White Tower (Darmstadt)
The White Tower is a former corner tower of the medieval city fortifications and a landmark of the city of Darmstadt . It was built as a defense tower. After the city wall had lost its value in defense of the city, the tower was redesigned as a bell tower in 1704 and largely retained its current appearance. It was largely destroyed in an air raid on September 11, 1944 and has been rebuilt from the ruins since 1949. He is currently being looked after by a group of friends who offer regular tours. Since 1997 it has also served as a gallery.
The tower has a height to the top of 39.75 meters, the tower diameter is six meters. 125 steps lead from the entrance up to the belfry.
history
City rights, city wall and tower construction
Count William I of Katzenelnbogen received on 23 July 1330 Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria for his place Darmstadt , the city charter to allow the market and securing rights, ie the construction of a wall with a moat around the settlement were connected. The construction work began in these years, as early as 1418 Johann IV. Von Katzenelnbogen rewarded the citizens of Darmstadt in view of the difficult and faithful service they had rendered them so far in their buildings in Darmstadt through the exemption for the next ten years of some taxes and duties.
In the first construction phase, the construction of an inner wall about one meter thick and up to eight meters high with battlements began. Then the outer, only half as thick and lower wall and the kennel area were built. This was followed by the last section of the upstream trench with ramparts and palisades. Both walls were secured in important places and at more or less regular intervals by towers, the inner wall by high round or corner towers, the outer wall by lower half-shell towers. As the tower of the inner wall, the White Tower can basically be assigned to the first construction phase.
Strategic importance
In the Middle Ages, the White Tower stood at a strategically important point on the southwest corner of the Darmstadt wall ring, as the city wall, in a slight curve past the city church and the houses of the western market square, bent there at a sharp angle towards the castle. The city fortifications were expanded in the years after 1449 with the reconstruction and expansion of the castle , after Count Philipp the Elder von Katzenelnbogen granted his son Philipp the Younger and his wife Ottilie von Nassau the castle and the city of Darmstadt as permanent residence for life. The still completely preserved city wall can be seen in paintings by Rodingh (1678) and Merian (1646). In the 16th and 17th centuries, with the advent of firearms, it had lost its military importance and began to deteriorate.
Removal of the city wall
First parts in the west of the city were torn down in 1693 by order of French troops. The wall in the west and south of Darmstadt gradually disappeared from the cityscape except for small remains. With this, the White Tower also lost its importance as part of the city fortifications.
Use as a prison
On the ground floor with its 1.75 meter thick walls and in the basement, the White Tower contained two dungeons, each with an area of four square meters, whose use as a prison can only be deduced from a brief memo from 1699. In addition to the attic of the town hall and the round tower, the New Gate was also used as a prison.
Tower guard's apartment
Above the dungeons there was a tower watchman's apartment, which consisted of a living room and a small chamber. The overseer of the clock lived there, who also had to ring the bells. The tower watchman's apartment was initially only accessible via an Adelshof attached to the tower. A piece of the old battlement was probably integrated into the extension of the tower. In 1704 a small stair tower was added. The tower was later incorporated into the west wing of the courtyard during a renovation.
Clock and bell tower
The old tower behind the Old Prince's Court , as the White Tower was called at that time, was raised by one floor in 1704 by the builder Erich Philipp von Ploennies , closed all around, provided with a domed roof and converted into a clock and bell tower for the residents of the new suburb. The renovation costs amounted to 1178 guilders. Since 1738 it has been called the White Tower . The bell founder Johannes Henschel from Gießen cast two new bells. One of them, called the silver bell, was a death knell. The smaller bell was used to strike the quarter hour. The silver bell was rung when a member of the Hesse-Darmstadt family had died, first when Landgravine Dorothea Charlotte died in November 1705, then in 1768 when Ludwig VIII died , in 1774 when Great Landgrave Karoline died , and last time when Princess Elisabeth died in 1903 In the 19th century the bell was rung for high officers and court officials as well as on the birthday and name day of the Grand Duke.
The surroundings of the White Tower
After the fire in the castle in 1715, the office was relocated to the Alte Fürstenhof , which was structurally connected to the White Tower . In 1782 the main war magazine and main war treasury moved in there. The merchant Gottfried Schwab acquired the building in 1825 and built a new building for his department store in 1869. On this occasion, the White Tower was exposed, the small stair tower was torn down and in 1871 the tower entrance was relocated to its current location, with the upper dungeon becoming the entrance room by installing a spiral staircase.
In 1929 Siegmund Rothschild acquired the Schwabsche department store and combined it with the building around the corner on the market to form today's Henschel & Ropertz complex. The corner at the White Tower was popularly known as the Faixe Eck from David Faix's toy store, which is still known today and which is located right next to it and which was located there in 1866 .
Exemption of the tower in 1886
Since 1863, Ernst-Ludwig-Strasse has been opened up from Ludwigsplatz. The last piece of the old city wall at the White Tower only fell in 1886 when the expansion was completed. Only since then has the White Tower been in the middle of the street. Darmstadt businessmen, who saw it as an obstacle to economic development, advocated the demolition. In 1872, after the tower was cleared, the Hessian state parliament approved 1000 guilders for the repair work. Although the tower made a rather shabby impression in the late 19th century, it blossomed into a Darmstadt landmark. The tower only became a traffic obstacle when the tram line through Ernst-Ludwig-Strasse was opened on March 14, 1903 .
After the Second World War
After the Darmstadt fire night , only the outer skin of the White Tower remained. In 1947 the city council decided to demolish it. Lord Mayor Ludwig Metzger was able to prevent a postponement against the will of the business world. Unaffected by this political decision, the state of Hesse, as the owner of the tower, had it rebuilt in several construction phases. In July 1949, the tower cylinder, which was torn in the upper part, was secured with reinforced concrete ring anchors, plastered and provided with an emergency roof, three intermediate ceilings made of concrete were drawn in, new stairs were installed and cracks pressed out.
The interior work followed in 1954, and the copper-covered hood was put on. In September 1954 the new tower clock could be put into operation and after many years the people of Darmstadt heard the two bells of the White Tower again, which had been removed for melting down in 1942 but saved after the war. They were supplemented by a third, newly cast bell. The floors below the clock and bell room were rented in 1954 for the symbolic price of DM one per year to the Grand Ducal Asset Management, which housed the rescued holdings of the castle museum there.
Exterior and interior renovation, current use
The Darmstadt State Building Authority carried out a complete exterior renovation of the White Tower from September 1983 to June 1984, during which, in addition to new plastering and painting, the damage was removed by wildly placarding the base. The hands and dial of the watch have been newly gilded. The state of Hesse had the restoration cost around 250,000 DM. The White Tower has been vacant since an interior renovation between 1979 and 1997. Since June 1997 it has been used by the newly founded White Tower Friends for exhibitions, readings and other cultural events. On August 24, 2002, the White Tower was transferred from the State of Hesse to the city of Darmstadt for the symbolic sum of one euro.
Text source and literature
- Darmstadt yesterday and today. A comparison by Friedrich Wilhelm Kniess Wartberg Verlag, ISBN 3-86134-455-6 .
- Peter Engels: From the bell tower to the photo gallery - 300 years of the White Tower. Brochure for the 300th anniversary, Darmstadt 2004.
Web links
- Freundeskreis Weißer Turm e. V. (association that operates the tower)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Darmstädter Zeitung: Official organ of the Hessian state government, page 636, Darmstadt, 1903
Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 21.2 " N , 8 ° 39 ′ 13.6" E