Der Reichsgerichtsbau In Leipzig

By Thomas G. Dorsch

Subjects: Conservation and restoration, Germany. Reichsgericht, Criticism and interpretation, Germany, Germany, description and travel, Courthouses, Buildings, structures

Description: Claim and reality of a state's architecture The relationship between the judiciary and the public in the 19th century can be deduced from the history of the “Gerichtsöffentlichkeit”; the reason the public was allowed to attend trials was not to improve the administration of justice but to become independent of the government's authorities. When the Empire's Judicial laws came into effect, this was achieved to a great extent. The German Supreme Court, being the supreme authority, obtained a special significance among the recently established other courts. First, no decision was made whether this Court should be located in Leipzig or in Berlin: The daily press and the 'Reichstag' (German Parliament) had focussed on the decision about the location, thus turning the matter into a political debate. Headwords like “Particularism”, “Independence”, or “Centralization” very distinctly mirrored the tensions in domestic policies in the German Empire. After deciding that the Supreme Court should be located in Leipzig in 1877, seven years passed until an architects' tender for the creation of an appropriate and prestigious building was put in. The winners, Ludwig Hoffmann and Peter Dybwad had presented a draft, which could only be accepted after several alternations had been made. Dorsch compared five other building plans to theirs. In this connection, it is relevant to know how the type of building and the name “Justizpalast” (palace of justice) was merely established and which ideas of the architects of the revolution, of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the first palaces of justice of the 19th century were used in these drafts. Furthermore, these drafts had to be compared with those of the monumental building of the “Reichstag”. This study focussed on the iconological analysis of the building of the Supreme Court, erected by Hoffman between 1888 and 1895, where the context of the tender was helpful: The exterior architecture was presented in relation to its function, resp. the diversion of rooms in the interior, and it was considered, which features demonstrated that this was a court and a building, erected by the government of the German Empire. Who should be addressed with this architecture? The people using the building or strangers (foreign visitors). Could the building be regarded as an expression of the “real German Empire”, or would it merely show the dreams of the people who had it built? Which definite political statements and signals could be recognized, and how were they made obvious, e.g., by the architectural details? Which period of the architecture of the Empire does the building of the Supreme Court stand for, when especially considering the building of the Reichstag, designed by Wallot, and the architecture of the Supreme Court chosen by the Berlin authorities? Additionally, also other buildings of the German Empire, above all the Emperor's Palace in Straßburg, the local University- and Regional Library, and the representative buildings of the foreign countries, had to be compared. Eventually, Dorsch answers questions, about how the building of the Supreme Court was accepted, discussing the celebration of the keystone and the examination by Wilhelm II., by the specialist journals, and the political news by the domestic and the foreign press.