• ... shows a photo of the fountain at the Hotmannspief from around 1910.
• There was already a fountain on this site before the current building. The Hotmannspief we know today was built 200 years ago.
• The fountain gave its name to the surrounding district with its numerous stores. The Hotmannspief-Viertel interest group is celebrating the fountain's anniversary with a public action day on September 20.

The Aachen City Archive regularly presents interesting items from its stacks as Archive of the Month. The item with a short accompanying text is presented in a display case in the foyer of the city archive on Reichsweg as well as digitally on the archive's homepage. In September 2025, the archival item of the month is a photo of the fountain at Hotmannspief from around 1910, taken by August Kampf.

Aachen is a city of water, in which fountains have always played an important role and still do today. One fountain that everyone knows is the Hotmannspief, located at the intersection of Alexanderstraße, Sandkaulstraße and Großkölnstraße.

Meeting place and hangout
Even before the Hotmannspief we know today was built, there was a well on this spot. In 1738, an elm tree was planted next to the well there; in the following decades, it developed into a large arbor consisting of one tree, which became a meeting place for coal drivers and idlers. As there were frequent quarrels and fights here, the large tree was felled one night in 1822, much to the annoyance of the neighborhood.

Master builder Adam Franz Friedrich Leydel wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to redesign the square and, in addition to a construction program for various buildings, also proposed the construction of a new "fountain", which he designed himself. In March 1825, the building contractor Andreas Hansen was awarded the contract to build the fountain. The building blocks were obtained from a quarry in Eynatten; the fountain was built within a few months. The cast-iron, gilded female figures, which were part of the design and designed identically on each side of the fountain, were not added until 1830/32 due to an initial lack of funds.

The name Hotmannspief
A drinking water fountain, an important place of communal life in times before a comprehensive water supply, can be traced back to the 14th century. The name of the well probably goes back to a brewery, which was first mentioned in sources from the 15th century. It stood in the vicinity of the fountain and was referred to in the sources as "panhuys up den hupken". After that, it appears regularly in the municipal sources with changing names - "auf den Hoipman", "uf der Hopmann", "open Houpmann". The name of the house was linguistically transferred to the well. The current name originated in the 19th century. The word "Pief" is used in Öcher Platt to describe pipes, but also the outlets of wells. The Hotmannspief was fed from the overflow of the market fountain.

The Aachen dialect poet Hein Janssen described the fountain in the 1930s as follows: "At the new fountain, the water first rose into the jugs carried by the four maidens. From the beaks of the jugs it flowed into the shells below, and only then through their hollow supports to the four lion heads of the pedestal and through their outlet pipes into the vessels below. When there was a big crowd of people fetching water, the nimble boys would climb up the pedestal and hold their buckets and pots directly under the jug beaks." To prevent this, the watercourse was later changed. Incidentally, the Hotmannspief still carries drinking water today.

Action day to mark the anniversary
The fountain gave its name to the surrounding district with its numerous stores. The Hotmannspief-Viertel interest group, with the support of the City of Aachen, is celebrating the fountain's anniversary with a public day of action on Saturday, September 20. The tradespeople are also literally putting the history of the district in the shop window with historical photographs.

Photo of the snow-covered fountain from 1910
This month's Archivale shows a photo of the Hotmannspief from around 1910, taken by August Kampf. As the alignment of the surrounding streets was changed due to the destruction of the Second World War, a more detailed description of the picture should make it easier to find your way around: The picture shows the view across the snow-covered Alexanderstraße towards Sandkaulbach. The buildings at Alexanderstraße 9 to 17 can be seen in the center left of the picture. In front of the houses is the Hotmannspief, next to it a horse-drawn cart and passers-by. The confluence of the Sandkaulbach stream and the buildings at Sandkaulbach 27 to 33 can be seen at the middle right of the picture.

Source: Aachen City Archive, FOTO 61-530; NLS 10-178