Wartburg (Saarbruecken)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wartburg in Saarbrücken

The Wartburg is a building in Saarbrücken in the St. Johann district at Martin-Luther-Straße 12. It was built from 1927 to 1928 as a parish hall for the Protestant parish of St. Johann. His hall was long the largest in the Saarland and played an important role in the history of the region.

location

At the time of construction, the building was in the eastern Nauwieser Strasse, which has been called Martin-Luther-Strasse since 1951. The building extends in a north-south direction between Martin-Luther-Strasse and Hessenweg.

Naming

The building was named after the Wartburg near Eisenach , where Martin Luther stayed after being banned from the Reich . In a commemorative publication for the inauguration of the building, the pastor Wilhelm Reichard wrote: "We thought of the Wartburg as the legendary romantic festivals linked to German history and culture." In addition, thanks to its architectural style, the building is "like an expression of defiant strength turned into stone" , which looks like a castle with its "huge hall" and the "castle-like, crenellated forms of its stage building".

description

The Wartburg was built in the Art Deco style. The building was shaped by geometric decorative shapes, which were found in particular on the rear part of the building, the stage of the theater with its vertical and horizontal straight plastic profiles. The spacious ballroom of the Wartburg could hold 1,500 to 1,700 people and was the largest event hall in the region for many years. According to Gerhild Krebs' judgment, the building in its original design and use reflected "an idea of ​​faith permeated by nationalism". After 1945 the building was rebuilt several times according to practical requirements, almost all stylistic features and many traces of the former use were lost. The building is not a listed building .

The Wartburg in the history of the Saarland

On the two nights between January 13 and 15, 1935, the Wartburg was the central counting location for the votes cast in the “ Saar Voting”, in which a majority of those entitled to vote living in the Saarland spoke out in favor of joining the then Saar area to the German Reich . A memorial plaque in the foyer of the Wartburg, which was removed by the French occupation forces in 1945 and re-hung after 1955, commemorates this vote. The inscription on the board reads: “In the ballroom of this house of the Protestant parish hall in Wartburg, the number of votes cast in the Saar vote was counted on the night of January 14th to 15th, 1935. The Swedish President of the Voting Committee, Rodhe, announced the overwhelming result early in the morning on January 15, 1935, on the basis of which the Saar area returned undivided to the German fatherland. "

The local Antifa group Antifa Saar - Project AK , among others, criticized the fact that this plaque hangs there without any historical comment .

Between 1935 and 1944, the Wartburg was used by the Reichsender Saarbrücken , which recorded popular programs there, but also symphony concerts by the radio orchestra, some of which were even broadcast nationwide.

After the Second World War, the large hall of the Wartburg in particular was used for cultural events and since autumn 1945 it has been the location of the Wartburg-Lichtspiele , at times the largest cinema in the Saar region. Operas were also performed there, as the Saarbrücken theater was largely destroyed. In 1946 the Wartburg was the scene of the first post-war assembly of the Saarland Social Democrats .

In 1946 the Wartburg became the seat of the radio station Radio Saarbrücken , which was under the aegis of the French occupation forces and which later became today's Saarland Radio (SR). The Wartburg remained the seat of the broadcaster until the SR moved to the new broadcasting center on the Saarbrücken Halberg .

Todays use

Today the Wartburg is home to several companies: the credit card processor PLUSCARD service company for credit card processing , a branch of the IT service provider Inexio and the academy of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe Saar as an educational institution of the Sparkassenverband Saar .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Reichard: Festschrift for the completion and inauguration of the Ev. Parish hall "Wartburg" Saarbrücken-St.Johann. Saarbrücken 1928.
  2. ↑ a b c The Saarbrücken Wartburg on saar-Nostalgie.de, accessed on August 5, 2018.
  3. ↑ Gerhild Krebs: Sacred Buildings. In: Rainer Hudemann et al. (Ed.): Places of cross-border memory. Traces of the networking of the Saar-Lor-Lux area in the 19th and 20th centuries. 3rd, technically revised edition, Saarbrücken 2009. (published as CD-ROM and online at www.memotransfront.uni-saarland.de )
  4. ↑ Alvar Elis (Allan) Rodhe (1882 in Karlshamn –1964 in Saltsjöbadens församling)
  5. ^ Antifa Saar - Project AK , accessed on August 5, 2018.
  6. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. Saarbrücken 1989, p. 11. (edited by the Ministry for Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater as a commemorative publication for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989)
  7. ↑ Broadcasting history on saar-nostalgie.de , accessed on August 5, 2018

Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 13.6 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 22.2 ″  E