Verclas watch

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The Verclas clock in the foreground on the left between palm trees on the Aegidientorplatz in front of the Café Rabe in the alignment of the Marienstraße ;
Postcard ( collotype ) number 961 by Karl F. Wunder , around 1900

The Verclas normal clock was a normal clock set up in the 19th century on Aegidientorplatz in Hanover . The “Aegi Chronometer ”, which was dismantled in the early 1950s, and the turret-like work of art made of wrought iron are now considered lost.

history

In the early 1970s, the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung published an annotated series with historical views of Hanover under the title Pictures from the Cardboard Box . In episode 23 with the title Auf dem Aegi between lawns and borders , among other things, “a normal clock with all sorts of ornate cast-iron decorations” was described. Thereupon the at that time already retired Superior Ursula Müller, granddaughter of the art and building fitter Gustav Verclas contacted .

According to Müller, the clock tower on the shaft was entwined with wrought-iron floral latticework with sunflower blossoms, similar to the blossoms protruding far above the four dials at the corners. Ursula Müller also presented the historian Franz Rudolf Zankl with several photographs from the watch maker's family album. But neither in the Historisches Museum Hannover nor in the Hannover City Archives , more precise documents on the Verclas watch could be found at the time, not even the alleged Verclas foundation document, which is said to have been found when the watch was dismantled in 1951. Only one index card was found in 1972 with the statement: "On May 18, 1877 a standard clock was set up on Aegidientorplatz".

View towards Hildesheimer Strasse : The roundabout in the center of the Aegis - without a normal clock ;
Postcard number 49 from Ludwig Hemmer

According to the city encyclopedia of Hanover , the normal clock on the Aegi, donated during the founding of the German Empire in 1877, was even older than the better-known Kröpcke clock . The Verclas standard clock stood for a long time in the green space in the center of the square, designed by the Hanoverian gardening director Julius Trip from 1890 to 1895 as an oval decorative square.

The Verclas clock in the foreground on the right, seen from the location of the later Hansa House with a view towards the later Friedrichswall breakthrough;
around 1905, photo by Karl F. Wunder, print by Gerhard Blümlein, Frankfurt am Main

Between 1908 and 1912, the gardening director Heinrich Zeininger replanted the Aegidientorplatz. According to Friedrich Lüddeckes , “Zeiniger” also wanted to design Aegidientorplatz as a “ dignified forecourt” of the city, according to Friedrich Lüddeckes descriptions in his book Hanover as it was back then , in the center of the square with stakes around lawns and borders , benches and a whole grove of palm trees . When designing the green areas, “Zeiniger” is said to have had his own parlor in mind, which, like many home-style salons from the Belle Epoque, presented shelves with one to three palm trees. The ornate, playful Verclas clock fitted like a grandfather clock into the architecture of the “dignified forecourt” and was seen as “the icing on the cake” of this design.

The Verclas clock survived almost three quarters of a century in its location, survived the destruction caused by the aerial bombs during the air raids on Hanover in World War II . Only in the post-war period , when the noise of jackhammers, picks and shovels around the Aegidientorplatz testified to the miracle of Hanover , the car- friendly city and the rebuilding of what is now Lower Saxony's state capital under changed conditions, was Verclasen's normal clock carefully dismantled. To the public, a later reconstruction elsewhere was “not excluded” from the official side.

The listed modern Falke clock was later installed at the Aegi as one of ten preserved by Adolf Falke

During the “careful” dismantling of the Verclas clock on August 22, 1951, the “responsible body” of the city administration was not able to give any specific information about where the clock - in the sense of a relocation - should be rebuilt later; similar to the Kröpcke watch, for example . At the beginning of the 1970s, however, a "survey" by the press office of the City of Hanover only led to the conclusion: "The watch cannot be found."

A younger normal watch

In 1956 the city of Hanover had another normal clock - similar to the one temporarily erected on Kröpcke - set up on Aegidientorplatz . However, it was later moved to Georgsplatz.

See also

literature

  • mk: erected in 1877 - dismantled in 1951: where has the Aegi normal clock gone? Veil over the origin lifted a little , Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ) of September 9, 1972, p. 13 (with prints of three historical photographs).
  • mk: Reader's note brought a hot lead in the matter of Aegi clock / dismantling by Hache metal workshops - but the company no longer exists / design by master builder Adolf Narten . In: HAZ from September 15, 1972 (handwritten dated newspaper clipping, without page number)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i mk: erected in 1877 - dismantled in 1951: where has the Aegi normal clock gone? ... in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 9, 1972, p. 13.
  2. ↑ a b c d Eva Benz-Rababah : Aegidientorplatz. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 13f .; Preview over google books
  3. ^ Friedrich Lüddecke: Palmenhain am Aegi . In: Friedrich Lüddecke: Hanover as it was back then / Pictures and encounters around 1900 . Verlag A. Madsack, Hannover 1964, pp. 44-47.
  4. ↑ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : "Miracle of Hanover" . In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Hannover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 687.

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 8.4 "  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 36.4"  E