Stadtwaage (Bremen)
The Stadtwaage at Langenstrasse 13 in Bremen was once the location of the city's urban weighing system .
The facility was necessary to protect customers from fraudsters and to be able to determine taxes and duties.
The house has been a listed building since 1973.
history
The public scales on which every trader had to weigh their goods was first mentioned in 1330. From 1440 at the latest, it was located on Langenstrasse, which was one of the main thoroughfares in Bremen. Between 1586 and 1588, Lüder von Bentheim built a new building on the same site. It was a brick building with sandstone decorations in the style of the Weser Renaissance . There were double pilasters on each step of the gable , and the windows were crowned with shell-shaped ornaments. There was also a frieze of putti heads above the windows on the first floor, and gold-colored scales on the front of the building symbolized the purpose of the house. On the ground floor, two arched gates led to the scales at ground level, while storage rooms were located on the upper floors, as the house also served as a grain store. Until the 18th century, this building still housed the public scales, from 1877 the tax and land registry office, which moved out in 1925. From 1927 until the building was destroyed in 1944, NORAG , the first Bremen radio station, was based here.
Destruction and rebuilding
The entire building with the exception of the outer walls fell victim to the bombardment of October 6, 1944. Rebuilding began immediately after the war and the (front) gable was reconstructed in its original form, largely using old stones. Since no agreement could be reached on the design of the rear gable, which had previously not been designed as a fire gable, work was temporarily discontinued in 1953. Although designs by Friedrich Kraemer (Braunschweig), which envisaged a modern glass-reinforced concrete construction, were awarded first prize in two competitions, these did not meet with political approval. In 1958, the Bremen citizenship initially rejected further reconstruction. Then, however, the Sparkasse Bremen supported the reconstruction plans by swapping their property on Domsheide, which was threatened with demolition, for that of the Stadtwaage and thus, as the owner, was able to participate in the future of the building. Thus, the historicizing design with neo-late Romanesque and neo-Gothic elements by the monument conservator Rudolf Stein prevailed for the rear gable . Above the rear portal he added a Bremen state coat of arms from 1615 and on the other (right) side of the rear front a relief depicting Samson and Dalila , the original of which dates from around 1600. Sculptor Ingeborg Ahner-Siese won the competition for five more reliefs below the rear gable. Her husband Ludwig Ahner carried out this work. The building was inaugurated in April 1961.
Today (2018) the building contains an event hall as the Kulturhaus Stadtwaage of the Sparkasse Bremen and is the seat of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen .
The buildings Langenstrasse 11 / bookstore Storm , bank for trade and commerce , building Langenstrasse 16 , Bankhaus Martens and Weyhausen / Essighaus , city scales with coats of arms, reliefs and fountain as well as the office building on the market form the listed ensemble on Langenstrasse (No. 2 to 16 , 18, 25).
literature
- Rudolf Stein: Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance architecture in Bremen , Bremen 1962, pp. 504–516.
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 34.8 " N , 8 ° 48 ′ 19.7" E