Black Fountain (Eisenach)

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The Black Well (2008)

The Black Fountain in the Wartburg town of Eisenach is a running fountain built in 1817 and a monument to the town's history. It recalls the gunpowder explosion that took place here on the evening of September 1, 1810.

location

The Iron Fountain is located in the western part of Eisenach's old town at the intersection of Georgenstraße, Alexanderstraße and Wydenbrugk- Straße near the commercial vocational school .

history

Row of houses in Georgenstrasse, in the direction of the market , which was directly affected by the explosion.

In the late summer of 1810, French military transports passed through the city of Eisenach at intervals of 5 to 7 days. These had the task of delivering gunpowder and ammunition to French occupation troops that had been confiscated from the holdings of the Prussian fortresses and army camps. On the evening of September 1st, the head of a column consisting of about 20 cars with military escort passed the Eisenach market square. As a result of an incident in what is now Karlstrasse, the train got into disorder from the fourth car onwards and stopped. In the first carriage of the column, the lid of a transport barrel filled with gunpowder had opened unnoticed, causing a strip of powder to trickle to the ground under the cart, which was ignited by the horseshoes of the following horse and carts and caused an explosion after a few seconds.

Due to the fortunate circumstance that only three wagons were involved in this chain reaction , the number of victims remained low: 68 dead were found, including 9 French and 5 Gotha carters, 11 horses killed and several hundred injured throughout the city, caused by bullets flying around. Debris, roof tiles, broken glass, or were injured by the shock wave and fire roller. 24 houses were destroyed or were no longer habitable due to the subsequent fire.

The subsequent investigations brought further harrowing news to light, for example a bride and groom who had just met near their parents' house for their wedding the following day was among the victims. Another woman went insane, many residents of the side streets had lost their hearing.

The shocking news sparked a wave of compassion and helpfulness in many German and European cities. Over 10,000 thalers were donated even from England. Napoleon Bonaparte sent the largest sum of 120,000 francs with a letter of condolence. The father of the country, Duke Carl August, sent 1200 thalers and a prince Reuss donated window glass to the value of over 500 thalers as a donation in kind.

To commemorate the tragedy, a fountain made of cast iron plates was purchased by the municipality in 1817 and erected as a memorial at the site of the event. The renovated and redesigned fountain was inaugurated on September 1, 1910 (100th anniversary). The stone column erected in the middle of the fountain basin is decorated with iron balls, which are intended to remind visitors of the occasion when the fountain was built. A plaque with a Latin inscription also attached to the fountain was later lost.

memorial

Every year on the evening of September 1st, the city of Eisenach commemorates this accident with a bell ringing. In September 2010 the 200th anniversary took place.

Building

The fountain stands on the site of a corner house that was destroyed in the explosion. The terrain here has a height difference of about one meter. In order to enable all-round access to the fountain, a stair-like platform was first built.

Building data

The side walls of the fountain basin consist of a set of twelve cast iron plates that are connected and held together on the inside by means of rivets. The black painted outside is structured with a subtle decor. The "total diameter" of the pool is around 4.9 meters, the side walls are each around 5 to 7 centimeters thick and 1.3 meters high. The pool floor was made of sandstone. The waterproof cladding of the iron parts and the sealing of the well basin on the inside was done with asphalt applied in layers . In the center of the basin the stone well with water supply was installed. Its (calculated) total height is 4.6 meters. A round bowl made of stone, which is provided with four lateral gargoyles, was placed on a cylindrical, solid substructure of around 1.7 meters in diameter at a height of around 1.5 meters above the ground. Above this basin, the actual well stock was placed as a conical column with iron balls attached to the sides and on the top, some of which also serve as gargoyles. A tablet that originally existed there on the south side has been lost.

Water supply

The fountain, designed as a tube well, initially got its water from a contained spring, the Schlossbergborn located on the eastern edge of the Roeseschen Hölzchen . The Black Fountain is now connected to the municipal drinking water network. The excess water was drained on the north side of the well through a now no longer existing drainage pipe into the then still existing sewer system.

With the construction of the city water pipes from 1870, the Black Fountain had lost its actual function as a water point for the western old town quarter.

literature

  • Wilhelm Buchner: The powder explosion in Eisenach on September 1, 1810 . In: Contributions to the history of Eisenach . Booklet VH Kahle Hofbuchdruckerei, Eisenach 1896, p. 26 .
  • Topographical-historical description of the city of Eisenach, as well as the surrounding mountains and pleasure palaces, especially the Wartburg and Wilhelmsthal, p.145f

Web links

Commons : Black Fountain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerd Bergmann: Older history of Eisenach. From the beginning to the beginning of the 19th century . Ed .: Eisenacher History Association. Kröner, Eisenach 1994, ISBN 3-9803976-0-2 , p. 415-416 .
  2. Data from our own measurements on April 26, 2010. Precise data on the well and the small basin could not yet be determined due to the existing water filling.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 32.2 ″  N , 10 ° 19 ′ 2.5 ″  E