Altes Rathaus: Berlin’s Medieval Civic and Administrative Center
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Margraviate of Brandenburg
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Town Hall
On this page9 sections
History
The Altes Rathaus in Berlin, Germany, was the city’s medieval civic and administrative center, established around 1270 at the crossroads of Königstraße and Spandauer Straße in the present Mitte district. Königstraße was renamed Rathausstraße in 1951. The location of Berlin’s earliest town hall remains uncertain, although it probably stood at Molkenmarkt.
Medieval civic center
The principal town-hall building combined municipal administration with commercial activity. Its ground floor contained a cloth hall, a civic market and trading space for cloth, while the upper floor accommodated council meetings and gatherings of the clothmakers’ and merchants’ guilds, regulated associations of people working in the same trade. By 1320, the cloth hall had received a Gothic cross-vault, a ceiling formed by intersecting vaulted sections.
Parts of the complex were severely damaged by major city fires in 1380, 1484, and 1581. The buildings were rebuilt after each disaster, allowing the town hall to continue its civic role through successive medieval and early modern phases.
Renaissance and Baroque alterations
During the fifteenth century, a clock tower in the Renaissance style was added in front of the town hall to house the town clock. Between 1692 and 1695, the complex was enlarged according to plans by Johann Arnold Nering. The work added a complete wing along Spandauer Straße, raised the building, expanded its roof, and gave the exterior a Baroque appearance. The foundation stone for the new section was laid on 23 April 1692.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the town hall increasingly fell into disrepair. Its spire was removed first, followed by the tower in 1819. The tower partly obstructed growing traffic at the crossroads, while Königstraße also served as a ceremonial route for Prussian kings entering the city toward the Berlin Palace.
Demolition and archaeological rediscovery
The Red Town Hall was built as an entirely new administrative center behind the existing building. The Altes Rathaus remained standing until construction of the new complex began in 1860. After 1865, during the second construction phase, the deteriorated medieval building was demolished except for its foundations, cellars, and parts of the cloth hall. Protests by Berlin citizens and scholars against complete removal led to the remaining structures being secured by filling them in.
During the East German period, a district-heating route along Rathausstraße destroyed approximately one-third of the vaults that remained underground. Archaeological excavations undertaken from summer 2010 during the extension of subway line U5 rediscovered parts of the cloth hall, the court arcade, and the clock tower. The recovered artifacts were initially placed in storage. Their preservation later prompted controversy, with Senate building director Regula Lüscher proposing an architectural presentation of the Gothic vaults, while citizens, historians, and architects called for the court arcade to return to its original location and for parts of the Gothic bays to be reconstructed.
Remains
The surviving Altes Rathaus consists of foundations, cellars, underground vaults, and parts of the cloth hall. The complex developed around a two-storey civic building, with later additions changing its street-facing appearance. Excavations have also identified the former public court arcade and the remains of the Renaissance clock tower.
The cloth hall
The cloth hall occupied the ground floor of the principal council building and measured approximately 18 by 39 metres. More than half of its Gothic vaulted ceiling survives. Everyday objects recovered during archaeological work in the hall provide evidence of aspects of medieval life.
The court arcade
The Gothic court arcade stood at the street corner and projected beyond the main building line. Its ground floor was open, allowing citizens to observe the administration of justice by the town councillors. The arcade contained a pillory, a public punishment device for exposing offenders, with a Kaak relief above it. The relief depicted a bird’s head with a human face. The so-called Poor Sinner’s Bench was also associated with the arcade and with the public presentation of condemned persons. Remains of this structure were uncovered in the 2010 excavations.
The clock tower and later construction
The fifteenth-century clock tower stood in front of the town hall and was built in the Renaissance style to contain the town clock. Its remains were excavated in 2010. The later enlargement along Spandauer Straße survives through archaeological evidence of the building’s changed form, including the raised structure and expanded roof introduced during the work of 1692 to 1695.
The foundation stone
The foundation stone laid in 1692 was a hollowed sandstone block weighing approximately 750 kilograms and covered by a separately carved slab. It was recovered during preparatory work for the U5 extension in 2010 and is displayed in the Ephraim Palais. The stone had already been found during the later complete rebuilding of the Red Town Hall. Documents placed in its cavity were reportedly removed, after which the block was discarded in the cellar of the medieval town hall.
