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Dresden
The university town of Freiberg is a large district town and
mining town roughly in the middle of the Free State of Saxony
between Dresden and Chemnitz. It is the administrative seat of the
district of Central Saxony, formed in 2008, and with the Freiberg
Mining Academy founded in 1765, it is the seat of the oldest still
existing technical and mining science university in the world.
The entire historic city center is a listed building. Together
with local monuments of mining history such as the Reichen Zeche, it
has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ore Mountains Mining
Region since 2019. Until 1969, the city was characterized by mining
and the iron and steel industry for around 800 years. In the last
few decades there has been a structural change to a high-tech
location in the field of semiconductor manufacturing and solar
technology, making Freiberg part of Silicon Saxony. According to the
city administration, 39,318 inhabitants lived in the actual city
without districts as of December 31, 2015.
theatre
The Brandenburger Theater is the city theater. It has
not had its own ensemble since the mid-1990s, but it has its own
symphony orchestra. It is the home of the Brandenburg Symphony
Orchestra and has guest performances.
The Event Theater is a
free theater in the city that operates, for example, the
Fontaneklub, a cultural center that is home to a cabaret, a cinema
and a restaurant. The Stahlpalast is Brandenburg's largest
multi-purpose event hall. Among other things, it is used for
concerts.
Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra
The events of the
Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra are an integral part of Brandenburg's
cultural life. In Brandenburg an der Havel the symphony concerts and
special concerts u. a. In the industrial museum, Brandenburg
Cathedral, St. Pauli monastery or the open air at Beetzsee fixed
program items in the city's cultural life.
The orchestra not
only acts as a symphony orchestra, but also at opera performances in
Brandenburg an der Havel and has played for years in the opera
productions of the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera. The
Brandenburger Symphoniker perform regularly in Berlin (Konzerthaus,
Philharmonie), Potsdam (Nikolaisaal), Frankfurt (Oder) (Kleist
Forum), Stendal (Theater der Altmark) as well as in other cities in
the state of Brandenburg, but also make guest appearances throughout
Germany and in Foreign countries. Guest appearances have taken the
orchestra to the USA, Japan, South Africa, Spain and China. The
Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra are regular guests at the
MúsicaMallorca Festival in Palma de Mallorca.
The Jacaranda
Ensemble (founded in 1997) is a German instrumental ensemble made up
of five musicians and soloists from the Brandenburg Symphony
Orchestra. The ensemble wants to build a bridge between the cultures
of the world with its music. Concert tours have taken the Jacaranda
Ensemble across Europe, the USA and Asia.
Event venues
The
home of the Brandenburger Theater is the CulturCongressCentrumm in
Grabenstrasse. Outside the theater, this can be used for various
events. Trade fairs and celebrations take place in the premises.
The Officers' House (BTE) is a socio-cultural center that
regularly hosts concerts, dance events and workshops. A large number
of well-known artists have already performed in the BTE.
Museums
The State Archaeological Museum in the Paulikloster was
opened on September 24, 2008. It presents around 130,000 years of
history in the Brandenburg region.
The cathedral museum in
the cathedral exam houses, among other things, the documents of the
first mention of the cities of Kölln and Berlin. Above all, it
preserves sacred art such as chalices and liturgical vestments.
The Brandenburg Industrial Museum is located in the former VEB
steel and rolling mill on the silo canal. The steelworks was the
last in Western Europe that produced steel using the Siemens-Martin
process until 1993. In addition to the old technology for the
Siemens-Martin process, the industrial museum houses the “Brennabor
in Brandenburg” exhibition, which offers an insight into the
company's history. With the museum, the city is also part of the
European Route of Industrial Culture.
The Brandenburg City
Museum is located at two locations. The museum in the Frey-Haus as a
branch of the city museum houses the city history museum. This is
located in the former Frey House of Colonel Ewald Weding von Massow
at Ritterstraße 96 in the old town of Brandenburg. It was created
after the industrialist Ernst Paul Lehmann made the Frey House
building available in 1922. Among other things, it houses the
so-called Katte sword. In the permanent exhibition The Climbing
Monkey Tom, mechanical tin toys manufactured in Brandenburg are
shown, among others from the Lehmanns toy factory. The museum in the
Steintorturm, which is also affiliated with the city museum, offers
permanent exhibitions on the Brandenburg Havel shipping. In
addition, the gate tower is an observation tower with a view over
the city.
The Brandenburg an der Havel Museum Harbor was set up at the port
of the former Wiemann an der Havel shipyard between the old town and
Neustadt. Ships on display are, for example, the steam tugs
Nordstern from Nordstern Reederei and Luise from Historischer Hafen
Brandenburg a. d. Havel e. V.
The Brandenburg Memorials
Foundation maintains the Brandenburg-Görden prison memorial and the
memorial for the victims of the euthanasia murders in the city.
In the psychiatric-neurological Asklepios Fachklinikum
Brandenburg in the Görden district, a psychiatry museum is open to
the public.
The tram museum of Verkehrsbetriebe Brandenburg
in a former depot in Bauhofstrasse shows exhibits from the over
100-year history of the tram in Brandenburg.
The Slawendorf
open-air museum on the right bank of the Havel river downstream from
the old town is operated by the Brandenburg UG, founded for this
purpose, together with BAS, which is active in various areas of
social work. Various village and other buildings from the medieval
Slav period before 1157 were reproduced in it.
Buildings
In the list of architectural monuments in Brandenburg an der Havel,
in the list of architectural monuments in Brandenburg an der Havel
(outside areas) and in the list of ground monuments in Brandenburg
an der Havel are the cultural monuments entered in the list of
monuments of the state of Brandenburg.
The city is a member
of the working group "Cities with Historic Town Centers" and part of
the European Route of Brick Gothic.
Churches
The cathedral
of St. Peter and Paul rises on the cathedral island, until the 20th
century this was the separate municipality of Brandenburg Cathedral.
The parish church for the secular residents of Brandenburg Cathedral
has been the St. Petri Chapel since 1320, which emerged from the
castle chapel of the Margrave's seat, which, however, had been
relocated to Brandenburg Neustadt in 1230.
The St. Katharinen
Church is the Protestant parish church of Neustadt and an
outstanding example of brick Gothic from the 15th century. The
Dominican monastery and church of St. Pauli is located on the site
of the former margravial court in the southwest of the new town.
After the reconstruction of the monastery complex, which was badly
damaged in World War II, the complex has been home to the State
Archaeological Museum since November 2007.
St. Gotthardt, the
Protestant parish church in the old town, is one of the oldest
church buildings in the city and was also used as a bishop's church
before the cathedral was built. It includes three architectural
styles. The portal was built in Romanesque style, the nave is
Gothic, the tower is Baroque. St. Johannis is located on the
southwestern edge of the old town and was the church of the
Franciscan monastery. It stands at the so-called Salzhof on the
north bank of the Havel. Badly damaged in World War II, it was only
restored for the 2015 Federal Horticultural Show.
Medieval
churches were also built in front of the city gates. The
Nikolaikirche is just 300 m in front of the Plauer Tor in the old
town. The Romanesque brick basilica with an open roof was built from
1170. It is said to have been intended for the only documented
settlement of Luckenberg, possibly a merchant town that was then not
realized. The St. Jacob Chapel, located about 400 m west of the New
Town's stone gate, is popularly known as the Crazy Chapel, as the
entire structure was moved eleven meters to the west as part of a
road widening in 1892. In January 2005 the Jakobskapelle was named
“Monument of the Month” by the working group “Cities with Historic
Town Centers”. From 1220 to April 20, 1722, the four-tower St.
Mary's Church was located on the Harlunger- or Marienberg, a
well-known pilgrimage church with an attached Premonstratensian
canon monastery.
The Catholic parish church of the Holy
Trinity in the New Town was furnished with modern glass art, a cycle
by the London artist Graham Jones creation. from dark to light
(2005/2006). The catholic church St. Elisabeth auf dem Görden
belongs to the Trinity parish. The Catholic St. Bernhard Chapel in
the listed rolling mill settlement was profaned in 2014.
The Evangelical Christ Church, which was built in the New
Objectivity style, is located in the rolling mill settlement. The
Protestant Church of the Resurrection is on the Görden. The most
modern church building in Brandenburg is the New Apostolic Church on
Mühlengraben, consecrated in 2011.
The parish church of Plaue
was built in the late Romanesque style at the beginning of the 13th
century and expanded into a two-aisled hall church in the 16th
century in the brick Gothic style. She was the burial place of
several noble families who owned Schloss Plaue. Crypts and the tomb
of Lily Countess von Koenigsmarcks remind of this. The Catholic
Church of the Holy Spirit in Kirchmöser belongs to the parish of St.
Marien in Genthin in Saxony-Anhalt and to the diocese of Magdeburg.
The background is the fact that Kirchmöser historically belonged to
the district of Jerichow II in the Prussian province of Saxony.
Several village churches came to the city area in the course of
incorporation. The Neuendorf village church is a small baroque hall
church. There is a neo-baroque school and prayer house in
Wilhelmsdorf. The lower parts of the tower of the Klein Kreutz
village church date from the Gothic period, while the rest of the
church was rebuilt in the 19th century in a mixed neo-Romanesque and
neo-Gothic style in place of the previous building. In the church
there is a Marian altar and picture panels from the previous
building. The Mahlenzien village church is a Romanesque stone
church. It dates from the 13th century. The baroque interior of the
church dates from the 18th century. What is striking is the lack of
paint on the pulpit altar, the patronage and other church stalls and
the gallery.
Secular buildings
The completely separate
medieval wall rings of Brandenburg's old town and new town have been
preserved in parts. There are also four city gate towers. The town
fortifications of the old town include the Rathenower Gate Tower and
the Plauer Gate Tower, named after the destinations of the country
roads that begin here. The other two gate towers belong to the
Neustadt: The Steintorturm is the largest gate tower in Brandenburg
and has controlled traffic in the south-west via the Heerstrasse to
Magdeburg. The exit over the Mühlendamm to the cathedral and further
to the northeast was monitored from the Neustadt Mühlentorturm.
The old town hall on the old town market is an outstanding
example of 15th century brick Gothic. In contrast to the New Town
Hall, it remained undamaged in the Second World War and is now home
to the city council and the mayor's office. The adjoining
Ordonnanzhaus at Schusterstraße 6 is a Gothic building, the oldest
parts of which date from the 14th century. It is considered the
oldest civil secular building in the Mark Brandenburg. Other
buildings on the market are the Secretariat and Syndikatshaus, a
twin house with an impressive Renaissance gable, and the Inspector's
House, a single-storey baroque building with a mansard roof.
The Gothic House on the corner of Ritterstraße and
Johanneskirchgasse in the old town is one of the most important
examples of secular architecture in the north German brick Gothic
with its almost completely original, late medieval cubature and
structure. Another important building is the Quitzowhaus on
Bäckerstraße, at the corner of Schusterstraße, as the only surviving
Renaissance half-timbered building with decorative half-timbering in
Lower Saxony in Brandenburg. At the beginning of the 20th century,
the renaissance portal of Carpzow's house from the new town was
added to the old school building of the old town Latin school
Saldria on Gotthardtkirchplatz. The house of the manufacturer Ernst
Paul Lehmann on Plauer Strasse has been an outstanding example of
Art Nouveau architecture since the renovation and furnishing by the
Berlin architect Bruno Möhring (* 1863; † 1929)
Carpzow's
house at Steinstrasse 57, the ancestral seat of the learned Carpzov
family, is one of the secular buildings of the new town. The house
is a gable-independent Renaissance building from 1563. The old
Neustadt school of scholars on Katharinenkirchplatz is an early
classical building and houses the town's registry office. In the
Packhofstrasse there is a former tattersall (stable for guest
horses), which was acquired by the New Apostolic congregation in
1939 and used as a church until 2008.
The Brandenburg Cathedral retreat goes back to the Romanesque
period. One of the Gothic wings has retained its character, one was
redesigned in a simple baroque style, and one was replaced by a
neo-Gothic school building in the 19th century. Cathedral Curia V
has an elaborately designed Gothic brick gable and, despite changes
from the 20th century, has Gothic details on the long sides as well.
The other cathedral curiae are kept in a simple baroque style. One
is the rectory of the cathedral parish.
In addition to
individual buildings of remarkable architectural history, the city
of Brandenburg also has some architecturally closed city quarters:
The oldest of these quarters and at the same time the oldest
settlement core in the city is the cathedral island. Here are:
the cathedral,
the St. Peter's Chapel,
the cathedral exam
(cathedral monastery)
Cathedral curia or canon houses,
Remains
of Brandenburg Castle
The Temnitz district between
Sankt-Annen-Strasse and the Paulikloster is a successful work of
modern reconstruction after the Second World War. After heavy
fighting in the last days of the Second World War, the old monastery
district was completely destroyed. Between 1952 and 1958 it was
rebuilt as a compact, uniformly styled ensemble. The planning
competition, the 1st prize of which was won by Professor Wagner from
the Weimar University of Architecture and the 2nd prize by the
Brandenburg architects Kluge and Stolze, required strict alignment
with the requirements of Berlin's Stalinallee. Even though
significantly fewer funds were available for decorating the facades
than was the case with Stalinallee, the sculptor Hans Klakow was
still able to design it Episode has been removed. In the course of
the incorporation, several castles and mansions came to the city
over the decades. Plaue Castle was built in the early 18th century
in the Baroque style, but it goes back to a medieval castle, which
in turn had its origins in a Slavic rampart. The Gollwitz manor,
which is also baroque, dates from the second half of the 18th
century. The Mahlenzien manor is a classicist building from the
early 19th century.
Some of the high-rise buildings in the
city of Brandenburg an der Havel are also exemplary for their era.
Like many other buildings in the newer residential areas, they were
extensively renovated from the 1990s onwards by the municipal
housing company Wobra, the legal successor to the former VEB
Gebäudewirtschaft of the City of Brandenburg. The skyscraper
Sankt-Annen-Strasse, formerly Friedensstrasse, at the southern
entrance to the city of Neustadt (Sankt-Annen-Strasse 10–12), was
built in 1959 and 1960 according to the designs of the architect
Gerhard Herrmann. An eleven-story building on Brielower Strasse at
the northeast entrance to the city was built in 1963 under the same
architect. As the largest of the Brandenburg skyscrapers, the
so-called book skyscraper was built in 1977 in today's
Kreyssigstrasse, also an eleven-storey house with 108 residential
units in prefabricated construction. With their barely neoclassical
handwriting with special consideration of local traditions, the
architects were able to implement an "adapted, site-specific
expression", "which one cannot claim to have 'Stalinist
architectural forms'."
Works of art in public space
Roland
The Roland von Brandenburg was erected in 1474 on the market square
of the Neustadt and is 5.35 meters high. In 1716, the sandstone
figure was moved to the town hall because it disturbed the Prussian
garrison troops while they were exercising. Since the Roland had
been relocated and buried in an external property of the city since
1941 during the Second World War, it was not affected by the
destruction of the New Town Hall in the bombing in 1945 and found
its current place in 1946 next to the portal of the Old Town Hall.
In addition to emphasizing urban independence, the establishment of
the Brandenburg Roland was also an expression of the city's economic
prosperity. This Roland from 1474 had a probably wooden predecessor
from 1402. A copy of the Brandenburg Roland was made in 1905 for the
Märkisches Museum Berlin and erected in front of the entrance
portal.