Town house (hall)
The town hall of Halle is the neo-Gothic assembly, meeting and festival building on the market square of the city of Halle (Saale) and a listed landmark of the city. In 1903 the German Association of Philologists was founded here .
history
In the course of the rediscovery of the Middle Ages by German Romanticism, neo-Romanesque , but above all neo-Gothic forms came into fashion in house construction . You were able to build a new building that was historically true and deceptively real. The city of Halle (Saale) put all its efforts and all its energy into a new town hall, due to the extensive restoration work that became necessary on and in the old town hall of the town, which is now much too small .
Clearly shaped by the industrial revolution of the 19th century and its numerous new structural and technical possibilities, a modern, neo-gothic - neo-renaissance meeting and meeting room arose from 1891 in the rapidly growing urban community based on plans by the Cologne architect Emil Schreiterer on the south side of the market square Fixed building in the shortest possible time and stylistically from a single source. Accordingly, the interior of the house was furnished in a neo-Gothic-Renaissance style. The house was consecrated in 1894 by the Lord Mayor of Halle (Saale).
During the Second World War , the town house survived the Allied bombing raids in 1944/45 and the US artillery fire in April 1945 without major damage, unlike the old town hall.
In 1951 the four prince statues, almost three meters high sculptures of historical personalities, which had adorned the facade of the town hall since 1894, were removed and destroyed . There were neo-Gothic canopies above the four figures made of shell limestone , which alternated with the large arched windows . The famous sculptor was Johann Degen from Cologne . The statues were: Emperor Karl the Great (742–814), the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg (1620–1688), King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia (1688–1740) and the German Emperor Wilhelm I. (1797-1888). According to an earlier view of history, these rulers had “made special contributions to the creation and development of the city on the Saale”. In 1951, in the early GDR, the statues were removed as "evidence of the Prussian military past".
On May 10, 1991, the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl was pelted with eggs by demonstrators during a visit to the town hall on the forecourt. The protest came to be known as Halle's Egg Litter .
Building description
The town house in Halle is a three-storey, neo-gothic - neo-renaissance stone building with dwarf houses , corner towers and a large hipped roof on which there is a high ridge turret.
Furnishing
Externally in the neo-renaissance style , supplemented by neo-Gothic elements, the building has a magnificent inventory. A representative staircase leads from the passage leading to the barrel-vaulted main hall with rich sculptural and pictorial furnishings. Among the other paneled meeting rooms is the coat of arms hall . The windows of the Great Hall were renewed after the Second World War with stained glass depicting the four seasons by Charles Crodel .
In the town hall there are also the two sculptures Sangerhäuser Pietà I and Nature & Civilization as well as a memorial plaque in the Ratskeller for the foundation of the German Philological Association on October 6, 1903.
use
Meetings of the city council and its committees have been held in the town hall since 1894. In addition, the Halle registry office for weddings is located in the town hall. The wedding room in the town hall has been the most popular wedding venue in Halle (Saale) for decades, both for Halle residents and foreign couples. The Ratskeller , a gastronomic facility with a long tradition, is located in the basement . The German Association of Philologists was founded here in 1903 .
literature
- Sabine Simon: Schreiterer & Below. A Cologne architecture office between historicism and modernity. G. Mainz, Aachen 1999, ISBN 3-89653475-0 .
- Angelika Dolgner, Dieter Dolgner, E. Kunath: The historic market square of the city of Halle / Saale. Friends of the architectural and art monuments of Saxony-Anhalt, Halle 2001, ISBN 3-93191908-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Angela Dolgner, Dieter Dolgner, Erika Kunath: The historic market square of the city of Halle / Saale . Halle / Saale 2001. ISBN 3-931919-08-0 , pp. 169–171
- ↑ https://dubisthalle.de/58-jahre-nach-der-zerstoerung-stadthaus-soll-wieder-fassaden-statuen-bekommen
- ↑ Detlef Färber: Comeback for four princes? . Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, September 5, 2018 (article contains images of the four still images)
- ^ A b Holger Brülls, Thomas Dietzsch: Architectural Guide Halle on the Saale . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-496-01202-1 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 55.5 " N , 11 ° 58 ′ 13.8" E