St. Leonhard (Braunschweig)

Today's plan of St. Leonhard

St. Leonhard around 1830, map section by Johann Karl Mare

St. Leonhard describes a place in Braunschweig , the center of which is the Leonhard Chapel. It was once a patch or bleek that emerged from around the 12th century south-east of Braunschweig. The settlement was on the edge of a forest (later called Siechenholz) that stretched from the Streitberg to Rautheim , including the broken mast.

The current building complex of St. Leonhard, most of which dates from the 19th century, is a listed building .

location

The spot was probably located on the areas that were covered today by the Braunschweig main cemetery , the Braunschweig main freight station , the Mastbruch-Elmaussicht settlement , the former barracks on Rautheimer Strasse and at least parts of the Lindenberg and Südstadt settlements . Between the patch and the city of Braunschweig there were mainly gardens and mills that served to supply the city. The reason for the development of the stain was the spread of leprosy .

In the 17th century, the town was destroyed and rebuilt several times during armed conflicts between the city and its dukes.

From 1860 the area grew together with the city of Braunschweig. The name St. Leonhard was kept as a street name until 1890 and was then replaced by the name Leonhardplatz. Today the area of ​​St. Leonhard belongs at least for the most part to the Viewegsgarten-Bebelhof district .

history

View of the St. Leonhard Chapel from the southwest (in the background the tower of St. John's Church )

Destruction and rebuilding

Inscription above the church entrance: 16 RENOVATUM ANNO 79

In the 16th and 17th centuries, St. Leonhard got involved in armed conflicts between the city of Braunschweig and the dukes who wanted to take possession of the city. Heinrich the Younger destroyed the windmill and the Klus belonging to the Bleek , the beguines fled to the monastery of St. Aegidien . In 1559 the windmill was rebuilt, in 1567 the infirmary and the cave was repaired. In 1605/1606 Duke Heinrich Julius attacked , his riders plundered the church, destroyed the interior and played badly with the residents of the infirmary. They also destroyed the mill's gears. In 1615 his son, Duke Friedrich Ulrich invaded . Until 1621 the church could not be used, the Klus was not rebuilt. The city's defenders also took part in the destruction. The houses in the market were set on fire. The Bleek was only rebuilt after the Dukes had captured Braunschweig, the first being the inn in 1675. The poor system was reorganized, St. Leonhard came to the Marienhospital.

The church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times in its history. The construction after the armed conflicts lasted from 1672 to 1679. Above the (former?) Entrance is the inscription “16 RENOVATUM ANNO 79”.

In October 1856 the demolition of the church was prevented by the city architect Tappe. On the 2nd Advent in 1947 the Leonhard Chapel was inaugurated as a church for the Christian community , a religious community based on anthroposophy . The opening ceremony took place on December 5th. In June 1949, the Leonhard Chapel was restored as the Church of the Christian Community by the architect Daniel Thulesius . From December 3 to December 5, 1954, the community celebrated after the restoration of the ceiling paintings from the 12th to 17th centuries in the choir and in the nave of the Leonhard Chapel.

Growing together with the city of Braunschweig

Stable construction at Leonardplatz

Stable construction with extension

The riding arena planned for demolition

From 1860 the St. Leonhard area gradually grew together with the city of Braunschweig. Leonhardstrasse, Körnerstrasse and Gerstäcker Strasse were some of the first streets that formed the connection to the city and to the residential area on the Krähenfeld to the west of Vieweg's garden. According to the address book, Helmstedter Strasse has 35 numbers from 1860 and 51 numbers from 1874.

According to Pingel (see literature) the street previously referred to in the city's address book as St. Leonhard or (according to Knopp) Platz became Leonhardsplatz in 1890, the way to St. Leonhard (from 1860 in the address book of the city of Braunschweig) became Leonhardstraße and from 1875 the path 1890 to Gerstäckerstraße, already recognizable on plans from 1671 as a path between gardens. Leonhardplatz bordered Campestrasse (today Ottmerstrasse). In 1915 there was still a cattle market on Leonhardsplatz.

The name Marthastraße is mentioned for the first time from 1879, and the manufacturer Voigtländer helped finance it . Today's Körnerstraße was built from 1878 as Kein Campestraße. In the area of ​​St. Leonhard, Wörthstraße (today Schillstraße) was built in 1874 and Kapellenstraße in 1892.

The Siechenholz in the southeast of the city district also developed. On October 1, 1887, the central cemetery, later the main cemetery in Braunschweig , was inaugurated. An industrial area and Ackerstraße (1869) were created south of the railway line to Helmstedt and the Ostbahnhof. The residential area could not really expand between industrial plants, train stations and the main cemetery. The share brewery of the same name was established on the Streitberg in 1873. Reuterstraße was built in 1908 opposite the main cemetery in Braunschweig.

In the direction of the city center there were also businesses, such as the cigar factory Frey and Schurig (1869–1885) on the corner of Helmstedter.

The monastery domain was dissolved in 1888 and partially demolished in 1890. In 1889 the former sheepfold, now the farmyard of the monastery, became the state stud of Braunschweig and remained here until 1934. From 1912 on, the Braunschweig equestrian squadron was based in St. Leonhard. After 1935, other organizational units of the Braunschweig Police Department moved in here, such as the 4th Police Department . They used the premises and their own tank system for company vehicles until 1978.

New use

Construction work on the site, 2018

After the former state stud remained unused for decades, a concept for the area was presented in 2015. Under the name Quartier St. Leonhard , an integrative social center is to be created in which people of different generations, including people with disabilities, can live, work and learn. Despite the monument protection, the riding arena and the stables are to be demolished and five new buildings erected. Borek-Immobilien, the Evangelical Foundation Neuerkerode and the Christian Youth Village Association in Germany are involved in the Richard Borek Foundation project . At the corner of Leonhardplatz and Leonhardstraße the largest, namely a six-story building is to be built.

tasks

Lepers

Those suffering from leprosy , also called sick people , were resettled in Germany outside the cities. In Braunschweig this happened at the above-mentioned forest, which was then given the name Siechenholz. The wood was either purchased from the sick or the city.

The oldest evidence of sick wood and a hospital St. Leonhard dates back to 1230 in other German cities since Siechenhospitäler were detected in the 9th century, it is likely that in the commercial city of Braunschweig leprosy was a problem even before the settlement so is older.

A hospital looked after by beguines was built on the Siechenholz, a chapel that exists today (which, according to Knopp, dates from 1190), a cave that was finally destroyed in the 17th century , several businesses and a small settlement.

Change in the tasks of St. Leonhard

The character and tasks of the “hospitals” in the St. Leonhard area changed in the course of their existence.

• After the leprosy subsided in the 16th century, the focus was on raising bourgeois daughters, among other things.
• In the Bleek there was a smallpox house that belonged to the Antonii and St. Christophori Hospital in the Weichbild Hagen .
• Anyone who was “unclean” or afflicted with a “serious illness in the hospital” was given a free place. He had to bring beds, clothes and other personal needs and arrange a "collation", a love meal, at the start. He could borrow the money for that.
• From 1680 syphilis patients were treated. In 1727 an infirmary was built in the former home of the innkeeper Hans Mecke.
• From the 18th century, dead people had to be reported to the anatomical-surgical institute for examination.
• So-called salvation rooms were built and salvation cures were offered, which were paid for by the poor relief fund founded in 1742 .
• In 1813 the hospital was closed, in 1841 or 1842 the poor houses near St. Leonhard were closed and the municipal poor house at Goslarsche Strasse 47 was put into operation. The building in St. Leonhard was sold to Gärtner Bäse on the Streitberg.
• After the infirmary was closed (possibly earlier), unmarried mothers came to St. Leonhard to give birth; soldiers were usually given as fathers . Unmarried mothers were called “ whores ” according to an edict of 1687 , they had to pay the “whore break” or were driven to the workshop in the whore's cart and had to sweep the streets under police supervision. The admission to the Accouchiehaus founded in 1767 on the corner of Wendenstrasse / Wilhelmstrasse (today the court) brought impunity. Whether this also applied to St. Leonhard is not known.

"Knabenhof near St. Leonhard"

On June 8, 1852, a sewing school for girls of the "lower classes" ("rescue house") was opened at St. Leonhard in front of the stone gate. The “Knabenhof bei St. Leonhard” in Georg-Westermann-Allee 76, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on June 8, 1952, was probably the result.

On June 28, 1954, the children's home of the St. Leonhard Knabenhof was put into operation on Georg-Westermann-Allee , the "Michelfelder-Heim", named after the then General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation , the German-American Dr. Michelfelder.

At the same time, the youth hostel of the Knabenhof near St. Leonhard was renamed "Fritjof-Nansen-Heim". New rooms were inaugurated on January 29, 1960. On October 1, 1971, the Christian Youth Village Association in Germany took over the management of the apprenticeship and youth home and renamed it “Youth Village Braunschweig” . The CJD Jugenddorf-Christophorus School Braunschweig is located on the site today .

Commercial enterprises

Business enterprises also belonged to the infirmary or its successors and the Bleek.

• In 1589/1590 an inn was built . A kitchen garden, a yard and fields belonged to this jug.
• The hospital operated a windmill on the Windmühlenberg and St. Marien operated another from 1580/1581. The windmill from St. Leonhard had to grind the flour free of charge for the sick. The windmillers initially lived next to the church.
• In the immediate vicinity of the hospital was a farm with 68 acres of land, which until 1580 was cultivated by a farmer.
• There is a confirmation from 1671 that 1000 sheep were kept in the sheep farm of the St. Marien Hospital, the sheep farm was in the current ruins on the corner of Leonhardplatz and Leonhardstraße opposite the town hall . The Braunschweig State Stud was later relocated here.
• There were other properties farther away, houses and pensions in the town belonging to the hospital.
• In addition, the above-mentioned sick wood, located between Streitberg and Rautheim, belonged to the infirmary. The broken mast also belonged to the Siechenholz, but it came to Riddagshausen in 1281 . The Mastbruch is now part of the Südstadt-Rautheim-Mascherode district . In 1757 and 1758 wood was needed for the fortress construction, this was felled in the sick wood. Since wood thefts increased in the Siechenholz, a forester's house was built by Georg Christian Sturm on the northern edge of the Siechenholz. A staff member in the forester's house began to sell drinks on his own initiative, much to the annoyance of the innkeeper at the Krug near St. Leonhard (now called “Gasthaus zum golden Stern”). He protested and received the concession in the forester's house. In 1803 the sick wood was felled, as fields promised higher income. The forester's house was sold and demolished in 1804.
• The so-called "lütje Kamp", a hop garden of the mayor of Hagen Lüddeke Jüten and his heirs, was located at the Siechenholz .

school

A school also belonged to St. Leonhard. Until 1819 there were teaching assistant teacher , then trained were educators set. The auxiliary teachers were low-income craftsmen. The income at the school was dependent on the school fees . Since there was no compulsory school attendance , only those children whose parents could afford the school fees were sent to school. In 1856 the school was closed after a reorganization that distributed children to schools in the city.

Ecclesiastical and secular assignment

Until it was destroyed and then rebuilt in the 17th century, the Bleek houses were located west of the church on today's Leonhardplatz. After the reconstruction in 1671 there were houses to the north and east of the church. The houses were "sold" to craftsmen and hackers for life. There were a few streets and a market square. Annual and livestock markets were held on the market square. In 1727 a terraced house with 11 residential and service houses was built; the windmill lived in the middle house with a sundial. In 1756 an avenue was laid out at the instigation of the duke. Ongoing disputes between the Great Orphanage and St. Aegidien over the common sheep farm meant that St. Leonhard came to the city as a monastery property. In 1856 the community of 210 souls came to St. Magni.

Until the Reformation , St. Leonhard belonged to Halberstadt and was subject to St. Aegidien in church terms . From 1529–1531 the former monks Heinrich Lampe and Heinrich Ossenborn were pastors at St. Leonhard. After that there was only one pastor at the church, in 1580 the congregation was united with St. Marien.

In secular terms, two citizens were appointed guardians (also called chiefs or provisional officers) by the Old Town Council . An asset manager drew a lap of half a thaler from everyone with their own household or house on “Monday after Marien” (no indication of which Marien) and took them to the council of the old town.

additional

St. Leonhard / Ostbahnhof station

In 1881 Knoll reported on a planned St. Leonhard freight yard. This is also recorded in the Rincklake station plan from 1889. Löffelsend writes that the St. Leonard marshalling yard already existed in 1871, and from 1873 a goods and coal shed, a locomotive hall and a water station were built after it. The plans to rebuild the Ostbahnhof already existed in the 20th century. But the Helmstedter Bahn also brought major changes. Major changes then took place in connection with the new buildings for the Braunschweig main train station and the Braunschweig city hall .

The name St. Leonhard today

As an area name, St. Leonhard has completely disappeared today, the area of ​​the former Bleek is now mostly in the Viewegs Garten-Bebelhof district , some areas in the eastern ring area .

A sports club today bears the name St. Leonhard.

The closure and demolition of the tram depot on Georg-Westermann-Allee in 2008 brought the name back to life. The city of Braunschweig built a residential area there called " St. Leonhards Garten ". The project is part of the “Experimental Housing and Urban Development” program of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. The associated award is endowed with a prize sum of 500,000 euros.

literature

• Bode: Contribution to the history of the city, especially the establishment of the hospitals and the one against the plague and infectious diseases in older times , Braunschweig 1831, in: Braunschweiger Magazin , 37th to 39th item, supplement to the Braunschweiger advertisements
• Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf, Pingel: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon , Braunschweig 1992
• Reinhard Dorn : Medieval churches in Braunschweig . Hamelin, 1978
• Wolf-Dietrich von Kurnatowski : St. Leonhard before Braunschweig. History of the hospital, the church and the farm , in: Braunschweiger Werkstücke , Volume 23, Braunschweig 1958
• H. Dürre: History of the City of Braunschweig in the Middle Ages , Wolfenbüttel 1875, p. 589 ff
• Ludwig Hänselmann : "The infirmary at St. Leonhard", Braunschweig 1900; From: Braunschweigisches Magazin, 1900, No. 1–3
• Hodemacher, Jürgen: "The infirmary at St. Leonhard"; In: Braunschweigischer Kalender. - Braunschweig: Meyer, ISSN  0343-0316 , (1988), pp. 84-88
• Hans Hassels: "The rescue house at St. Leonhard in Braunschweig", in: 1897, Braunschweigisches Magazin. 1897, No. 6, pp. 41-44
• Norman-Mathias Pingel: "Urban expansion and municipal authorities in Braunschweig 1851-1914", Hanover 1998
• Friedrich Knoll: "Braunschweig and the surrounding area: historical-topographical manual and guide through the monuments and art treasures of the city" 1881
• "The Rincklake'sche station plan for the city of Braunschweig judges Architekten- u. Engineer Association for the Duchy of Braunschweig ”; Braunschweig 1889
• Karl-Heinz Löffelsend: "The people of Helmstedt: the story of a street and its inhabitants"; Braunschweig 2005
• Volker Dowidat: "Police in the rear-view mirror: The history of the Braunschweig Police Department"; Braunschweig 2003
• Erich Bünte, Hans-Hermann Deter, Helmut Dohr (eds.): Burned, sold, forgotten? On the history of the property at Leonhardplatz 1 in Braunschweig. Freundeskreises Braunschweiger Polizeigeschichte eV, Braunschweig 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-034686-6 .

swell

1. ↑ Die Christengemeinschaft, Volume 20, 1948, no. 1 u. 2, p. 43
2. ↑ The Lion: Braunschweig's new lighthouse project
3. ^ Regional Braunschweig: St. Leonhard: New city district planned
4. ↑ Braunschweiger Zeitung of March 5, 2007 as well as press release from the city of Braunschweig  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

Commons : St. Leonhard (Braunschweig)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• City chronicle of the city archive
• Open Monument Day 2001
• Description of beguines at St. Leonhard on the Lower Saxony monastery map of the Institute for Historical Research

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 '  N , 10 ° 33'  E