City moat (Düsseldorf)

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Stadtgraben and Königsallee

The Stadtgraben (also Kö-Graben ) is a body of water in the center of Düsseldorf , which divides the Königsallee into two sides. There are three bridges for the crossing. The protective waters originally located in this area in front of the eastern fortifications of Düsseldorf were converted into this ditch from 1802 after they were razed. Its dimensions are: width: 32 meters, depth: 5 meters and length: 580 meters.

location

Bird's eye view of the moat from the north, 2016

The body of water is located in the center of Düsseldorf, east of the old town and Carlstadt . To the north, the moat ends in the Tritonenbrunnen on Theodor-Körner-Straße with Corneliusplatz and in the south at the level of Bahnstraße on Graf-Adolf-Platz in front of the small flower garden . For the water supply, the ditch is connected to the northern Düssel via the land crown as well as to the southern Düssel via the swan mirror . In the city map from 1854 it can be seen that the open moat originally led to the area of ​​the current Graf-Adolf-Platz. It was only when the railway line in this area was extended from the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn station, built around 1840 to the new terminus "Rheinknie", that this southern end of the trench was moved into an underground canal.

history

City map 1854 / building and leveling plan for the expansion of the city of Düsseldorf

According to Art. VI of the Peace of Lunéville , the fortress of Düsseldorf could not be upgraded again after it had been evacuated by the French occupiers. From 1802 the fortress structures that had been blown up by the retreating French were demolished and the existing protective waters were partially filled with the building rubble. Until 1805, large parts of the New Court Garden and the “Hofgartenstrasse” were the first to be laid out. At the same time, an "avenue outside the city" was created in the east of the old city center. The protective waters lying there in front of this new avenue were converted into a wide and deep "moat", which was called the "city moat".

The first plans for the new facilities came under the direction of Hofrat Georg Arnold Jacobi (1768–1845) from court architect Kaspar Anton Huschberger and the hydraulic engineer Christian Wilhelm Gottlieb Bauer. From 1803 the horticultural master Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe was added, who was responsible for the park areas. Around 1806 Huschberger was replaced by Adolph von Vagedes . The latter had been appointed to Düsseldorf by Hofrat Jacobi.

When King Maximilian I ceded the Duchy of Berg to France in 1806 , the redesign of the former fortress area was not completed, but rather intensified by increasing the funds available for this purpose. Under the French, from 1811 Georg Arnold Jacobi was again head of the commission for the reconstruction of the fortifications.

The renovation work inevitably came to a temporary end when the French Empire collapsed from 1813 onwards. During the first period after the French lost power, the available financial resources were first needed for the further war against Napoleon. After that, under the Prussians, due to the loss of importance for Düsseldorf, the city was no longer a state or provincial capital from 1816, financial resources continued to be limited and the food crisis of 1816/17 made the situation even worse. It was only slowly after the mid-1810s that planning for the further construction work in the former fortress area began again.

View of the pedestrian bridge and the southern end of the moat

Under the leadership of Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe and the town planner Adolph von Vagedes, the old planning, which had already been developed in the main from 1802, was further developed. In detail, a ring of parks with embedded ponds was planned around the former fortress city until 1819 . The road modifications required to connect these parks to the city and the surrounding area were also part of the plan.

The overall plan contained many suggestions from Adolph von Vagedes, who had been appointed a councilor in the Düsseldorf district government in 1816. Not all of his proposals were carried out later, but he had a major impact on the city's development in the first decades of the 19th century. Many ideas for an English landscape garden by Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe, however, were implemented. The old core city was to be largely surrounded by contiguous parks with the incorporated waters of Landskrone , "Stadtgraben", Kaiserteich , Schwanenspiegel and Spee'scher Graben .

The link between the Hofgarten and the planned parks in the south of the city was the "avenue outside the city" on the east side of the moat . This "avenue" was renamed Königsallee after several name changes in the middle of the 19th century . It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Canalstrasse, west of the moat, was extended to today's Graf-Adolf-Platz and also expanded like an avenue. Until the end of the 19th century, the large barracks area with a parade ground was located here south of Benrather Straße. The city moat was the eastern limit of the parade ground. After the barracks had been demolished after 1900 and the parade ground relocated, the name Königsallee was used for both sides of the city moat from 1905 .

After much discussion and the resulting changes, the development plan was approved by the Prussian government in Berlin on June 4, 1831 by cabinet order. The permit covered the entire former fortress area from the security port in the north of the city. Changes in the area of ​​the old city center and the banks of the Rhine were also included. As far as private property was concerned, the owners were obliged not to prevent the execution. As a result, Düsseldorf became a city by the middle of the 19th century that was surrounded on the land side by a green belt with embedded waters. Since the denser development behind this green belt did not take place until after the middle of the 19th century, the city was given the title "garden city" at that time.

Up until the establishment of an urban sewage network in the second half of the 19th century, the rainwater from the streets near the Königsallee was drained into the city moat. After 1874, sections were transferred to the new sewage system for the sewage that had previously accumulated from the eastern street areas up to Oststraße.

As with all city ponds, the city moat and the associated protective grids in the Düssel inflow and outflow had to be cleaned and desludged regularly. Furthermore, the bank areas had to be revised occasionally. From the end of the first half of the 19th century, corresponding costs are also listed for this area in the budget data of the city of Düsseldorf.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the fishing rights for all city ponds including the city moat were auctioned annually. Furthermore, there was a “municipal regulation” for the city ponds including the city moat, according to which ice skating was permitted by the police in winter when it was cold enough.

Others

Girardet Bridge in Königsallee

Since the moat stretched over half a kilometer over large areas of the east side of the old core city, some bridges were necessary for the entry and exit to the city. The first bridge over the moat was built as early as 1807 to connect the eastern areas with the old city center, which was torn down again in 1897 and replaced by a new building. This was at the eastern end of Benrather Strasse from Carlstadt. Even before the moat was dug, a simple wooden bridge had existed in this area since the Carlstadt was dug. This spanned the moat in front of the Josephus Bastion and provided access to the surrounding area from the city via Benrather Strasse.

A second bridge was planned and built further north around 1811 at the level of Königsstrasse. This second bridge could only be built a few years after the first. The reason for this was that it took three years to dismantle the bastion, which had been located in the area of ​​the later Wilhelm Marx House and the remains of which blocked access to the city moat. For the construction of this bridge, in addition to city funds, private funds from city residents were raised through a class lottery.

Both bridges were given customs houses over which a municipal excise was levied for the delivery of goods for the markets in the city. These toll houses took over the function that the Flinger Tor , which was demolished around 1810, had until then . After it was demolished, the customs house there was still there for the collection of the excise until the construction of the second bridge. Besides these two bridges that were wide enough for the use of carts, in 1905 in the development of the former parade ground next to the extension of the canal road and a pedestrian bridge at the height of Bastionstraße built.

Triton fountain

The first two bridges were simple structures without any decorative accessories. As early as 1861/62 the simple bridge at the level of Königsstraße was replaced by a new one. This new bridge was given two decorative towers at the entrance and two at the exit, which were then also added to the other two bridges. However, this second forerunner of the current "Girardet Bridge", named after the Girardet publishing house, was in disrepair again at the beginning of the 20th century and was renewed in 1906. The residents on Grabenstrasse (current name: Trinkausstrasse) had to contribute 18,000 marks to the construction costs. The sculptor August Bauer took on the artistic design of the stone bridge construction with various gargoyles.

The northern end of the moat was architecturally extensively redesigned from 1898 to 1902. The costs for this were largely raised by the "Düsseldorfer Beautification Association". In addition to the balustrade, the triton fountain in front of it created by the sculptor Friedrich Coubillier is particularly noteworthy . In 1903, Henkel house architect Walter Furthmann won the competition of the Beautification Association for the southern end of the moat .

At the beginning of the 1920s, subsidence threatened to collapse the southern end construction of the city moat. It was therefore partially canceled and renewed.

After 1945

During the war, the culverts, through which the land crown and the city moat are supplied with water from the Düssel, were destroyed. Both bodies of water could not be supplied with water until the culverts were restored in 1949 and were therefore largely "dry". In addition, the northern balustrade with the Triton Fountain and all three bridges of the moat were damaged. This war damage was repaired by 1951.

The previous bridge at the level of Benrather Strasse was too narrow for the strongly increased car traffic from the end of the 1950s. After a planning phase that lasted several years from the beginning of 1960, the old bridge was replaced by a new one. The new bridge was opened for traffic on September 1, 1965.

On October 24, 1994, the Königsallee with the city moat including the three bridges, the Triton Fountain, Graf-Adolf-Platz and Corneliusplatz were added to the list of monuments of the city of Düsseldorf.

Web links

Commons : Stadtgraben (Düsseldorf)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein: Festschrift for the 600th anniversary of Düsseldorf , p. [397] 380.
  2. ↑ a b c Office for Communication State Capital Düsseldorf, in: Portrait of the Königsallee , p. 3 online version.
  3. ^ The Peace of Lunéville , website in the portal lwl.org (Internet portal "Westphalian History"), accessed on August 2, 2014
  4. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, p. 64. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  5. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, p. 369. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  6. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, p. 325. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  7. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, p. 350. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  8. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, pp. 370-372. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  9. ↑ See plan of the city of Düsseldorf with its immediate surroundings, 1819/20 (exhibition catalog no. 6.50). In: Wieland Koenig (Ed.): Düsseldorfer Gartenlust . Exhibition catalog of the City Museum of the State Capital Düsseldorf for the exhibition of the same name, Düsseldorf 1987, p. 116, 117.
  10. ^ Karl Bone, in: Düsseldorf und seine Umgebung , 1890, p. [28] 18.
  11. ↑ Official Journal for the Düsseldorf administrative region, in: Building plan of the city of Düsseldorf No. 4442 , 1831, No. 64, p. [403] 406.
  12. ↑ Düsseldorf, in: Report on the status and administration of community affairs / 9th sewerage , 1874, p. [144] 138. Online version
  13. ↑ Example: Household budget of the city of Düsseldorf, under: Renovation of the shore zones Landskrone 1883/85 p. [152] 149. Online version
  14. ^ Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Report on the status and administration of community affairs , 1880–1881, p. [96] 96. Online version
  15. ↑ Contribution to the history of the Lower Rhine. In: Yearbook of the Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, 8th volume, p. [265] 258. Online version
  16. ^ Hugo Weidenhaupt: Düsseldorf, history from the origins to the 20th century. Verlag Schwann / Patmos, 1988, Volume 2, p. 326. ISBN 3-491-34222-8
  17. ↑ Otto Reinhard Redlich, in: The presence of Napoleon I in Düsseldorf , 1892, p. [67] 67. Online version
  18. ^ Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein: Festschrift for the 600th anniversary of Düsseldorf , p. [398] 381.
  19. ↑ In: Report on the State and Administration of Community Affairs in the City. Period from April 1, 1904 to March 31, 1906 . 1906, p. [209] 217.
  20. ^ Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Report on the status and administration of community affairs , 1905–1906, p. [244] 252. Online version
  21. ↑ The Kö-Brücke , in Rheinische Post online, accessed on February 7, 2020
  22. ↑ Redeman & Ising, in: Düsseldorf guide / attractions , the 1,902th
  23. ↑ management report of the City of Dusseldorf, in: Special Section , 1919/22, S. [147] 135.Onlinefassung
  24. ^ Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Report on the status and administration of community affairs , 1945/49, p. [154] 150. Online version
  25. ^ Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Report on the status and administration of community affairs , 1949/51, p. [143] 139. Online version
  26. ↑ Administrative report of the state capital Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Bauverwaltung 1961/62 and 1963/64 , pp. [266] 260 and [213] 210. Online version
  27. ^ Administrative report of the state capital Düsseldorf / Statistisches Amt, in: Stadtchronik 1965 , p. [10] 6. Online version

Remarks

  1. ^ By decree of Elector Maximilian IV, Hofrat Georg Arnold Jacobi was appointed head of the commission for the reconstruction in the time before the French on January 2, 1802.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 22 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 44 ″  E