907 by the St. Johann sculptors Wagner and Schneider. With regard to the composition of the Landsknechte, Hauberrisser could have oriented himself to the portal of the old Regensburg town hall .
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The free gable in Betzenstrasse, which had to be redesigned as a result of the demolition of the historicist neighboring house, was clad with reddish sandstone slabs and decorated with a tree of life by Paul Schneider in abstract decorative forms from the 1960s. From three root balls, two horizontal and one vertical, which are supposed to symbolize the originally independent cities of St. Johann an der Saar, Saarbrücken and Malstatt-Burbach, which were merged in 1909, a massive tree trunk develops, which branches into a magnificent tree crown. According to Paul Schneider, through the intertwining of the components of the tree, he wanted to design the connection and vitality of Saarbrücken. The stone material of the tree was inserted into the new facade by Peter Paul Seeberger in an uncut state. Schneider worked on the bosses on site. Hans Dahlem (1928–2006) painted an old vine in the arcade passage as a reference to the Ratskeller entrance. Paul Schneider also redesigned the interior of the Ratskeller with Hans Dahlem and György Lehoczky .
Renovation in the 1980s
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In 1988 the ballroom was renovated. The reason was damage to the murals by Wilhelm Wrage, the parquet floor and the lead-glazed tracery windows by Alexander Linnemann. The paintings of the St. Johann history cycle have been secured and restored. The paintings on the east side that were painted over during the French occupation and that framed the round-arched tracery window of the “Industria / Allegorie St. Johanns” with the guild coat of arms (coat of arms-bearing lions) and the paintings on the west side above the gallery (imperial eagle) were uncovered and missing parts were replaced.
The tracery windows have been upgraded to provide thermal insulation and soundproofing by means of glazing. The glazing of the balcony arbor doors from the 1960s was replaced with new ones that corresponded to the originals from Linnemann. The panes were supplemented by the coats of arms of the Saarbrücken twin cities Nantes, Tbilisi and Cottbus. The oak parquet was renewed and the ceiling beams cleaned. The wall panels and benches have been restored.
The planned reopening of the town hall ballroom on December 1, 1988 had to be postponed because a fire broke out in the neighboring tower room on the night of September 27th to 28th, 1988 and had caused great damage. The reopening was delayed until January 17, 1989.
Renovation in the 1990s
When a sandstone cube fell from the facade above the main entrance in the spring of 1994, the condition of the outer walls was examined. It turned out that corrosion of the cement-cast stone anchors in the two-shell masonry (outside sandstone / inside plastered brick masonry) detached the sandstone blocks. Water penetrated the masonry through leaking joints and increased the volume of the iron anchors by up to 500%. The resulting explosive effect threatened to gradually destroy the facade.
In addition, the joints on the pinnacles were worn down by wind pressure. The penetration of rainwater as a result of inadequate maintenance of the rain gutters resulted in a loss of substance due to sand and salt efflorescence. Water-soluble pollutants (especially sulfate) also polluted the natural stone surface. Caused by the renovation work in the 1960s in Betzenstrasse (installation of an arcade passage), considerable cracks now appeared there.
Thus a maintenance concept had to be developed with the following points: 1. Emergency safety, 2. Removal of the corroded iron parts, 3. Exchanging the defective sandstones based on the findings, 4. Restoring all non-positive constructions, 5. Grouting of the entire sandstone masonry.
The renovation of the roof and external facades was now carried out in four stages:
- 1995: City hall courtyard facade and wing in Betzenstrasse
- 1996: tower
- 1997: facade of the ballroom
- 1998: Administration wing with mayor's bay and corner tower
Sandstone blocks and shaped pieces had to be numbered, removed and taken to a construction hut set up especially for this purpose on the town hall square. Here they were examined. In the event of visual and aesthetic defects, the stone was reinstalled on the spot. In the event of substantial defects (shell formation / sanding), the element was copied true to the findings.
The assembly was now carried out with connecting elements made of stainless steel, which do not oxidize and therefore cannot have the same effect as iron stone. The cuboids of the outer foreshore wall are held together with brackets, while they are connected to the inner brickwork by anchors. Smaller gaps in the outer foreshore wall were refilled with stone replacement pieces.
After completing the stone work, the entire surface of the facade was treated using a combination of dry and wet cleaning processes ( JOS process ). In a special nozzle, air, water and sand granulate were mixed with one another and blown against the wall surface to be cleaned at low pressure (0.5 to 4 bar). In the cone-shaped cleaning jet, a vortex of rotation formed, which gently sanded off dirt on the natural stone without damaging the underlying texture. The process cleaned the town hall facade of dust and soot particles, but it also gave it a certain patina. The process was also used successfully in Munich to clean the facade of Hauberrisser's town hall on Marienplatz.
In 1999, among other things, the Saarland Chamber of Crafts donated a new carillon with 19 bells and three figures.
Town Hall Carée
- Facade design parallels Helge Bofinger's at the Rathaus-Carée and the Willy-Brandt-Haus
Town hall St. Johann, extension by Helge Bofinger, entrance area to the city library
Town hall St. Johann, extension by Helge Bofinger from the inner courtyard
Town hall St. Johann, connecting clip of the extension by Helge Bofinger
Town hall St. Johann with extension by Bofinger in the Saarbrücken city model
Willy Brandt House , Berlin
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About 100 years after the construction of the first component, the town hall was expanded again from 1995 to 1998 by Helge Bofinger under the mayor of Hajo Hoffmann . The so-called “Rathaus-Carée”, which was to house shops, offices and the city library, was built as a steel frame construction with light-colored sand-lime brick cladding (instead of the previous red sandstone cladding of all other historical components) and infills made of transparent glass-steel elements.
The building, which has 4–5 storeys with a recessed roof zone, was preceded by heated public discussions, as it was initially planned to sacrifice late-baroque buildings in Bahnhofstrasse by the creator of baroque Saarbrücken, Friedrich Joachim Stengel , for the new building . As a compromise, the houses were integrated into the new building and were thus preserved. However, the former importance of the Stengel building in terms of urban development was lost as a link in a chain of similar houses on Bahnhofstrasse. In an elevated clasp along Betzenstrasse, which Hauberrisser was unable to build in the 19th century because of the existing buildings on this street, the Saarbrücken city library and the citizens' office, among other things, were now housed on more than 7,000 square meters .
The new building had cost 90 million marks and was financed by the city of Saarbrücken and the Bavarian pharmacy supply. In addition to the Rathaus-Carée, the expansion of the Disconto-Passage was opened on October 29, 1998. The building shows clear similarities in the facade design to the Willy-Brandt-Haus , which Helge Bofinger erected between 1994 and 1996 in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Stresemannstrasse as the headquarters of the federal headquarters of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The essential materials of both building facades are glass, light limestone and shimmering blue metal.
Town hall model
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For the German city exhibition in Dresden in 1903, the St. Johann carpenter Karl Pelizäus made a wooden model of the St. Johann town hall (length: 120 cm, height: 100 cm, width 80 cm). Pelizäus also made furniture for the town hall based on Hauberrisser's designs. The town hall model has been adapted to the respective structural changes of the town hall over the years. During the period of reconstruction after the Second World War, the model received a new mayor's bay with a tracery balcony and the roof was supplemented with dormers. However, the model lacks the passage installation from the 1960s. The wooden model is currently on display in the Saar History Museum .
Furnishing
facade
- Facade comparisons
Town hall St. Johann, tower facade
Hauberrisser's castle in Busau / Bouzov in Moravia
Georg von Hauberrisser's house with a polygonal corner tower in the neo-renaissance style, Munich, Schwanthalerstraße
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Asymmetrical design
The town hall was designed by Georg von Hauberrisser in the style of the picturesque town hall with an asymmetrical floor plan (street front 57 m length). The slightly recessed mayor's wing (west wing, 30.35 m long) with a central facade bay window on the mayor's room is a cross-positioned, battlements and gable-adorned longitudinal building with a steep roof structure, to which at an obtuse angle on the right is a helmeted oriel tower (architectural link to the adjoining short side wing in the Betzenstrasse).
Hauberrisser then also used the motif of the corner tower for the Munich City Hall (corner of Weinstrasse / Marienplatz). The design of the St. Johann corner tower end is taken up again by Hauberrisser in the tower end of the "Staircase of Ages" in the grand courtyard of the Munich City Hall. Hauberrisser also used the motif at Bouzov Castle (German: Burg Busau) in Moravia, which the Teutonic Order had redesigned in historicizing forms from 1896 to 1901 as a summer residence for the Grand Master Archduke Eugen of Austria at the time . The corner tower motif with a high pointed helmet is also used in Hauberrisser's Holdereggen Castle , the New Town Hall in Wiesbaden and his own house in Munich (Schwanthalerstraße 106-108), albeit here in neo-Renaissance forms.
In the left part of the St. Johann town hall, the 54 m high town hall tower and the hall building with rich ornamental gable are impressive. The mayor's bay in the west wing has four console heads, which could be interpreted as different ages of people. Hauberrisser also worked on this subject when building the large stair tower ("Staircase of Ages") in the grand courtyard of Munich City Hall. In St. Johann you can see (from left to right):
- screaming youthful woman's head with revolutionary Jacobin cap (youth / revolt)
- Middle-aged man's head with winged Hermes helmet (set age / economic strength )
- Half bald man's head (age)
- hollow-cheeked male head with hat and mourning sash (infirmity / death)
Hauberrisser had the structural design and positioning of the bay window between 1893 and 1894 when designing the facade of the Munich residential building of the Austrian-Bavarian genre and history painter Franz Defregger ( list of architectural monuments in Maxvorstadt , Königinstraße 27, file no. D -1-62-000-3544, rebuilt modified after the destruction of the war), but used here in the style of the German Renaissance. In Munich as in St. Johann, the bay windows originally had a curved Renaissance hood made of sheet copper.
The longitudinal struts of the lancet windows of the Council chambers are in a magnificent, bow window and maßwerkgeschmückten gable with two gazebos , pinnacles and finials continued. The consoles of the central pediment are allegories of the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. The gargoyles ( fury , curmudgeon, sensuality) on the eaves represent three of the seven deadly sins :
- Ira (anger, anger, vengeance)
- Avaritia (avarice / greed)
- Luxuria (lust, debauchery, indulgence, desire)
At the gable of Kaltenbachstrasse, on the other hand, Hauberrisser depicted virtues on the console stones: strength and charity.
The position of the ballroom within the building is marked outwards by magnificent tracery windows and two balcony arbors or arbors. Traditionally, the balcony arbors in medieval town halls were used as a court bay, from which members of the town council could watch the execution of a judgment on the market square.
- Comparison of the St. Johann town hall and the old town hall in Regensburg
Regensburg, Reichstag hall bay window
Town hall St. Johann, council hall balcony
Regensburg, Old Town Hall, Reichssaalbau
The two symmetrically placed balconies are obviously inspired by the high Gothic bay window of the Reichssaal building of the Old Town Hall in Regensburg , where the Perpetual Diet of the Holy Roman Empire took place from 1663 to 1806 . The arched windows in the base zone of the St. Johann town hall (Ratskeller window) and the windows of the medieval Regensburg town hall below the bay window represent a further creative parallel. With these architectural elements, Hauberrisser was able to visibly tie in with the tradition of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
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Hauberrisser had already used the St. Johann motif of the council chamber wing with three large windows, flanking bay windows and a gable crown decorated with pegs and the town hall tower on the side in his design in Gothic Renaissance forms for the new town hall in Reichenberg in Bohemia . Likewise, the arrangement of the clock and that of the city coat of arms positioned underneath it in the Reichenberg design and in the first design for St. Johann correspond. The evaluation jury, which also included Hauberrisser's former teacher Friedrich von Schmidt , had rejected Hauberrisser's idea for the Reichenberg town hall as too ancient and medieval and commissioned the Viennese architect Franz von Neumann , who like Hauberrisser had been a pupil of Schmidt's, for a new building in East German Renaissance forms and in Reichenberg used a scaled-down neo-renaissance version of Schmidt's neo-Gothic Vienna City Hall .
Design parallels with the New Munich City Hall
The St. Johann town hall facade shows unmistakable similarities to that of the new Munich town hall in its completed design from 1898–1905: On the one hand, the asymmetrical placement of the important architectural elements (tower, gable wing, tower window) and, on the other hand, the design of the individual forms (gable field design, the balcony arbors supported by mighty consoles, encircling battlements, paired arrangement of windows, encircling tower balcony with corner turrets, decorative figures).
- Design parallels and possible architectural sources of inspiration
Georg von Hauberrisser: Competition design from 1866 for a new town hall in Munich on Marienplatz, motto "In a German sense for a German sense"
Georg von Hauberrisser: Design from 1867 for a new town hall in Munich, first construction phase without the facade statues and the arcade that were added later
Munich, New Town Hall, Town Hall balcony, first construction phase
New Town Hall Munich, front to Marienplatz
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However, Hauberrisser was able to design the town hall facade in St. Johann in one go and thus compose it in a more balanced way than that of the new Munich town hall, which was built in three construction phases (1. 1867–1881 / 2. 1889–1892 / 3. 1898–1905) . On the Marienplatz facade of the Munich City Hall, Hauberrisser also had to put two building sections with different storey heights, facade cladding and window designs in a visually obscure relationship with each other through abundant facade and figure decorations.
In contrast to the facade conception of the Viennese town hall by Hauberisser's teacher Friedrich von Schmidt , Hauberisser's facades in Munich and St. Johann remain planar and live from the relief effect of the balconies, bay windows, battlements, tracery and statue decorations.
Both facades of Hauberrisser (St. Johann and Munich) correspond to the type demanded by the building trade newspaper “Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung” published in Berlin: “a picturesque, in a suitable space surrounding the town hall square and the inner city in general. intimate, German town hall complex. "
Town hall St. Johann, inner courtyard
Munich, Bavarian National Museum, entrance front
Zurich, Swiss National Museum
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Not only on the facade, but also on the design of the rear of the St. Johann town hall, Hauberrisser's joy of design is clearly evident through the overlapping of differently designed architectural structures and asymmetrically divided areas. In addition, there is the effective interaction of plastered wall surfaces and red sandstone as well as the use of clay tiles and copper-covered tail hoods in Renaissance forms for roofing. The rear front of the St. Johann town hall with its symmetrical gable, two flanking towers and the town hall tower towering over everything could be a neo-Gothic quote from the main front by Hauberrisser's colleague Gabriel von Seidl in the years 1892 to 1900 in Munich in the neo-renaissance-neo-baroque style The Bavarian National Museum , for whose new building Hauberrisser had also supplied designs in 1893. In addition, architectural quotes from the Swiss National Museum (main gable, main tower) built by the architect Gustav Gull in Zurich in the style of a picturesque, winding neo-Gothic castle between 1892 and 1898 are also conceivable.
Hauberrisser's sheer tireless meticulousness and his wealth of variants were also valued by the St. Johann city architect Wilhelm Franz. Franz wrote in a letter to Mayor Neff on September 26, 1906:
“ It soon turned out that Hauberisser took the work so seriously that he never let a drawing go without having designed and corrected every detail himself. The peculiarity of the artist, which gives his works a special value, only became known to me later. He became so absorbed in the draft that he put all his energy into it. "
Criticism of the design
For the architecture of the 19th century, the term “ historicism ” became generally accepted. This term was first introduced into art history by the art historian Hermann Beenken in 1938. In his essay "The Historicism in Architecture" he classified the resumption of historical styles in the Neo-Gothic , Neo-Romanesque , Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque in the 19th century in the generic term "Historicism" created by him.
The prejudice of the inexhaustible, of the only imitative gained importance precisely at a time when art wanted to break free of all ties to previous stylistic epochs in a particularly radical way. This took place at the end of the 19th century in the so-called Art Nouveau style and was even more pronounced in the New Objectivity in the 1920s. In order to be able to assert themselves with their new, completely different style against the old representatives of historicism at the technical universities, the young architects had to fundamentally condemn the style of their teachers, historicism. This can be seen as a generation conflict in which the children and grandchildren rebelled against the (design) world of the fathers and grandfathers in order to create their own. In the case of historicism, this rebellious rejection continued into the 1970s and far beyond.
For example, the German-British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner said in 1965: “Historicism is the attitude in which the observation and use of history is more essential than the discovery and development of new systems, new forms of one's own time. (…) Historicism is the tendency to believe in the power of history to such an extent that original action is stifled and replaced by action that is inspired by a precedent of a certain time. ”In doing so, he compares historicism in a pejorative way Style eclecticism alike. The judgment of the “inexhaustible” ensured that numerous buildings of historicism, when they had survived the destruction of the First World War and the Second World War , were neglected, “purified” or even demolished in the post-war period.
The architectural motifs that make up the Hauberrisser façades in St. Johann and Munich and come from the building tradition of the old German town hall were encountered by contemporary viewers on numerous town hall fronts of the empire at that time: town hall tower or roof rider tower, gable-decorated council chamber wing, bay window and / or arbor. The frequent repetition of these motifs, perceived as indispensable design elements, resulted in a “Semper-idem effect”, which has already provoked the ridicule of some critics of late historicism .
For example, Hermann Kronsbrück wrote in biting irony in the magazine “ März ” in 1906 with reference to Hauberrisser's Gothic designs:
“ The main fronts [...] are simply registers of sins [...]. One asks in vain about the purpose and significance of the great tower […]. You see an abundance of individual forms everywhere, all of which are added, not merged. […] I miss one little thing: I think it would be fitting if all town hall officials from the First Mayor to the last clerk wore Gothic costumes. This would clearly emphasize not only the purity of style that is so often required, but also the by no means required masquerade of the whole. "
Town hall tower
Rathaus St. Johann, town hall tower
great similarity in the upper part: tower of the Passau town hall
possible model for the roof shape: Graz clock tower
Hauberrisser's Castle Holdereggen, west side
The upper part of the tower is very similar to the tower of the Old Town Hall in Passau , built around the same time by Heinrich von Schmidt - son of Hauberrisser's teacher Friedrich von Schmidt . Hauberrisser could have adopted the shape of the roof from the landmark of his birthplace Graz , the Graz clock tower . The Ulm butcher's tower , built around 1340 or the fortified tower of Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna , built between 1450 and 1521, could also have served as a source of inspiration for Hauberrisser. The lower part of the St. Johann town hall tower abstracts the tower of the New Town Hall in Munich designed by Hauberrisser up to the gallery . Hauberrisser had already used the motif of the upper tower end of the St. Johann town hall in the years 1887 to 1890 when building Holdereggen Castle , a stately mansion with a park in the Lindau district of Aeschach . Here, too, as in St. Johann, Hauberrisser had Palatinate red sandstone specified as the building material.
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The fourth floor of the town hall tower has a stone relief designed by Anton Kaindl . Two well-fortified warriors can be seen under a basket arch tracery, holding the emperor's coat of arms of St. Johann crowned by a lion. While the right shield holder wears a late medieval Gothic knight's armor, the left shield holder with a late medieval iron hat also presents itself as a brush .
Above the heraldic group of sculptures, a tower clock is designed in pen mosaic (diameter 2.90 m), the slogan of which reminds the viewer of the transience of everything earthly: "Time is rushing." On the west side of the tower is the counterpart to the clock on the main facade of the tower appropriate. Here the band's motto is more conciliatory: “Time heals.” The tower clocks in Munich and St. Johann show significant design parallels.
At a height of 32 meters, the tower is surrounded by an accessible gallery adorned with pinnacles and corner turrets. Upstairs there are three more tower floors and a top floor decorated with gables.
From the tower vestibule, a wide staircase in the opposite direction leads to the town hall ballroom. The net vault of the stairwell is supported by a single column in the center of the room. The four tracery windows of the stairwell were redesigned after being destroyed in the war in 1951 by Wolfram Huschens (1921–1989) on the subject of "The four elements fire, water, earth and air".
In addition to the large staircase, Hauberrisser also designed a staircase in the wing (wing length 14 m) on Betzenstrasse and a spiral staircase without central supports right next to the large staircase. Here Hauberrisser was perhaps inspired by the famous spiral staircase by the Renaissance master builder Blasius Berwart (1530–1589) in Mergentheim Castle , the seat of the German Masters and the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order. Hauberrisser's particular interest has been in Gothic since the time of his training. Ever since his student days, he had always kept historical architectural motifs that were of interest to him, such as gable and tracery forms, vault ribs, capitals, profiles, ornaments, fittings and other items of equipment, in a sketchbook. For personal training, he often visited the Bavarian National Museum , which opened in 1867 in Munich's Maximilianstrasse , where he carried out detailed studies on Gothic originals or studied the collection of models archived there. In addition, Hauberrisser made numerous sketches on extensive study trips through Germany (Rhineland and Hanover 1868), Italy (1874), France (1878 and 1880), Belgium (1894) and Switzerland (1906), who had previously sketched the stairs on a trip to Mergentheim .
After seeing stones from thirteen different quarries as building material, Hauberrisser ordered reddish or yellowish-red Bruchmühlbacher and Landstuhler sandstone, as the stones used should be fine-grained and free from clay cracks and sand pockets. The stones for the granite steps of the outside staircase on the tower and the internal stairs were supplied by the Jacob granite works in Marktleuthen in the Fichtel Mountains.
The town hall tower, which since the end of the 14th century in some parts of the German Empire appeared in the soft image of the cities next to the dominant height of the church towers, is in art history partly as a reduction of the early medieval westwork, i.e. as a transfer of an imperial power symbol to the urban area seen. Town hall towers visualized the mighty claim to freedom and self-government of a medieval city.
In the Middle Ages, the city hall not only served the city council as a meeting place, but was also a place of jurisdiction and trade. Accordingly, it had a specifically different form than was necessary for the changed situations in the 19th century.
In the empire of 1871, however, urban self-government no longer had any real autonomy compared to the free imperial cities of the Middle Ages. The local government was ultimately only the executive arm of the state.
Justice and trade now had their own places. The spatial program of the town hall in the 19th and early 20th centuries generally included meeting rooms of various dimensions and usually a ballroom for urban representation. An essential feature, however, was the large number of office rooms for the individual offices that had become necessary. The different scale of the representative rooms on the one hand and the office rooms on the other was usually a not insignificant problem for the architects of the time with regard to the floor plan and facade design.
In addition, the changed scale of the urban space, which had grown through industrialization, with higher rental and commercial buildings and buildings that stretched over several parcels, was the reason for a new basic form of the Wilhelminian town halls compared to their medieval or early modern predecessors.
The town hall of historicism mostly borrowed the originally functionally based tower from its models as a symbol of power and accent in the rapidly changing cityscape. At the latest since the first draft for the new Hamburg City Hall in 1854 (construction period 1886–1897) and the Red City Hall built by Hermann Friedrich Waesemann in Berlin from 1860 to 1871 , a tower was an obligatory part of a historic city hall facade and was mostly located in the Central axis (see also Vienna City Hall ). In view of the change in the situation in the 19th century, the question arises as to the actual significance of the tower, magnificent hall wing and bay window at the historic St. Johann town hall.
The disintegration of the changed political conditions of the new German Empire and the adoption of medieval building motifs on new town halls was already noticed by Hauberrisser's contemporaries and aroused critical statements in Hauberrisser's later creative phase.
The architects Julius Graebner and Rudolf Schilling are quoted in the Deutsche Bauzeitung in 1903 , who turned to so-called reform architecture at the beginning of the 20th century :
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“ [The] antiquities with gables, bay windows and all the appendages of old buildings have no meaning for a modern town hall, because the conditions for this are completely different today than in the past. Today a town hall is an administrative building in which like among equals are in charge. So who should have a bay window and who should have a gable room? A modern town hall should certainly represent its city, but it should also speak of its own strength, from time for time. It should also talk about the fact that we live in a time of construction art in which one can express big thoughts differently than before. "
The criticism of the two architects was directed towards an epoch in retreat of relish reference to the past, the colorful diversity of which had invited people to be amazed and wondered as well as to a learned conversation. In the artist studios of Munich and Vienna, with their picturesque disorder of historical set pieces from various works of art, curiosities and antiques, inspired by the spirit of Romanticism, lavish historical costume parties were staged for the higher society. Historical parades, such as the Vienna Makart pageant in 1879 with well over 2,000 participants and tens of thousands of onlookers, also served the self-staging of the bourgeoisie, proud of its economic achievements. Georg von Hauberrisser also enjoyed taking part in such costume parties and proudly had himself photographed in old German costumes with his wife Maria (née Wessely, 1849–1922).
Figure decorations
Farmer and brewer at the town hall tower
Miner and ironworker on the facade of the ballroom wing
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Both the tower, which is planned as a national emblem, which ends in a blunt helmet with four corner points and a gallery, as well as the hall wing, which is highlighted by rich windows in the style of medieval conference, court and representation rooms, are adorned with copper-driven figures under high tracery canopies that represent the old craft stalls Represent St. Johanns:
- Miner leaning on a sledgehammer, in the console plate: hammer and mallet
- Ironworker with hammer and anvil, in the console plate: hammer and blacksmith tongs
- Farmer with piglet and wicker basket, in the console sign: eagle
- Brewer with beer can, in the console sign: Lion, tearing an animal
- Tanner with lambskin and tanner knife, in the console plate: crossed knives and tanner tub
- Merchant with a wallet, in the console plate: a winged rod of Mercury
While it was clear at an early stage that the statues of a miner and a smelter would be placed on the consoles between the two town hall altars in the ballroom wing, the nature of the other figures had not yet been decided. It was not until November 23, 1901 that the Munich modeler Anton Kaindl was commissioned to design the remaining figures as a farmer, tanner, merchant and brewer in a height of 1.75 m. After tough negotiations, the city administration decided to have the models designed by Hygin Kiene in copper driving, when he had minimized the price per figure to 1200 marks. After Hauberrisser had given his place to be executed on May 21, 1902, the figures could be sent to St. Johann.
However, there were some problems with the installation. Kaindl did not take into account the small distance between the figures and the city hall wall and designed the statues on the back with lush folds. For this reason, the figure of the merchant had to be struck on the back when the display was in St. In the figure of the tanner, the lambskin was bent forward and the scissor handle was partially severed.
Regarding the design of the ironworker, Kaindl asked Mayor Neff whether it was permitted to portray him with a bare upper body without causing public nuisance. Neff replied diplomatically: "with a partially bare torso".
The modeling of the figure of the miner caused greater difficulties when Privy Councilor Hilger, the head of the mine management, believed he saw an ore miner in Kaindl's model and not a (Saarland) coal miner. By the end of 1903, the Bergmann model was reworked in such a way that it met the expectations in St. Johann and Hauberrissers. The final lineup was then on March 14th, 1904. The costs for the figures had largely been taken over by the respective professions.
Due to the long delay in the production of the copper drifting figures, the figure and the design of the console crest did not match. The sculptor Simon Korn had already made the consoles when the choice of professional groups was still being debated. Therefore, the coats of arms on the consoles do not match the statues of the farmer and brewer.
This self-confident portrayal of the St. Johann population can very well be interpreted as a power struggle of the bourgeoisie in the German Empire between the founding of the empire in 1871 and the end of the First World War in 1918.
Hôtel de Ville in Paris with the knights on the ridge rail
Rathausmann on the Vienna City Hall
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On the top of the gable of the hall wing, a knight in Gothic plate armor with a lance keeps watch over the city. Chivalric Roland statues on marketplaces and armored knights on town halls themselves have always served as a visualization of inviolable urban freedom and independence.
The Paris City Hall , which was built at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century, also featured a row of ten knights on the ridge of the central building. During the reconstruction of the town hall after the fire during the uprising of the Paris Commune from 1871 in the years 1873 to 1887, the knights were placed back on the ridge railing.
Hauberrisser's teacher Friedrich von Schmidt also adopted the knight motif of the reconstruction of the Paris City Hall, which was highly regarded at the time, when building the neo-Gothic Vienna City Hall, which was built from 1872 to 1883 : Here a knight ( Rathausmann (Vienna) ) was placed on top of the main tower. As a result, the knights on the newly built town halls of Paris and Vienna can definitely be seen as role models for the town hall knight of St. Johann.
Town hall St. Johann, St. Georg kills the dragon
Syrius Eberle: Sculpture “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon ”, New Town Hall Munich, corner of Marienplatz-Dienerstraße
New Town Hall Munich, Wurmeck
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The struggle between good and evil is at the edge of St. Johann Council Tower as a symbol of a 2.30-meter-high figure of the knight Holy St. Georg in Gothic plate armor of a writhing, winged dragon with a quiet air of a racing spit wide open in the Throat thrusts. Against the historical background of the conflict between Germany and France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 in connection with the related paintings on the front of the town hall ballroom, the group of figures, oriented towards the west, could also be an indication of the so-called " hereditary enmity " between the two Nations are interpreted. The figure of the dragon slayer Georg is a true-to-scale copy of the original in the possession of Count Fugger zu Babenhausen . Originally, it was planned to place a figure of Count Johann I von Saarbrücken-Commercy, who had granted St. Johann town rights, at this point. This plan failed because there were no suitable historical models available for such a figure.
The order to model the statue of St. George was awarded to Anton Kaindl on September 26, 1900 and to the coppersmith Hygin Kiene to manufacture it. Not only several requests for changes by Hauberrisser, but also the fact that the sculptor Kaindl had to move to a larger studio to make models (the dragon's tail alone measures approx. 3.50 m) delayed the delivery of the group of figures to St. Johann. It was not until September 10, 1901 that the group of figures was set up in the town hall's ballroom for public viewing. On September 15, 1901, it was assembled in the presence of the coppersmith Hygin Kiene.
The dragon has a clear parallel in the so-called Wurmeck at the southwest corner of Hauberrisser's Munich town hall (corner of Weinstrasse / Marienplatz) . As in St. Johann, the figure was modeled by Anton Kaindl in Munich and chased in copper by Hygin Kiene. In addition, the St. Johann St. Georg figure group also has a counterpart on the eastern corner of Munich City Hall (design: Syrius Eberle ).
All figures were modeled by Anton Kaindl from Munich and made as driving work by the Munich coppersmith of Hygin Kiene. The remaining sculptural stone carving work (heads, consoles, gargoyles) was made by the Munich sculptor Simon Korn. Simon Korn had done the stone sculptures based on his own designs and models on both the old and new Munich town hall of Hauberrisser and, subsequently, on the St. Paul's Church in Munich designed by Hauberrisser .
Carillon
Daily sounds today at 15:15 and 19:19 a glockenspiel .
First carillon
The installation of a carillon on or in the town hall tower had already been considered when planning the town hall. The first carillon with 19 bronze bells, however, was donated by the "Reichsbund für das Deutschtum abroad" (VDA) in 1933 in advance of the upcoming Saar vote for 1935 and was originally intended to be attached to the old town hall on Saarbrücken Palace Square, the then Saarbrücken police headquarters become. This should be interpreted as a massive provocation of the government commission by the German government, as the official seat of the president of the government commission, Sir Geoffrey George Knox, was diagonally opposite. But after the social democratic newspaper “Volksstimme” reported that the planned glockenspiel would play the Horst-Wessel-Lied and thus make National Socialist propaganda possible in the Saar area, which was then still administered by the League of Nations, this project was not brought about by a veto by the Saarland government commission.
Thereupon Lord Mayor Neikes made the tower of the St. Johann town hall available for the installation of the carillon. On April 20, 1934, on Hitler's birthday, the glockenspiel made by the Viennese tower clock and carillon manufacturer Emil Schauer was supposed to be ready to play, but difficulties with the French customs authorities and the elaborate production of the bells delayed the first use until October 27th 1934. The first songs that Saarbrücken's mayor Neikes reported to the government commission should include the miner's song (actually meant as the pro-German propaganda song “ Deutsch ist die Saar ”), the Großglockner song ( Carinthian national anthem ), “ Wanke not, my fatherland ” and “ God get Franz the Kaiser ”(actually meant as“ Germany, Germany above everything ”).
Finally, from October 27, 1934, the glockenspiel played the Prussian Hohenfriedberger March every day at 7.45 a.m. and then “Deutsch ist die Saar”, at 12.15 p.m. “German is the Saar”, the Grossglockner song (meaning the Carinthian national anthem “ Where Tyrol borders on Salzburg ”), the nationalist-anti-Danish Schleswig-Holstein song“ Wanke not, my fatherland ”( Schleswig-Holstein embraced by the sea ) and“ Germany, Germany above everything ”(officially“ disguised ”as“ God preserve Franz Kaiser ”), and at 7.15 p.m. the same music sequence as at noon to make daily musical propaganda in favor of a pro-German voting result in the Saar vote on January 13, 1935. The Carinthian Heimatlied was deliberately chosen because the song had been expanded to include a fourth verse penned by Agnes Millonig in 1930 to commemorate the Carinthian referendum of 1920 :
"Where manliness and faithfulness to women"
the homeland fought itself anew ',
where the line was written in blood
and remained free in need and death;
it sounds cheering brightly to the mountain wall:
This is my wonderful homeland! "
The bronze plaque for the carillon at the St. Johann town hall bore the following inscription:
“Through the hand of the VDA, the German voting areas donated the glockenspiel on the tower of this German town hall in memory of the community of struggle and in permanent commitment to the German borderland spirit as a testament to brave probation
Schleswig, East Prussia, West Prussia, Carinthia, Upper Silesia
on the occasion of the Saar vote January 13, 1935 "
During the evacuation of Saarbrücken, the carillon was damaged and melted down in 1941 for armament purposes.
Current carillon
It was not until 1998 that a carillon on the town hall tower was brought up for discussion again. The following year, 1999, was the thousandth anniversary of the first mention of the castle on Saarbrücken Castle Rock in a deed of donation by Emperor Otto III. This castle was first mentioned in the imperial deed of donation of April 14, 999 as the royal castle "castellum Sarabrucca", which was given to the Metz bishop Adalbero II . In a document dated April 3, 1065, King Heinrich IV had awarded the Saarbrücken Castle to the Bishop of Metz, Adalbero III. confirmed by Luxembourg .
At the suggestion of the cultural policy spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group, Irmgard Schmidt, the cultural committee of the Saarbrücken city council organized an ideas competition for a contribution from the cultural committee to the 1000th anniversary of the city of Saarbrücken. The suggestion to install a carillon at the town hall won out. The Glockenspiel initiative was founded and started collecting donations. At the same time, the Saarland Chamber of Crafts, under its general manager Udo Stein, agreed to donate the new carillon at a price of 150,000 DM. The funds already donated by citizens from the initiative could be used for a puppet game that complements the carillon. The largest bell of the carillon weighs 580 kg, the smallest 50 kg. The system weighs 5.5 tons in total. They were cast by the traditional French bell foundry Cornille-Havard in Villedieu-les-Poêles ( Département Manche ) in Normandy from April to May 1999 by Master Luigi Bergamo in the presence of a delegation from Saarbrücken. The bell tones are matched to those of the neighboring Johanneskirche. The bells form the coats of arms of the trades represented in Saarland. The inscriptions name the chambers of crafts in Saarbrücken, those of the neighboring city of Metz, those of the Department of Manche in Normandy and that of Saarbrücken's twin town Cottbus in Brandenburg . After a successful casting, the bells were installed in a steel frame in the André Voegele workshop in Strasbourg . The Strasbourg company installed the bells, the mechanics and electronics as well as the figures on the Saarbrücken town hall tower on June 24, 1999. The bells were consecrated by the Protestant pastor of St. Johann, Jörg Metzinger, and the Catholic regional dean Alfred Becker, while forty white doves rose into the air as a symbol of peace and European international understanding. The first melody played was “ Joy, beautiful spark of gods ” from Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony .
At the beginning of August 1999, a commission selected melodies for the glockenspiel from around 800 submissions from Saarland citizens. The first song for spring was “Auf du young Wanderer”, the summer song “ No beautiful country in this time ”, the autumn song “ Colorful are already the forests ” and the winter melody should be the Carinthian snow waltz. " Praise the Lords, the mighty King of Honor " was chosen as the Easter song, " Go out, my heart, and seek Freud " for Pentecost , " Silent Night, Holy Night " for Christmas and "Joy, beautiful spark of gods" .
The new songs of the carillon, which change depending on the season, have been accompanying three flat figures made of stainless steel and copper since August 28, 1999, which embody Saarbrücken's economic tradition: a hammer from the mining industry who strikes a bell, from the steel industry a moving blast furnace caster and from the trade a saw carpenter. The figures were made by the Gersweiler company Woll-Meißner at a price of 60,000 DM. Outside of the carillon time, the figures are hidden behind the battlements of the tower circumference and are only raised visibly during the carillon. The figure game still offers space for another figure, which could still be donated.
The characters are currently moving to melodies that change with the seasons. About 40 melodies of about 45 to 60 seconds in length are currently programmed via computer control. The municipal office of “Artistic Director of the Glockenspiel in the tower of the city hall of the state capital Saarbrücken” has officially existed on a fee basis since 1999. The office has been held by Christoph Keller (* 1962) since 1999. In a room halfway up the tower, all melodies are played and sent to the carillon via fiber optic cable. Christoph Keller is also the composer of the carillon song “In this city”. To mark the millennium in 1999, the city of Saarbrücken launched a competition to obtain a modern “city hymn”, which Keller won.
Ballroom
- Hauberrisser's council chambers in Munich and Landshut
New Town Hall Munich, small meeting room
New Town Hall Munich, large conference room with modern ceiling paneling
Hauberrisser's Rathausprunksaal in Landshut Town Hall
Georg Hauberrisser: Draft for the redesign of the town hall festival hall in Landshut with sketches by August Spieß, 1875
Georg Hauberrisser: Draft for the redesign of the town hall festival hall in Landshut with sketches by August Spieß, 1875
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The richly decorated ballroom in the town hall in St. Johann has a height of two floors and is mainly used for representative purposes. Around 1,000 weddings take place there every year. The original wedding room for civil weddings is located behind the west wall of the ballroom and is connected to it via two portals. While the right, smaller gate shows an owl opening a book with its claws as a symbol of wisdom, the carved Fraktur inscription “Echt und Recht in Rath und Dat” can be read above the left, larger portal.
The art glazing by the Saarbrücken window manufacturer Frese in the old wedding room comes from the reconstruction phase of the post-war period and addresses marriage. Neo-Gothic console heads that support the vaults show married women and men at different ages and thus point out the impermanence of human youth and the possibly long duration of the marital relationship. Furniture from the time of the builder has been preserved in the wedding room.
The St. Johanner Festsaal shows clear design parallels to Hauberrisser's meeting room of the magistrate (small meeting room) and its wall decoration by Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Younger in the Munich City Hall. While the two Munich council halls have large visitor galleries, this had to be avoided in St. Johann for cost reasons. Hauberrisser made do in St. Johann by adding a series of interior windows above the cycle of paintings, which, when opened, create a connection to a hall behind. For example, at public meetings, a larger number of visitors could take part in the Council's negotiations. Similar to the late historical ballroom of the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam , designed by Paul Schultze-Naumburg , the interior windows in St. Johann also enable it to be used as an orchestra box.
Another design parallel to the St. Johann council chamber is Hauberrisser's town hall grand hall in the town hall of Landshut (redesign 1876–1882, theme of the painting: The Landshut Wedding of 1475, painters: Rudolf von Seitz , Ludwig von Löfftz , Konrad Weigand, August Spieß) Hauberrisser designed the Landshut town hall festival hall in 1875. Here, too, as was the case in St. Johann, themes of the history of the city were staged in historical style on wall paintings. Likewise, the Landshut combination of neo-Gothic wall coverings, splendid chimneys and elaborate wooden ceilings were used again in St. Johann.
- Rathaus St. Johann, ballroom - fireplace - vestibule - stair access
Ballroom, looking towards the balcony with grand chandeliers
Chimney in the meeting room of the St. Johann town hall, design by Georg von Hauberrisser, Munich, May 15, 1902 (StA Saarbrücken, Bgm. St. Joh. 371, sheet 185)
Vestibule of the ballroom
Visitor gallery with windows to the town hall ballroom
Main staircase of the Hauberrisserbau from below
Portal to the town hall ballroom
Wedding room, marriage window
Wedding room, connecting portal to the town hall ballroom, console heads on the topic of age levels
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In 1880, a specially built hall-like extension of the town hall of Saarbrücken, today's Old Town Hall , was presented on Schlossplatz with a cycle of paintings by the painter Anton von Werner . This Saarbrücken town hall cycle depicts the storming of the Spicherer Berg on August 6, 1870, the arrival of King Wilhelm in Saarbrücken on August 9, 1870, an allegory of the unification of the German tribes (the famous " Viktoria " painting, the motif of which is used as a permanent stamp of the Reichspost was used) and portraits of Moltke , Bismarck , Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Prince Friedrich Karl . The extension was used as a representative council and ballroom.
This city hall expansion in Saarbrücken meant a boost in motivation for the city administration of the sister city of St. Johann to surpass Saarbrücken with an even more magnificent city hall ballroom and to cement its own claim to leadership. Since the design of the ballroom was not yet completed when the town hall was inaugurated, the room was initially designed provisionally. The ceiling of the hall was painted with two powerful imperial eagles. Tapestry-like friezes in the colors red and gold adorned the walls, which bore the coats of arms of cities in the Prussian Rhineland, the Bavarian Palatinate and the realm of Alsace-Lorraine. The windows were provided with artificial lead rods and decorated with imitation stained glass. The main piece of the hall was a painting by Max Usadel (1880–1950) from Düsseldorf, which showed Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Neue Saarbrücker Zeitung wrote in its issue of June 24, 1900 in a downright euphoric, Hohenzollern-devoted tone:
“The most elegant decoration of the hall, however, is the image of the emperor, placed behind the speaker's platform and created by the master hand of Usadel in Düsseldorf. Every inch a ruler and hero with the proudest bearing looks down on Kaiser Wilhelm II. A sense of duty, courage and determination, those virtues that Germany and the world respect in him, read the beholder from the solemn features of the monarch, and involuntarily let him express that he imagined his emperor to be this way and no other. "
Mural
Painting competition
On April 6, 1899, Mayor Neff asked the Prussian Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Matters in Berlin whether there was a possibility that the Prussian Art Fund could provide financial means to decorate the St. Johann town hall festival hall. In the response from the Ministry of June 14, 1899, Neff's request was in principle affirmed, but several conditions were made:
- Half of the costs are covered by the Prussian Art Fund, if the city of St. Johann pays the other half and the incidental costs.
- The expert procedure of the State Art Commission of the Kingdom of Prussia applies.
- Three prizes must be advertised: (1st prize: 3,000 marks, 2nd prize: 2,000 marks, 3rd price: 1,000 marks). The city and the ministry share the costs equally.
- For the competition, the city has to nominate three art experts for the judges.
- The Ministry receives photographs of the ballroom for the tender documents.
The city councilors and mayor Neff agreed to the conditions of the ministry and so on January 3, 1900 the ministry announced a competition to paint the St. Johann town hall festival hall. The sole requirement of the artists was that the paintings had to adapt to the architecture of the hall. Only Prussian artists or German artists who were resident in the Kingdom of Prussia were admitted to the competition.
On May 3rd, the city of St. Johann informed the ministry of the city's representatives in the jury: city architect Franz, city commissioner Knoblauch and architect Hauberrisser. A total of 16 designs were submitted for the competition. The award was made by the Royal Prussian State Art Commission on June 12, 1900. The awards were given as follows:
- 1st prize: Wilhelm August Wrage from Berlin (subject to minor design changes)
- 2nd prize: Oscar Wichtendahl from Hanover
- 3rd prize: Hans Koberstein (1864–1945) from Berlin, son of Karl August Koberstein
On July 12, 1900, the ministry set 33,000 marks as the fee for the competition winner Wrage for the painting of the St. Johann town hall hall. The Prussian history painter Wilhelm August Wrage, brother of the landscape painter and graphic artist Hinrich Wrage , had won first prize in his senior year. From 1898 to 1900 he had at the Kgl. Studied at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin and received the silver medal there. The painting of the council hall in St. Johann is considered to be his main work.
When Wrage began to paint the town hall hall, it turned out that his design drawings did not match the wall dimensions of the hall. Hauberrisser had given the painter incorrect measurements. So Wrage had to change the drafts again. Thereupon the city administration of St. Johann Hauberrisser reduced the fee claim received shortly before from 2000 Marks to 1000 Marks.
At the end of October 1903 Wrage had completed the painting in St. Johann and on November 5, 1903, the Berlin history painter Waldemar Friedrich Wrage's work, commissioned by the Prussian Ministry of Culture, rated Wrage's work as “good”. After examining the documents, the Ministry of Education confirmed Friedrich's report on December 7, 1903.
The intentions of the royal Prussian Ministry of Culture with regard to the state promotion of art at the St. Johann town hall building becomes extremely clear in a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II on December 18, 1901:
“ Art should help to have an educational effect on the people, it should also give the lower classes, after hard effort and work, the opportunity to get back on their ideals. For us, the German people, the great ideals have become permanent goods, while other peoples have more or less lost them. All that remains is the German people, who are primarily called to guard, cultivate and continue these great ideas, and one of these ideals is that we give the working, toiling classes the opportunity to rise above the beautiful and to work your way up and out of your other circles of thought.
If now, as is often the case now, art does nothing more than make the misery appear even more hideous, as it already is, then it sins against the German people. The cultivation of ideals is at the same time the greatest cultural work, and if we want to be and remain a model for other peoples in this, then the whole people must work with it, and if culture is to fully fulfill its task, then it must down to the lowest strata of the People have penetrated. It can only do that if art offers its hand to raise it instead of descending into the gutter. "
The visualization of the bourgeois claim to power in architecture, sculpture and painting and the emphasis it contains on an ideal world of social harmony arose from the longing for a desired land of old German bourgeoisie. In the town hall building in St. Johann and elsewhere in the German Empire, the urban bourgeoisie glorified themselves as patriotic bearers of national culture with the aim of self-legitimation in the past and present. This bourgeois longing, which was always associated with a latent fear of social upheaval, and its becoming visible in historicizing forms can perhaps be interpreted in the words of the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969): “What was subjectively a dream is objectively a dream of fear . "
After being damaged in World War II, Wrage's paintings were poorly repaired.
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On the orders of the French occupying forces, all Prussian eagles were painted over with white paint or hung with Saarland flags ( Saarland coat of arms 1948–1956 ). In 1973 (April 17 - July 12), the painter Nikolaus Josef Schmitt (1918–1996) from Nennig carried out restoration work on the historical frieze.
Painting content
Contents of Secco paintings on the long wall of the council hall (about 18 m to 3.5 m), the consecration of the St. John's Chapel in St. Johann by the bishop Arnulf of Metz (582? -640) and the awarding of city rights to the citizens of the fishing village St. Johann in 1321. Since Saarbrücken was first mentioned in 999, attempts were made in the sister city of St. Johann to place the beginning of the town's history in the early Middle Ages (consecration of the Johanneskapelle by Arnulf von Metz) in order to include it historically Saarbrücken to be able to compete. In the painting, the city elevation of Saarbrücken in 1321, which referred to both Saar cities (Saarbrücken and St. Johann), was shown exclusively limited to St. Johann. Instead of a naturalistically designed scene background, the artist Wilhelm Wrage created a medieval, historicizing gold background , which gives the depicted scenery an iconic, precious appearance, makes the paintings appear more flat and does not visually tear open the wall of the hall. The ornamentation of the gold background shows Gothic eagles in flower repeat. The horizontal lines of the ornaments should create the impression of a woven tapestry .
Image content of the painting part of the chapel consecration in the 7th century
The center of the arrangement of figures is Bishop Arnulf von Metz , ancestor and patron saint of the Carolingians , who is clad in magnificent regalia . Standing on a stone pedestal, the clergyman holds a simple bishop's staff in his left hand and consecrates the chapel of John the Baptist with his right in a gesture of blessing , the model of which is held up by a man kneeling on a pillow in a blue robe with trumpet sleeves. Below the romanized chapel model with rhombus helmet and semicircular apse, white, Art Nouveau stylized lilies and other flowers sprout from the lawn at the lower edge of the painting, which can be interpreted symbolically as an indication of the prosperity of the young town.
Which the chapel model wearing man is from an incense-making swinging young acolytes in white lace surplice with red tunic, a standard-bearer with romanisierender depiction of Christ in a mandorla and a curator accompanies the the Metzer Bishop a simple Romanesque altar crucifix holds out, which in its external form to the Imperial Cross reminds . The (blood) red color of the altar boys' undergarment and the associated tassel-adorned cape indicate the liturgical background: the memory of the martyrdom of the chapel patron John the Baptist.
Although Arnulf von Metz is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church (patron saint of beer brewers and millers), he is deliberately depicted without a saint nimbus in St. John, which was then largely Protestant . His clerical robe , a low miter , a Gothic chasuble with an episcopal pallium in Y-shape and a gown adorned with a cross , is dominated by the colors red, white and gold, the colors of the coat of arms of the diocese of Metz (symbols of the Metz diocese patrons: the silver sword of St. Paul and two golden stones of the stoning of St. Stephen on a red background).
Legend has it that Arnulf resigned his office as bishop in 629 and retired to the so-called Heidenkapelle am Halberg, where his alleged father, St. Arnual, already lived as a hermit. From there he initiated the construction of the chapel dedicated to John the Baptist in the fishing village of St. Johann. The fishing village then took over the place name St. Johann from the title saint of this chapel.
Behind Bishop Arnulf, a chronicler takes a document from his portfolio in order to have the bishop sign it to document the historical process. Lay brothers and students in long robes and wheeled cloaks, who also stand or kneel on a stone pedestal like the bishop, accentuate the episcopal ordination with their solemn chanting, carrying long stick candles, sheet music and prayer books.
Image content of the painting part of the city elevation of 1322
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Count Johann I of Saarbrücken, depicted with an old, leaf-galvanized count's crown , a mighty sword and in a splendid lordship's cloak , walking down a carpet-covered staircase accompanied by his first wife Mathilde von Apremont , hands over to the bearded Meier of St. Johann kneeling in front of him in 1322 the city rights and the letter of freedom.
Next to St. Johanner Meier in official costume, who has received the certificate and laid his headgear on the lawn in honor of the Count, his wife kneels in a green medieval robe. A blue-robed, rose-wreathed youth presses a leather document portfolio to his chest with his left hand, while his right hand stretches toward the count's document. In the meantime, drum beats and trumpet signals from musicians dressed in the late Middle Ages announce the completion of the official act.
The following people can be recognized in the crowd surrounding the Meier: a village elder, a young soldier , scholars , standard- bearers and a mother with a band hood and a small child in her arms, who respectfully holds a bouquet of roses to Countess Mathilde von Apremont. The Count's little son, Johann von Commercy († before 1344), asks a young man with a rose wreath and a ribbon of roses on his staff (rose as a symbol of the parish of St. Johann) to be lifted up in order to have a better view of the festive events.
The letter of freedom was announced in the name of Count Johann, his wife Mathilde and their son Johann: “We Johan grave von Sarbrucken and Herrre von Comercy and Metild gravinne and vrouve von den steden mentioned above and Johann our son customer to all those who see these briebe sulent or listening to read that our will is and was sol ymerme before us and before all our heirs and nakumen graven von Sarbrucken, that the Saarbrucken and Sente Johan dat dorf and all man and vouwen and ir heirs are divorced, whom we bit disen briben ymerme vrien through our use and improvement, which we in the two cities hou and nidere niet nemen wellent are still insolvent, when our fore stock graven von Sarbrucken is in the process. "
It is interesting in terms of linguistic history that St. Johann is still called "dat" village in the document. This, if the document was actually formulated on site by a local, is the historical evidence that St. Johann was still in the Moselle-Franconian-speaking area at that time and that today's " dat-das-limit " was pushed down the Saar to the disadvantage of "dat" Has. Today St. Johann lies entirely in the Rhine-Franconian-speaking area and one would say “the village” or, in a dialect, “(e) s village”.
In the background of the count, a banner with the Saarbrücken lion wafts. Young squires in courtly robes and diagonally wound headbands wear the Count's coat of arms and tournament helmets (pot helmet with lion helmet ornament and peacock feathers). Courtly dressed noble ladies and a colorful troupe of musicians form the end of the count's procession, who receive a roll of paper with ways of playing from a leaning down young man wearing a fashionable chaperon and wide trumpet sleeves. A white banner with the red St. Johann rose waving over the citizens' group is waved by a red-robed youth with a chaperone on his head. To celebrate the day, the St. Johann standard pole is hung with a flower- trimmed box wreath . A red standard flutters in the wind above it.
In contrast to the breeding history of the rose and the depiction of the rose in the St. Johann coat of arms as an unfilled, five-petalled flower, Wilhelm Wrage depicts the roses in the painting as heavily double centifolia roses , which, however, only emerged through breeding at the end of the 16th century. The lush rose decorations staged by the painter are just as astonishing, since the historical scene takes place in March 1322 and roses usually do not bloom before May / June at the earliest.
The painterly staging profiles the medieval order as a place of longing for another, preferably intact, splendidly sensual counter-world. Not the "dark", but a colored Middle Ages is shown to the viewer. The unification of the German Empire in 1871 must be taken into account as the political background to the conception of the painting . The approval of the empire and the imperial idea and the solidarity with the past and present of the Saar homeland were not contradictory for the client, neither in the past nor in their lifetime. With the harmony between feudal lord and bourgeois subjects depicted in the town hall ballroom, the viewer of the painting was able to see a prime example of medieval-feudal lordly harmony, as it is in the eyes of the client through the German unification "from above" with regard to the constitutional establishment of an empire on January 1st 1871 as well as the imperial proclamation on January 18, 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and the monarchical state structure thus completed in a modified-modernized form. The regional aristocratic rule of the County of Saarbrücken, which was established in the Middle Ages, seemed to contemporaries to be continued in legal history through the Prussian monarchy and the German Empire connected with it.
Coat of arms painting
The two historical scenes of the consecration of the chapel and the granting of city rights are separated by three coats of arms in rose ornaments:
Above: The coat of arms of the imperial ruling dynasty of the Hohenzollern since 1871 - the ancestral coat of arms of the Hohenzollern shows a shield divided into silver and black (" Zollernvierung ") - since St. Johann has been since 1815 by resolutions of the Congress of Vienna on Prussia and the Prussian province of the Grand Duchy Lower Rhine , which later became part of the Rhine Province , belonged.
Bottom left: A split coat of arms (coat of arms of the aldermen of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1462) with a gold-crowned, gold-armored and red-tongued silver lion in blue, sprinkled with silver crosses (coat of arms of the Counts of Saarbrücken-Commercy) and a red rose below in a silver field (heraldic rose of St. Johann).
The freedom letter of Count Johann I of Saarbrücken from 1321 also contained the command that
“ All those who are in this vriheide or are kumen, solent dun versigelen mitter stede ingesigel, what they buy ar sell or antweselen. "
However, it was not determined in this letter of freedom what appearance this awarded seal had. It can be assumed that the seal that was awarded was similar or identical to the seal that Count Johann III. von Nassau-Saarbrücken , the son of Elisabeth of Lorraine , on March 6, 1462 awarded to the lay judges of the city of St. Johann ("Sigillum Scabinorum opidi Sarabrucken et Sancti Johanis").
This coat of arms was in use until the outbreak of the French Revolution on the Saar in 1793. On December 22, 1817, the aldermen's coat of arms was due to the royal cabinet order of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. reintroduced and was until the separation of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann by the very highest cabinet order of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia from 3/15. May 1859 in use.
Below right: a red rose with golden seed pods and green sepals (Rose von St. Johann) in a white or silver field. After the separation of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in the urban order of the Rhine Province from 3/15 From May 1st, 1859, the city of St. Johann carried this coat of arms until June 19, 1876.
The mural is divided into two halves by the ballroom portal. Approximately in the middle of the two halves of the painting are the oblique prints of two fial and tracery-adorned neo-gothic splendid chimneys with coats of arms (black Prussian eagle with breast shield on top lion, below red rose).
On the occasion of the inauguration of the Winterbergdenkmal on August 9, 1874 to commemorate the Battle of Spichern on August 6, 1870, the Trier District President Arthur von Wolff had informed the assembled guests that King Wilhelm I of Prussia, since 1871 German Emperor, by the highest cabinet orders of July 29, 1874,
“ That the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann are allowed to use the Prussian colors in their coat of arms to commemorate their patriotic and self-sacrificing attitude during the last war. "
The Prussian Herald's Office then developed two alternative proposals for St. Johann :
- the city coat of arms of St. Johann (" Schöffenwappen " from 1462) with black and silver border or
- the Prussian eagle with the St. Johann "Schöffenwappen" from 1462 as a breast shield.
On June 19, 1876, the city council of Saarbrücken disregarded the alternative offer and decided in a request to Wilhelm I for both coat of arms alternatives. The request was approved by Kaiser Wilhelm I in his personal union function as Prussian king by cabinet order of November 20, 1876. The coat of arms was provided with an urban wall crown with three towers and the clover-leaf crosses surrounding the lion were replaced by four small paw crosses, each similar to the Prussian Iron Cross.
These two coats of arms were carried by the city of St. Johann until the city of Saarbrücken was formed in 1909.
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Painting on the west wall
On the west wall, Wrage depicted the crowned, black feathered and red armored imperial eagle with the breast shield of the Prussian eagle above the hall balcony . The breast shield is surrounded by the chain of the Prussian order "of the Black Eagle ", with the black eagle attached to the chain in the painting Contrasting against the black plumage of the imperial eagle are shown lighter. A fictional crown hovers over the head of the imperial eagle, reminiscent of the historical imperial crown , but differs from it by an additional bracket and some details. In the painting, the imperial crown is also missing the jewel trimmings.
From left to right (as seen by the viewer) the wide-span wings fluttered around by white ribbons bear the coat of arms of St. Johann, a coat of arms with a golden lion on a blue background (Nassau lion), the combined coat of arms of Upper and Lower Alsace, the coat of arms of Lorraine, a coat of arms with a silver lion on a blue background (Saarbrücker Löwe) and the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia. The imperial eagle with the coat of arms was whitewashed in white in the post-war period and was only reassembled when the hall was restored.
Under the wings of the imperial eagle, Wilhelm August Wrage painted the silhouette of the city of St. Johann with the towers of the Johanneskirche and the town hall as well as the dome of the post office. On the balustrade of the ballroom, floating, childlike angels hold an eagle shield with a breastplate decorated with lions and roses (St. John's coat of arms).
Below the balcony of the hall, Wrage placed two armored knights who flank the coats of arms of St. Johann and Saarbrücken with a lettering banderole (inscription: "Campaign 1870/71"): While the left knight watches vigilantly for possible enemies ("Wacht an der Saar" ), the one on the right looks up from a slain dragon (symbol of victory over France in 1870/71 ) at his feet. According to the artist, this should be understood as an award for the pro-German attitude of the Saar cities in the Franco-German War of 1870/71 .
Both knights wear late medieval armor. The visors are open. The knight on the left holds a standard, a sword and a long shield, which he holds behind him so that the coat of arms remains hidden. Over his armor he wears a belted tunic in reddish tones with cross ornaments. The armor of the knight on the right has rich gold ornaments. Golden protective pieces, so-called floating disks , in the form of roses are attached to the armpits . Red-colored ostrich feathers adorn the helmet . The knight holds a lance stick in his right hand, the end of which is still in the body of the killed dragon. Like his neighbor, he has a long-bladed sword attached to his belt. The long Gothic triangular shield in Manesse shape shows a red cross on a silver background, which can be interpreted as a reference to the Crusader Order of St. John . Both knights stand on a green piece of peg in front of a blue ornamented rose petal background.
A strong acanthus plant sprouts between the two knights , symbolizing the prosperity and defensiveness of the new empire. Between its branches it carries the coats of arms of St. Johann and Saarbrücken, which are connected by a common wall crown (with battlements, gate and loopholes). Below the coat of arms is a banderole with the inscription "Campaign 1870/71". A three-part banderole is placed above the coat of arms. The middle part of the banderole bears the inscription "Cabinetsordre". The left part names (in abbreviation) the date "July 29, 1874", the right part the date "November 20, 1876". The left date refers to the order of King Wilhelm I, which gave the Saar cities of St. Johann and Saarbrücken the Prussian colors, the right date refers to the acceptance of the two new St. Johann alternative coats of arms by Wilhelm I. The balcony vaults are ornamented in Gothic style, whereby the middle ornament forms an abstract Prussian iron cross .
The left and right of the outer Balkonkragsteine are the not bauzeit union arms of today's city Saarbrücken , but without the associated black royal Prussian eagle with the Prussian royal insignia on the head (crown) and the claws (scepter and orb ): "Within a of black and silver decorated shield border under a split silver shield head - inside on the right a red rose with golden seeds and green sepals, on the left a black mallet and a black iron crossed diagonally, under the ends of the handle a fallen black pliers - in blue a gold crowned, gold armored and red tongued silver one Lion, angled by four silver paw crosses (colors: blue and white). "
The large city of Saarbrücken, which was created in 1909 by the merger of the cities of Saarbrücken, St. Johann and Malstatt-Burbach with the consent of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the two houses of the Prussian state parliament on March 29, 1909, received this in a draft from Kaiser Wilhelm II personally Modified coat of arms on June 21, 1911, whereby the coat of arms was depicted as a breast shield of the Prussian eagle adorned with insignia. It was also known as the "emperor's coat of arms".
The coat of arms symbols were taken from the coats of arms of the three formerly independent cities: the rose comes from the coat of arms of St. Johann, Schlägel, Eisen und Zange come from the coat of arms of Malstatt-Burbach (according to the highest cabinet order of Kaiser Wilhelm I of July 10, 1874 with effect raised to the rank of town on June 3, 1875, award of the coat of arms by Kaiser Wilhelm II on October 4, 1897 following a municipal request on March 16, 1892) and the lion comes from the old Saarbrücken coat of arms. The coat of arms of the now united Saar cities is surrounded by a black and white band, the colors of Prussia.
This coat of arms was issued by the Saarland Interior Minister Alfred Wilhelm on November 3, 1976 with effect from November 20, 1976, the 100th anniversary of the award of the Prussian heraldic eagle or the Prussian colors black and white by cabinet order of Kaiser Wilhelm I to the cities of that time St. Johann and Saarbrücken, confirmed.
Stained glass
The stained glass of the ballroom was created by the Frankfurt artist and architect Alexander Linnemann , who was also responsible for the stained glass in the Leipzig Imperial Court building (1895) and the interior design of the Frankfurt Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew . The glass paintings were a gift from the Strasbourg merchant Carl Lamarche to the city of St. Johann. Lamarche donated "in memory of his parents", who had run a trading house in St. Johann, on February 10, 1902 from Paris for the round-arched tracery window 3000 marks, for the standing windows 1000 marks each and 1,142 marks for windows in the skylights and the hallways.
The facade windows show a noble knight (defensive status) in the left window, a farmer (nutritional status) in the middle window and a cleric (apprenticeship) in the right window, analogous to the medieval status .
The colors used, silver, blue, red, green and gold, take up the coat of arms colors of the old St. Johann city arms and those of the county of Saarbrücken.
Knight window
The knight in plate armor standing in front of a Gothic ornamented blue background has taken off his helmet and is wearing it in his left hand. The crest consists of greenish peacock feathers over a red and white intertwined bead of fabric and a golden crown of leaves. A sword hangs behind his belt. In his right hand he holds a lance with a waving red and white banner and a shield with the coat of arms of St. Johann, held by the Prussian eagle. A strip of rose fringes frames the knight and forms a gable above the figure, over which battlements rise. The flanking window strips have green and white checkerboard ribbons, which are decorated with four wreaths of rose petals, the coat of arms of St. Johann. Thistle leaves grow from the flower wreaths. A banderole with the inscription “Wehrstand” flutters in lush thistle tendrils below the knight, adorned with a thistle blossom. Saint George riding with the dragon appears above the knight in the tracery as a symbol of the victory of good over evil. In honor of St. George, two hands hold up green palm branches in front of a red ornamented background . Here the colors red-white-green take up the coat of arms colors of St. Johann.
Cleric window
The cleric, positioned like a knight in front of a Gothic ornamented blue background, wears a cantilevered beret as headgear . His white, floor-length robe is trimmed with fur at the bottom. An inkwell and a quill are hanging on leather cords from his belt. His long white beard, the frowning expression on his face and the walking stick on which his right hand rests indicate that he is older. Under his with lush gothic grisaille decorated -Ornamenten and writing bands rotgefütterten Pluviale the master pulls a mounted in red leather ornament Gospels forth. An agraffe with a cross motif holds the coat together over his shoulders. As in the depiction of the knight, the flanking window strips have green and white checkerboard ribbons adorned with four wreaths of rose petals, the coat of arms of St. Johann. Thistle leaves also grow from the flower wreaths. The banderole framed by thistle tendrils below the cleric shows the inscription “Lehrstand” in Gothic letters, adorned by the sprouting stamens of a pomegranate blossom . Above the cleric rises a late Gothic gable made of rose tendrils, which rests on pairs of green pillars. A golden candlestick with a burning candle appears in the gable as a symbol of scientific knowledge, surrounded by a lettering band with the word “knowledge”. Late Gothic arching pinnacles complete the window run. Above the cleric, in the tracery against a red background, a writing medieval Magister is shown at the desk and two students who hold their written work up to him for correction. A bundle of rods hangs on the desk to punish poor performance. Ornamental laurel and thistle branches symbolize the effort and cost of scientific knowledge. Here, too, the colors red-white-green take up the coat of arms colors of St. Johann.
Peasant window
The most elaborate of the three windows facing Rathausplatz is the one in the middle. In the middle lane it shows a pawn in front of a green ornamented background. The farmer wears reversible, short brown leather boots, late medieval, tight-fitting trousers, a check that is closed with nestles in board-à-board fashion, and a Gothic pointed hat adorned with golden leaves. The piebald's blue collar reveals a white linen shirt. The farmer's veined left hand reaches for a leather pouch that he has attached to his belt. His right hand holds a scythe. A sheaf of corn placed next to the farmer's legs indicates that he has successfully completed his harvesting work. A Gothic framework has a gable made of leaves in which a pelican feeding its young is depicted as a symbol of devoted care. Below that, a central white rose blossom becomes visible against a cloudy blue sky horizon. A banderole with the inscription "Nutrition Stand" flutters below the farmer. Closed bindweed flowers adorn the inscription in the neighboring window strips . A green boxwood wreath, adorned with three white roses, appears underneath in a transparent diamond pattern. A red heraldic shield is positioned within the wreath, showing a beehive with flying bees as a symbol of industry.
In the top of the window, which is designed as a five-pass, a plowing farmer with two oxen appears from the rear in front of intensely green foliage. Its billowing bike coat suggests dynamism. Over it he wears a brown gugel with an artistic, oak-leaf-like wreath on the hem. Under its Gothic felt hat a leinerne is Coif visible. A leather belt bag, blue trousers and Gothic leather boots complement his costume.
The farmer is flanked by two female figures. Both assistant figures stand in a frame made of red and white rose tendrils. In the left window panel, a youthful female figure with a flower wreath appears as an allegory of industriousness. Over a blue undergarment she wears a gold-ornamented, green-lined, late-medieval dress with a deep neckline, which is optically bordered by a green turn-down collar. She has attached a red rose as a symbol of loving devotion to the jewelry on the left breast, the side of the heart. Her right hand holds a standard with a white banner on which a well-fed ox can be seen as a symbol of strength. Her left hand lifts up a beehive as a symbol of industry. The word “Fleiss” in Gothic letters appears in a banderole below her red, Gothic-style spiked shoes on green foliage. In the triple pass above the allegorical figure, the artist has depicted three white roses against a blue ornamental background, which are connected by golden leaf garlands. A radiant sun face against a red background completes the window strip at the top as a symbol of the day.
The viewer recognizes another allegorical assistant figure in the right-hand window. The woman in the red-lined robe, also ornamented with gold, tucks her skirt so that her pink undergarment becomes visible. The word “Lohn” in Gothic letters appears in a banderole below her blue beaked shoes on green foliage. The woman's upper body is covered by a tight-fitting bodice so that you can see the wide-cut sleeves of her white linen shirt. While the wreath of flowers on the left assistant figure (industriousness) suggests a young and unmarried girl, the artist depicted the allegory of wages as a married woman through a white bonnet with fluttering linen ribbons. Goldtaler rains down from a leather sack above the figure in the tracery lace into her apron. Again the artist has depicted three white roses in a three-pass above the allegorical figure against a blue ornamental background, which are connected by golden leaf garlands. As a symbol of the night, a moon face in front of a red background completes the top of the window. The message to the viewer becomes clear: the work done during the day will result in rich wages at the end of the day.
The prominent depiction of the peasant with female assistants in the middle window can be interpreted as a sign of the self-assertion of the bourgeoisie, which historically emerged from the peasant class, as the bearer of the new St. Johann town hall towards the nobility and the church.
Between the tracery windows hang the banners of the Saarbrücken partner cities ( Cottbus in Niederlausitz , Tblissi in Georgia , Nantes in Brittany ), each surrounded by the blue and white Saarbrücken banners.
Bourgeoisie window
As a symbol of the bourgeoisie , Linnemann designed a crowned, allegorical female figure of St. Johann citizens' diligence (Industria / St. Johann), sitting on a magnificent rose and thistle tendril adorned throne with blue upholstered cushions, which is surrounded by 15 guild coats of arms . The female figure is wearing a white dress with gold ornaments. The hems of the dress top are trimmed with fur, the neckline is decorated with pearls. The figure's wide red cloak is lined with green and is held together on the chest by a silver, richly chased round strap with a blue gem in the center. While the coat colors take up the coat of arms colors of the red St. Johann rose with the green sepals , the color combination blue-silver-gold refers to the coat of arms of the county of Saarbrücken. The figure wears a gothic braided hairstyle under a white linen hood with ribbons fluttering at the sides, above a wall crown with battlements. Your gaze seems to be turned to the social stands on the side of the hall. She spreads her arms wide and presents the guild coats of arms around her.
In clockwise direction, the following professions are shown: shooters, blacksmiths, tailors, glaziers, doctors, fire departments, builders, painters, iron industry, carpenters, shoemakers, joiners, bakers, butchers, stone sculptors.
Above the throne of the allegorical female figure appears the representation of the city patron of St. John, St. John the Baptist with a halo, cross staff and the Agnus-Dei symbol in his hand (Lamb of God). The words on the slogan at the feet of the female figure are taken from the poem Das Lied von der Glocke by Friedrich Schiller from 1799 and read: "Work is the citizen's adornment, blessing is the price of effort."
Above the allegorical female figure there is a representation of the Archangel Michael with a sword and the eagle coat of arms of St. Johann in the top five pass . In the two five-pas on the side, food-collecting squirrels are depicted in oak leaf ornaments as an allegory of hard work and sustainability . The window is surrounded on the left and right with upright striding lions, ribbon ornaments, coats of arms ( mining , industry , trade , shipping ) and leaf tendrils on the walls.
- Window comparison Rathaus St. Johann - Old Town Hall Munich
Round-arched tracery window of the St. Johann council chamber
Arched tracery windows of the old Munich town hall in the late 19th century, view from Marienplatz towards the valley
Hauberrisser designed the large round-arched tracery window facing Kaltenbachstraße based on the model of the round-arched windows in the council chamber in the old Munich town hall (built 1470–1480 by Jörg von Halsbach ), which today no longer have tracery after being destroyed in the war.
The stained glass survived the bombing raids of the Second World War because they were expanded and kept in Rockenhausen in the Palatinate. It was not until 1950 that they were installed again in the tracery windows of the ballroom.
Town Hall St. Johann; Ballroom; Wall painting; Striding, crowned lions with the coats of arms of miners and mechanical engineers
Town Hall St. Johann; Ballroom; Wall painting; Striding, crowned lions with the coats of arms of merchants and boatmen
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The bourgeoisie window is flanked by wall paintings with striding lions with golden leaf crowns in rich ornaments and grape tendrils as well as four guild coats of arms (from left to right: mining, mechanical engineering, trade, boatmen). These murals were whitewashed in the post-war period and restored in the 1980s restoration phase.
Hall ceiling
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for the beams of the wooden ceiling of the conference room (1901)
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the ceiling design of the conference room (1901)
Town hall St. Johann, ceiling of the ballroom
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's design for ceiling lights (1902)
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The neo-Gothic wooden ceiling of the ballroom with rich carvings and turning work, which arches across the room with six profiled arch elements, was made by the Munich company Till according to Hauberrisser's design (cost 30,000 marks). The twelve alternating female and male shield holder figures made of limewood and wooden consoles were designed by the Munich sculptor Simon Korn (cost: 5,412 marks). In the earlier design of the ceiling of the town hall festival hall in Landshut, instead of the shield holder figures in St. Johann, Hauberrisser had attached historical coats of arms of important city families, including demon grimaces in the style of Gothic gargoyles .
- Town hall festival hall St. Johann, shield holder figures
Virgin
religion
Defensibility
Miner
Merchant
music
education
administration
Postal services
household
youth
care
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When the carpentry work was awarded to Munich, there was a scandal among the St. Johann craftsmen. The St. Johann entrepreneur Daniel Müller had submitted an offer at the same price as the Till company. In addition, she protested against alleged claims in the city council that no local company could deliver a quality that corresponds to that of the Munich companies. Thereupon, to appease the heated tempers, the city council announced that the contracts had been awarded to Munich so that Hauberrisser could better monitor them there.
Interior design
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft of the wall design for the ballroom, west side (1899)
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft of the wall design for the ballroom, north side (1899)
Town hall St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the paneling of the commission room (1903)
Town hall St. Johann, flat-cut decor of the wall paneling in the town hall ballroom
Rathaus St. Johann, Georg von Hauberrisser's draft for the paneling of the conference room (1902)
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The wooden doors have carved sayings (above the wedding room door: “Real and right in advice and action.” / Above the main entrance door: “Always stand - never stand still.” ) Two hang down from the ceiling large neo-Gothic bronze chandeliers tinted with old gold and decorated with flowers and leaves made of chased brass. The chandeliers were manufactured in the foundry in Mainz (cost: 19,597.61 marks). The paneling in neo-late Gothic style has flat-cut decors in vegetable forms.
Ratskeller
- Ratskeller
Town hall St. Johann, entrance to the Ratskeller (right)
Ratskeller St. Johann shortly after the opening
Ratskeller Neues Rathaus (Munich); Vault painting originally designed by Heinrich Schlitt for the council cellar of the St. Johann town hall
Wall painting in the Munich Ratskeller "When wine and beer are at war ..." by Heinrich Schlitt
Ratskeller Neues Rathaus (Munich); Detail of the vault painting by Heinrich Schlitt
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At the opening ceremony, the Ratskeller was still in the shell. In order to be able to lease it, tenders were placed in the press as early as December 1899. Since no potential tenant reported to the city administration, a second advertisement was made in January 1900. Even at the time of the inauguration, St. John's Day 1900, there was still no lease. In this situation, the interior work on the Ratskeller did not begin until 1907. However, the first provisional gastronomic use had already taken place on January 27, 1905, the birthday of Wilhelm II .
Decorative design
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First of all, the painter Theodor Feilenbach from Hagenau in Alsace was brought up for discussion about the painting of the Ratskeller . But the city council postponed the design for an indefinite period in May 1900.
Then Hauberrisser recommended the Munich painter Heinrich Schlitt for painting the Ratskeller , who later also painted the Ratskeller in Hauberrisser's Munich City Hall. The theme of the planned painting was "The battle of beer against wine". Heinrich Schlitt was already a well-known artist in the Saar area. Among other things , he designed ceramics for Villeroy & Boch at the beginning of the 20th century . The beer mugs he designed for the Mettlach ceramics company are still sought-after collector's items on the art market today . Schlitt was also in collaboration with colleagues from the year 1890 in the Ratskeller of the also of Georg von Hauberrisser designed the new town hall painted in Wiesbaden the "beer hall". The humorous frescoes were - although under monument protection since the 1930s - destroyed in 1987 for "cost reasons".
After disputes between the city administration of St. Johann and Schlitt about the amount of the payment for the painting, Schlitt demanded his St. Johann sketches back and painted the Munich Ratskeller from 1905 onwards (subject: “When wine and beers meet war - who will win, who will be defeated? ").
On February 20, 1908, the city of St. Johann announced a limited competition for the decorative design of the Ratskeller. The renowned artists Paul Haustein , Hugo Eberhardt , Richard Riemerschmid and the St. Johann graduate engineer Jäckel were asked. The city's condition was that all artists had to orient themselves towards the late Gothic art epoch. Hausein, Eberhardt and Riemerschmid refused to participate because they did not want to submit to the late Gothic style and they also considered the remuneration to be too low. Jackel's draft was not taken into account.
Thus, in 1908, the city administration turned to the builder of the town hall, Georg von Hauberrisser, to work out a design concept. In the end, Hauberrisser agreed to take on the order (design of the paneling, furniture, lighting and radiator cladding) for a fee of 4,851 marks. However, it was limited to pure ornament painting without figurative decorations. Here, too, there were immense differences of opinion between Hauberrisser and the city administration over payment.
From 1908 on, the glass painting was done by Alexander Linnemann from Frankfurt am Main (windows in the Great Hall and in the Council Chamber), who had already designed the windows of the Council Chamber, and Anton Freese from St. Johann (windows with ornaments and banners in the beer hall ). The 13 Ratskeller windows with humorous depictions from local history were created in particular by Alexander Linnemann's son , Rudolf Linnemann . Documents on this can be found in the Linnemann archive. Today only the historical Linnemann windows from the first glazing are preserved.
An underground beer cellar was created in the courtyard. The kitchen equipment was supplied by the Saarbrücken stove manufacturer C. Koch in March 1909. After the work was completed, the Ratskeller could be leased to the restaurateur Franz Gräfe in April 1909. The opening took place on Easter vigil on April 10, 1909. For the opening, Gräfe had a whole truckload of draft beer come from the Mathäser Bräubierhallen in Munich, which was then the largest beer bar in the world.
For the design of the rooms, Hauberrisser had created 235 drawings and the municipal building office had created 144 drawings for the functional rooms. The total cost was 112,879.99 marks.
Due to the extension of the town hall by city architect Ammer, the Ratskeller in the Kaltenbachstrasse wing was significantly expanded in the 1920s. In addition to new storage and cooling rooms, it was given another council room and a large wine restaurant. A new Ratskeller entrance in Kaltenbachstrasse was added to improve access. The furnishing and design of the interior was analogous to the expressionist style elements and decorative shapes of the exterior facade. The new Ratsweinkeller was opened on June 24, 1925.
After the destruction in World War II, the Ratskeller was used as a canteen for the French occupying forces. When the Saar floods at the turn of the year 1947/1948, the Ratskeller was flooded up to the vaults and Hauberrisser's facilities were almost completely destroyed. A high water mark on the corner of the town hall on Kaltenbachstrasse still indicates the natural disaster.
The establishment of the arcade in Betzenstrasse required the previous Ratskeller entrance to be filled in. The Saarbrücken City Planning Director Peter Paul Seeberger then completely redesigned the rooms of the Ratskeller from 1961. The former council chamber became today's main entrance, the former main entrance in Betzenstraße became a side entrance in the new town hall arcade, and the former wine bar in Kaltenbachstraße was converted into a kitchen. The redesigned Ratskeller was opened on April 27, 1963 and offered space for up to 400 guests. The renovation costs amounted to 1,270,000 DM. Part of the Ratskeller became the city canteen. The vestibule was decorated with a sgraffito by Max Mertz , which depicts the god Bacchus .
Mertz adorned the “Saar” room (70–125 seats) with a forged grille depicting Lukullus . The preserved Linnemann windows show:
- A drunken husband who has shouldered a bird-pointing monkey is expected by his angry wife with a broomstick.
- “Traffic once”: a restaurateur says goodbye to a stagecoach leaving in front of his inn
- "Verkehr now": A Wilhelminian-style couple, a boy in a sailor suit , a balloon seller and a policeman marvel at an airship circling over the soft landscape of St. Johann and Saarbrücken
- “Police once”: A cozy bailiff from the old St. Johann city guard, armed with a pike , ensures peace and order in a square where passers-by stroll.
- "Police now": The imperial police are doing their job. Linnemann caricatures the empire as a police state in a humorous way. Several grim-looking gendarmes are posted behind every single lantern, although only a small dog is trotting across the street.
- "The opponents of the city association": Sitting under a entwined arbor, facing away from each other, three sour-looking opponents of the city association with a glass of wine in front of the backdrop of the churches of St. Johann, Saarbrücken and Malstatt-Burbach. Her antiquated clothing from around 1850 is intended to illustrate her stubborn backwards agility.
- “The advocates of the city association”: Three gentlemen with bowler hats in what was then the modern clothes from around 1900 stand in front of a sign with the city names of St. Johann, Saarbrücken and Malstatt-Burbach. A green young tree in front of the representation of the St. Johann town hall symbolizes the hope for prosperity of the future united city of Saarbrücken. The city colors "white-blue" and the imperial flag " black-white-red " waft from the tower of the town hall
In addition, the following rooms were designed:
- “Pfalz” room (24–60 seats): grape motifs in the stained glass windows by the Blieskastel artist Hans Dahlem
- Room “Alsace-Lorraine” (140–120 seats): stained glass window “The fox with the grapes” by György Lehoczky and motifs from Alsace and Maursmünster by Hans Dahlem
- Tower room (8-12 places)
- Room “Mosel” (24–60 seats): stained glass window with the Porta Nigra , the Trier cathedral and the Roman Neumagen wine ship by Hans Dahlem
- Ratsstube (12–124 seats): stained glass windows with Saarbrücken motifs by Hans Dahlem
- Luxemburger Stube (4-8 seats)
- Hauberrisser-Stube (8-14 places)
In accordance with Hauberrisser's request, a clock was not installed in any room. On April 25, 1909, Hauberrisser replied to the city administration when asked at which point in the St. Johann Ratskeller a clock should be attached:
“It is not practical to put a clock in the Ratskeller. The guests should not be made aware of the time. "
The Ratskeller is now a eatery with a cocktail bar. Events also take place there. The small theater in the vaulted cellar offers a venue for puppet theater, chamber plays and small concerts.
Town hall fountain
Telemach Fountain
In 1902 a town hall fountain was set up in front of the west wing of the town hall, donated by the former town councilor Emil Haldy for 20,000 marks. The well stock, from which the water flowed through six outlets into a round and then through the mouth openings of six masks into a hexagonal well basin, was decorated with figures of women.
At the top of the town hall fountain was a marble statue of Telemachus , the son of Odysseus and Penelope, girded with a sword . It is said that the initiative to erect the Telemachos figure came from the German Empress Auguste Viktoria , who advised Mayor Neff on this when he was looking for a suitable object to decorate the new town hall square. The statue, which caused considerable public outrage due to its nudity, was the work of the sculptor Ludwig Cauer , who had worked on prominent works of the time (e.g. Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument , Berliner Siegesallee , Bismarck National Monument before the Reichstag building ). Cauer had already created the Telemachos figure in 1890 as a standing figure without reference to the fountain. The marble figure, based on the Greek classical period, had no direct reference to the fountain basin and the town hall, both of which are committed to the medieval spirit. There was also criticism why a Justitia figure or a statue of Count Johann I from Saarbrücken had not been placed on the pedestal, because Telemachos had no connection whatsoever with the history of the city.
The St. Johann-Saarbrücker Volkszeitung, the official press organ of the Center Party on the Saar, said in its edition of June 4, 1902:
“The new town hall fountain resp. the naked figure of the same was discussed yesterday in a very disapproving manner in all strata of the population. The overwhelming majority of the spectators only had words of indignation about this “modern work of art”. As the sender of these lines was credibly informed, a gentleman witnessed a conversation which children had while looking at this figure. It is not possible to reproduce the wording here. However, we would like to advise all parents to ensure that their children stay away from the Rathhausplatze from now on, until this modern work of art has disappeared from the scene again in this representation. The fact that it must be removed under all circumstances should probably not be questioned by anyone. "
A day later, the same newspaper said:
"The town hall fountain is currently the talk of the day here. Seldom has a public monument been judged more negatively by the public than the figure placed on this fountain. The ordinary layman's understanding does not understand how, with the innumerable ideas that can be realized in all possible forms in a fountain, one had to resort to a nastily depicted naked person. The authorities very correctly draw attention to the fact that bathers in the Saar must be dressed in bathing trunks, and here in the open market, directly from the town hall and very close to the Johanniskirche, a guy in an Adamite costume is set up who has no other than a helmet Has trace of clothing. At the risk that "art" suffers as a result, there will be no choice but to put the hideous figure in bathing trunks until it is removed from its place. "
The Catholic clergy of the Saarbrücken dean's office sent an angry letter of protest to the Royal District Office regarding the naked figure, saying:
“In St. Johann, a completely unclothed male figure has found a display on the fountain in the market square, which violates the Christian moral law in the most gross manner. We do not want to deny that a keen art connoisseur can succeed in overcoming the moral disgust for disgusting nudity and admiring only the art in this figure. But for the great number of people this statue is a serious nuisance. The common man sees in it a license issued publicly by the authorities for all immoral displays. The blush of shame rises on the foreheads of women and virgins when they are forced to walk past this hideous naked figure and at the same time have to hear the foul remarks of shameless men. And for our children this figure is the murder of their innocence. Called to educate the people in morality, it urges us to express our deepest indignation at the setting up of this image that scorns all morality. We ask Ew. Highly born (meaning the district administrator!) To want to cause the figure that was erected in a public place to contempt God's commandment to be removed from this place. "
As a result of the complaints against the naked Telemach figure, which in a protest call was called the “unchaste stumbling block of St. Johann” and 414 women from St. Johann had signed a petition for demolition, a special meeting of the city council had to be convened. In the heated debate, Mayor Neff vigorously defended the statue and finally managed to get a majority of those who gathered 16 to 2 votes to keep the fountain figure.
In 1936, the Telemach Fountain on the forecourt of the St. Johann town hall was officially removed due to "limited space" in view of NSDAP marches. The marble statue of Telemachus, rediscovered in the rubble of the Ratskeller after the war, was then put up again in the Saarbrücken palace garden. Today it stands in a wall niche in the suburban street.
Phoenix fountain
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From 1959 to 1960 there has been a fountain with a metal fountain sculpture in front of the town hall . The fountain bowl is by Hans Ulrich, the bronze sculpture by Max Mertz . The fountain by Max Mertz was donated in 1959 by the Stadtsparkasse Saarbrücken on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the city. Within the low, round water basin, the oval bronze sculpture rises like a "rising phoenix ", according to the artist at the time. Three pillars protrude from the inner well shell and unite in the lower quarter of the sculpture. From here they rise like a bud in the form of a mandorla , which creates flaming connecting bridges in the style of late Gothic tracery. The flaming-gothic form refers to the architectural forms of the neo-late gothic town hall Hauberrisser. The three-part motif of the sculpture can be interpreted as a merger of the three formerly independent cities (old) Saarbrücken, St. Johann an der Saar and Malstatt-Burbach in 1909. The fountain sculpture was cast by the Malstatter red and yellow foundry Martin Luck. The jets of water rising diagonally from the walls of the well originally met in the center of the mandorla and then fell into the inner well basin. From here they poured into the large basin, from which medium-sized spring fountains rose, which were illuminated at night. The water features were out of order for a long time and are now only slightly bubbling.
Fish fountain
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In 1964, Saarbrücken artist Paul Schneider created a wall niche fountain made of basalt lava and metal for the new town hall arcade in Betzenstrasse . Above the watercourse protruding from the wall, a stylized fish made of thin metal rods is set, from whose mouth the water pours into the goblet-like fountain. According to Paul Schneider, the fish motif was referring to the early Christian ICHTHYS motif .
Granite fountain
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A rectangular fountain basin made of granite blocks (4.20 × 6.70 m; height: 0.40 to 1 m) was built in 1965 (inscription on the basin) in front of the town hall (corner of Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße / Betzenstraße). On the side facing the town hall, the fountain basin shows the coat of arms of Saarland and that of today's city of Saarbrücken with a stylized wall crown. The fountain basin was built on the occasion of the installation of the Rathausarkade in Betzenstrasse and the installation of a new entrance to the old Ratskeller. The city council decided on the construction project in 1962. The redesign of the town hall forecourt under the direction of the then town building director Peter Paul Seeberger had become necessary because the street level had been raised, but the plinth of the town hall with the windows of the Ratskeller did not want to be filled in. The level in front of the town hall was differentiated from the surrounding streets in order to keep cars away from the town hall stairs. The fountain basin, from which three spring fountain fountains rise as a symbol for the association of towns in (Old) Saarbrücken, St. Johann an der Saar and Malstatt-Burbach, together with a tree planting and flower obelisks, mediate between the two levels.
Art installations
Cenotaphs
Bust of Johanna Kirchner
Favors panel in the main stairwell
Bust of Willi Graf
Bust of Heinrich Böcking
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Spread over the premises of the town hall there are numerous memorials for citizens of the city who have made a special contribution to the community. Mayors and honorary citizens are immortalized in paintings, memorial plaques or busts. In addition, plaques commemorate the city's many dead in the world wars of the 20th century.
Respecta sculpture
In 1994 the Zurich artist Barbara Caveng (* 1963) designed a four-meter-high sculpture entitled “Respecta” next to the rectangular town hall fountain. The sculpture was designed by the artist as a tall, corpulent female figure with huge buttocks, a raised middle finger, a washing machine with blood-red textiles in the stomach and a Madonna head with a crown of lights. The public argued so bitterly about the Respecta figure that the Saarbrücker Zeitung's letters to the editor were full. There were heated panel discussions and even the national press reported. The sculpture was removed again.
Historical events
Visit to the House of Baden
On July 20, 1902 the 50th anniversary of the day on which the then Baden Prince Regent and later Baden Grand Duke Friedrich I by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Had been appointed chief of the Rheinische Lancers Regiment no. 7 ( July 20, 1852), a big ceremony was held in the St. Johann town hall.
Grand Duke Friedrich I, who on January 18, 1871 , had proclaimed the Prussian King Wilhelm I as German Emperor in front of the assembled princes in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles , remained closely connected to the regiment . It was later officially renamed the Uhlan Regiment "Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden" (Rheinisches) No. 7 in his honor. The regiment founded in 1734 was a Prussian cavalry regiment with garrisons in Bonn, Saarlouis and St. Johann / Saarbrücken. The district command settled on Landwehrplatz in St. Johann. The primarily military and only secondarily geographical decision for the location of the St. Johann train station on the right bank of the Saar had already increased the rank of St. Johann considerably. The future location of the district command was estimated to be so central to the future of the two cities that the mayors of the rival cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann, Neff and Feldmann personally took up arms and dueled on October 22, 1894.
As a result of illness, Grand Duke Friedrich was represented by Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich II at the festivities in the St. Johann town hall on July 20, 1902 . On September 29th, Grand Duke Friedrich I made his visit to the town hall in St. Johann amid great pomp and honored his regiment.
Visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Shortly after the completion of the town hall ballroom, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress Auguste visited Viktoria on May 14, 1904 , who had come from Metz to the inauguration of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument by the sculptor and Rietschel student Adolf von Donndorf on the Alte Brücke . the St. Johann town hall.
The visit of the German imperial couple had been prepared with immense effort by the two cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann. During the imperial march from the train station to the town hall alone, which was accompanied by members of the 7th Dragoons and Uhlans Regiment , 10,000 miners stood in line . In the town hall ballroom, the imperial couple had Wilhelm Wrage's wall paintings explained to them, accepted a cup of honor with Saar wine and signed the city of St. Johann's Golden Book , before the monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I was ceremoniously unveiled to the tune of 600 singers and patriotic speeches .
- St. Johann Emperor's Cup
The imperial cup of the city of St. Johann from 1904 consists of gilded silver and is based on council silver pieces from the late Gothic and early Renaissance, such as those from the council silver treasure of the city of Lüneburg . The goblet with metal drifting in the style of a historical humpback goblet is carried by crowned Prussian eagles on rose-adorned pedestals and adorned with drifted vine leaves and vines. Gothic plate is located on the cuppa the imperial arms St. John's in enamel work , crowned by a battlement and surrounded by a laurel wreath. The lid is crowned by a Saar miner with a pickaxe. The cup is now in the Saarland Museum .
Foundation of Debeka
The Debeka company was founded on July 2, 1905 as a health benefit fund for the municipal officials of the Rhine Province in the council chamber of the St. Johann town hall. A memorial plaque unveiled on June 20, 2017 in the main entrance area of the town hall commemorates the event.
End of the First World War
On November 9, 1918, as a result of the lost World War I, a workers 'and soldiers' council was formed in Saarbrücken, which took over power in the St. Johann town hall. On November 22, 1918, French troops under General Léon Grégoire marched into Saarbrücken. On November 24th, after negotiations with Lord Mayor Emil Mangold , District Administrator Carl von Halfern , civil servants and four representatives of the Workers' Council , Grégoire ordered the dissolution of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council and thus ended its sovereignty in the town hall.
Connection to the German Reich
In the Saar vote on January 13, 1935, 90.73 percent of voters voted for unification with Germany, 8.87 percent for the status quo and 0.4 percent of voters for unification of the Saar region with France.
On March 1, 1935, on the occasion of the reunification of the Saar area with the German Reich, Nazi Gauleiter Josef Bürckel was announced by Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick in the presence of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , other cabinet members, numerous Nazi party functionaries and the Bishops of Trier ( Franz Rudolf Bornewasser ) and Speyer ( Ludwig Sebastian ) in his new office as Reich Commissioner for the Saar area. After Adolf Hitler , who had already been granted honorary citizenship of the city of Saarbrücken by Mayor Neikes on May 1, 1934 (display of a Hitler bust on the town hall balcony), had taken a parade of Nazi party formations in front of the town hall, he wore himself in the “Golden Book of the City of Saarbrücken ”. Afterwards he received "old Saar fighters" in the town hall ballroom and officially announced the annexation of the Saarland to the German Reich to the population from the town hall balcony, with never-ending calls for salvation from the masses present. The town hall square was subsequently renamed “Platz der Deutschen Front” ( German Front ). Previously, the square was called "Johanniskirchplatz", then "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz". It was only after 1945 that the square was given the name "Rathausplatz", which is still valid today.
On the occasion of the reintegration of the Saar region into the German Empire, the contours of the St. Johann town hall up to the top of the tower were lavishly equipped with light bulb strips in order to be able to put the building in an impressive scene at night. The first, albeit more modest, festival lighting of this kind, which only traced the contours of the battlements, had already been given for the so-called “ Millennium Celebration of the Rhineland ” in 1925, a pro-German propaganda event. The rest of the building on Rathausplatz was also equipped with these lightbulb strips. On the corner tower of the house complex opposite the town hall on the corner of Betzenstraße / Stephanstraße / Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße, both strips and numerous light bulbs from March 1935 have been preserved.
End of World War II and US occupation
On March 21, 1945, US troops captured the so-called "Saarbrücken Fortress" from two sides. In Saarbrücken only about 7,000 inhabitants were counted (from about 130,000 before the war). The Nazi mayor of Saarbrücken and Forbach Fritz Schwitzgebel had already left the town hall on the run from the US troops, but was arrested on July 13, 1945, interned, and on October 22, 1948 in the judicial proceedings in group I ("main culprits" ) and sentenced to four years in prison. On April 14, 1949, he was released early from the Theley internment camp on condition that he leave the Saar Protectorate.
US Colonel Louis G. Kelly took over the town hall of St. Johann, which had been badly damaged by the war, and had the US stars and stripes raised over the tower portal. On March 22nd, Kelly organized a citizens' meeting in Saarbrücken, which was almost depopulated by the evacuation, at which around 50 Saarbrücken residents elected the new municipal councilors Heinrich Detjen and Richard Neu. On March 24, 1945, the American military administration appointed Heinrich Wahlster Lord Mayor of St. Johann's Town Hall. On the same day a police office was set up in the St. Johann town hall.
On March 30, 1945, the city administration appointed by the US occupation forces met for their first meeting in City Hall. On August 15, 1945 Wahlster resigned from the office of head of the Saarbrücken city. Thereupon the US occupation troops appointed Emil Heim provisionally as Lord Mayor of Saarbrücken from August 15, 1945 to September 1946 (i.e. until the first local election). After the first post-war municipal election, Franz Singer was honorary mayor of the St. Johann town hall from 1946 to 1949.
French occupation
Since the three occupying powers, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States of America , had also granted France its own zone of occupation in Germany at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, according to the Berlin Declaration of June 5, 1945, French troops replaced the American troops on the left bank of the Rhine and took over military control there. As a result, on July 29, 1945, the French replaced the Americans in Saarland as the new occupying power. The French occupying forces took their official residence in the St. Johann town hall. General Morlière was initially the French military governor for the Saar area.
On August 30, 1945, Colonel Gilbert Grandval replaced General Morlière in the town hall of St. Johann and was appointed the new military governor of the Saarland. As a Délégué Supérieur, he was at the head of the French military government on the Saar (French names: Gouvernement Militaire de la Sarre and Délégué Supérieur de la Sarre ).
On October 4, 1945, the French governor Grandval received the provisional French head of state General Charles de Gaulle , Minister of War André Diethelm, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and General Marie-Pierre Kœnig on the occasion of a "state visit" in the town hall of St. Johann. In a speech, Charles de Gaulle assured the Saarlanders to help with the reconstruction.
On September 15, 1946, the first democratic local elections were held in the St. Johann town hall. With a nationwide voter turnout of 93.8%, the CVP received 52.4% of the votes, the SPS 25.5%, the KPS 9.1%, and Free Lists 13%.
Foundation of the Saar state
On May 27, 1947, the Saarland government commission opened its work with a solemn meeting in the town hall ballroom. All the Prussian eagles in the room were optically covered. A draft constitution was drawn up in 22 meetings and was completed on September 25, 1947. On October 5, 1947, 50 deputies were elected as members of the Legislative Assembly of Saarland. On 15 December 1947, was in Rathausfestsaal Constitution of the Saarland by the Legislative Assembly in Saarbrücken adopted and constituted the first constitutional parliament of Saarland.
City leaders in the St. Johann town hall
- 1888–1909: Paul Alfred Neff
- 1909–1919: Emil Mangold
- 1919–1920: August Carl Klein (acting)
- 1921–1935: Hans Neikes
- 1935–1937: Ernst Dürrfeld , NSDAP (suspended on September 2, 1937 and forced into retirement on December 31 of that year)
- 1937–1945: Fritz Schwitzgebel , NSDAP
- 1945: Heinrich Wahlster
- 1945–1946: Emil Peter Heim (Mayor)
- 1946–1949: Franz Maria Singer , center , later CVP (mayor)
- 1949: Heinrich Barth (Mayor)
- 1949–1956: Peter Zimmer , SPS (mayor)
- 1956–1957: Johann Ecken (alderman)
- 1957–1976: Fritz Schuster , DPS , from 1970 CDU
- 1976–1985: Oskar Lafontaine , SPD
- 1985–1991: Hans-Jürgen Koebnick , SPD
- 1991–2004: Hajo Hoffmann , SPD (suspended from August 2002)
- 2002–2004: Kajo Breuer , Greens (acting head of the city administration)
- since 2004: Charlotte Britz , SPD
Local constitutions in the town hall
Kingdom of Prussia
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Prussia gained considerable areas west of the Rhine, which it combined with former western territory. St. Johann as part of the newly acquired area retained the municipal constitution from the French period. The first modification of this constitution came in 1845, when the new right to vote for the city council was introduced.
With the introduction of the Rhenish City Code in 1856, a more modern municipal self-government began in the Rhineland . The Prussian city ordinances of 1808 and 1831 formed the basis for the legal development of the Rhenish city ordinance. St. Johann received the city ordinance on May 3, 1859 at the same time as the neighboring city of Saarbrücken.
The new town order brought modernization, but the old social order was retained and the right to vote was bound to property. The city council elected the mayor. In cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, such as St. Johann, the mayor had to be confirmed by the Prussian king.
The mayor represented the city externally and was the chief superior of the city administration. The city council served to advise, control and support the mayor. In St. Johann, the city council consisted of 18 members, plus the mayor, who chaired the committee. The mayor was responsible for civil affairs, passport issues and residents' registration. The state gradually gave the cities the right to independently regulate municipal tasks. These included:
- Introduction, change and repeal of city ordinances, tax regulations, fee regulations and contribution regulations
- Preparation of municipal budgets
- Approval of funds
- Administration and use of community assets
- Taking out loans and bonds
- Sale, encumbrance, rental or leasing of urban land and real estate
- Changes in the urban area
- Granting of honorary citizenship
- Establishment of planning committees to deal with urban tasks
Only men over the age of 24 had the active and passive right to vote in the city council. In addition, the right to vote was regulated according to the three-tier or census voting system. The three-class voting right divided the citizens into three classes with regard to the amount of their tax payments. Each of these departments elected a certain number of city ordinances.
The highest class was made up of the wealthiest citizens of St. Johann, who paid around a third of the total amount of tax within the city. This group of St. Johann citizens elected a whole third of the city council assembly (first 6, later 8 city councilors). Around 1900 this highest and richest tax group comprised between 8 and 80 men.
The second division was divided into those voters who made the largest tax contribution among the remaining eligible voters, until a third of the total revenue was reached again. The remaining voters formed the 3rd division.
Three councilors acted in St. Johann to support the mayor.
Around 1900 only one member of the town hall was permanently paid: City Builder Wilhelm Franz. The offices were: registry office, registry, city accounting, city treasury, tax office, city building office and surveying office.
Without taking the police into account, around 1900 there were around 20 full-time employees in the St. Johann town hall. City architect Wilhelm Franz was the only one with an academic degree.
League of Nations
After the separation of the Saar area from the German Empire by the Treaty of Versailles , the old Rhenish town order of 1856 remained in effect.
However, with the change that the elections now had to be general, equal and secret, in accordance with the Weimar Constitution . Thus women could now vote and be elected. The first woman to move into the city council in St. Johann's town hall was Agnes Kaiser (SPD).
time of the nationalsocialism
With the annexation of the Saar area to the German Reich on March 1, 1935, the territory was not reassigned to Prussia and Bavaria, but was directly subordinated to the Reich leadership. In July 1935 the "German Municipal Code" was introduced. Accordingly, the city councilors in Saarbrücken were no longer elected, but were determined independently by the mayor and representative of the NSDAP. The mayor himself was also selected by party ordinance of the NSDAP. This largely ended urban self-government.
Despite his Nazi-friendly attitude, Lord Mayor Hans Neikes was pushed out of office by Gauleiter Josef Bürckel in April 1935 after the Saar referendum. His successor Ernst Dürrfeld , installed by the NSDAP, was removed from office by the party in 1937 due to incompetence and alcoholism. The last mayor appointed by the NSDAP was Fritz Schwitzgebel until he fled from the US troops .
Time after World War II
After the Second World War, honorary mayors and councilors were initially appointed. You were the chairman of the city council. The administrative business was carried out full-time by a general secretary and city directors.
With the annexation of the Saar state to the Federal Republic, the posts of the mayor and the alderman became full-time. On January 15, 1964, the “Law on Local Self-Government (KSVG)” came into force. In 1974, through the regional and administrative reform, the Saarbrücken neighboring communities of Dudweiler, Altenkessel, Brebach, Bübingen, Ensheim, Eschringen, Fechingen, Gersweiler, Klarenthal, Schafbrücke and Scheidt were incorporated into Saarbrücken. As a result, the population of Saarbrücken rose suddenly from 123,006 to 209,104 inhabitants (+ 70%).
Today, a Lord Mayor presides over the city administration in St. Johann's Town Hall. The mayor presides over the city council (but does not have her own right to vote there), prepares and executes council resolutions. In addition, the mayor is the representative of the city of Saarbrücken and embodies the local police authority of the city.
Since 1994 the mayor has been elected by the citizens of Saarbrücken in a general, direct, free, equal and secret ballot based on the principles of majority voting. The city council consists of honorary members for 5 years and is created by primary election.
The city council today has the following decision-making tasks:
- Change of the municipality area
- Issuing statutes and rules of procedure
- general determination of public duties and fees under private law
- Issuance of the budget charter
- Preparation of a budget security plan
- Consent to significant extra and unscheduled tasks
- Commitment authorizations
- Establishing investment programs
- direct and indirect holdings
- Loans and similar transactions
- Joining special-purpose associations
- Establishment of public institutions and commercial enterprises
- Appointment, recruitment and dismissal of senior city officials
- Formation of council committees
- Election of the aldermen
The full-time councilors represent the mayor in their absence, support them in a division of labor and are bound by instructions. The first alderman has the title of mayor. The councilors are civil servants for 8 years. Currently, a mayor, five councilors and an administrative officer work in the St. Johann town hall, supported by around 1,700 employees.
literature
- Marianne Albrecht-Bott: Saarbrücken - city guide. 2nd updated edition. Petersberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86568-146-1 , pp. 21-23.
- Irmgard Christa Becker (Hrsg.): 100 years town hall St. Johann. Exhibition for the hundredth birthday of the St. Johann town hall from August 4th to 8th, 2000. Saarbrücken 2000, OCLC 313930866 .
- Peter Burg: Saarbrücken 1789–1960. From the residential city to the industrial center. (= Saarland Library. 14). Gollenstein, Blieskastel 2000, ISBN 3-933389-22-4 .
- Helma Dillenburger: The building history of the town hall in Saarbrücken-St. Johann. Scientific work, University of Education Saarbrücken 1968.
- Helmut Enders: Saarland, then and now. Komet, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89836-760-8 , pp. 102-103.
- Marlen Dittmann: City architecture art of the late 19th century: Town Hall and Town Hall Square in Saarbrücken. ed. from the state capital Saarbrücken, Department for Education, Culture and Science and the Institute for Contemporary Art in Saarlouis, Saarbrücken 2015, ISBN 978-3-938070-91-8 .
- Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904–1945. (= Saarland booklets. 3). Ed .: Heinz Quasten, Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland , Saarbrücken 2004.
- Oscar Doering: Two Munich architects, Gabriel von Seidel, Georg von Hauberrisser. (= The art of the people. No. 51 and 52). ed. from the General Association for Christian Art Munich. Munich 1924, pp. 14-15.
- Jo Enzweiler (ed.): Fountain in Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken 1995, ISBN 3-928596-21-7 .
- Georg Hauberrisser: My course of life. Munich undated (probably 1916). (Typewritten manuscript, Munich City Archives, Department: Mayor and Council 298/1, 478/1, 596, 620, 1652, 1672, 2006.)
- Martha Hauberrisser: Family memories of Georg Josef von Hauberißer. In: The onion dome. 8th year, Regensburg 1953, pp. 304–307.
- Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first service: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, OCLC 313152330 .
- Friedrich Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. In: Saarbrücken miners' calendar. Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 151-168.
- Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Dölling and Galitz, Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, ISBN 3-937904-24-7 .
- Fritz Kloevekorn : Saarbrücken's past in the picture. Saarbrücken 1934.
- Charlotte Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberrisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. In: Hans-Walter Herrmann , Hanns Klein (ed.): Festschrift for the 650th anniversary of the award of the freedom letter to Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Historical association for the Saar region , Saarbrücken 1971, OCLC 492841632 , pp. 445–451.
- Charlotte Kranz-Michaelis: The German town hall in the empire - studies on shape and program. Dissertation . Tübingen 1971.
- Charlotte Kranz-Michaelis: Town halls in the German Empire, 1871–1918. (= Materials on the Art of the Nineteenth Century. Volume 23). Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7913-0384-8 .
- Cultural Department of the City of Saarbrücken (Ed.): Saarbrücken, 50 Years of the City 1909–1959. Saarbrücken 1959.
- Ekkehard Mai , Stephan Waetzoldt (ed.): The town hall in the empire. Art-political aspects of a building project in the 19th century. Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-7861-1339-4 .
- Albert Ruppersberg : History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914.
- Karl August Schleiden : Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen an der Saar 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028569-1 .
- Camillo Sitte : Urban development based on its artistic principles is increasing its “urban green”. Reprint of the 4th edition from 1909, Basel / Boston / Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-7643-6692-6 .
- Josef Stübben : Urban planning. Reprint of the 1st edition from 1890 (= Handbuch der Architektur / Fourth Part), Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-528-08675-0 .
- Werner Theis, Irmgard Christa Becker, Hans Mildenberger: The town hall St. Johann - The town hall of Saarbrücken. State capital Saarbrücken, Office for City Marketing and Public Relations (Ed.), Saarbrücken 2009.
- Heinz-Toni Wappenschmidt: Studies on the equipment of the German town hall hall in the 2nd half of the 19th century to 1918. Dissertation. Bonn 1981, ISBN 3-7749-1770-1 .
- Rolf Wittenbrock: Urban planning in St. Johann in the 19th century. In: Saarbrücker Hefte . 60, 1988, pp. 83-129.
- Rolf Wittenbrock, with the collaboration of Marcus Hahn (Ed.): History of the City of Saarbrücken. SDV, Saarbrücker Druck und Verlag, Saarbrücken 1999, ISBN 3-930843-41-2 .
Web links
- Rathaus St. Johann at saarbruecken.de
- Literature on Rathaus St. Johann in the Saarland Bibliography
Individual evidence
- ^ Population development in St. Johanns according to Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, p. 129: Population: 1815: 2,500; 1840: 3,379; 1855: 4,452; 1864: 6,500; 1871: 9,143; 1875: 10,689; 1885: 13,634; 1890: 14,357; 1895: 16,788; 1900. 21.266.
- ^ Residential building development St. Johanns after Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, p. 130: Number of residential buildings: 1793: 184; 1872: 508; 1887: 829; 1900: 1.237.
- ↑ Development area according to Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former County of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, p. 130: 1870: 42 hectares; 1900: 95 hectares.
- ↑ Saarbrücken population figures according to Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the unified city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, p. 112: 1628: 2.732; 1779: 3,000; 1802: 3,065; 1815: 3,500; 1840: 4,702; 1846: 4,839; 1855: 5,242; 1864: 6,180; 1871: 7,680; 1875: 9,132; 1885: 11,951; 1890: 13,718; 1895: 15,679; 1900: 23,237; 1907: 29.048.
- ↑ Development of residential buildings in Saarbrücken after Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the unified city of Saarbrücken until 1914, p. 112: Number of residential buildings: 1890: 818; 1900: 1,505.
- ↑ Malstatt-Burbach population development according to Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, p. 189: 1802: 719; 1820: 1,181; 1830: 1,349; 1841: 1,930; 1849: 2,395; 1856: 2,728; 1858: 3,145; 1861: 4,488; 1864: 5,769; 1869: 6,920; 1871: 9,615; 1875: 12,487; 1880: 13,157; 1885: 14,950; 1890: 18,379; 1895: 23,677; 1900: 31,200; 1905: 38,554; 1910: 46.031.
- ^ Factories and their workers in Malstatt-Burbach in 1907 according to Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken. Revised and expanded after Friedrich and Adolf Köllner. 3 parts in 4 volumes. III. Part, 2nd volume: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914, pp. 190–191: Burbacher Hütte: 4879; Maschinenfabrik Ehrhardt & Sehmer: 778; Cast steel mills: 633; Böcking & Dietzsch cement factory: 183; Waggonfabrik Gebrüder Lüttgens: 120; Thomas Slag Milling Company: 56; Maschinenfabrik Fitze: 82; Messmer machine works: 47; Metal foundry by Röper & Wüstenhöfer: 73; L. Pabst's checkout cabinet factory: 42; Saarbrücker Betonbau-Gesellschaft: 114; Total number of employees: 7,007.
- ↑ Dr. Köster: Historical outline of the population development in the Saarbrücken settlement area. In: Saarbrücken, 50 Years of the Big City 1909–1959. ed. from the cultural department of the city of Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken 1959, p. 67.
- ^ A. Ruppersberg: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the unified city of Saarbrücken up to 1914. P. 62 ff.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, Alt-Saarbrücken inventory, No. 653.
- ^ Fest-Zeitung for the inauguration of the new town hall in St. Johann. 23/24 June 1900, quoted from Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann an der Saar. P. 445.
- ↑ Stübben worked on the city expansion plans in nearby Saarlouis. (Petra Schuh: The Protestant Church in Saarlouis. In: Our home, bulletin of the Saarlouis district for culture and landscape. 25th year, issue No. 2, Saarlouis 2000, pp. 49–70.)
- ↑ a b A. Ruppersberg: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken until 1914. P. 137.
- ^ Edith Ruser: Art Nouveau architecture in the Saarland. Saarbrücken 1981, p. 66.
- ^ KA Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. P. 319.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 7-11.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv-Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 389, 7–8.
- ↑ a b c d e Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 389.
- ↑ Georg Hauberrisser: Mein Lebensgang, Munich undated (probably 1916), typewritten manuscript, City Archives Munich, Department: Mayor and Council 298/1, 478/1, 596, 620, 1652, 1672, 2006.
- ↑ Martha Hauberrisser: Family memories of Georg Josef von Hauberißer. In: The onion dome. 8th year, Regensburg 1953, pp. 304–307.
- ↑ Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 446, note no. 7.
- ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberisser (1841–1922) and his main work. P. 226, note no.131.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 167, note no.10.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 372, p. 355.
- ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Pp. 74-86.
- ^ H. Dillenburger: The building history of the town hall in Saarbrücken-St. Johann. P. 2.
- ↑ Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 447.
- ↑ Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 447, note no.15.
- ↑ Ernst Badstübner: Art history picture and building in historical styles. An attempt on the interrelationships between the understanding of art history, monument preservation and historical building practice in the 19th century. In: Karl-Heinz Klingenburg (Ed.): Historicism, Aspects of Art in the 19th Century, ( Seemann, Contributions to Art History , 8), Leipzig 1985, pp. 30–49.
- ^ A b Stephan W. Krieg: The Leipzig City Hall and other Wilhelminian City Halls. In: Peter Leonhardt, Thomas Nabert (Ed.): Arx Nova Surrexit. The history of the new town hall in Leipzig. Leipzig 1998, p. 107.
- ↑ Stuttgart City Hall. State capital Stuttgart, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
- ↑ a b I. C. Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. P. 19.
- ↑ The “Stone House” in a new guise, 30 years of the Frankfurter Kunstverein. In: Frankfurter Verkehrsverein (Ed.): Frankfurter Wochenschau. Bodet & Link, Frankfurt am Main 1937, pp. 470-471.
- ^ Carl Wolff, Rudolf Jung, Julius Hülsen: The architectural monuments in Frankfurt am Main. Published with the support of the city and the administration of Dr. Johann Friedrich Böhmer's estate from the Architects and Engineers Association and the Association for History and Antiquity. Frankfurt am Main, self-published by the two associations, 1896–1914.
- ^ Kurt Lotz (ed.): The canvas house in Frankfurt am Main. City of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 1984.
- ↑ Werner Wolf-Holzäpfel: The architect Max Meckel (1847-1910). Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2000, p. 131.
- ↑ Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 447, note no.14.
- ^ A b Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 153.
- ^ Saarbrücker Zeitung. March 23, 1897, 1st sheet, p. 2.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 154.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 466.
- ^ Saarbrücken City Archives St. Johanner Zeitung. June 16, 1900, 1st sheet, p. 4.
- ^ Saarbrücken City Archives, Neue Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 24, 1900, p. 2.
- ^ Saarbrücken City Archives St. Johanner Zeitung. June 16, 1900, 1st sheet, p. 4.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 11-13.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 33-34.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 371/373.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 371/372, p. 362, p. 372, p. 386.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 373.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 372, p. 371/373.
- ↑ Bergmannskalender 1905. P. 71 f.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 166.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives St. Johanner Volks-Zeitung. June 23, 1900, 1st sheet, p. 1.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, G 4355, note from April 1, 1915, p. 66.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, G 4355, application from January 7, 1919, p. 83.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, G 4355, application of July 13, 1922, p. 147.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, G 6679, letter of March 11, 1925.
- ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. Pp. 74-75.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 20-21.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, G 6658b, plans from March 28, 1936.
- ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. Pp. 75-76.
- ↑ State capital Saarbrücken (Ed.): 100 Years of the City Hall of St. Johann, Saarbrücken 2001, CD-ROM, p. 172.
-
↑ * July 29/30, 1942; RAF; Area bombing; 185 dead, 396 buildings destroyed, 324 badly damaged, 5706 homeless
- August 28/29, 1942; RAF; Area bombing; 1 dead, 15 buildings destroyed, 51 badly damaged
- September 19/20, 1942; RAF; Area bombing; 1 dead, 6 buildings destroyed, 13 badly damaged
- October 04, 1943; 8. USAF; Shunting stations Saarbrücken u. Saargemünd; 3 dead, 2 buildings destroyed, 20 badly damaged, 35 homeless
- 02/11/1944; 8. USAF
- May 11, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 202 dead, 239 buildings destroyed
- May 23, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 73 dead, 71 buildings destroyed, 81 badly damaged, 1,400 homeless
- May 27, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 17 dead, 68 buildings destroyed, 72 badly damaged
- 06/28/1944; 8. USAF; 33 dead, 159 buildings destroyed, 236 badly damaged
- June 28/29, 1944; RAF; Nuisance and attempt attack; 1 dead, 6 houses destroyed, 13 badly damaged
- July 13, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 1 dead, 119 buildings destroyed, 163 badly damaged
- 16.07.1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 19 dead, 280 buildings destroyed or damaged
- 07/19/1944; 8. USAF; 51 dead, 424 buildings destroyed or damaged
- 07/21/1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 13 dead, 73 buildings destroyed or damaged
- August 3, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 11 dead, approx. 1000 buildings destroyed or damaged, approx. 2000 homeless
- August 9, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 3 dead, 593 buildings destroyed or damaged
- August 11, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 12 dead, 350 homeless
- October 05/06, 1944; RAF; Area bombing / traffic routes; 361 dead, 5882 houses destroyed, 1,141 badly damaged, 45,000 homeless
- October 9, 1944; RAF; Nuisance and attempt attack; 57 dead, 168 buildings destroyed or damaged
- October 14, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 127 dead, 117 buildings destroyed, 86 badly damaged
- October 15, 1944; RAF; Nuisance and attempt attack; 7 dead, 1 building destroyed, 17 damaged
- October 31, 1944; RAF; Nuisance and attempt attack; 3 dead
- November 4, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 2 dead, 182 buildings destroyed or damaged
- November 9, 1944; 8. USAF; Marshalling yard; 6 dead, 658 buildings destroyed or damaged
- January 13, 1945; RAF; Area bombing / shunting yard; 21 dead
- January 14, 1945; RAF; Area bombing / shunting yard; 1 dead, approx. 1400 buildings destroyed
- ↑ Doris Seck : It began 40 years ago. Saarland war years. Saarbrücken 1979, pp. 44-47.
- ↑ Saarbrücken town hall gets its old face. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. December 5, 1952, p. 3.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 167.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 372, p. 326 and p. 343.
- ^ Dahlem, Hans , Künstlerlexikon Saar, accessed on September 27, 2015.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 21-22.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 22-23.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 24-26.
- ^ Marlen Dittmann: Saarbrücken after 1974: Urban development and housing. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 591-592.
- ^ M. Albrecht-Bott: Saarbrücken - city guide. P. 23.
- ^ Paul Burgard, Ludwig Linsmayer: 50 years of the Saarland. From incorporation into the Federal Republic to the state anniversary. ( Historical contributions from the Saarbrücken State Archives, Volume 5), Saarbrücken 2007, p. 370.
- ^ The German cities, described based on the results of the first German city exhibition in Dresden in 1903, ed. v. Robert Wuttke, Volume 1, Leipzig 1904.
- ↑ Alexandra Raetzer: " City hall model is the most valuable loan" . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung . November 15, 2008 ( online [accessed March 31, 2016]).
- ↑ Built in 1878, extension from 1884/85 destroyed in World War II.
- ^ Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Dölling and Galitz, Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, pp. 207–208, 202–203.
- ↑ Michael Andreas Schmid (ed.): St. Paul in Munich, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2010, p. 36.
- ^ Oscar Doering: Two Munich architects, Gabriel von Seidel, Georg von Hauberrisser. (= The art of the people. No. 51 and 52). ed. from the General Association for Christian Art Munich. Munich 1924, pp. 14–16, 20, fig. 34.
- ↑ Wolfgang Haubenreisser: The bay windows as an architectural motif in the German city. Dissertation. Tübingen 1959, p. 59.
- ^ Draft drawing published in: Deutsche Bauzeitung. 1887, p. 614; Printed in: Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Dölling and Galitz, Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, pp. 211–212.
- ^ Christian Baur: Neugotik ( Heyne Stilkunde, Volume 26), Munich 1981, pp. 207–210.
- ^ Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung. Volume 16, Berlin 1896, No. 47, p. 519.
- ^ Ingolf Bauer (Ed.): The Bavarian National Museum. The new building on Prinzregentenstrasse 1892–1900. Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7774-8740-6 , pp. 43-47.
- ↑ Hanspeter Draeyer: The Swiss National Museum in Zurich. History of construction and development 1889–1998. (= Swiss National Museum. Illustrated volume 6). ed. from the Swiss National Museum, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-908025-26-5 .
- ↑ Quoted from Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücker Rathaus in St. Johann an der Saar. P. 151.
- ↑ Hermann Beenken: Historicism in architecture. In: Historical magazine. 157, 1938, pp. 27-68.
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: Possibilities and aspects of historicism. In: Historicism and fine arts. (= Studies on 19th Century Art. Volume 1). Munich 1965, pp. 13-24.
- ↑ Quoted from Munich City Archives: Presseamt 1019, Ludwig Hollweck: Munich and his town hall. Manuscript, p. 23.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 154 f.
- ↑ Udo Arnold: German Order 1190-2000, A guide through the German Order Museum in Bad Mergentheim, ed. v. Maike Trentin-Meyer, Baunach, 2004, p. 10.
- ↑ Technical University of Munich, Hauberrisser's estate, letter to parents dated March 27, 1867.
- ^ Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, p. 44 and p. 201–202.
- ↑ In 1963 the Hauberrisser family donated a large inventory of plans and sketches for various Hauberrisser projects to the Munich City Museum. Another six sketchbooks from 1872–1894 went to the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich.
- ↑ Beeh: On the meaning of the tower. In: Yearbook for Aesthetics and General Art History. 6, Stuttgart 1961, p. 185 ff.
- ^ Stephan W. Krieg: The Leipzig City Hall and other Wilhelmine city halls. In: Peter Leonhardt, Thomas Nabert (Ed.): Arx Nova Surrexit. The history of the new town hall in Leipzig. Leipzig 1998, pp. 104-105.
- ↑ German construction newspaper. Volume 37, No. 63, Berlin, August 8, 1903, p. 406.
- ↑ Ralph Gleis (Ed.): Makart, An artist governs the city. Catalog for the 373rd special exhibition at the Vienna Museum, June 9 to October 16, 2011. Munich 2011.
- ^ Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, p. 198.
- ^ Hygin Kiene: born on January 11th, 1863 in Holzkirchen in Upper Bavaria, Miesbach district; died in Munich on January 6, 1928; Married Therese Geltl from Markt Rohr in 1895 in the parish of St. Bonifaz in Munich; Kiene was initially self-employed, then employed in auxiliary services and after the First World War unemployed, in May 1892 he moved from Holzkirchen to Munich. (Data from the police registration form transmitted by Brigitte Huber, Munich City Archives, information from December 19, 2013; Kiene is also the creator of the Tilly monument in Rain am Lech. The monument on the market square (Rathausplatz) was donated by the Augsburg Congregation and opened on 19 December 2013 July 1914 - two weeks before the outbreak of the First World War - solemnly unveiled.)
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 906.
- ^ F. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 158.
- ↑ Walter Krause: The sculpture of the Vienna Ring Road, From late romanticism to the turn of around 1900. In: The Vienna Ring Road, picture of an epoch. ed. v. Renate Wagner-Rieger, Volume IX / 3, Wiesbaden 1980, p. 100 f.
- ^ Walter Krause: The building structure of the Vienna Ringstrasse. In: History of the fine arts in Austria. Volume 5, 19th century, ed. v. Gerbert Frodl, Vienna 2002, p. 217.
- ↑ Traute Fabich-Görg: Wiener Stolz, the town hall sculptures and their models in the Vienna Museum. Catalog of the sculptures in the Vienna Museum. Volume 1, Vienna a. a. 2003, pp. 41-44, 169-171.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 466 / No. 906.
- ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. P. 64.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 13-14.
- ↑ Hohenzollerische Volks-Zeitung. July 22, 1909.
- ^ Saarbrücken City Archives St. Johanner Zeitung. November 21, 1898, p. 2.
- ↑ Copy of an article in the Volksstimme from March 31, 1934, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 3897, pages 2–3.
- ↑ Copy of an article in the Volksstimme of April 7, 1934, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 3897, sheet 4.
- ↑ Inquiry from the government commission of the Saar area about a carillon on the old town hall in Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, March 29, 1934, copy of the StA Saarbrücken: inventory Großstadt No. 3897, sheet 1.
- ↑ Reply from Mayor Dr. Neikes at the request of the Saarbrücken government commission, April 9, 1934, copy of the StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 3897, sheet 6.
- ^ Offer from the Viennese tower clock manufacturer Emil Schauer for the glockenspiel at the Old Town Hall in Saarbrücken, Vienna, February 24, 1934, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, pages 7–8.
- ^ Result of a meeting with Emil Schauer on the production and installation of the carillon, City Building Office Saarbrücken, March 6, 1934, memo, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 19.
- ^ Letter from Oberbaurat Kruspe to Emil Schauer regarding the installation of the carillon, Der Oberbürgermeister, Saarbrücken, April 9, 1934, draft StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 27.
- ^ Status report from the municipal building department to Mayor Neikes on the setting up of the carillon, municipal building department Saarbrücken, April 21, 1934, draft, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 37.
- ↑ Status report on customs law problems with the import of the glockenspiel Städtisches Hochbauamt, Saarbrücken, April 24, 1934, memo, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 38.
- ↑ Status report on the delivery of the glockenspiel, Städtisches Hochbauamt Saarbrücken, May 15, 1934, draft, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 46.
- ^ Letter from the forwarding company Anterist & Schneider on the customs treatment of the glockenspiel, Saarbrücken, June 27, 1934, copy, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt, No. 4369, sheet 66.
- ↑ The information provided by Mayor Dr. Neikes opposite the government commission on the planned carillon on the St. Johann town hall tower, Saarbrücken, April 18, 1934, copy of the StA Saarbrücken, inventory of the city no.3897, sheet 8.
- ↑ Letter from the Lord Mayor regarding the commissioning of the glockenspiel and the song sequence, Saarbrücken, October 26, 1934, copy, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 4369, sheet 125.
- ↑ Commemorative plaque for the glockenspiel, photo probably taken after 1935, StA Saarbrücken, photo collection no. 37/53.
- ^ StA Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 23, 1999, page L3, article "Let's hope the wind isn't blowing!"
- ^ StA Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 25, 1999, page L1, article "19 bells halfway to heaven"
- ^ StA Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Zeitung. August 2, 1999, page L3, article “No beautiful country” will soon be heard from the town hall tower
- ^ StA Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Zeitung. August 30, 1999, page L5, article "Papa, look, something is moving!"
- ^ Saarbrücker Zeitung. December 24, 2013, Article Sweeter the bells never ring.
- ↑ Vita. Christoph Keller, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
- ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. P. 148 ff.
- ↑ Harald Berndt and Matthias Simmich: Cecilienhof Palace, ed. by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin, Munich 2014, p. 28.
- ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Pp. 204-205.
- ^ Mathias Baumgartner: The Landshut town hall. (= Schnell art guide. No. 2787). Regensburg 2011.
- ↑ Files on the renovation of the town hall by Hauberrisser are in the Landshut city archive and at the Landshut building supervision office.
- ^ KA Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Pp. 308-310.
- ^ Saarbrücken City Archives Neue Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 24, 1900, p. 2.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 466, p. 219.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 6 ff., P. 20.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 19.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 28.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 96 Rs.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 227 ff.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 371, p. 252.
- ↑ Johannes Penzler (ed.): The speeches of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Volume 3: 1901 - late 1905. Leipzig n.d., pp. 60–62.
- ↑ Ch. Kranz-Michaelis: Town halls in the German Empire, 1871-1918. (= Materials on the Art of the Nineteenth Century. Volume 23). 1976, p. 120 f.
- ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Attempt on Wagner. Munich / Zurich 1964, p. 132.
- ^ Saarbrücker Zeitung. July 12, 1973.
- ^ Karl Lohmeyer: The sagas of the Saar from the source to the mouth. Saarbrücken 1951, p. 78.
- ↑ Quoted from Hanns Klein: The freedom letter for Saarbrücken and St. Johann. In: Hans-Walter Herrmann, Hanns Klein (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the 650th anniversary of the award of the freedom letter to Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Historical Association for the Saar Region , Saarbrücken 1971, p. 141.
- ↑ Robert Markley: The BLV Rose Encyclopedia. Munich 2005, pp. 38-40.
- ↑ Quoted from Hanns Klein: The freedom letter for Saarbrücken and St. Johann. In: Hans-Walter Herrmann, Hanns Klein (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the 650th anniversary of the award of the freedom letter to Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Historical Association for the Saar Region, Saarbrücken 1971, p. 144.
- ↑ Hermann Lehne, Horst Kohler: coat of arms of the Saarland, state and municipal coats of arms. Saarbrücken 1981, pp. 30-34.
- ^ Official Journal of the Saarland, B. v. November 20, 1976, p. 1070.
- ↑ Hermann Lehne, Horst Kohler: coat of arms of the Saarland, state and municipal coats of arms. Saarbrücken 1981, pp. 34-35.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 371.
- ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 163.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 373, p. 171, case 371, p. 173, p. 228.
- ↑ Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 373, p. 102 and p. 228.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 14-17.
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken, St. Johann holdings, No. 372, p. 172.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, p. 6.
- ^ A b Brigitte Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberrisser (1841–1922) and his main work. Dölling and Galitz, Ebenhausen near Munich 2006, pp. 112–113.
- ↑ Report on a pitcher designed for V&B on the Stein Collectors website , accessed on August 2, 2010.
- ^ JA Schmoll, called Eisenwerth, Therese Thomas: Heinrich Schlitt (1849–1923). Mettlach 1990.
- ^ Günter Leicher: Kaspar Kögler, life and work. Wiesbaden 1996, p. 22.
- ↑ Bertram Heide: Old Masters painting technique in the Wiesbaden Ratskeller, Eberhard Münch reconstructed the paintings of the Wiesbaden painter-poet Caspar Kögler / Illusion painting lifted from oblivion. In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt. June 26, 1987.
- ↑ Marianne Fischer-Dyck, Gretel Baumgart-Buttersack: Stories from the old Wiesbaden, Kaspar Kögler - 150 years, and don't forget…. In: Wiesbaden life. 3/1988, p. 29.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, p. 5.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first service: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 6-7.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 7–8.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 17-18.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first lease: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 8–9.
- ↑ 100 years town hall St. Johann, A documentation of the city archive on the history of the town hall in Saarbrücken, ed. from the state capital Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken 2001, p. 112.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first leasing: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963, Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 15-19.
- ^ Friedrich Hellwig: Ratskeller, first catering: January 27, 1905, first leasing: April 10, 1909, complete redesign: April 27, 1963. Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 10-20.
- ^ Copy of the Saarbrücken city archive: St. Johann-Saarbrücker Volkszeitung. June 4, 1902, p. 3.
- ^ Copy of the Saarbrücken city archive: St. Johann-Saarbrücker Volkszeitung. June 5, 1902, p. 2.
- ↑ quoted from an excerpt from the Volksstimme of March 9, 1950: Obituary for the Telemach statue, StA Saarbrücken, inventory Großstadt No. 5427.
- ↑ Excerpt from the Volksstimme of March 9, 1950: Max Dreher: “The virgins are getting shame on their foreheads”, from the time when 'naked men' fought on the town hall square, StA Saarbrücken, inventory of the city no. 5427.
- ^ Jo Enzweiler (ed.): Well in Saarbrücken. Institute for contemporary art in Saarland at the Saar College of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken 1995, pp. 15–16.
- ^ M. Albrecht-Bott: Saarbrücken - city guide. P. 22.
- ^ Jo Enzweiler (ed.): Well in Saarbrücken. Institute for contemporary art in Saarland at the Saar College of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken 1995, p. 44.
- ↑ Without author: Saarbrücken, Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow. Saarbrücken 1966, pp. 176-177.
- ^ Jo Enzweiler (ed.): Well in Saarbrücken. Institute for Current Art in Saarland at the Saar College of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken 1995, p. 50.
- ^ Hans-Christian Herrmann: Saarbrücken 1945-74, urban development between tradition and modernity. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, p. 422.
- ^ Jo Enzweiler (ed.): Well in Saarbrücken. Institute for contemporary art in Saarland at the Saar College of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken 1995, p. 53.
- ↑ Dieter Gräbner: What does she want to tell us ?: Respecta, a woman who got into talk. In: The time . December 9, 1994.
- ↑ Petra Messinger, Christa Piper: Respecta - a woman moves Saarbrücken: the story of a sculpture that made history ... Saarbrücken 1995.
- ^ Rainer Hudemann with the collaboration of Marcus Hahn, Gerhild Krebs and Johannes Großmann (eds.): Places of cross-border memory - traces of the networking of the Saar-Lor-Lux area in the 19th and 20th centuries. Lieux de la mémoire transfrontalière - Traces et réseaux dans l'espace Sarre-Lor-Lux aux 19e et 20e siècles. 3rd, technically revised edition. Saarbrücken 2002, 2009. Published on CD-ROM and on the Internet at www.memotransfront.uni-saarland.de.
- ^ Fritz Kloevekorn: Saarbrücken's past in the picture. Saarbrücken 1934, p. 249.
- ^ Gerhild Krebs: Kaiser Wilhelm I in Saarbrücken (1871-1945). Retrieved June 17, 2015.
- ^ A. Ruppersberg: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the unified city of Saarbrücken up to 1914. P. 140–144.
- ^ Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, plate 3 and p. 691.
- ↑ Saarbrücken: Back to the roots Debeka unveils foundation plaque in the town hall of St. Johann. on: saarland-fernsehen.de , accessed on August 12, 2017.
- ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann: 1919 - fateful year for the Saar. In: When the war came over us ... The Saar region and the First World War, catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle. Saarbrücken 1993, pp. 250-254.
- ^ KA Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Pp. 481 and 491-492.
- ↑ Lieselotte Kugler: Saarbrücken demonstrates for Greater Germany, on the staging of the "Volksgemeinschaft". In: Ten instead of a thousand years. The time of National Socialism on the Saar, 1935–1945. Catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle. Saarbrücken 1988, p. 79.
- ^ IC Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. P. 35.
- ↑ Florian Brunner, Markus Philipp: Saarbrücker Spurensuche. A journey to the city's visible secrets. Saarbrücken 2015, pp. 172–173.
- ↑ Doris Seck, Paul Peters: The zero hour. The end of the war on the Saar. Saarbrücken 1986, pp. 49-50, 55.
- ^ Doris Seck: Postwar Years on the Saar - Departure into a New Era - The Saarland from 1945 to 1950. Saarbrücken 1982, pp. 34–40.
- ^ Paul Burgard, Ludwig Linsmayer: Der Saarstaat, pictures of a past world. Saarbrücken 2005, p. 148.
- ↑ From “Zero Hour” to “Day X”, Das Saarland 1945–59. Catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle. Saarbrücken 1990, p. 115.
- ^ City regulations for the Rhine Province of May 15, 1856. Collection of laws for the Royal Prussian States. Berlin 1856, pp. 406-434.
- ↑ Christian Engeli, Wolfgang Haus, German Institute for Urban Studies (ed.): Sources on modern municipal constitution law in Germany. Stuttgart 1975, pp. 399-421.
- ↑ a b I. C. Becker: 100 years of St. Johann town hall. Pp. 27-31.
- ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann : Saarbrücken under the Nazi rule. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. From the time of rapid growth to the present. Volume 2, Saarbrücken 1999, p. 265.
Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 5 ″ N , 6 ° 59 ′ 47 ″ E