Ålesund city fire

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Ålesund after the city fire
View over the destroyed Ålesund

When the Ålesund city fire burned down large parts of the Norwegian city ​​of Ålesund in 1904 .

The fire broke out, caused by a kerosene lamp overturned in a margarine factory , on the night of January 22nd to 23rd, 1904 and covered almost the entire core of the town, which was then largely made of wood. Approximately 850 houses were destroyed in the roughly 16-hour fire, fanned by a strong storm, causing approximately 10,000 people to lose their homes. Despite the size of the fire, only one human life was to be lamented. An elderly lady was killed at Lihaugen, very close to the fire station in the city center. She had got herself to safety at first, but then came back to fetch things.

First international aid reached Ålesund from Germany . Emperor Wilhelm II , a great admirer of the Nordic countries, arranged for outgoing aid deliveries on the evening of January 23rd, which were carried out with four ships of the Imperial Navy from Hamburg and Bremerhaven . In addition to medicines and food, building materials were also supplied. Financing came from the emperor's private assets. The shipping companies HAPAG and Norddeutsche Lloyd also co-financed . The ships were used as emergency shelters for a transitional period. In memory of this, a street in Ålesund is named after him and the Kaiser Wilhelm II monument is a memorial to the emperor.

Ålesund was rebuilt within seven, according to other sources, in three years in the Art Nouveau style, which still has a significant impact on the city center today. A new building code stipulated a stone construction. Smaller parts of the city were spared from the fire, such as buildings in the harbor such as the Kaihuset and the current building of the Ålesund Fishery Museum and in the east of the city, among other things, the Waldehuset . The massive Ålesund prison burned down, but the prisoners were released by the staff beforehand.

literature

  • Flat share: Aalesund before and after the fire. With 7 illustrations . In: From rock to sea. The wide world. 23 vol. 1, Sept. 1903 to February 1904, pp. 882-886.
  • Michael Möbius, Annette Ster: Norway . Dumont Reiseverlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-7701-7827-8 , p. 320.

Web links

Commons : Ålesund fire  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Grytten, Eli Anne Tvergrov, Through the Streets of Ålesund , Ålesund Municipality, 2011, page 6
  2. ↑ Harald Grytten, Eli Anne Tvergrov, Through the Streets of Ålesund , Ålesund Municipality, 2011, page 14
  3. ↑ Michael Möbius, Annette Ster: Norway . Dumont Reiseverlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-7701-7827-8 , p. 320.
  4. ↑ Harald Grytten, Eli Anne Tvergrov, Through the streets of Ålesund , Ålesund Municipality, 2011, p. 39