Osnabrück Town Hall
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The Town Hall (German: Rathaus) of Osnabrück, Germany, was built in the late Gothic style from 1487 to 1512. It is one of Osnabrück's most important buildings and emblems and continues to be used as the city's town hall today. The Treaty of Westphalia was negotiated and signed by the combatants of the Thirty Years' War at the town halls of Osnabrück and Münster in 1648.
Osnabrück's old town hall at the Markt (market place) continued to be used into the 16th century. However, during the previous century, the council of the Hansestadt (Hanseatic city) of Osnabrück had ordered the construction of a new town hall. Construction started in 1487; in 1505 the building was topped out. In 1512 the construction of Osnabrück's new town hall was completed. However, it was not until 1575 when the interior decoration was finally finished.
The final years of the Thirty Years' War were the most significant in the building's history. From 1643 to 1648 part of the delegations sent by the combatants in the Thirty Years' War sat in Osnabrück's town hall to negotiate a peace settlement. The eventual outcome was the "Westfälischer Frieden von Osnabrück und Münster" (Westphalian Peace Treaty of Osnabrück and Münster), signed in 1648. Among those who sat in the town hall of Osnabrück were the envoys representing the Kingdom of Sweden along with those representing the emperor and also the imperial estates; in contrast those representing the emperor and France negotiated simultaneously at the town hall in Münster. Today the negotiations are commemorated by portraits of the 42 European envoys at the Friedenskongress (peace congress), positioned around the walls of the Friedenssaal (Hall of Peace) in the town hall. In addition there are three portraits of the rulers of the main combatant nations: Christina, Queen of Sweden, Louis XIV of France, and German Emperor Ferdinand III.
From 1846 to 1880 the town hall's original Friedenssaal was converted into a so-called "Prunkhalle" (luxury hall). This modification was undone at the start of the 20th century, restoring the Friedenssaal to its original state.
On 13 September 1944 the town hall of Osnabrück was struck numerous times by Allied (especially British) bombs during air raids and severely damaged. The town hall was burned down to its foundation walls. As almost all of the historic furnishings of the town hall had been placed in storage some time earlier on account of the local population's expectation of eventual destruction, the majority of the interior decorations were saved. On 24 October 1948 – just in time for the 300th anniversary celebrations of the Peace of Westphalia – the restored town hall, along with its historic furnishings, was officially reopened for business.
