Old Town Hall | |
---|---|
Altes Rathaus | |
General information | |
Address | Köbelingerstraße 4 |
Town or city | Hanover |
Country | Germany |
Coordinates | 52°22′16″N9°44′10″E / 52.371225°N 9.736018°E |
Construction started | 1410 |
Website | |
www |
The Old Town Hall (German : Altes Rathaus) is a former, and the first, town hall in Hanover, Germany. Originally built in the old city district in 1410, replaced by the New Town Hall in 1913, and extensively restored in 1953 and 1964 after heavy bomb damage in World War II, it is the oldest secular building in the city. The market façade with the highly sophisticated Brick Gothic of the lucarnes has been preserved and partly restored in its medieval shape. Some elements of it were copied on other wings of the building.
Prior to the construction of the town hall, the Council of the City of Hanover met in various places around the city. It is documented that between 1303 and 1410, the council met in the city's theatre, in the market yard, and at the court arbour. [1]
The first parts of the building were erected in 1410. After that, the building underwent several conversions and extensions. The original ground floor became today's basement due to late medieval contamination.[ further explanation needed ] According to the Hanover Chronicle, two new prisons were set up in the town hall in 1607. [2] : 206 In 1844, a renovation of the wings took place and the apothecary wing, a half-timbered building from the 16th century, was demolished and replaced by a municipal court designed in the Italian Renaissance style by August Heinrich Andreae. Referred to as the Doge's Palace, [3] it now houses the registry office.
When the old town hall was slated to be demolished at the end of the 19th century, a citizens' initiative was formed and the building was ultimately spared. The architect Conrad Wilhelm Hase oversaw a renovation of the building from 1877 to 1891, restoring it to the condition it was in when it was built, as it was considered a "pure" architectural style in the Hanoverian school of architecture. The windows of the ground floor and the first floor had been rectangular at the time, but building photographs by Ludwig Droste in 1864 and von Hase in preparation for the renovation show that both floors on the north-west facade and the ground floor on the north-east facade originally had segmental arched windows. In the 1880s, the town hall complex received a new street front due to construction of the Karmarschstraße. At this time, Hase had a new wing added, in the neo-Gothic style. He was strongly guided by the medieval parts of the town hall.
The air raids on Hanover led to the partial destruction of the building complex in 1943, especially its oldest parts. Restorations took place in 1953 and in 1964 the show gable on the west side was reconstructed. As part of an extensive renovation in 1999, the courtyard was also redesigned and fitted with a glass roof.
After the construction of the building, the city council met in a ballroom on the first floor. Below this was a room on the ground floor in which imported goods were stored. This ground floor was later turned into a cellar and served as a council's cellar (Ratskeller). In 1863, the city administration left the Old Town Hall and moved into the Wangenheim Palace. It was not until 1913 that the New Town Hall, which was completed that year, became the seat of the city administration.
Around 1900, market women had their stands in the window bays of the former ground floor. Today, there are also restaurants and shops in the extended group of buildings of the Old Town Hall. On 19 June 2001, a small child was killed by an accidentally toppling statue in a restaurant.
The Red Thread is a 4.2-kilometre (2.6 mi) urban walking trail in Hanover, Germany, to 36 significant points of interest about architecture and the history of the city centre.
Helmut Knocke is a German architecture historian and author.
Aegidien Church, after Saint Giles to whom the church was dedicated, is a war memorial in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The church dates from 1347, when it replaced an older Romanesque church dating to 1163. This in turn replaced an even earlier chapel. Aegidien Church was destroyed during the night beginning 8 October 1943 by aerial bombings of Hanover during World War II. In 1952, Aegidien Church became a war memorial dedicated to victims of war and of violence.
Hanover Drama is a theatre company in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The company is resident at the Hanover Playhouse situated approximately 200 metres (660 ft) east of Hanover Opera House, and the Ballyard situated approximately 530 metres (1,740 ft) west-southwest of the opera house in the old town. Collectively these venues have five stages:
The hübschefamilies were the third elite class of the Electorate and Kingdom of Hanover in the 18th and early 19th centuries, after the nobility and the clergy. At the time Hanover was in a personal union with the United Kingdom. The group consisted of the higher bourgeoisie and the elite of university-educated civil servants, and played a significant role in the governing of Hanover, often as higher civil servants.
Hugo Thielen is a German freelance author and editor, who is focused on the history of Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, in a lexicon of the city, another one especially of its art and culture, and a third of biographies. He co-authored a book about Jewish personalities in Hanover's history.
Klaus Mlynek is a German historian and scientific archivist, a former director of the City of Hanover Archive, and one of the editors and authors of the Hannover City Lexicon, an encyclopedia of Hanover.
Waldemar R. Röhrbein was a German historian. He worked as a museum director in Lower Saxony, his last post being from 1976 to 1997 at the Historisches Museum Hannover, and was president of the Homeland Federation of Lower Sachsony. He contributed to encyclopedias about Hanover's history and culture.
Hanover Historical Museum is an historical museum situated in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The museum was founded in 1903 as the Homeland Museum of the City of Hanover. Its collections are related to the history of the city, the history of the House of Guelf, and of the state of Lower Saxony.
Dirk Böttcher was a German printer master, author and president of the association of Friends of the Historisches Museum Hannover.
Gotthard Kronstein was a German operatic baritone and theatre director.
Greta Hofer, néeGreta Köhler, pseudonym Greta Colere was a German opera singer.
Reimar Dahlgrün was a German pianist, professor at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and journalist.
Christian Heinrich Tramm was a German architect who, in 1850, introduced the Rundbogenstil in Hanover.
Adolf Falke was a German architect, draughtsman, designer, stage designer and municipal politician.
Auguste von Bärndorf was a German stage actress.
Broyhan House is a residential and commercial building constructed in 1576 in Hanover's historic old town. It is the second-oldest preserved half-timbered building in Hanover, and stands on the cellar walls of an earlier building dating to the 14th century. The house is named after Cord Broyhan, a brewer who lived in an earlier building from 1537 until 1561.
Carl Christoph Conrad Rangenier was a German sculptor, best remembered for his sculpture of George I of Great Britain at Guelph Castle in 1862, and the altar crucifix for the Evangelical Lutheran parish church in Graste in 1864 under Conrad Wilhelm Hase.
August Heinrich Andreae was a German architect, painter, and etcher.
The Otto Werner clothing store opened in 1932 in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. By 1985, the store had expanded to several branches throughout the state. After the original store closed in 1999, the enterprise ceased operating in 2001.
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