Old Town Hall

At a glance:

The building was constructed in 1562 and served as the Town Hall (Rathaus) from 1585 until 1822. During renovations, a Renaissance ceiling painting was discovered on the upper floor of the now-private house. The painting was given a protective cover for conservation purposes; the room is not open to the public.

Before the building became a private residence, it was used as a hospital, together with the building adjacent to the left. The sick and pregnant were cared for, and the poor and beggars were given a night’s accommodation in the hospital. After the 23 April 1848 battle at Dossenbach, the revolutionaries were given accommodation in this building as well.

The house is also the birthplace of Dr. Max Josef Metzger, who was born here in 1887 and later executed in Berlin in 1944.

Dr. Max Josef Metzger was an army chaplain during World War I. This experience turned him into a pacifist, and he developed a religious international peace program in 1917 that was greatly supported by then-Pope Benedict XV.

In a show trial carried out against Metzger in Berlin in 1943, he was sentenced to death as an “always dishonourable traitor” for “high treason and aiding the enemy”. On 17 April 1944, the priest was executed by guillotine. The case was reopened in 1956, but only on 6 March 1997 was his death sentence overturned by the district court in Berlin.

Since 22 September 2016, there has been a plaque in memory of Dr. Max Josef Metzger opposite the entrance to the St. Joseph Church, at Müllerstraße 161, Wedding, Berlin, where he had been living prior to his arrest.