On market square, the former center of the old town, you`ll find one of the largest half-timbered houses of Korbach, the hotel "Zur Waage". In 1730 it was built in 1730 on the site where the Old Town Hall was previously located. The town of Korbach built it. When the Old Town and the New Town merged in 1377, a new joinedtown hall was built on the border between the Old and the New Town, which still is the city administration today.
However, the former Old Town Hall on market square still served the public. Not only that, an inn was operated in the basement since the 14th and 15th century and it served as the count's county court. Later, the count's feudal and free courts also took place here.
The inscription on the transverse beams of the front indicates to this period of time.
YOU SHALL NOT LOOK AT ANY PERSON IN JUDGMENT, BUT YOU SHALL HEAR THE SMALL AS WELL AS THE GREAT FOR NO SINGLE PERSON CAN DECIDE, FOR THE JUDGMENT IS IN GOD'S OFFICE: IN THE YEAR AFTER CHRIST'S BIRTH IN 1730, THE 20TH OF SEPT.It is reasonable to assume that the name "Waage"/”Scales” is due to the well-known symbol of a just jurisdiction. However, the prevailing opinion is that the name derives from the fact that the municipal "master of scales" exercised his office here during the market days.
It is known that Korbach, as a member of the Hanse, was a center for trading goods of any kind in the late Middle Ages. Here, during purchases and sales, the goods could be weighed or measured with the Korbach city cubit, which hung at the entrance of the house.<
The great city fire of 1664 originated in the immediate vicinity of “Die Waage”. Of course, this representative house also fell prey to the flames. During the construction of the current building, a part of the basement vault and the foundation walls of the Old Town hall were preserved, as well as the south wall of the ground floor. On the stone base, a two-storey half-timbered building with two cantilevered gable floors was built<
Measuring 25.7 metres by 14.1 metres, it was one of the largest houses in Korbach at the time. About 1760 Dr. med. Varnhagen reported that there are neck irons on a corner of the house, "where criminals were chained in order to be shown to the public".
In the middle of the 19th century, the City sold the house to the innkeeper Louis Frese, who set up a brewery in the basement. When he died in 1889, his son Georg Frese took over the brewery, the malthouse, the residential building and the associated properties.
Owners and tenants of the inn "Zur Waage":
- Brewer Oskar Greiner, 1905 Hop dealer Sauer from Kassel, 0. Greiner remained tenant, 1907 Innkeeper Ernst Metz from Zennern 1914 Berta and Karoline Becker from Schweinsbühl,1931 Innkeeper Friedrich Gerland from Ersen,1954 Innkeeper Karl Holzhaus from Kassel as tenant,1967 Farmer Hermann Schultze from Korbach bought the building,1977 Hermann Schultze (jun.) runs the business until today.
Source: http://regiowiki.hna.de/Häuser_in_Korbach:_Zur_Waage