Municipal department store Leipzig
The municipal department store is a former trade fair building in downtown Leipzig ; it was built in three phases from 1894 to 1901 according to plans by the architects Rayher, Korber and Müller.
prehistory
The building complex reflects more than 500 years of Leipzig's commercial and cultural history like hardly any other property and cultural monument in downtown Leipzig. Between 1477 and 1498 the L-shaped late Gothic Gewandhaus was built on Gewandgäßchen and Universitätsstrasse . Due to the imperial trade fair privilege of 1497, the importance of the trade and trade fair center in Leipzig increased and with it the Gewandhaus, which was comparable in size to the famous Krakow Cloth Hall . The exhibition was then a pure Fair words, goods issued were traded on the spot. The Gewandhaus Orchestra , which goes back to the cloth merchants' guild, had its seat in the Gewandhaus. In the classicist Gewandhaussaal on Universitätsstrasse, built by Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe in 1781 and still remembered by a plaque in the baroque staircase of the municipal department store, important artists such as Mozart (on May 12, 1789), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Franz Liszt made music . A detailed model of the old concert hall is located in the rear foyer of today's Gewandhaus.
After almost 250 years, part of the Gewandhaus had to give way when the baroque city library was built on Gewandgäßchen between 1740 and 1744 according to plans by Friedrich Seltendorff . Parts of this building have been preserved in today's municipal department store. The development of the municipal department store began with the conversion of one floor of the city library for trade fair purposes in 1893. The background to the renovation was the change in the fair from a goods fair to a sample fair - the industrially, i.e. in series, manufactured products were presented to the retailers as samples and ordered on this basis, i.e. delivered later. The converted rooms were put into use on the occasion of the Michaelmas fair in August / September 1894. These new sample measuring locations proved themselves so well that the construction of the municipal department store was then tackled as the first sample fair building (presumably worldwide, since the Leipzig trade fair was the driving force behind other trade fairs in Germany and Europe).
Construction and remodeling
First of all, the city library was completely rebuilt in 1894. The concert hall of the Gewandhaus was then demolished and a new neo-baroque building was erected in its place . Finally, the parts of the building on Kupfergasse were erected. The delicately proportioned forms of the neo-baroque facade of the municipal department store, alternating between light sandstone elements and plastered surfaces, are based on the baroque facade of the city library, which was styled for the municipal department store through renovation and expansion.
In the municipal department store, the principle of forced circulation, namely around the large inner courtyard and two atriums , was implemented for the first time. Most of the other exhibition halls, which still shape the cityscape of Leipzig today, were built according to this model. In contrast to the simpler facades of the other trade fair buildings, which are often characterized by the reform style , the facade of the municipal department store is much more magnificent. The impression is reminiscent of a Mediterranean city palace . Another detail worth mentioning is the passenger elevator from 1901 in stairwell A, which today is the oldest preserved elevator in Leipzig in its reconstructed form .
In the bombing raids of 1943, the municipal department store, like many adjacent buildings, was badly damaged. In the years 1948–1956 (details vary) a partial reconstruction of the southern part of the building took place. A fundamental reconstruction of the north wing (former city library) began around the middle of the 1980s, but was interrupted by the political change in 1989.
Refurbishment and today's picture
After reunification in 1990, the municipal department store was sold to Anno August Jagdfeld in 1992/1993 . In contrast to other projects such as For example, the Hotel Adlon in Berlin or the Kempinski Resort in Heiligendamm , he took over this property as part of his private assets, instead of placing it as a closed fund through the Fundus Group . The building was completely renovated from 1993 (building application) to 1996 (completion). In addition to the inner courtyard, a special attraction is the 2.20-meter-high bronze statue of Emperor Maximilian I created by Carl Seffner on the side facing Universitätsstrasse , which was erected on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the granting of the imperial trade fair privilege in 1897.
From the point of view of today's use, the name “Städtisches Kaufhaus” is misleading insofar as the building is not a department store, but a mixture of retail and restaurant space as well as office space . Renting was slow at first. In 2005 an underground car park and an event location were opened in the basement of the property .
On August 26, 2005, the street of the stars was opened in the municipal department store . This exhibition, conceived by the “Leipzig Tourist Service”, includes hand casts and personal items of prominent people from politics (e.g. Hinrich Lehmann-Grube ), culture (e.g. Kurt Masur , Herbert Blomstedt ), sport (e.g. Michael Schumacher) , Franziska van Almsick , Max Schmeling ) and entertainment business (e.g. Mariah Carey , Thomas Gottschalk ). In 2009 the exhibition was removed again.
From the winter semester 2005/2006 to the summer semester 2009, the municipal department store also housed the interim lecture hall building of the University of Leipzig . Since the end of 2009, the city library has also moved into the municipal department store as an interim during the two-year renovation period.
literature
- Wolfgang Hocquél : The architecture of the Leipziger Messe. Kaufmannshof, Messepalast, Passage, exhibition grounds. Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-345-00575-1 .
- Wolfgang G. Fischer: Gewandhaus and City Library and the master mason Seltendorff. In: Leipziger Jahrbuch 1938.
- Wolfgang G. Fischer: About the old Gewandhaussaale and its continued life in the small hall of the concert hall. In: Leipziger Jahrbuch 1941.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 18 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 38 ″ E