Tangermünde

Tangermünde (German pronunciation: [taŋɐˈmʏndə]) is a town in the district of Stendal, in the northeastern part of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the Elbe river in the Altmark region.

History

Tangermünde can look back at an 1000-year history. It was firstly mentioned in 1009.

The name Tangermünde means the mouth of the Tanger River -- where it meets the Elbe.

In the 13th century it was governed by a succession of Vogts, such as Ruthger von Blumenthal (1275). The Margrave John II hid his treasure under the parish church, and passed the secret to his son Otto Sagittarius. When the latter was held to ransom, he used the treasure to pay for his release.

The town was one of the favourite places of Kaiser Karl IV in the 14th century before it became the residence of the Hohenzollern electors of Brandenburg from 1415 on.

Tangermünde lost the grace of the princes in 1488 after a rebellion and the residence was relocated to Berlin-Cölln.

Brick buildings, an almost entirely preserved city wall with well-fortified gates, the castle complex and a variety of the half-timbered houses lend a unique charm to the town. But not only these stone witnesses to the past agree on the appeal of the town. Tangermünde is also the setting of Theodor Fontane's historical novel Grete Minde about a girl who was accused of arson in 1617 and was executed in 1619.

Sights

Town hall

The Tangermünde Town Hall is a late medieval building constructed in the 1430s.

In German culture, this building is referred to as Rathaus and serves as a civic meeting center. The building performs a secular purpose, as a town hall for the community, but it’s exterior is evocative of a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic features.

This building contains gothic and Romanesque structural elements that appear on the exterior of the building (the interior of the building has not been widely photographed.

Some of the more prominent features of the town hall are its high gables. On the façade are three staggered gables, with one central gable extending above the peak height of the roofline. These gables are a feature of brick architecture during this period.

Adorning each gable are miniature spires, evocative of high gothic architecture popularized on cathedral exteriors. Each gable contains one large central circular window with two smaller ones below it, all with highly decorative tracery. These central circular windows are reminiscent of the grandiose rose windows that appear on the west façade of many gothic cathedrals.

“The most remarkable feature is the gable end richly decorated with octagon buttresses, having stories of canopied niches — the gable is stepped between these buttresses”. This observational analysis of the building dates from late nineteenth century, therefore its terminology differs from modern architectural jargon.

Many of the ground floor windows and doorways are exaggerated with ornamental archivolted brickwork.

One of the most intriguing features of the town hall is its use of colour on the exterior. The highlighting and trabeation of the exterior are white and the tracery and decorative grills are dark blue. The rest of the building is composed of red brick. The colors create a very distinctive visual palette that makes the building unique.

St. Stephanskirche

This church was built in several stages. Nothing is left of the original construction, because it burned in the town fire of 1617. The church is famous for its Scherer organ built in 1624, one of the top 10 organs in Europe.^[2] It has been completely restored and can be heard again in the church since September 1994.

Transportation

North of the town lies the Bundesstraße 188 (B 188) which connects it to Stendal and Rathenow, as well as, via the Autobahn A 2, to Berlin and Hanover. The river Elbe is crossed over a new bridge built in 2001.

The first road bridge was opened for the traffic in 1933 and blown up in April 1945. Shortly afterwards, a temporary bridge was constructed, which served until 2001.

There is a railway line which connects the town with Stendal. The first line was opened in 1886.

References

External links

• Official site (German)