All Brunswick, No Ham…: Braunschweig [23×23]
♫ Title Music ♫ It’s August 2023 and I’m in a post-war rebuilt medieval marketplace, home to one of the at one time five town halls in the city of Braunschweig. ♫ Title Music ♫ Located on formerly marshy land around the River Oker, the settlement of modern day Braunschweig,
Anglicised to Brunswick started at some point in the 9th century. The river was diverted to form a ring around the city centre and wooden piles and reed mats helped to stabilize the land so that it could be built upon.
Up until the 12th century the city was rules by the Saxon noble family of the Brunonids before, through marriage, it fell to the House of Guelf which ultimately ruled the city, on and off, until the final Duke of Brunswick
Ernest August was forced to abdicate in November 1918 at the end of World War I. In 1142 Henry the Lion became the duke of Saxony and made the city his capital. During the middle ages Brunswick became an important centre of trade,
A member of the Hanseatic League and one of the economic and political centre of Northern Europe, with the Duchy of Brunswick a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806 the city fell to the French during the Napoleonic Wars and became part of the
Kingdom of Westphalia. Following the Congress of Vienna, which divided up Europe following the final defeat of Napoleon, the Duchy of Brunswick was re-established, though its independence only lasted until 1871 when it became a constituent state of the German Empire.
After the Landtag elections of 1930 Brunswick became the second state in Germany where the Nazi’s participated in Government and in 1932 the state of Brunswick granted the, at that point still Austrian, Adolf Hitler, German citizenship opening the door for him to run in the 1932 German presidential election.
Following the Nazi seizure of power the following year the city became home to several state institutions, and the region became one of the centres of the German arms industry, which made Brunswick a target for Allied bombing raids. Up until October 15th, 1944 the old town of Brunswick was the largest homogeneous
Ensemble of half-timbered houses in Germany, by the following morning less than 10% of the city was still standing as an Allied air raid burnt the city to the ground in a firestorm. At the end of the war the Free State of Brunswick, which had existed since the Dukes abdication
In 1918, was dissolved into the newly formed Lower Saxony. Just 35Km to the east the border that divided the continent for the next 45 years fell and Brunswick found itself in West Germany, cut off from the areas, now in East Germany, that it had traditionally had strong economic ties to.
The city’s renaissance in many ways is linked to the city’s palace, reduced to ruins during the bombing raids, and left as an empty shell until the 1960s when it was finally torn down. In 2005 the first stones were laid on a rebuilding of the palace which opened in
2007 the façade a faithful reconstruction of the 1841 palace, though inside it today houses a modern shopping centre, rather than the halls of power of a dukedom. One wing of the rebuilt palace contains a small museum, housing reconstructions of
Some of the rooms that would have existed in the original palace, including a salon, music room, study, audience chamber and a recreation of the Throne room. Though the 1841 palace isn’t actually the original palace as the current Schloss-Arkaden is the 4th version of the building on the site.
Work on the original palace was started in 1718 with the palace being occupied by the dukes from 1753. That building was burnt down during anti-monarchy riots in 1830. The second version was completed in 1841, though on the night of February 24th, 1865
A technical defect with a stove caused a massive fire that destroyed the north wing and the northwestern part of the main building, requiring the palace to be rebuilt. That third version lasted up until the third fire and destruction during the allied bombing raids of World War II. Left unprotected against the weather
The ruins deteriorated and by 1960 the only option was to demolish the remains, and turn the area into a park until the construction of the Schloss-Arkaden from 2005. The reconstructed rooms inside the museum give an impression of how the inside of the
Palace would have looked, pulled from the original construction plans of the 1841 palace. The throne room is an even closer reconstruction as samples of the wall fabrics and carpet were found in the archives and so these could be recreated exactly.
In a slightly worrying turn of events, whilst I was in Brunswick the palace had a fourth attempt at burning itself down, though this time the local fire brigade got it under control quickly. Located between the palace and the heart of the old town of Brunswick is the current Rathaus or Town Hall,
Built between 1894 and 1900 to replace the Old Town Hall located deeper into the Altstadt. The Rathaus backs onto the remains of the Dankwarderode castle. A castle has existed on this site since at least the 11th century, through the current building is a late 19th early 20th century reconstruction
Of a 17th century renaissance style castle that was built on the site. The castle forms one side of the Burgplatz, the centre point of the city, surrounded by other important buildings including the city’s Cathedral – the Braunschweiger Dom. At the time of visiting the Burgplatz was being used as
An arena for open-air opera performances so only part of the square was visible, but a small model located in the South Western corner of the square shows the layout of buildings in this part of the city including the town hall, castle and Cathedral.
Official the Cathedral Church of St Blaise in Brunswick the Braunschweiger Dom was founded in 1173 by Henry the Lion the Duke of Bavaria and Saxony opposite his Castle. The Cathedral still houses the mortal remains of Henry and his second wife Mathilde of England.
The Nazi’s took an interest in the crusading nature of Henry, including some of his persecution of Slavic people, fitting with Nazi ideology, so the cathedral was turned into a national shrine, stripping the building of anything that had been added since the days of Henry and removing all Christian worship elements of the building.
Surprisingly, given the damage meted out to the rest of the city in the Allied bombing raids, the cathedral only suffered slight damage and so, following the end of the war the building was quickly retuned to it’s purpose as a place of worship with most of the Nazi design changes reversed.
Underneath the main altar is the crypt of the church which houses the remains of the Dukes of Brunswick from the 17th to the 19th century, along with the relocated remains of some of the predecessors of Henry the Lion that were relocated to the cathedral after it’s construction from other churches.
In the lowest part of the crypt, and beneath the monument above it on the church floor are the stone coffins of Henry and Mathilde. Less than 500m from the Cathedral and the Burgplatz is the Altstadtmarkt and Altstadtrathaus the Market and Town Hall of the Old Town.
Originally the city had been divided into five boroughs, each with their own town hall, market square and cathedral. The area that is todays Altstadt was the wealthiest of these boroughs and when they eventually merged into a single city this boroughs Town Hall became the city’s Town Hall.
Most of the buildings were gutted by fire during the air raids of World War II, but the façades of the Church of St Martini, the Town Hall, and the Cloth Hall survived and were able to be rebuilt – along with a relocated and reconstructed half timber house to give
A view of what the area would have looked like before the near total destruction of the city. Today the Altstadtrathaus is part of the city museum housing various exhibits. On the entry floor there’s an exhibition on the industrial history of the city ♫ Music ♫
As well as a model of how the city would have looked in the 16th century, complete with the five different borough markets, town halls and churches. ♫ Music ♫ The lower floor charts the story of the city from pre-history through to the Second World War. ♫ Music ♫
Just beyond the Old Town is the Alte Waage or Old Scale. The building was originally built in 1534 as a storage and weighing house on the Wool market, but by 1671 the building was no longer being used as a weighing house and had started to fall into disrepair.
It was extensively repaired in 1854 though not to the original historical structure, the errors in this repair finally being reversed in a renovation that took place between 1937 and 1939 in preparation to turn the building into a home for the Hitler Youth.
The building survived most of the war without any damage, but on February 10th, 1944 it received several direct hits, and the remains were totally destroyed in the firestorm that swept through the city following the October 15th, 1944 bombing raid. After the war the rubble was removed
And land levelled and the space was used as a market place and parking lot for several decades. Reconstruction work started in 1991, with work being carried out as true as possible to the original building including only using wooden dowls and joints rather than nails or
Screws in the framework. The reconstruction was completed in 1994 and today it houses the administration and training building of the city’s adult education centre. The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum was one of the first museums in Germany to open to the public
– throwing it’s doors open in 1754, just a year after the British Museum in London. The museum was renamed to it’s current name in 1927 after it’s founder Anton Ulrich, the Duke of Braunschweig The founding collection is based on the art and natural history cabinet of Duke Charles I,
A private collection of art, historic artifacts and curiosities that the Duke had collected. Over the years the collection has been expanded on and today has around 4,000 works on display. The museum occupied various buildings in it’s early years before it moved to it’s current
Location in 1887, with the building surviving the second world war relatively unscathed, though it did mean that as a intact structure, the side wings of the museum were requisitioned for use by the British military government between 1945 and 1949. The building was completely renovated and refurbished in the early years
Of the 21st Century, fully reopening in October 2016. Today the upper floor houses the sculptures and applied arts artefacts of the collection ♫ Music ♫ Whilst the 1st floor houses the picture galleries arranged in themes. ♫ Music ♫
A short distance away from the main building of the museum is the State Natural History Museum which can trace it roots back to the same Ducal Art and Natural History Cabinet, the two collections were split and eventually the natural history collection found it’s way into its current home in 1937.
Knowing how to attract the crowds, the outside of the museum is home to a collection of dinosaur models. Inside there are a number of dioramas showing taxidermized animals in the kind of environment they would likely be found in. ♫ Music ♫
Though some of them being perhaps a little more realistic than they need to be. Upstairs the museum also houses the skeletons of a couple of dinosaurs. ♫ Music ♫ Whilst in the basement there is a small aquarium and terrarium. ♫ Music ♫
The Benedictine Monastery of St Mary and St Aegidius was founded in 1115 and survived up until the reformation with the monastery being abolished in 1543, in the following centuries the buildings had various uses including as a prison, execution site and concert hall.
In 1902 the Fatherland Museum moved into the site which eventually became the Brunswick State Museum. Following the Second World War the former church building that formed part of the site was converted back into a Church and set up as the city’s main
Catholic place of worship, leaving the museum with a smaller space than before, resulting in them opening a new museum on the Burgplatz, but the museum retained the monastery rooms as an exhibition space and to house avery important part of their collection.
In 1924, with the Jewish population of Brunswick already declining, Synagogues were being closed as there was no longer a community to support them. To preserve the history, the fittings of one of the Synagogues were donated to the museum and went on display.
Over the following years a number of Jewish families donated other object related to their worship and culture to the museum. As they were treated as museum objects they managed to avoid the destruction that the Nazi’s carried out on all other Jewish property and after the war were put back on display
Inside the chapel of the monetary – giving an insight into the Jewish population of the city in the years before the rise of the Nazi’s. ♫ Title Music ♫ Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof has regular regional express trains to Hannover Hauptbahnhof, taking just under the hour to make the journey
Where it’s possible to connect to Hannover Airport which has connections across much of Europe. High speed ICE trains run every other hour to Berlin taking about 90 where it’s possible to connect to Berlin Brandenburg Airport, and in the opposite direction to Frankfurt
In three hours where you can connect to Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest and most connected airport and one of Europe’s major hubs with flights across the globe. ♫ Title Music ♫
I’ve headed to the once powerful city of Braunschweig (Brunswick), to explore the multiple town halls, the 4 times rebuilt castle and it’s many museums
Altstadtmarkt
Altstadtrathaus (https://www.braunschweig.de/english/culture/museum)
Botanischer Garten (https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/ifp/garten)
Braunschweiger Dom (https://www.braunschweigerdom.de)
Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum – Hinter Aegidien (https://3landesmuseen-braunschweig.de)
Burgplatz
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum (https://3landesmuseen-braunschweig.de)
Schloß
Schlossmuseum (https://www.schlossmuseum-braunschweig.de)
Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum (https://3landesmuseen-braunschweig.de)
Willkommen in Braunschweig – https://www.braunschweig.de
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:31 Background
3:05 Schloßmuseum
4:32 Rathaus
5:00 Dankwarderode Castle
5:14 Burgplatz
5:55 Braunschweiger Dom
7:56 Altstadtrathaus
11:00 Alte Waage
12:18 Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
15:06 Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum
17:28 Landesmuseum: Hinter Aegidien
18:52 Getting There
19:22 Outro
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