Red Tower (Munich)

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Red Tower as seen from the city 1765
Red Tower with Isar Bridge 1767
Storming of the Red Tower in 1705
Storming of the Red Tower in Munich by the blacksmith von Kochel on Christmas morning 1705; Painting by Franz von Defregger (1881)
Demolition of the Red Tower in 1804

The Red Tower was an outbuilding of the Munich Isartor on the west bank of the Isar .

location

The Red Tower stood east of the old town on the western bridgehead of the Isar Bridge, roughly where the Ludwigsbrücke merges into Zweibrückenstrasse today .

history

On the oldest city view of Munich in the Schedelschen Weltchronik from 1493, a small gate house is already shown at the place of the later tower, which is already mentioned in a chamber bill from 1421 as "gate house on the Yserpruck".

The tower was built from 1517 to 1519, in 1518 it was called the “New Tower at the Isar Bridge”, later also simply as the tower at the Isar Bridge. In 1643 it is known as the Ländshüterturm, as the keeper of the Lower Lands lived in it.

During the Oberland peasant uprising of 1705, which culminated in the Sendlinger Murder Christmas , the Red Tower was conquered by insurgents under the leadership of Johann Georg Aberle almost without a fight.

In the literature about this uprising, historians usually refer to the tower as the "Red Tower". When this name came up and what it is based on is not clear. In the second half of the 18th century, for example, the tower is depicted as an exposed brick building on an engraving, while it is painted red in a painting by Joseph Stephan (1709–1786). Both could have served as the basis for the naming.

During artillery duels in the east of the city between Austrians and royalist French, the tower was shot at in 1796 and so badly damaged that it had to be demolished as a result.

The Red Tower gave its name to the Red Tower Square in Sendling.

literature

Web links

Commons : Red Tower  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 7 '56.4 "  N , 11 ° 35' 5.7"  E