Armory (Kassel)
The Zeughaus in Kassel was planned between 1581 and 1583 under the rule of Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel by Count Rochus zu Lynar (Rochus Quirinus von Linar, Rocco Guerrino di Linari from Italy) and Christoph Müller and built in the Renaissance style.
The building formed a rectangle 96.80 meters long and 21.80 meters wide and had four floors. This made it one of the largest secular buildings in old Kassel . Elaborate coats of arms with Latin inscriptions were attached to the two narrow sides, and there was also a portrait bust of the landgrave on the south side. The inscriptions are written in hexameter and praise the double benefit of the armory as an arsenal and food magazine.
history
The armory formed the backbone of the fortifications of Kassel, which were renewed by Wilhelm IV and which were among the most modern in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Thirty Years' War they prevented the city from being captured by enemy troops. Under the Landgrave Karl , the character of the armory changed more and more into a central artillery depot. Militaria captured by Hessian troops were also exhibited on the first floor, giving the building the character of a military museum.
During the Seven Years' War , the armory was looted twice by French troops in 1758. Landgrave Friedrich II had the resulting damage repaired eight years later. His monogram "FLZH" (Friedrich Landgrave of Hesse) in the lunettes above the two gates on the south side still reminds of this today. During the Napoleonic Wars , the city of Kassel, and with it the armory, fell into the wrong hands several times: in 1806, French grenadiers transported 80,000 rifles, in 1813 Russian Cossacks took no damage from the stocks.
The most spectacular looting, however, occurred on the night of April 9th to 10th, 1848. After members of the electoral elite armed forces ("Garde du Corps") attacked a demonstration, angry citizens broke open the gate at the west tower of the armory to arm oneself with its stocks. 14 years later, in a tense domestic situation , the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm had this gate walled up on April 4, 1862 to demonstrate his intransigent attitude towards the citizens.
After the annexation of the Electorate of Hesse by Prussia (1866), the armory increasingly lost its military importance. In the 3rd Reich there were plans to redesign the armory into a "German Reich Warrior Museum", but the outbreak of World War II put an end to them. On October 22, 1943, the inside of the armory was almost completely destroyed in the heavy bombing of the Royal Air Force on Kassel's inner city, but the outer walls and gables were preserved.
In the post-war period, only protective measures were taken on the ruins, as no specific purpose was found that would have justified a reconstruction of the monumental building. In December 1972 the northern part of the armory was demolished, which had to give way to the new building of the Max-Eyth-Schule. With that two thirds of the ruins were removed. In 1974 the vaults in the remaining southern part, which were in danger of collapsing, were torn down.
restoration
Since 1991 the "Zeughaus Kassel Association" with around 700 members has been trying to maintain and develop the ruins of the armory. The walls were renovated in 2006. In 2007/2008 a cautiously designed new building was put into the ruins, which connects the adjoining school buildings with a cafeteria and is also available to the public for events. Most of the work to date has been financed from membership fees and donations, but also from funds from the city, the state and the European Union. The cafeteria opened on March 5, 2009.
literature
- Krüger, Boris / Mueller, Volker: The armory in Kassel , Kassel 2004
Web links
- Website of the Zeughaus Kassel Association ( Memento from November 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 4 ″ N , 9 ° 30 ′ 21 ″ E