Weimar Town Hall
The Weimar Town Hall is located in the center of Weimar on the west side of the 60 by 60 meter market square. The three-storey building in neo-Gothic style with a representative balcony and bell tower is one of the landmarks of the city of Weimar.
history
The first town hall at this point was mentioned as early as 1396. However, this fell victim to the great city fire of 1424. In 1431 a successor building was built, which was rebuilt in the Renaissance style in 1560/83 . The building was on the north corner of the west side of the market. The city arms and two stone portals from this building have been preserved. These can be found inside today's town hall. One of them bears the inscription: "HAS IMANT EIN AMBT, HE WAITES HE WITH VLEIS" and the note "VOLBRACHT WORDEN ANNO 1583 IS THESER BAW".
At that time Jacob Schröter was mayor of Weimar, he directed the fortunes of the city for 41 years and had his own house built on the market (later known as the court pharmacy). Schröter was also the initiator for the construction of a representative Weimar market fountain around 1590. The town hall building from 1583, which Carl August , Goethe and Schiller knew, adorned the market square until 1837. On November 30, 1837 the building burned down.
Today's third town hall building dates from 1841 and was built in the neo-Gothic style based on the model of the Hof town hall . Heinrich Hess (1794–1865), then the Grand Ducal Saxony-Weimar Building Councilor , was awarded the contract for the three-story new building and a stepped central tower as well as a balcony porch on the ground floor. From the previous building that had burned down, only the city coat of arms and two stone portals , which were built into today's town hall, remained. An old door inscription on the upper floor attests to the inauguration year of the previous building in 1583. Due to its history, the town hall is one of the youngest buildings on the Weimar market square today. An underground corridor leads to the Weimar town house opposite .
In the vestibule of the Weimar town hall there is the sculpture "Spring Goddess" , which was made by the court sculptor Martin Gottlieb Klauer , who in 1774 also created the sea god sculpture of the Neptune fountain in front of the court pharmacy on the Weimar market square.
In 1921, a resident of Weimar and working in Apolda bell foundry master created Heinrich Ulrich , the two-year 24,000-kilogram later Peter Bell of Cologne Cathedral poured, the Weimar Town Hall bell , which was melted down during the Second World War armaments purposes.
On April 30, 1987, the town hall tower received a porcelain carillon made of Meissen porcelain , which was previously heard in the orangery and has been in Weimar since 1929. The total of 35 bells ring four times a day across the market square (10 am, 12 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm, from mid-June to November also 6 pm) and play, for example, the melody "Saw a Knab 'ein Röslein" . The cold-sensitive bells only pause in winter. For the annual Christmas market in December, the east side of the town hall with its 24 windows is transformed into a huge, festively illuminated Advent calendar , on which Santa Claus and the children open a window every day.
Todays use
The Lord Mayor Peter Kleine has his office in the Weimar town hall. In addition to the city administration, the city hall also houses the city archive, which stores all documents relating to local history. The oldest document is from 1307, the oldest from 1348. The wedding room of the Weimar registry office is also located here .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gitta Günther (Ed.): Weimar: Lexicon for city history . Böhlau, Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-7400-0807-5 , pp. 360 .
- ^ Adolf Schöll: Weimar's oddities then and now . Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, Weimar 1847, p. 5 ( digital copy from HAAB Weimar ).
- ↑ Ernst Fauer: Heinrich Ulrich and his bell foundry on Katharinenweg . In: Apoldaer Geschichtsverein e. V. (Hrsg.): Apoldaer Heimat - Contributions to the nature and local history of the city of Apolda and its surroundings . Issue 20. Apolda 2002, p. 20-26 , p. 25 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 45.6 ″ N , 11 ° 19 ′ 45.1 ″ E