Schillerplatz (Mainz)
The Schiller Place is one of the central places in the Mainz city center. This was already in the Roman Mogontiacum in the inner city area and was used as a marketplace from the Middle Ages. It is surrounded by several aristocratic courts from the Baroque and Rococo periods and the location of various monuments, including the famous Mainz Carnival Fountain . Today, Schillerplatz is one of the larger green squares with adjacent retail shops in downtown Mainz.
Naming
Due to the inconsistent or non-existent naming of streets and squares into the 19th century, the Schillerplatz area was also renamed several times. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the square was called the forum gentile and forum gentilium . The name Dietmarkt (derived from Diet = people) for Schillerplatz appears mainly in the Middle Ages. The geographer Gottfried Mascop used this name in the variant Titzet Marck in his plan from 1575 . The square can be found as Diets Marckt on Matthäus Merian's city map , which depicts the city from around 1633, and as Dietsmarckt on another map from 1655.
In the “floor plan of the electoral capital and residence city of Mainz” from 1784, the square is now called Thiermarkt (derived from the use of the market for the cattle trade). The Thiermarkt Straße leads along the Schönborner and Erthaler Hof to the Münster Tor . In the bilingual “Plan de la Ville de Mayence” of 1800/1801, the Thiermarkt now bears the new French name Place verte and the German name Thiermark . When the Schiller Monument was erected on this square in 1862, it was given the name Schillerplatz, which is still valid today .
history
The Schillerplatz is not far from the northern foot of the Kästrich . He is connected to him today through Emmerich-Josef-Straße . There was 13/12 BC A two legion camp was founded by Drusus . The area of today's Schillerplatz was therefore close to the camp and in the area of the Roman civilian settlements that were built around the turn of the times . The Roman road to the Rhine Bridge coming from the Porta Praetoria of the legionary camp cut today's Schillerplatz exactly in the middle. Although there are no clear archaeological findings, the hypothesis was previously situated that in the area of today's Schiller square Forum and other central administrative buildings of the Roman Mogontiacum are to be located, leading to the above-mentioned subsequent designation as a forum gentile or forum gentilium could have led . However, remains of residential houses or villa-like buildings from the 1st and 3rd centuries along today's Schillerstrasse are archaeologically detectable.
From the Middle Ages, the use of the square as the only flood-free marketplace in Mainz has been proven. One of the three fruit and grain markets and the cattle market of the medieval town took place here. Through the Gautor , one of the city gates of Mainz, farmers from the surrounding area southwest of the city, traders and visitors to the city quickly got to the nearby Schillerplatz. The square now bordered at its eastern end on the extensive vineyards of the undeveloped Kästrich . Evidently from the 13th century, monasteries and churches were founded around Schillerplatz, so that Schillerplatz can be considered the center of monastic settlement in Mainz in the Middle Ages.
During the conquest of Mainz by Adolf von Nassau in 1462, the last battles against the enemies who had invaded the neighboring Gaustraße took place on the Dietmarkt . During the fighting, numerous buildings, especially in the Dietmarkt, Emmeransstrasse and Schusterstrasse areas, went up in flames. A total of 150 houses are said to have been destroyed. After the fighting ended, on October 30, 1462, a large public court session by Adolf von Nassau took place on the Dietmarkt, after which 800 citizens of Mainz were expelled as partisans of Diether von Isenburg . A knight's tournament is documented for the year 1480 on the Dietmarkt, a sign of the slowly returning consolidation of the situation in the city as well as the clearly increasing presence of noble families in Mainz. A total of 350 participants from Swabia, Franconia, Bavaria and the Rhineland are said to have given the tournament a festive pomp.
On another politically significant occasion, the Dietmarkt was again the focus of urban events. After a church procession, on April 26, 1525, a gathering of citizens of the guild lower and middle class took place on the Dietmarkt. The background was the spread of the Peasants' War in the neighboring Rheingau in early 1525 . Some of the citizens of Mainz also showed solidarity with the insurgents. Their leaders, who were replaced by a Mainz citizen named Heinz Fladenbäcker, put together a list of demands with 31 articles overnight, which the assembled citizens and councilors approved the next day.
When Mainz, which had been under French occupation since 1792, was recaptured as part of the First Coalition War , there was again major destruction in the area of the Dietmarkt in 1793. As part of the national property auction of Mainz, which was again occupied by the French in 1798, the entire quarter around Schillerplatz was also auctioned. Place verte played an important role in the large-scale planning of the departmental building director Eustache de St. Far at the beginning of the 19th century . It was to serve as the end point of a newly created boulevard, the Grand Rue Napoleon (today's Ludwigsstraße ). In the course of the partial realization of these plans, the early baroque monastery church of St. Agnes was demolished in 1809 to create the breakthrough between the square and the street. In the Biedermeier period , the Thiermarkt, as it was now called, was one of the few places in Mainz with inner-city greenery through trees. The music bands of the Prussian and Austrian federal troops played in a larger music pavilion on Sundays, and upmarket shops and confectionery shops had settled around the square . The Osteiner Hof functioned as the governorate until 1866 and thus as the seat of the military governor and the Thiermarkt in front of it was one of the collection points for the fortress soldiers in the event of an alarm.
From the balcony of the Osteiner Hof, the military governor of Mainz Fortress , Hugo von Kathen , read the mobilization , the start of the First World War , in the early evening hours of August 1, 1914 . He then gave a speech to the Mainz population, who had gathered in large numbers on Schillerplatz. In the late period of the Weimar Republic, the liberation memorial of the famous Jewish artist Benno Elkan was erected on Schillerplatz . The monument, designed in the shape of a half-naked woman, caused a moral but also political sensation when it was unveiled in July 1930. It was removed at the end of March 1933 due to an instruction from the acting Mayor of Mainz, Philipp Wilhelm Jung , and later destroyed due to his political statement and the artist's Jewish origins.
In modern times, Schillerplatz plays a more peaceful role once a year: since 1982, on November 11th every year at 11:11 am, the upcoming carnival campaign with the proclamation of the foolish constitution has been proclaimed from the balcony of the Osteiner Hof. Thanks to the carnival fountain and other small memorials related to carnival, Schillerplatz is closely connected to the Mainz carnival . Today the Schillerplatz with its periphery is one of the most popular shopping areas in Mainz; the square itself is decorated with green spaces and flower beds. Schillerplatz is also involved in two major Mainz folk festivals: As part of the Mainz Carnival, the Mainz Rose Monday procession passed Schillerplatz until 1994 and turned onto Ludwigstraße; since 1995 the train has been taking the opposite route to get to Schillerplatz and Schillerstraße on To dissolve Binger Strasse. At the beginning of the Schillerplatz, across from the provisions magazine and the Schoppenstecher statue, there is the only space reserved for a gathering of barrel afters during the Rose Monday parade. Schillerplatz is also one of the central festival areas during Midsummer Night in Mainz .
Center of the Mainz monasteries
In the Middle Ages, several monasteries and the associated monastery churches and other representative buildings were built around today's Schillerplatz from the late 13th century. Except for the guest house belonging to a monastery, all buildings were demolished in the second half of the 19th century at the latest.
Old Minster Monastery
A little further away, on today's Münsterplatz , was the Altmünsterkloster , the oldest monastery in Mainz. It was founded around 693 by St. Bilhildis and was first mentioned in a document in 817 as a Benedictine convent . Later, in 1243, the nuns lived according to the rules of the Cistercian women . In 1243 Archbishop Sigfried III. von Eppstein that Altmünster was incorporated into the Cistercian Order and placed under the supervision of the Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau. The original monastery complex was laid down in 1656 as part of the expansion of the city fortifications and rebuilt further south by 1662. On November 15, 1781, this "second" Altmünster monastery fell victim to the first abolition of the Mainz monastery . The large monastery garden stretched to the northern end of Schillerplatz and Schillerstrasse and was gradually converted into building land.
Agnesenkloster and St. Agnes
At today's Ballplatz (adjacent to the north of Schillerplatz) the Agnesenkloster was built between 1275 and 1295 , the inhabitants of which split off from the hospital fraternity of the Heilig-Geist-Spital in 1259 . The nuns accepted the rules of the Cistercian women. The St. Agnes Church belonged to the Agnesenkloster and stood at the height of today's Ludwigsstraße / confluence with Schillerplatz. In the 13th century there was still no street that connected the free space at that time with the cathedral , the cathedral courtyard belonging to the cathedral (today's courtyard ) and the market square. The St. Agnes Church was structurally connected to the Rheinberger Hof, property of the von Rheinberg family. In the 16th century the monastery and church stood empty for a while until the monastery was taken over by nuns of the Augustinian order in 1582 . After it was completely destroyed by fire, the monastery was rebuilt from 1706 to 1717, and the St. Agnes Church, which was not destroyed, was then redesigned. By a decree of June 9, 1802, the monastery was secularized in the now French Mayence and finally demolished in the 1860s. The St. Agnes Church fell victim to the realization of the Grande Rue Napoléon (today's Ludwigsstraße).
Neumünster or Weißfrauenkloster
In the Middle Ages, the so-called Neumünster Monastery, also known as the White Women's Monastery , stood at today's Schillerplatz No. 5 to 7 . The monastery was first mentioned in 1247. At that time the nuns belonged to the Order of Mary Magdalene, which was also known as "Reuerinnen". As early as 1291 the nuns switched to the order of the Cistercian women and were still popularly referred to as "white women" because of their formerly white habit. The monastery also came to an end during the French secularization in 1802 and was sold, the buildings later demolished. Only the guest house of the monastery, built in 1718 under the abbess Anna Elisabeth, remained. The building was extended in 1863 and briefly used as an officers' mess for the Austrian federal troops . The Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Rheinhessen has had its seat in the building since 1931 .
building
The large monastery buildings on Schillerplatz from the late 13th century onwards were followed in the Middle Ages by the courts of various noble families or citizens of Mainz. For example the Rheinberger Hof of the noble family of the same name. With the construction of the Schönborn court in the second half of the 17th century, another phase of lively building activity began by the electoral families and the noble families working at the court. From this time on, the Thiermarkt was considered the noblest residential area of the nobility. Another advantage was the undeveloped area rising from the Thiermarkt to the Kästrich, which allowed the construction of spacious gardens and parks in the immediate vicinity of the buildings.
Osteiner Hof
The building that dominates the southern part of Schillerplatz is the Osteiner Hof . It was built between 1747 and 1752 by Johann Valentin Thoman for the Kurmainzer Oberamtmann Franz Wolfgang Damian von Ostein as a family farm. He was the brother of the Mainz Elector Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein (1689–1763), who ruled from 1743 to 1763 . The three-winged Osteiner Hof is considered the most beautiful aristocratic court of its time and, with its rich ornamentation, is already in the Rococo style.
The history of the Osteiner Hof is closely linked to that of the military in Mainz: During the French occupation from 1797 to 1814, the Osteiner Hof served as the administrative seat of the Département du Mont-Tonnerre (Donnersberg), which was newly founded in 1800 . From 1814 to 1918 the Osteiner Hof was the seat of the respective military governor of Mainz , from 1918 to 1930 the administration of the French occupation troops was based here.
As part of the celebrations for Hitler's birthday on April 20, 1933, the city of Mainz handed over the Osteiner Hof to the NSDAP. All party organizations were to be accommodated centrally in the “Brown House”, as the building was called at that time. However, the party only claimed the building briefly. A few weeks later, the district leadership and other offices moved to the Schönborner Hof, while the SA and SS leaders stayed in the Osteiner Hof. She was followed by the city commander of the Wehrmacht in Mainz, and in turn by French and American military posts. The Armed Forces commander in chief has had his seat in the Osteiner Hof since 1958.
Bassenheimer Hof
At the north-western end of Schillerplatz is the Bassenheimer Hof , in close proximity to the Osteiner Hof . It was built in 1750 as a widow's seat for the sister of Elector Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein, Countess von Waldbott-Bassenheim , according to plans by the elector's chief building director Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Groenesteyn . In contrast to the Osteiner Hof, the Adelshof is already built in the restrained, classicistic design language of French baroque architecture. Extensive gardens and stables stretched up the slopes of the Kästrich. The Bassenheimer Hof was sold to the military authorities of the Mainz fortress in 1835 and used as barracks until 1889. After that, various civilian owners are known, the courtyard served as a Viennese café, among other things. Until a few years ago, the Ministry of the Interior of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate was located in the building.
Schönborner Hof
The Bassenheimer Hof is adjoined on the west side of Schillerplatz by the early baroque building of the guest house of the former Neumünster or Weißfrauenkloster (today the seat of the IHK for Rheinhessen ). This is followed by the Wichernhaus , which belongs to the Schönborner Hof, and the Schönborner Hof, which is already on today's Schillerstrasse (house number 11). The Schönborner Hof was built between 1668 and 1670 at the north-western end of what was then the Thiermarkt in Mainz. Despite its structural similarities to the House of the Roman Emperor , built in the late Renaissance style, it is already considered to be the first noble court in Mainz to be built in the new Baroque style . The Schönborner Hof originally formed the north-western end of the Thiermarkt together with the Metternich-Winneburger Hof. After its completion, the Thiermarkt was connected with the nearby Münsterplatz by connecting both squares with the newly created Tiermarktstraße (today: Schillerstraße).
The court also had significant, extensive baroque gardens, the so-called Schönborn garden in the early Baroque style. An engraving by Nikolaus Person from 1703 shows six broderieparterre with statue decorations as well as further flower beds and a magnificent portal. Water basins, pavilions and man-made grottos completed this small baroque park at the animal market.
Since April 1933, the NSDAP district leadership had its headquarters in Schönborner Hof, the former officers' mess at Schillerstraße 11. The National Socialist Company Cell Organization (NSBO) and the offices of the National Socialist German Labor Front (DAF) and the Federation of German Girls (BDM) were also located there .
Erthaler Hof
Even further away, on Schillerstraße towards Münsterplatz, there is still the Erthaler Hof , whose owner, builder and architect was probably the imperial baron and “cavalier architect” Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal (1689–1784). The large four-wing building complex with a spacious inner courtyard, built from 1734 to 1741, opened the building ensemble of the Mainz noble courts, churches and monasteries from Münsterplatz to Thiermarkt in the late electoral period.
Monuments
The eponymous Schiller monument was commissioned on the occasion of Friedrich Schiller's 100th birthday in 1859. The larger than life bronze figure of the poet was created by the Darmstadt sculptor Johann Baptist Scholl the Elder. J., as well as the bronze plaques in the base. The bronze was cast by JD Burgschmiet Lenz in Nuremberg . The execution of the base in Belgian marble was awarded to the Mainz company Johann Friedrich Roßbach. On October 18, 1862, the monument was erected at the southern end of the square. In 1929 it was moved to the northern end, where it still stands today, to make way for the memorial for the liberation of the Rhineland by Benno Elkan. The base of the monument is decorated with ornaments and is divided into several parts. The poet himself strides forward, book open in hand, an attitude that should symbolize the forward-striving spirit of the time.
In addition to the Schiller Monument , the Mainz Carnival Fountain is the monument that dominates the square today. It was unveiled in January 1967 and is the work of the Munich artist and professor Blasius Spreng. The Carnival Fountain is an almost nine-meter-high, bronze, tower-like fountain, which is populated by more than 200 bronze figures and allegories from Mainz local history and legends. From 1930–1933 the Liberation Monument, created by Benno Elkan and erected on the occasion of the withdrawal of the French occupation forces, was located at this point , but was destroyed by the National Socialists just three years later.
The Guard Drummer of the Mainz Prinzengarde was created by Wolfgang Oester and donated by the association in 1995 on the occasion of its 111th anniversary. The Bajazz with the Lantern was designed and designed by the Mainz artist Inge Blum and set up by the Mainz Carneval Association in the Gutenberg year 2000 . In the extended area around Schillerplatz and the adjoining Schillerstraße, there are numerous other monuments of various kinds, such as the Mainzer Schoppenstecher or the stars of satire between Schillerplatz in front of the Proviant-Magazin and the lower house .
Protection status
The part of Schillerplatz southeast of Münsterstrasse with the adjacent facades has been a protected cultural monument as the Schillerplatz Monument Zone since 2002 . It is particularly worth preserving because of its uniformly closed space with a floor plan that has been guaranteed since the 16th century, but is certainly older; because of the standardized facades with their white plastered surfaces emphasized by red sandstone; because of the tree planting, which is based on the rows of trees laid out in 1768; because of the Schiller monument; as well as because of the fountain location of the carnival fountain, which follows a baroque layout and takes up the position of a running fountain built in 1760. The Schillerplatz is a distinctive feature of the Mainz city center. The buildings Schillerplatz 3 (Bassenheimer Hof), 5 and 7 (external building of the Weißfrauenkloster), which adjoin the Schillerplatz monument zone to the west, and Emmerich-Josef-Straße to the west of Schillerplatz are part of the Emmerich-Josef-Straße monument zone .
The southern end of the Schillerplatz monument zone with the adjoining aristocratic courts is a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention as Schillerplatz with Osteiner Hof and Bassenheimer Hof .
literature
- Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Hrsg.): Mainz - The history of the city. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1999 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 .
- Rolf Dörrlamm, Susanne Feick, Hartmut Fischer, Hans Kersting: Mainz contemporary witnesses made of stone. Architectural styles tell 1000 years of history. Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-87439-525-1 .
- Matthias Dietz-Lenssen: Monasteries in Mainz. In: Quarterly issues for culture, politics, economics, history. Bonewitz Communication Verlag, Mainz 2007. Volume 27, Issue 4/07, p. 20.
- Günther Gillessen (Ed.): If stones could talk - Mainz buildings and their stories. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1206-7 .
- State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 2.2 .: City of Mainz - Old Town. In: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1997 (3rd edition), ISBN 3-88462-139-4 .
Web links
- schillerplatz-mainz.de - website of the traders with a lot of information on the history
- kubische-panoramen.de - 360 ° view of Schillerplatz (Quicktime plugin required)
- regionalgeschichte.net - Information on the Weißfrauenkloster and all other buildings around Schillerplatz
- Article about the liberation monument at Schillerplatz
Individual evidence
- ^ Armin and Renate Schmid: The Romans on the Rhine and Main. P. 176
- ^ Matthias Dietz-Lenssen: Monasteries in Mainz. in: Quarterly issues for culture, politics, economics, history; Issue 4/07, p. 20
- ^ Karl-Michael Sprenger: The Mainzer Stiftsfehde 1459-1463. , Pp. 206–207 in: Dumont, Scherf and Schütz (eds.): Geschichte der Stadt Mainz , 1990
- ↑ Günther Gillessen: If stones could talk. Mainz buildings and their stories. P. 144
- ^ Wolfgang Dobras: The electoral city (1462-1648). , P. 236 in: Dumont, Scherf and Schütz (eds.): History of the City of Mainz , 1990 ( archiv.twoday.net ).
- ↑ see also Benno Elkan at regioNet.de (with picture of the monument)
- ↑ Brigitte Flug: From the monastery in the city to the city monastery. Altmünster from its foundation to the end of the 14th century. In: Michael Matheus , Walter G. Rödel (ed.): Building blocks for the history of the city of Mainz. Mainz Colloquium 2000 (= historical regional studies. Volume 55). Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-08176-3 ( regionalgeschichte.net ).
- ↑ Günther Gillessen: If stones could talk. Mainz buildings and their stories. P. 146
- ↑ after Dörrlamm, Feick, Fischer, Kersting: Mainz contemporary witnesses made of stone. Architectural styles tell 1000 years of history. P. 152
- ↑ Schönborner Hof at regionalgeschichte.net
- ↑ after Dörrlamm, Feick, Fischer, Kersting: Mainz contemporary witnesses made of stone. Architectural styles tell 1000 years of history. P. 244
- ↑ supplemented by: Thiemann-Stoedtner, Ottilie, Johann Baptist Scholl the Elder. J., a Hessian sculptor, draftsman and painter of the late Romantic period, Eduard Roether Verlag, Darmstadt 1965, p. 116.
- ^ Regionalgeschichte.net
- ↑ City of Mainz: Ordinance on placing the “Schillerplatz” monument zone in Mainz under protection ... (PDF).
- ↑ City of Mainz: Ordinance on placing the monument zone “Emmerich-Josef-Straße - Z80 / 2” under protection… (PDF).
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 54.1 ″ N , 8 ° 16 ′ 3.4 ″ E