Spinning House (Hamburg)
The spinning house in Hamburg was a penal institution that existed from 1669 to 1842 . The building was located in the old town on Zuchthausstraße near the Alstertor, next to the factory and penitentiary that was inaugurated in 1618 , north of the horse market, today's Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz . Originally, like all spinning houses , it served to accommodate prostitutes in the sense of a reformatory , who were actually employed with spiders in the house . A few years later, the facility was used "for criminal offenders of both sexes".
The building goes back to a foundation of the Hamburg councilor Peter Rentzel in 1660 and was built by the master builder Hans Hamelau . The spinning house has been expanded several times through collections and bequests. With the extensive change in the penitentiary system during the French period in Hamburg from 1806 to 1814, it was named maison de reclusion and became a prison for the "heavy prisoners" handed over to the French government. When Great Fire in 1842, the building burned down.
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The sandstone portal of the spinning house was preserved; it was incorporated into the south-west facade of the Hamburg Museum as an architectural fragment. Two Corinthian columns form the lateral borders and two female gusset figures above the door arch hold wreaths as attributes for particularly distinguished citizens. Above is the family coat of arms of the donor couple Peter and Anna Maria Rentzel, which is held by two lions.
The Latin inscription above the portal, translated into German, reads: According to the last will of Mr. Peter Rentzel, blessed memory, both rights licentiate and councilor of the Hamburg Free State, son of Hermann, who was also councilor, this is to the glory of God and to correct the evildoers The spinning house was built at his own expense.
literature
- Friedrich Georg Buek : From the former spinning house . In: Hamburg antiquities. Contribution to the history of the city and its customs . Perthes-Besser & Mauke, Hamburg 1859, OCLC 46305396 , p. 138–141 ( digitized on the website of the Hamburg State and University Library [accessed on March 10, 2015]).
- Museum Education Service Hamburg: Secrets of a museum building, architectural decorations at the Museum of Hamburg History. A tour with 8 stations , Hamburg 1994
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andreas Ehrenfried Martens: The Hamburg Criminal Prison called the Spinnhaus and the other prisons in the city of Hamburg are described according to their internal structure and furnishings , Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1823, p. 25
- ↑ Ex voluntate et dispositione Dni. Petri Rentzelii piae memoriae JUL Peipublicae hamburgensis Senatoris, Hermanni, itidem Senatoris filii, in honorem Dei et flagitiosorum emendationem hoc ergastulum sumptibus suis extructum est