Welfenschloss

The Welfenschloss in 2007

The Welfenschloss is a former castle in Hanover in the Nordstadt district , which has been the seat of the Technical University of Hanover, today Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover , since 1879 .

The former castle is now surrounded by a landscaped park, the Welfengarten . Its face has changed several times over the years.

history

Heinrich the Lion above the main entrance of the Welfenschloss; Sculpture by Wilhelm Engelhard , around 1862

The Welfenschloss around 1895
( Photochrom Zurich , No. 8185 )

The north side of the Welfenschloss in January 2013

The castle was built from 1857 to 1866 according to plans by the architect Christian Heinrich Tramm using yellow-whitish Velpker sandstone from the Danndorf and Velpke near Helmstedt area , one of the hardest sandstones in Germany, and from Nesselberg sandstone from the nearby Nesselberg . Before that, Monbrillant Castle was located here , which was demolished for construction and rebuilt in Georgsmarienhütte .

The construction of the castle at the time of the Kingdom of Hanover under George V also determined the image program planned as a summer residential palace of the royal family: as a return to the tradition of Guelph to about 1862 as a commissioned work by the sculptor opened Wilhelm Engelhard created sculpture of Henry the Lion, the Round dance of eight important rulers in the Bel Etage of the facade of the palace in Welfengarten . However, the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover and the dethronement of the Guelphs by Prussia in 1866 destroyed the residential plans, so that the castle stood empty for over a decade. It was not until 1879, after extensive renovation work, under the direction of Hermann Hunaeus , that the Royal Technical University , today's university, moved in again.

The chapel on the east side of the Welfenschloss was badly damaged in the air raids on Hanover during World War II . Instead of this part of the building, which was then demolished in 1955, an extension was built between 1956 and 1958, in which the maximum auditorium and the large physics lecture hall are housed.

The Sachsenross

Lower Saxony horse

Directly in front of the Welfenschloss there has been an impressive bronze statue of the Saxon horse, which was chosen as the state coat of arms of Lower Saxony , since 1879 . The 1866 resulting sculpture is erroneously often the sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Wolff attributed ( "Tier-Wolff"), but is a liberated by lions and rider duplicate the horse the " lion fighter group," one of the most famous works whose namesake Albert Wolff , left at the Staircase of the Altes Museum in Berlin .

literature

Sid Auffarth , Wolfgang Pietsch (Ed.): The University of Hanover. Their buildings, their gardens, their planning history , ed. on behalf of the President of the University of Hanover, Petersberg: Imhof 2003, ISBN 3-935590-90-3 (including the contributions by Wolfgang Pietsch: From the Welfenschloss to the "Campus Center". The history of constant changes in use , pp. 95-104, and Rita Seidel: Pictures, Figures, Monuments , pp. 105–118).
Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Welfenschloss. In: Hanover Art and Culture Lexicon , passim
Gerd Weiß: Former Welfenschloss. In: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, City of Hanover, Part 1, [Bd.] 10.1 , ISBN 3-528-06203-7 , pp. 101f .; as well as Nordstadt. In: Annex directory of architectural monuments according to § 4 NDSchG (except for architectural monuments of the archaeological monument preservation), status July 1st, 1985, City of Hanover, Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , p.
Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein , Hugo Thielen (eds.): Welfenschloss. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , S.? ( Google Books ).
Helmut Knocke : Welfenschloss. 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 , pp. 668f.

Web links

Commons : Welfenschloss (Hannover) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Interactive 360 ° panorama photo of the Welfenschloss and the surrounding area

Individual evidence

↑ Christian Eggers, Dirk Riesener: A good stone can be found here. On the history of stone cutting in Velpke , published by the municipality of Velpke with the kind support of the Helmstedt district, p. 35, self-published in 1996

↑ Rita Seidel: Pictures, Figures, Monuments (see literature)

↑ Wolfgang Pietsch: From the Welfenschloss to the 'Campus Center' - the history of constant changes in use. In: Auffarth, Pietsch: The University of Hanover. Your buildings. Your gardens. Your planning history. 2003, p. 98.

↑ Wolff, Wilhelm . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 218 . (here correct attribution of the Welfenrosses); Images from three centuries in Hanover. Described by Gert von der Osten. Recorded by Hildegard Müller. Edited by the Kunstverein Hannover on its 125th anniversary. Bruckmann, Munich 1957, pp. 100-101 (Sachsenross in front of the University of Hanover with correct attribution: Friedrich Wilhelm instead of Albert Wolff).

52.382222222222 9.7177777777778Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 56 ″ N , 9 ° 43 ′ 4 ″ E

[1] Christian Eggers, Dirk Riesener: A good stone can be found here. On the history of stone cutting in Velpke , published by the municipality of Velpke with the kind support of the Helmstedt district, p. 35, self-published in 1996

[2] Rita Seidel: Pictures, Figures, Monuments (see literature)

[3] Wolfgang Pietsch: From the Welfenschloss to the 'Campus Center' - the history of constant changes in use. In: Auffarth, Pietsch: The University of Hanover. Your buildings. Your gardens. Your planning history. 2003, p. 98.