Germany Guide
Schleswig-Holstein
The Rathaus
Address: Markt
Opening time: Tours Mon– Fri 11am, noon & 3pm, Sat & Sun 1.30pm
Price: €4
The Holstentor is a statement of prosperity tempered by the dictates of defense. The Rathaus, however, is unfettered pride. It was begun to celebrate the town's new status as a Free City of the Holy Roman Empire from 1226, making it one of the oldest town halls in Germany and certainly one of the most beautiful, despite some concrete monstrosities that share the square. The current building is a product of four centuries of home improvements. The first incarnation rises at the back of the Markt as three copper-clad turrets like candle-snuffers and a "show facade" that is punched by two holes so it survives winds off the Baltic Sea. On to its front is tacked a pure Renaissance lobby of Gotland sandstone, as white as icing after a recent scrub. The Langes Haus on the side was built as a festive hall sometime in the fourteenth century. But the star piece is the Neuen Gemacht (New Chamber) above, added in 1440. With staccato turrets, wind-holes and heraldic crests of other Hansa members, it unites the best of the earlier Rathaus and throws in for good measure a stone staircase in Dutch Renaissance style on Breite Strasse. The pick of the interior rooms is the swirling Rococo Audienzsaal where the Hanseatic League court passed sentence. Allegorical paintings portray the ten virtues of good government, and an oak door by local master-craftsman Tönnies Evers shows King Solomon pondering his judgement. The story goes that felons slunk out with heads hung low by the smaller door while the innocent left through the larger door with heads high.