Wiesbaden City Palace
The classicist city palace of the Hessian capital Wiesbaden was built between 1837 and 1841 as the residence of the Dukes of Nassau . It was built according to plans by Georg Moller on the site of a castle that had its origins in Franconian times and thus probably formed the nucleus of the medieval city. The castle has an eventful history. Since 1946 it has housed the Hessian Landtag , which has a larger complex with adjoining other buildings.
history
Medieval beginnings
The place where the city palace stands today has been the center and the political power center of the city of Wiesbaden since the Middle Ages . A castle of the Counts of Nassau, around which the city developed, has probably stood here since the early Middle Ages. The directly adjacent market square (today: Schlossplatz ) was the center of the same, where the town hall was built in 1610 . Unfortunately, nothing has been handed down about the size and shape of the castle, however, during excavations during the reconstruction of the cavalier's house adjoining the castle and damaged in World War II , the remains of a tower castle from Franconian times were discovered.
Nassau city residence (1841 to 1866)
As early as 1744, Wiesbaden was the seat of government of the Principality of Nassau-Usingen and the princely residence of Usingen im Taunus was relocated to the baroque Biebrich Castle on the Rhine , which was built in 1701 . Consequently, the city became the capital of the newly founded Duchy of Nassau in 1806 , with Duke Friedrich August von Nassau-Usingen as head of state. When he died childless on March 24, 1816, the duchy passed to the Nassau-Weilburg line. Wilhelm I became the new duke and moved from the Erbprinzenpalais built especially for him on Wilhelmstrasse to Biebrich Castle. His father Friedrich Wilhelm was actually supposed to run the official business, but he died only two months earlier, on January 9, 1816, in a tragic accident in Weilburg Castle : He fell from a staircase.
In the 1830s, considerations arose to relocate the headquarters from the bank of the Rhine, far from the city, to the city. Initially, a building site on the representative classicist Luisenplatz was discussed, which at that time was still on the outskirts. Finally, the central location on the market square was chosen, officially, to demonstrate closer proximity to the citizens. Several buildings were acquired on the north side of the square, including the cavalier's house , which still existed in 1826 . The plans for the ducal house on the market , as the castle was initially called, were given to the well-known senior building director Georg Moller from Darmstadt , who had already made a name for himself there. In particular, a sophisticated corner solution had to be found, as this would determine the building and the entire space. Moller finally commissioned the Wiesbaden builder Richard Goerz with the execution, in 1837 the foundation stone for the new building was laid. Duke Wilhelm was not to see the completion of his palace; he died of a stroke on August 20, 1839 during the cure in Bad Kissingen . His 22-year-old son Adolf I then moved into the completed building for the first time in November 1841. However, he only lived in the house in the winter months, and in summer he continued to move to Schloss Biebrich.
In 1844 he married the Russian princess Elisabeth Michailovna , the daughter of Michael Romanow (1798-1849), the younger brother of the Tsars Alexander I (reign: 1801-1825) and Nicholas I (reign: 1826-1855). When his wife died in childbirth with the child on January 27, 1845, he had the Russian Chapel built in her honor as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the Neroberg .
During the March Revolution in 1848 there was a popular uprising in front of the ducal lap. On March 4, 1848, a hitherto unlikely crowd of 30,000 angry citizens gathered on the market square to reaffirm the " Nine Demands of the Nassau " (popular arming, freedom of the press, association law, public court proceedings, freedom of assembly, etc.) and called for the republic. The Duke, who was summoned from Berlin in a hurry, promised in his need to meet the demands. Although he later partially withdrew this, he enjoyed an ever greater reputation among the population with a longer reign.
In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Nassau sided with the Austrians along with Kurhessen , Hessen-Darmstadt , Bavaria , Hanover , Saxony and others. After the Prussian victory was sealed by the Prague Peace Treaty, Nassau - like all other defeated states north of the Main - was annexed and Duke Adolf was deposed. He initially lived as a private citizen in Vienna and in his Hohenburg Castle near Lenggries , before becoming the closest relative of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 1890 after the monarchy there died out . He established the ruling family of those of Luxembourg-Nassau and ruled the Grand Duchy until his death on November 17, 1905. To this day, the city of Wiesbaden maintains a friendly relationship with Luxembourg.
Royal Prussian secondary residence (1866 to 1918)
After the Duke was deposed, the castle was deprived of its function as a Nassau residence. The Prussian kings, who were now owners, recognized the value of the property in the central location of the up-and-coming and elegant spa town. From then on, they used the premises during their stays in Wiesbaden to move in with their court. Wilhelm I , King of Prussia since 1861 and German Emperor from 1871, stayed at the palace several times. During his reign, the adjoining Kaiser Wilhelm Heilanstalt named after him came into being, which was opened as a military hospital in 1871.
His grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II finally made Wiesbaden and the city palace his regular “May” residence: he and his servants and some of his family members often visited several times a year, for example in 1897 three times. He liked the city so much that he played a key role in promoting its development; perhaps also because streets and squares were festively decorated during his visits. Wiesbaden experienced a great boom during this time, became an "imperial city" and had the most millionaires in Germany at the turn of the century. The population rose from 35,500 in 1871 to 109,002 in 1910. Numerous important representative buildings were built, including the State Theater (1894), the Kurhaus (1907) and the main train station (1906). The International May Festival was launched in 1896 in honor of the emperor .
With the beginning of the First World War in 1914, but at the latest with the end of the German Empire in 1918, Wiesbaden's heyday as a world spa town was over. The castle had had its day as a representative residence; After the overthrow of the monarchy and the abolition of the nobility , there was no longer a regent who could reside in the building.
Military administrative headquarters and museum (1918 to 1946)
After the November Revolution, the castle experienced different uses. First in 1918 the workers and soldiers' council moved in . Later it was the administrative building of the French High Command and, from 1925, the British Army . After the occupation troops withdrew, the palace came into the possession of the Prussian State Palace Administration in 1930 and became a museum. During the Second World War, the General Command of the Wehrmacht took possession of the building. Although the castle was damaged by the air raid on February 2, 1945, most of it survived the war unscathed. The damage caused was not properly repaired later, so that moisture penetrated unnoticed and the dry rot could spread, which was only discovered in 2008.
Seat of the Hessian Parliament (since 1946)
After the Second World War, the Allied High Command moved into the partially destroyed castle . After Wiesbaden became the capital of the new federal state of Hesse in 1946, the castle was chosen to be the seat of the Hessian state parliament. On December 1, 1946, the newly convened state parliament met here for the first time, initially in the largest room in the house, the music hall . In the years 1960 to 1962, the former riding hall in the inner courtyard was demolished and a new plenary hall was built in its place .
The preserved historical rooms of the castle are used as a representative setting for receptions and other events, in the rest of the building rooms were created for the state parliament administration.
In 1965, Queen Elisabeth II also visited the palace during her stay in Wiesbaden.
Since the end of the 1990s there have been considerations to replace the outdated plenary hall with a new building. Initially, it was planned to build a transparent glass building in the tradition of the Bonn Bundestag on the area on the Schlossplatz between the Marktkirche and the castle (e.g. in place of the rose garden there ) . However, this project was abandoned for cost reasons and also due to protests from the population. The design by the Waechter + Waechter office from Darmstadt, which provides for a modern new building with circular seating in place of the existing plenary hall , won the architectural competition that was once again announced . The old plenary hall was demolished in 2004; the castle was a major construction site for about 4 years. The state parliament met in the meantime in the opposite Wiesbaden New Town Hall . On April 4, 2008, it was able to move back to its usual place in the courtyard of the palace.
architecture
Building complex of the Hessian state parliament
Today the Hessian state parliament not only uses the former Nassau city palace itself, but also several adjacent buildings. These include the Kavaliershaus , which is oriented towards the Schlossplatz, and the former Kaiser-Wilhelms-Heilanstalt , now called Wilhelmsbau . In the rear-facing courtyard of the palace, the plenary hall of the state parliament was built between 1960 and 1962 in place of the former riding hall, which was replaced by a new building from 2004 to 2008.
The individual buildings are described in more detail below.
Ducal castle
Structure and appearance
The actual classicist castle consists of an outwardly simple but elegant three-story two-wing complex, which are arranged at an obtuse angle to each other. They fit seamlessly into the surrounding buildings and are therefore not easily recognizable as a castle. The most striking architectural feature is the design of the connecting corner between the two wings, which protrudes from them in the form of a cylinder cutout. This is where the builders Georg Moller and Richard Goerz arranged the main entrance. Three pillars on either side of it support a balcony on the first floor, which leads around this cylinder cutout. Instead of the middle window on the second floor, the coat of arms of the House of Nassau is attached. The facades of the two side wings are plastered in white . Only the cornices below the first and above the second floor as well as the window coronations, especially on the first floor, are more elaborately designed and stand out from the rest of the white with their gray color. Above the final eaves there are smaller windows behind which the servants' rooms were.
The kings and emperors did not use the main entrance, but drove through the left courtyard entrance, got out below the large domed hall and then went up the stairs that were still continuous at that time. The coach could leave the courtyard of the castle through the right gate passage.
A third wing was created in the bisector between the two wings, which also houses the main staircase . This diagonal wing leads to the so-called central building . The ends of the three wings are connected by a winter garden that describes an arch. This creates two triangular inner courtyards. The building has a total of 145 rooms. To reinforce the impression of spaciousness, they could only be reached over long distances.
Interior
Coming from the main entrance in the corner , you first enter the former flag room and the vestibule, which lead to the main staircase . After the second flight of stairs you reach the great domed hall . To the right and left of the two wings - especially on the first floor - the lavish main rooms of the ducal apartment are housed in a sequence of rooms. In the central building behind the domed hall is the largest hall, the music hall . The halls were designed between 1839 and 1842 by the Düsseldorf decorative painter Ludwig Pose .
During the Second World War, only the right wing of the castle with its former private rooms was damaged, all other parts with its historical rooms are largely preserved. Elaborately designed parquet floors , chimneys, porcelain from Meissen , Prussia and China as well as ceiling paintings with shadow painting deserve attention . Due to the excavations in Pompeii that had started a few years earlier , Roman motifs were very popular and were also frequently used in the castle.
Main staircase
Great domed hall
Interior of the small hall
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The most important rooms are described in more detail below:
Main staircase and rotunda
The main staircase extends as a continuation of the entrance portal with the balcony room above to the domed hall. From the main entrance you first enter the small round room, the lower round room and then the semicircular hallway with its delicate pink stucco marble. The main staircase opens here, the middle staircase of which leads to a turning platform, which is now joined by a cloakroom in the style of the 1950s. The false ceiling was added in 1954. From here you can go upstairs in the same direction via a subsequently built-in staircase directly to the large domed hall. Originally the stairs ran from below, the carriage exit to the turning platform. The Duke drove his carriage through the entrance gate at the end of the left wing under the large domed hall and was able to enter the castle with dry feet. The carriage left the castle at the end of the right wing. While the staircase from the main entrance is narrow, the staircase widens on both sides from the turning platform and opens the view in the opposite direction to the upper part of the magnificent staircase. It has a barrel vault with cassettes that are strictly structured and framed with egg bands . Six statues depicting Greco-Roman gods stand in niches. The banister is made of fire-gilded bronze and shows the coat of arms of the Nassau dukes. The columns have a painted, deceptively similar marble structure.
At the top you get through the glass door into the upper semicircular vestibule. You almost enter the round balcony room, also known as the small rotunda, which is located above the main entrance. A Roman pointed tent is depicted on the ceiling with the help of shadow painting. The mosaic parquet consists of eight different woods and is decorated with mother-of-pearl and brass . On the left (in the right wing) you can see the former private apartments and today's meeting room 105 S, which is only partially in its original state due to war damage and is not shown during the guided tours. To the right of the balcony room are the historical presentation rooms, which can be viewed on the weekly tours. This is followed by the Red and Yellow Salon, the Small Hall and then the left part of the winter garden, to which the large domed hall adjoins. From here are the entrances from the staircase built in after the Second World War from the cloakroom, from the right winter garden to the cavalier's house and to the music hall, the largest hall in the castle. Another door leads to the work rooms of the service staff.
Originally the domed hall (also called round hall ) was built as a dining room. It is crowned by a mighty dome with a skylight. Because the sound swings back and forth up to 24 times, the hall was too loud for well-tended round tables. The large chandelier in the middle weighs 980 kg and consists of 24,000 individual parts. It was brought here from Biebrich Castle in 1930 after a similar chandelier had to move to the newly built Kurhaus in 1907 . A couple of years ago the new chandelier crashed but was restored. In two side niches of the hall there are two statues made of Carrara marble . In addition, the floor shows an elaborate parquet.
Left wing
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The most impressive sequence of rooms still preserved in the ducal apartment is on the first floor of the left wing of the palace. Here there is the Duke's tea room and lounge , the Red Salon , the walls of which are covered with red wall tension between stucco marble . The room is equipped with furniture made of American lemon tree wood and Causseusen (from French causer = to chat). These are two-seater sofas where the interlocutors have to face each other. Furthermore, there are elaborate ceiling paintings and parquet as well as paintings in the style of Romanticism.
This is followed by the Duke's former breakfast room , also known as the Yellow Salon . This is similar to the Red Salon , although the wall tension is yellow and the furniture is gilded.
The adjoining Pompeian Hall , also known as the Small Hall or Dance Hall, is two storeys high, with the second row of windows in the facade having a black background and thus not visible from the inside. The wall decoration depicts four Roman dancers and are original copies from Pompeii, for which the young architect Philipp Hoffmann made drawings on site at Vesuvius for half a year . The shutters, which can be folded from the inside, have mirrors and in the middle two large mirrors are attached to the longitudinal walls, so that the glowing candles of the former five chandeliers multiply and you can see thousands of lights in the room, which is a nice effect, especially at gala dinners with candlelight results. Today there is only one large chandelier with an electric light hanging in the middle, instead of the four others there are smoke detectors in the ceiling.
Furthermore, there is the buffet room on the upper floor with its wall and ceiling paintings and a seating group in the style of Louis XVI. as well as the Pompeian room on the ground floor , which is also designed on the model of Roman villas in Pompeii.
Winter garden
The glazed winter garden extends to the right and left of the domed hall . In the room adorned with ceiling paintings, the duke grew exotic plants that were sold to the city of Frankfurt am Main when Prussia took over the castle in 1866 and later, together with the greenhouse holdings from Schloss Biebrich, formed the basis of the Frankfurt palm garden . The white false ceiling that was drawn in later was removed again in the 1990s and the painted wooden panels were exposed again. The paintings on the upper inner wall were restored in 1999/2000.
Mittelbau
The diagonal wing is followed by the so-called central building , in which the largest hall of the castle, the music hall, is located on the first floor . This has wall paintings with oil on stucco as well as five side windows and a shell-shaped niche in the south. The state parliament met here from 1946 until the first plenary hall was completed in 1962. Today it serves as a concert hall and as an additional foyer for plenary sessions . A four-leaf door was built into the foyer of the plenary hall, so that today, when stepping through the door, you make a leap in time of almost 200 years. The original door in the real corner of the demolished riding hall was bricked up.
On the right is the door to the cabinet room with English furniture from around 1840. Today the Prime Minister is allowed to use this blue room during meetings. The next door leads to the smaller presidential salon . In the red room, on the other hand, there is late rococo furniture and a large painting showing Duke Adolf with his brothers Prince Moritz and Prince Nikolaus during a parforce hunt . Prince Metternich is one of the gentlemen in the picture .
Kavaliershaus and Wilhelmsbau
On the right wing of the castle are two other buildings which, although not actually part of the historical castle, are used today by the Hessian state parliament and are today connected to the castle. These are the former Kavaliershaus and the former Kaiser-Wilhelms-Heilanstalt , later called Wilhelmsbau , built between 1868 and 1871 by Philipp Hoffmann, who had already worked on the palace . Both buildings, like the right wing of the castle, were badly damaged in the Second World War.
The Kavaliershaus , which adjoins the palace facade, was built in 1826 by the master roofer Konrad Kalb as a residential and commercial building with a pharmacy, ironmongery and book printer. In 1836 the Duke bought it for the new palace. The building was then used as a court marshal's office. The classicist building originally had three full floors, during the reconstruction the room heights were reduced compared to the previous building, so that there are now four and it ends with the upper edge of the castle. The main entrance to the state parliament is in the middle of the "Kalb'schen Haus".
The Wilhelmsbau was originally built as a military hospital, which was named after Kaiser Wilhelm I. It has a red plastered facade in which an oversized bust of its namesake is inserted. The two corners facing Mühlgasse form a tower-like elevation. In Wilhelmsbau the branch "Foreign Trade Statistics" of was from 1951 to 1956 Federal Statistical Office, with 400 employees housed, after its reconstruction from March 1953, in Kavaliershaus before finally moved after remodeling in 1988 of the Hessian state parliament. The building was completely gutted, only the facade remained. The radio studios and the television studio of the Hessischer Rundfunk are housed in the Wilhelmsbau , as well as the well-known media room for the state press conference.
Plenary hall
From 1946 to 1962 the Hessian state parliament met in the music hall.
First plenary hall from 1962
The riding arena was connected to the central building in the inner courtyard of the palace . This was torn down and replaced by the new building of the plenary hall between 1960 and 1962. The hall was hexagonal, had no windows and was paneled with wood on the walls. The dominant element was composed of limestone made Hesse lion on the front side. The hall offered inadequate conditions for the MPs and the approximately 50,000 visitors a year, particularly due to the lack of natural light. Outwardly it formed a foreign body in the historic old town with its concrete facade. In 2004 it was demolished.
New building from 2008
The demolished old plenary hall was replaced by a new building designed by the architects Waechter + Waechter from Darmstadt. This should meet the modern requirements of a parliament building and be accessible to the public as a transparent building with circular seating. In addition, it received a representative entrance area and a visitor center on the rear Grabenstrasse , which is being expanded here to form the new Parliament Square. A room for temporary and permanent exhibitions on the history and working methods of the state parliament was also set up. The transparent construction inside allows a view into the hall, which according to the architects should look like a round table . In contrast to the old building, the lobby on the first floor was accessible from the historic music hall and the presidential salon. Overall, the new building has become smaller than its predecessor. Its dimensions are based on the old riding arena , creating a public space and, thanks to its shell limestone facade, it fits better into the surrounding residential buildings and the castle. The Prinzengässchen , which had previously ended as a dead end , was made accessible to the public again. Construction began in early 2005, but the opening was delayed due to water damage during the construction period. On April 4, 2008, the new state parliament was officially inaugurated with the passing of the departing MPs from the old legislative period . One day later, the constituent session of the new state parliament took place after the state elections. The construction costs of the new building amounted to 40 million euros. In 2008 the building was awarded the Johann Wilhelm Lehr plaque for good architecture by the Association of German Architects BDA in the state of Hesse .
Urban environment
The building complex, which is used by the Hessian state parliament today, is located in the densely built-up old town of the Hessian state capital, within the so-called historical pentagon . It extends over a complete block of houses, which is delimited by Marktstrasse , Grabenstrasse , Mühlgasse and Schlossplatz (see also the attached sketch). In addition to several residential and commercial buildings, the block also includes the adjoining administrative court and the baker's fountain , one of the city's 26 thermal springs . The main visible side of the City Palace , Kavaliershaus and Wilhelmsbau is facing the Wiesbaden Palace Square .
This is a unique building complex, where next to the castle and the Old Town Hall of 1610, at the same time the oldest building in the city, as well as that of George of Hauberrisser 1884-1887 built a new town hall and from 1853 to 1862 by Carl Boos Built in neo-Gothic Market Church to are found. In the middle of the square, between the corner of the palace and the old town hall, there is the lion or market fountain from 1753, which is crowned by a golden Nassau lion. Between the Kavaliershaus and the Marktkirche there is a monument to William I of Nassau-Orange , the founder of the Netherlands . During the Second World War, Schlossplatz lost its northern degree with the secondary school for girls established by Felix Genzmer .
For more information, see also Schlossplatz (Wiesbaden) .
Today's use of the castle
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The palace complex has served the Hessian state parliament as the seat and place of work since 1946. The 110 members elected by the citizens of Hessen meet in the plenary hall, which was newly built in 2004–2008. The historical rooms of the castle form the representative framework for official receptions of the state parliament president as well as for other celebrations. The music hall is also used for public concerts and events. In the adjacent buildings - Kavaliershaus, Wilhelmsbau and also in the former administrative court - the offices of the members of the parliament and the state parliament administration are housed. There are also meeting rooms for the committees, as well as rooms for press conferences and television broadcasts. For example, the Hessischer Rundfunk has its own studio. The state parliament canteen is located in the basement. The Hessian state government , chaired by the Prime Minister, also has its own rooms, which it can use during the plenary sessions. In addition, there are facilities for the reception of around 50,000 visitors annually who want to take part in the public sessions of the state parliament. The new plenary hall will have a spacious foyer, a visitors' gallery and an information center in which the working methods and the history of the state parliament will be documented.
For more information on the tasks and the working methods of the state parliament, see Hessischer Landtag .
literature
- Rolf Bidlingmaier: The city palace in Wiesbaden. Residence of the Dukes of Nassau. A palace between classicism and historicism , Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2429-9 .
- Baedeker Wiesbaden Rheingau . Karl Baedeker GmbH, Ostfildern-Kemnat 2001, ISBN 3-87954-076-4 .
- Gottfried Kiesow: The misunderstood century. Historicism using the example of Wiesbaden . German Foundation for Monument Protection, 2005, ISBN 3-936942-53-6 .
- Peter Schabe: Felix Genzmer - City Architect of Historicism in Wiesbaden , Historical Commission for Nassau, 1996.
- Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 371 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Damaged lock around 1945
- ↑ Construction work on Wiesbaden Castle is progressing
- ↑ Historical photo of the palace square from 1897 .
- ↑ [http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/Marktberichte/de/16196239/Neuer+hessischer+Landtag+in+Wiesbaden+eineweiht www.ad-hoc-news.de] (link not available)
- ↑ www.der-landtag-baut.de
- ↑ Johann Wilhelm Lehr badge 1993–1998 ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Association of German Architects BDA in the State of Hesse
Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′ 56 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 29 ″ E
