Discover history: Nikolaitor - Falkeplatz
Nikolai Gate
The western city gate takes its name from the old 14th century Nikolaikirche church on Niklasberg hill. The representative neo-Gothic new building from 1885 was destroyed in 1945.
At the beginning of the 17th century, there were already 55 houses in the growing Nikolaivorstadt in front of the Nikolaitor. The important Nikolai mill was also located there. The city's largest flour mill was in operation from the 15th century until the early 20th century. Merchants travelling along the road from Franconia and the Vogtland had to pass through this entrance to the town before they could enter the busy Lange Gasse. The importance of this town gate can also be recognised by the fact that the town council's stables were located here.
Structurally, it was modelled on the Chemnitz Gate and was probably also built in the first half of the 16th century. Only the ridge turret bears a baroque dome in contemporary illustrations. This was created when the roof truss burned down in 1629 as a result of a lightning strike and had to be rebuilt the following year along with the bell tower. As above the Johannistor, the Nikolaitor was also adorned with a large clock.
During the Thirty Years' War, the town was attacked several times and conquered by the Swedes, for example. When the Imperial League fired on the city wall to recapture it on 8 August 1643, it collapsed right up to the gate. As a result, the stone bridge at the Nikolaitor was also demolished.
In 1833, the gate and the Röhrmeister's flat were sold to the merchant Zinn. He had both demolished and a three-storey residential building built in the same alignment as the Lange Gasse. However, the plan to build a theatre on the filled-in moat was abandoned and later realised at the former monastery gate.
Falkeplatz
Nikolaivorstadt developed into a popular industrial location. Carl Bruno Falke, a typical "self-made man", developed the Ebert glove and stocking factory, located between the Chemnitz river and the Nikolaimühlengraben, into a successful company by 1893. When the private owner died in 1907 while travelling the world in Singapore, he bequeathed his fortune of 1.3 million marks to his home town for charitable purposes. In his honour, the square at the former Nikolaitor was renamed Falkeplatz and his residential and factory building became part of the city administration as a community centre.
With the arching over of the Chemnitz River, which was completed in 1914, Falkeplatz developed into a densely built-up and urban centre directly opposite the junction with Lange Straße.
Deutsche Bank decided in favour of a prestigious new building in Chemnitz as early as 1918. Construction work finally began in 1922 on a plot of land on Falkeplatz, but could not be continued until 1925 due to hyperinflation. After the Chemnitz city council debated the pros and cons of a twelve-storey skyscraper, also with regard to healthy air, peace and quiet and views on the upper floors, Erich Basarke took over the planning of the current five-storey building. The façade gently followed the curve of Falkeplatz and was constructed from light-coloured shell limestone.
After the Second World War, only the Deutsche Bank building, the former savings bank building (now the Gunzenhauser Museum) and the Metropol cinema remained of the Nikolaivorstadt.