Steipe

In Germany, the Steipe is a white Gothic building whose open arcades face the market square. Its pointed arches rest on sturdy stone columns. These supports, called steipen, give the building its name, while merlons crown the façade above. Statues stand between the pointed arches on the façade. James the Greater, Helena, Peter, and Paul represent the city’s patron figures beneath armoured knights.

One knight raises his visor toward the marketplace. The other faces the cathedral with visor lowered and hand near his sword, presenting civic independence beside religious authority. The building began as a festive hall in the late Middle Ages. Its design recalls defensive residential towers, although military meaning here survives through ornament, sculpture, and ceremony. The Steipe later served as a city hall. It also became a hotel called the Red House and later housed a museum.

The Second World War left only its stair tower standing. Local donations supported reconstruction, restoring the arcades, colours, and symbolic figures as copies. The originals remain in the nearby city museum. Today, cafés and a museum fill the building beneath its reconstructed Gothic façade.