St. Bartholomew's Cathedral
The Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew in Frankfurt am Main , the largest sacred building in the city, is the former electoral and coronation church of the Roman-German emperors and as such an important monument in the history of the empire. It was a symbol of national unity, especially in the 19th century. The cathedral used to be a collegiate church but not a cathedral in the canonical sense of a bishop's church.
Today's cathedral is the fourth church in the same place. Predecessor buildings excavated since the late 19th century can be traced back to the 7th century. The early Carolingian chapel of the Königspfalz Frankfurt was the site of the Synod of Frankfurt in 794 and is closely connected to the history of Frankfurt and the Frankfurt old town . The first royal election in Frankfurt took place in 855 in the Salvator Church, consecrated in 852 .
In 1239 the church was consecrated to St. Bartholomew and the construction of today's Gothic cathedral began. It was essentially built between 1250 and 1514, when the almost completed west tower had to be closed with an emergency dome due to lack of funds. The solution, unique in Central Europe, was to shape the cityscape for centuries. It was only after the cathedral fire in 1867 that the tower - still architecturally unique - was completed by 1878 according to plans from the Middle Ages .
Typologically, it is a three-aisled hall church with a stretched 5/8 choir closure and an attached west tower on a square floor plan. Due to the very short (only three bays ) nave and the very long transept for reasons of urban history , the cathedral has the basic shape of a central building .
The building is made entirely of natural stone, behind the plaster between the stone carvings and corner blocks hides less worked quarry stone .
Apart from two short periods (1533–1548 and 1631–1635), the cathedral remained Catholic even after the introduction of the Reformation in Frankfurt and until 1917 was the only parish church of this denomination in the city. It is the largest church building in the Limburg diocese, founded in 1827 .
importance
The Frankfurt Cathedral was never the cathedral church of a bishop and is structurally not one of the largest sacred buildings in Central Europe. Its great importance as a national symbol is based rather on its political and historical role in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation .
However, the cathedral is also considered to be structurally interesting, less because of its size or its role in art history than because of its long and intricate building history and some unusual architectural solutions. The architects of most of the components are unknown, the most important builders known by name are Madern Gerthener , the builder of the west tower, and Franz Josef Denzinger , the head of the reconstruction after the cathedral fire in 1867.
The Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew is the largest church in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg . As part of the reorganization of the Catholic parishes in the city center, the parishes of All Saints , St. Bernhard , Teutonic Order , Liebfrauen as well as St. Ignatius and St. Antonius with the parish Dom / St. Leonhard became the new type of parish with the name on January 1, 2014 Parish of St. Bartholomew merged. The previous congregations will remain as church locations and should ensure an active and interesting congregation life.
Reichsstift
The Salvatorstift, later Bartholomäusstift , was the head of the cathedral for almost 1000 years and was at times one of the most important of its kind in the empire.
With the consecration of the third predecessor building of the cathedral, the Salvator basilica, by the Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus , the East Franconian King Ludwig the German founded the Salvatorstift Frankfurt in 852 "out of love for the Lord and to increase his heavenly wages". It was intended to replace the Marienstift in Aachen , which was lost during the division of the empire in 843 because it fell to the Middle Kingdom , as an imperial monastery. His brother Karl did something similar in his western empire , in Compiègne near Paris .
The income was secured by numerous foundations and inheritances from pious citizens. An abbot named Williheri and 12 canons , who had extensive privileges, were named as founding members . a. the exemption from military service, which was quite a privilege in the stormy early Middle Ages .
Similar to a monastery , the canons of the monastery led a communal life, for example they shared the dining and sleeping rooms. The model was drawn up by Bishop Chrodegang von Metz in 766 for the canons of his cathedral for a common life of world priests (priests who have not taken a religious vows ). In 816 the Aachener Stift changed these Metz rules and allowed private property , which was also adopted in the Frankfurt rules.
Community life ended at the end of the 11th century, the canons regulated their personal affairs themselves. However, common choir prayer and worship remained. The monastery sent vicars to entrusted churches and chapels and carried out pastoral care in other Frankfurt churches.
The provost , originally referred to as abbot , mostly a noble member of the Mainz cathedral chapter (including from the Eppstein , Nassau , Solms , and later Metternich , Schönborn , and sometimes French cardinals ), was the representative and head of the monastery. He was appointed by the Archbishop of Mainz, often directly from Rome . The monastery dean was responsible for the internal management of the monastery . A cantor carried out church services and directed the school for the boys' choir. The scholaster ran the collegiate school, the custodian was the administrator of the buildings and goods, he looked after the poor and the sick (which was later transferred to the hospitals founded by the monastery). The pleban was responsible for pastoral care and served as city pastor. The pen chapter , d. H. all the canons together, decided on the admission of new members, elected the dean and conferred the above-mentioned offices.
The monastery has had a long and eventful history and was only dissolved with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803.
Like all inner-city churches, the cathedral has since been owned by the city, which however continues to make it available to its Catholics for use, now as a simple parish church. This was recorded in the endowment contract in 1830 and its confirmation from 1854. In addition, the city undertakes to maintain the houses of worship.
Bartholomew Relics
The most valuable relic of the Frankfurt Cathedral is the skullcap of the apostle Bartholomäus , who has been the patron of the church since 1239.
Bartholomew, who is named in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew , Mark and Luke as one of the twelve apostles of Christ, is probably identical with Nathanael from Cana in Galilee , whose conversion is described in the Gospel of John . This Nathanael was called the son (Hebrew: bar ) of Tholmai, so Bar-Tholmai (Bartholomäus).
According to early Christian tradition, Bartholomew is said to have worked as an apostle for proselytizing in India and Armenia after Jesus' death . Legend has it that he healed the daughter of the Armenian king Polymios who was “possessed by an evil spirit” . In the face of the miracle he converted to Christianity and was baptized by Bartholomew, "with him his wife, his children and all the people" . Pagan temples were destroyed. Pagan priests therefore turned to the king's brother, Astyages . He had Bartholomew captured and, because he had dissuaded his brother from the faith of his ancestors, executed in the most cruel way: the apostle's skin was stripped off while his body was alive and then his head was cut off.
The barbaric type of execution of flaying found its way into European art history through Bartholomew's story : The apostle is depicted with his own skin hanging loosely over his forearm like an unused piece of clothing.
The Bartholomew relics came from Armenia via the Aeolian Islands to Benevento and from there through Emperor Otto II in 983 to Rome to the new Bartholomew Monastery on the Tiber Island . Otto later wanted to take the apostle's bones to Germany by ship, but died before the realization of this idea, and the relics remained in Rome.
In 1166, Gottfried, the provost of the Frankfurt monastery, and his master, the new Archbishop of Mainz, Christian I , accompanied Emperor Friedrich I on one of his numerous Italian trains. In a certificate from Friedrich confirming the transfer of the Bartholomew relics to Rome, Gottfried appeared as a witness. Possibly on this occasion he asked Friedrich for the apostle's skull for his Frankfurt pen. They had not come to Italy with peaceful intent, and the theft of relics from subjugated Italian cities was quite common. So took z. For example, only shortly before the Archbishop of Cologne Rainald von Dassel , also accompanied by Frederick I, took the complete remains of the Three Kings with him in the destroyed Milan to bring them to Cologne , where they are still in the Shrine of the Three Kings .
If not in this way, the transfer of the Bartholomew relics to Frankfurt must have taken place well before 1215. The oldest document mentioning the veneration of Bartholomew dates from this year. Their seal shows the apostle, but is apparently much older than the document.
Election and coronation in the Imperial Cathedral
The imperial coronation originally took place in St. Peter's Church in Rome by the Pope . The prerequisite for this was the previous coronation as Roman king . This usually took place since 936 in the Aachen Palatine Chapel , the Holy Sepulcher of Charlemagne , whose successors the emperors considered themselves to be.
Frankfurt was specified in the Golden Bull of Charles IV of 1356 as the location of the king's election. Since the time of Maximilian I , who was elected king by the electors was considered the elected Roman Emperor even without the consent and coronation by the Pope . As a result, the royal coronation was also regarded as the imperial coronation. They also took place in Frankfurt from 1562 on - usually a few days after the election. This tradition only ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation .
Over the centuries, fixed rituals for election and coronation became established, some of which were also linked to the buildings in the cathedral.
Royal elections
Since the late Middle Ages, the place of elections for kings has been the electoral chapel , which is attached to the south of the choir and otherwise served as a monastery library. There was an altar set up on the east wall and seven chairs on the long walls. Behind it stood the library bookshelves. In the elections for a king, the elector's armchairs were covered with red velvet and the bookshelves covered with tapestries or valuable cloths.
The electors were initially seven, including three clergy (the Archbishop of Mainz as Arch Chancellor for Germany, the Archbishop of Cologne as Arch Chancellor for Italy and the Archbishop of Trier as Arch Chancellor for Burgundy) and four secular: the King of Bohemia as Archbishop , the Count Palatine near the Rhine as an archdic , the Duke of Saxony as arch marshal and the margrave of Brandenburg as arch chamberlain of the empire. The Palatinate electoral dignity with the office of arch trustee was transferred to the Duke of Bavaria in 1623 . In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, an eighth electoral dignity was created for the Count Palatine near Rhine, linked to the office of arch treasurer, which expired in 1777 after the dynastic unification of Bavaria with the Palatinate. In 1692/1708 a ninth electoral dignity was created for the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and with it the office of Archbanner Lord . Further changes to the Kurkollegium through the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 no longer had any practical effects, since no more elections took place until the end of the Empire in 1806.
The original seven electors first met for preliminary negotiations in the Römer , the town hall of the city. On the following day they went to the Bartholomäuskirche early in the morning in full electoral regalia. The collegiate chapter received them there and opened the ceremony with a Holy Spirit Mass to ask for the blessing for a wise decision. An oath was taken in front of the altar of the election chapel . In the chancel, above the chairs of the electors, there was an impressive depiction of the Last Judgment with Christ as the judge of the world, which was supposed to make the earthly rulers aware of the consequences of all too power-hungry actions. The Reichserzmarschall closed the chapel, the electors met as a conclave . The actual election was secret, a simple majority was enough.
The result was then solemnly announced in the cathedral. The elected was sworn in by the Archbishop of Mainz and lifted by the Electors onto the cross altar in front of the rood screen. After singing the Te Deum together , the election of the king was publicly proclaimed.
Imperial coronations
From 1562 to 1792, ten imperial coronations took place in Frankfurt Cathedral. The celebrations were chaired by the Archbishop of Mainz. He and the two other ecclesiastical electors received the newly elected emperor with holy water at the cloister portal of the cathedral . He was led through the cloister to the side of the cathedral to the coronation altar in front of the rood screen.
The coronation took place during a solemn high mass . Participants in the fair were a. the secular electors and other imperial princes and representatives of the imperial estates, the city council of Frankfurt, delegations from abroad and the royal family. The consecrator (the Archbishop of Mainz) anointed the emperor with chrism (a mixture of balm and oil) on the head, chest, between the shoulder blades, on the right arm and on the ball of the right hand. In the election chapel he was put on the “robes of Charlemagne”. Back at the altar, the bishop of Mainz handed him the sword , put the ring on his finger and clad him with the cloak. The emperor accepted the scepter and orb , and all three clerical electors together placed the imperial crown on his head. He swore an oath on the gospel and was led to the imperial throne . With that he had visibly taken possession of the empire, but he had already become king and emperor with all rights with the election. At the end the Te Deum was sung.
His first act of the Emperor deserved persons awarded the accolade . After that the interrupted high mass was continued. After its end, the imperial coronation procession passed through the north portal over the “Königsweg” to the “Römer”, where the coronation meal took place in the imperial hall .
Building history: previous buildings
Today's church is the fifth known building at this point. There was at least one Merovingian , Carolingian , Romanesque and early Gothic predecessor building. On the plan of a Greek cross erected naves emerged in the 14th century, the west tower in the 15th century, its present appearance was given to the cathedral in the 19th century.
Building I: The Merovingian palace chapel
The cathedral hill , the flood-protected hill in the eastern part of Frankfurt's old town , is the very oldest settlement area. It was originally an island, south of it runs the Main , north of it ran the Braubach , a tributary that was drained in the Middle Ages. South of the cathedral hill was the ford to which Frankfurt not only owes its name, but also its existence in general.
Because of its favorable location, people had already settled on the cathedral hill in the Neolithic Age . It has been inhabited without interruption since Celtic times at the latest , i.e. for around 2500 years. In Roman times (83–260) there was a Roman settlement here, presumably used by the military, and a manor in the following Alemannic era .
Around 500 the region was settled by Franks . Their royal family, the Merovingians , had a palace (a royal court ) built on the cathedral hill . Since the Merovingians had been Christians since the baptism of Clovis (probably 496) , this royal court will also have had a small church. This (possibly wooden) palatine chapel from the 6th century should be regarded as the very first predecessor of today's cathedral, but it has not yet been archaeologically proven.
During the cathedral excavation in 1991/92, however, the foundations of a 12-meter-long stone hall building were found (in the area of today's central nave), which were dated to around 680. The building is usually referred to as a hall church , but this cannot be proven. The richly decorated grave of a girl, possibly the daughter of a king or a housekeeper , was found in this building . The architects of the hall had tried to heat it with hypocausts (a type of underfloor heating) based on the Roman model ; however, they did not seem to have succeeded in the elaborate construction.
Building II / IIa: The Carolingian palace chapel
The first written mention of Frankfurt comes from the year 794. The occasion was the Synod of Frankfurt for which King Charlemagne summoned the secular and spiritual dignitaries of the Franconian Empire . The venue was the royal court in Frankfurt , which was rebuilt a few years earlier, in the early Carolingian era. The palace chapel was rebuilt and enlarged considerably (to around 8 × 18 m). This second building was also a hall church, but in contrast to Building I, it has structural effects right up to today's cathedral: its floor plan appears again in all subsequent buildings. The central nave of today's nave reproduces the exact outline of the former hall church.
Karl's son and successor, Emperor Ludwig I (called the Pious), often came to Frankfurt. Around 820 he had the Palatinate replaced by a new building. In the center of the facility was a two-story building with a two-aisled hall (12.20 × 27 m), as well as vestibules and a connecting passage to the church. A market square was built south of the new palace . The buildings were oriented along a strict east-west axis. The hall building, the connecting gallery and the church were together 125 m long. After the destruction of the old town in 1944, the remains of the Palatinate below it were exposed. You can visit them today, in the archaeological garden in front of the cathedral.
Building III: The Carolingian Salvator Church
In the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Charles's empire was divided among the three sons of Ludwig. While Karl's favorite palace, Aachen, was in the Middle Kingdom ( Lotharingia ), King Ludwig II (called the German), who inherited the Eastern Empire , chose Frankfurt as his main residence (“principalis sedes orientalis regni”). This important role was the reason for the further expansion of the Palatinate and its church.
On September 1, 852, the Archbishop of Mainz , Rabanus Maurus , consecrated a church that was described as extremely magnificent. It was the third (known to us) building on the site of the cathedral, a three-aisled basilica with six bays . The transept stood out only a little. The building had a large central apse , but probably no side apses. The westwork had two bell towers and, in between, two round stair towers. The central nave was built on the foundations of the previous early Carolingian building, so the width of the central nave and the length of the nave corresponded to the width and length of the old hall church. As was customary in the Carolingian era, the new church was dedicated to the Salvator ( Latin for “ Redeemer ”, “ Savior ”), d. H. Christ and Virgin Mary consecrated. It no longer only served as a palace chapel, but also as the church of the newly founded Salvatorstift (see above).
In 855, in the presence of Ludwig, his nephew Lothar II was elected the new king of the Middle Kingdom after the death of his moderately successful father Lothar I. This was the first royal election that took place in Frankfurt. Later it would become a tradition.
Building IV: The Romanesque renovation and the Bartholomäus patronage
In 911, 18-year-old King Ludwig IV , the last Carolingian in the Eastern Empire, died. From 919 the Liudolfinger or Ottonen ruled . Although this dynasty came from Saxony , the Ottonian emperors often resided in the Frankfurt Palatinate, spent numerous Christmas celebrations here and held Reichstag . On December 25, 941, Emperor Otto the Great was reconciled in the Salvator Church with his brother Heinrich , who had started a war against him.
The following dynasty, the Salians , came from the area around the city, but used other cities as residences, especially Speyer . The Frankfurt Palatinate fell into disrepair and was gradually built over with residential buildings. It was not until the Hohenstaufen dynasty , from the middle of the 12th century, that Frankfurt became the imperial residence and site of the Reichstag. A new palace was built on the banks of the Main, the Saalhof . He owned his own church, the still preserved Saalhof chapel.
The use of the Salvatorstift saved the 300 year old church, unlike the royal court, from complete ruin. However, the west towers were so dilapidated that the bells had to be removed. During this time, however, an internationally significant event took place in the church: in 1147 the founder of the Cistercian order , Bernhard von Clairvaux , called for the Second Crusade in a sermon in the Salvator Church . In the same year King Konrad III took. the cross and moved from Frankfurt to the Holy Land .
In 1152, Friedrich I of Staufer , whom the Italians later called Barbarossa, was elected king in Frankfurt . The election of Friedrich is an important date in the history of the city, because it established Frankfurt's tradition as a place of choice. The election ceremonies took place in the Salvatorkirche.
In 1165 Paschal III spoke . , an antipope appointed by Friedrich , on whose instructions the model of all German emperors, Charlemagne, holy. In Frankfurt, where Karl was revered even more closely as the alleged city founder than elsewhere, the now holy emperor became the additional patron of the collegiate church.
The battle between Staufers and Guelphs brought Frankfurt a re-election with an engagement: the Guelph Otto IV. Was elected again on November 11, 1208, ten years after his first election in Cologne, this time unanimously, and publicly declared his engagement the present ten-year-old orphans Beatrix von Schwaben , the daughter of Philip von Schwaben and Irenes von Byzantium . On December 5, 1212 a Staufer was raised again in Frankfurt, and he was to become famous: Friedrich II.
Friedrich lifted the royal bailiwick in 1219 , which gave the city de facto independence. To compete with the Salvatorstift, which had become heavily dependent on the Archbishop of Mainz , he founded the Leonhardsstift , whose church was built next to the Saalhof. On the court a year later, Friedrich's son Heinrich was elected king in advance.
In 1238 a delegation from the Frankfurt collegiate chapter appeared at Pope Gregory IX. and asked for help in the repair of the badly dilapidated Salvator Church. The Pope granted 20 days of indulgence for all those who participated in the renovation that was already underway through donations or work. Success was not long in coming. With combined forces, the west towers, nave and transept were restored and a long Romanesque choir was added instead of the apse . Already on August 24, 1239, Bishop Ludolf I von Ratzeburg consecrated the renovated church in honor of “the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Bartholomew ” . The Bartholomew relic was acquired in Rome decades before , the apostle had been listed as patron in the pen seal for a long time (at least since 1215) .
Building history: preserved components
The early Gothic nave
Only after the consecration of the high altar in 1239 and the associated transition of the patronage to St. Bartholomäus began to build the components that still exist today. The work that followed followed directly on from the work that had previously been completed, which in view of the political situation in the empire (civil war-like conditions at the end of the Staufer epoch and during the interregnum ) was not a matter of course.
In 1250, after the choir had been rebuilt, the nave was extended . The Carolingian westwork and transept remained initially. An extension of the church to the west failed because the property was too small and the neighbors could not be persuaded to sell. It was therefore expanded in width: the outer walls of the new nave took up the alignment of the transept end walls, the height was adjusted to that of the recently completed choir. The floor plan of the central nave did not change this time either: its outline still corresponded to that of Building II, the hall church of the 8th century. The increase in area took place in the aisles , which were almost as wide as the central nave. Looking at the nave as a whole, the width exceeds the length considerably.
The new choir and the new nave formed the fourth building at this point along with the parts of the Salvator Church that were taken over. Due to the now no longer protruding transept arms and the low west towers, the church looked quite compact at the end of the 13th century.
A sensational innovation, however, distinguished the new nave from the choir: For the first time, the newfangled architectural style was used consistently, with which the canons in nearby Limburg had already experimented 15 years ago when building their new collegiate church (in the end, however, they opted for an original mix of the old and new style): the Gothic .
At the same time as in Limburg, the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of St. Landgravine Elisabeth, who died in 1231, began in Marburg . Of course, in 1250 the Marburg church was far from finished. But everyone could see what was being built there: Germany's first Gothic hall church . And Frankfurt canons had certainly seen the construction site of their Marburg colleagues from the Teutonic Order and enjoyed it. In any case, building IV in Frankfurt was the first Gothic hall church in the Middle Rhine region . Construction was finished in 1269.
The high Gothic choir
At the beginning of the 14th century, the city experienced a massive surge in growth. Frankfurt became a free imperial city , expanded its walled area fourfold in 1333, was allowed to hold a second annual mass from 1330 and has been the regular place for royal elections for 150 years, which mostly took place in the Bartholomäuskirche, more rarely in the Dominican monastery . The Golden Bull of Charles IV officially set Frankfurt as the electoral place of the emperors in 1356 .
The growing, proud bourgeois town decided, like other large cities of the time, to adorn itself with a large, befitting church. In contrast to other cities such as Cologne or Strasbourg , there was no bishop in Frankfurt who would build a magnificent cathedral. The city council itself assumed responsibility for the establishment of a church commensurate with the importance of the election festivities and the Free Imperial City. In 1315 the major work began, Building V, which has remained largely unchanged to this day.
For the reasons already mentioned, the existing church (as described above, a conglomerate of Carolingian, Romanesque and early Gothic components) could not be extended to the west. Instead, they started on the east side and tore down the 80-year-old Romanesque choir . A much larger, high-Gothic choir was built in its place .
The new choir was considerably wider, higher and longer than the central nave, which shows that it was not an extension, but a completely redesigned church in completely different dimensions. Like the nave, the choir has three yokes that end in a 5/8 end without a choir ambulatory. It shows the academically pure high Gothic forms from the second quarter of the 14th century. The ribbed vaults show plant motifs and the Lamb of God in the keystones . The windows were later partially redesigned to blinds when additional chapels were built next to the choir. The original glazing from the 14th century has not been preserved, but the choir stalls , the place of the canons' choir prayer, have been preserved . Using older pillars (13th century), a total of four rows of seats were created by 1352, two on each side wall of the choir. The founder was the provost of the monastery, who later became Archbishop of Trier Kuno II von Falkenstein . The two patrons of the church can be found on two of the pillars: Charlemagne , holding a model of the church in his hand, and Bartholomew in the usual, drastic representation: his own peeled skin hangs over his shoulder.
The new building has been used for church services since 1338. The high altar was consecrated eleven years later, presumably after the final completion, on April 13, 1349 by Heinrich III. of Appoldia , Bishop of Lavant .
The city's first Jewish cemetery was located south of the choir at that time , and Frankfurt's Jews lived in a district immediately south of the cathedral. The Christian cemetery was located on the north side of the choir until the 19th century, at the north end of which there was the St. Michael cemetery chapel, first mentioned in 1288, and an ossuary .
The year 1349 was one of the stormiest in the entire history of the city . Dissatisfied with King Charles IV, who was residing in Prague , on January 3rd the electors elected a Thuringian, the knight Günther von Schwarzburg , to be the anti-king in Frankfurt . He was crowned on February 6, also in Frankfurt . His “government” lasted only a short time, however, and Charles's party ultimately prevailed. On May 26th, Günther in Eltville in the Rheingau , abandoned by most of his supporters, renounced the royal dignity. Three weeks later, on June 14th, he died in the company of his last loyal followers in Frankfurt's Johanniterkloster , presumably of the plague . At the instigation of Charles IV, he was buried with royal honors in the high choir of St. Bartholomew's Church, which had been consecrated only two months earlier. In 1352 a magnificent Gothic tombstone was erected over his grave, which has been located to the right of the entrance to the electoral chapel since 1743 (at the instigation of Charles VII).
The Black Death was not long in coming in Frankfurt either. On July 22nd, the epidemic broke out across the city on a large scale. By February 2, 1350, it claimed over 2000 lives. Two days after the outbreak of the plague, a hysterical mob raided the Jewish quarter, believing that its residents were to blame for the plague. Parts of the neighborhood are burned down. As the Jewish residential area, as mentioned, was right next to the Bartholomäuskirche, the inevitable happened: The recently completed choir caught fire, the entire roof structure was destroyed.
The roof had been restored by the coming year and a three-bay, two-storey sacristy was built on the north side of the choir (the cathedral archive and the chapter room are on the upper floor ). Next to the sacristy, in the corner between the choir and the transept, the Marienkapelle was built , which from 1399 is also called Salvechörlein because of a foundation and the “ Salve Regina ” sung there .
The transept
Shortly before the completion of the choir, the 500-year-old Carolingian transept was torn down to make space for the second construction phase of the new, large St. Bartholomew's Church: Because of the space problems already mentioned, it was decided to expand the church in width and pushed between the new choir and the early Gothic (not even 80 years old, but already belonging to a long past, more modest epoch) nave the longest transept of the European Gothic. The north wing was tackled in 1346 and was largely completed in 1353, the southern part was 1352- 58 , 1369 all work was completed.
The transept has nine yokes, i.e. H. in the north and south arms three and three crossing bays in front of the nave of the nave. While the Carolingian transept protruded only a little from the line of the nave, the current one is 64 m longer than the nave, crossing and choir combined, creating a central building in the style of a Greek cross . In addition to the lack of space, the changed ceremonies in the royal elections also spoke in favor of this. The newly elected king was proclaimed from the gothic rood screen in the crossing . The crossing as the place of action was particularly emphasized by the centrality.
The transept, which was planned together with the choir, has an interior height of 23.20 m and a width of 11 m. Since the transept and choir were now six meters higher than the nave, the three crossing vaults could not be closed at first. It was actually planned to adapt the lower nave to the height of the newer components, which ultimately only happened in the 19th century. The two transept arms were vaulted in the 1360s. The choir and transept were in a dark, strong shade of red and provided with white ashlar painting, which was not based on the actual wall joints , but simulated an idealized, regular joint pattern.
In the corner between the choir and the southern transept, opposite the Marienkapelle, the Magdalenenkapelle was built in 1355 . Left and right of the high choir, which symbolizes Christ (the head of the cross that appears in the floor plan), i.e. two secondary choirs , dedicated to the two most important women of the Gospel, Jesus' mother and his most important companion .
Another chapel, the Wolfgang Chapel, was built in the 14th century between the south transept and the east yoke of the nave, in front of the former south exit of the fourth building, the “Red Door”, in front of which court hearings were held in the High Middle Ages .
The "red door" that was now built was replaced by the new south portal at the south end of the transept, created in 1350/51 by Master Antze , who worked in Strasbourg and Freiburg . In the gable is a crucifixion group, the style and time of origin reveal the master of the choir stalls as the author of this work. The sculptures below were created in the Antzes workshop in 1350. It should be noted here a friendly gesture that was rare at this time (consider the massacre of the previous year): As a “greeting” to the synagogue directly opposite the south portal (until the middle of the 15th century) , St. Joseph is depicted in the costume of the Jews at that time, as a sign of the origin of Jesus and the descent of Christianity from Judaism . Next to Joseph are Mary, as well as Peter and the prophet Isaiah , who foretold the birth of Jesus. The lower row of figures shows the kings adoring the baby Jesus .
At the opposite end of the transept is the north portal (around 1350), the most magnificent in the church and also intended as the main entrance. As the "Kaiserportal" it served the entry of the newly elected king. The figurative decoration planned in the Middle Ages did not materialize, however, the niches provided for this were not filled with neo-Gothic figures until 1884 (Christ with 10 apostles, the two church patrons and relatives of Jesus). The artistically successful statue of the Virgin Mary (with child), a Middle Rhine work from 1350, is medieval. A magnificent rose window was created in the gable field , next to it a depiction of the Last Judgment . In its function as the main portal (one of the most used doors in the city), the north portal was also the place for the posting of public notices.
The construction of the west tower
The crown of the city
By 1370 the greatly enlarged, new Bartholomäus Church was completed. A splendid choir, a monumental transept with generous portals at the north and south end, both components planned together and as if from one piece. To the west of it still stood the older, significantly lower and generally smaller, early Gothic nave and at its western end still the old Carolingian westwork with its double tower facade, last renovated and slightly changed before the re-consecration in 1239. At that time, gigantic towers were being built or had already been completed in competing cities such as Strasbourg , Freiburg , Ulm , Cologne , Vienna and others. At that time, Frankfurt only had the turrets from the time of the royal court of Ludwig the German, which looked tiny compared to the high Gothic components. But neither an extension of the nave nor the construction of a representative tower were easily possible, as the land west of the cathedral was densely built up. The town hall, first mentioned in 1264, also stood in the way of the new building.
Plans for a tower had existed for a very long time. As early as 1329, the council had issued a privilege from Emperor Ludwig IV for the first time , which allowed the construction of a new town hall at a suitable location. But it took decades before the new building could be tackled. Other new construction projects, such as the expansion of the Frankfurt city fortifications from 1333 and the Frankfurter Landwehr from 1393, were more urgent. In addition, Frankfurt's finances were severely strained by the guild riots from 1355 to 1366 and the heavy defeat in the Kronberg feud of 1389. In order to improve the city's income, the council had been negotiating with the Frankfurt clergy since 1390 to abolish the previous tax exemption for monasteries and monasteries. In August 1407, through the mediation of the Archbishop of Mainz, Johann II , an agreement was reached, the so-called Pfaffenrachtung.
As early as 1405, the city of Frankfurt acquired the two houses " Zum Römer " and " Zum Goldenen Schwan " on today's Römerberg . Their conversion to the new town hall dragged on; the move could not take place until the beginning of 1408. Next, in preparation for the building of the tower, apart from the old town hall, part of the cloister, the house to the feeding cellar and the two Romanesque towers had to be demolished. The council put the value of the old town hall at 300 pounds hellers, which should be raised in equal parts by the council, the monastery of St. Bartholomew and the church factory , although a prospective buyer had offered the town 420 pounds for the property. In order to finance its share, the monastery waived in favor of the city the income it received from former Jewish houses and land that it had acquired in 1349 after the murder or expulsion of their original owners. On May 31, 1414, the council and the collegiate chapter signed a trade treaty, through which the tower was owned by the city from the start. The demolition of the town hall and the towers began in autumn 1414 and was completed in April 1415. By the end of May, the construction pit had been dug and secured with 255 oak piles. On June 6, 1415, the foundation stone was finally laid in the presence of members of the council and the monastery.
Madern Gerthener
Madern Gerthener , son of a Frankfurt stonemason , was responsible for the construction from 1395 until his death in 1430 Frankfurt's city architect. From 1404 he was involved in the construction of St. Bartholomew, from 1409 he was the chief foreman. The original plan of the tower is preserved in the Historical Museum and is one of the most beautiful architectural drawings of the Middle Ages. A more recent position puts Madern Gerthener's sole authorship into perspective and ascribes a previous first draft to Ulrich Ensinger and the final formulation of the upper floors to Matthäus Ensinger .
In 1409 Gerthener succeeded in vaulting the crossing yokes, which had been completed for almost 50 years. The difficulty that all his predecessors failed because of the fact that the components abutting in the crossing had different vault heights, the nave was significantly lower than the choir and transept. The two outer yokes received ribbed vaults , the middle one a net-like structure. The sacrament house on the north wall of the choir (donated in 1415) also comes from Gerthener's workshop.
The lower tower floor
Gerthener's plan was for a single-tower facade, as was generally preferred in the late 14th century. Instead of the multi-layered structure customary elsewhere, Gerthener chose a concept of increasing lightness with a fairly simple substructure. The tower is divided into three floors. The basement on a square floor plan is strict, almost plinth-like, with large, closed wall surfaces, each with a high arched window , accompanying pinnacles at the corners of the tower . The heavy basement, about the same height as the nave, expresses monumentality and a certain solid physicality. This formal language is rare for representative late Gothic tower buildings, which are otherwise more conspicuous for their richness of forms and playfulness.
There are deeply cut portals on the north and south sides of the tower, but not on the west side. This was done for purely practical reasons: the tower stood in a kind of vacant lot and was only separated from the neighboring buildings by a very narrow lane in the west, so it was hardly accessible from there. This fact was taken into account by Gerthener by relocating the entrances to the north and south sides, and this is the only way to explain the lack of a west portal , which now seems pointless after the area around the cathedral has been uncovered .
The southern tower portal dates from 1422 and shows elegant late Gothic keel arches and a reticulated outer niche above the round arched opening . The north portal, also Gertheners work (1422/23), instructs the soffits filigree tracery on and the first Maßwerkgewölbe on the European continent and thus constitutes a prelude to the late Gothic portal architecture represents.
To the north of the tower and nave, an irregular, long rectangular cloister was built by 1418 , burial place for the canons and meeting point for the imperial procession at the coronation celebrations. The first floor of the tower was completed in 1423 to a height of 24 meters. In that year Gerthener transferred the site management to three parliaments , first to Leonard Murer von Schopfheim, later to Endres Sasse von Byere and Hans von Büren . Construction slowed down under her leadership, presumably for lack of money.
The upper floors
The second tower floor is slimmer, lighter than the first, framed by buttresses , slightly recessed fial towers, the transition from the square to the octagonal floor plan is being prepared. High lancet windows with rich tracery. The first gallery forms the upper end, it has a balustrade with quatrefoil patterns , a deliberate recourse to high Gothic. The second floor at the height of the roof structure contains the first belfry. The second floor was completed in 1472.
The following octagon is designed again much more richly , strongly resolved, large window openings, on the diagonal sides, 30 m high pinnacle towers, connected to the main structure by flying buttresses . At the foot of the octagon is the second bell cage and above the eyelashes of the octagon floor is the second gallery and above a shell dome as the end of the tower, inside the apartment of the tower guard. Its task was to report the outbreak of fire and the approach of enemies.
Slow construction progress and provisional completion
When Gerthener's death in 1430, the lower floor and the lower eight meters of the second were standing. Gerthener's successor as municipal foreman was the previous parlier Leonhard Murer von Schopfheim. He received only half of Gerthener's salary. Although a new crane was erected on the construction site in 1433, the work of stonemasons and masons came to a standstill for a time. In 1434 or 1435 Michael Kurtze took over the construction management. When he left in 1439, construction had progressed to the height of the window tracery (about 34.90 meters).
His successor as foreman was Jost Schilder (1439 to 1474), next to whom his stepson Bartholomäus von Schopfheim worked from 1463 to 1474 . Under their leadership, the second tower floor including the vaults was completed and some ashlar layers of the octagon were bricked up. Between 1474 and 1482, construction seems to have come to a standstill.
It was only under the supervision of Hans Flücke of Ingelheim 1483- 90 movement came in the construction work. Apparently the vault on the first floor was demolished and rebuilt. The octagon grew in the seven years up to 1490 by about 7 meters to the height of the coffin cornice . He also changed Gerthener's plans ("Riss B"), including by doing without the lower flying buttresses on the octagon. In 1491 Hans Flücke resigned as foreman, possibly because there were doubts about the feasibility of his plans. His successor Nikolaus Queck , site manager from July 1494, reacted to the permanent lack of money. He made savings proposals and demanded, for example, the abandonment of the dome . In 1497 he left Frankfurt. In 1497, the council called in the expert Hans von Friedberg to assess the feasibility of Ingelheim's plans from 1483.
In 1499, the last Frankfurt cathedral master builder of the Middle Ages, Jakob Bach from Ettlingen , received his service letter, after having probably already worked as a parlier. When he was hired, the tower had a documented height of 56 meters. He closed the tower with a temporary flat dome and dispensed with the crowning lantern planned by Gerthener . In 1514, after 99 years of construction, work on the tower was finally stopped. The reasons were the economic crisis of the time as well as social and religious turbulence - there was strong protest from the citizens against the privileges of the canons, who were disreputed as arrogant - and tensions between city parishes and the monastery, which defended its prerogatives over other churches obsessed with power. The willingness of the citizens to support the building of the collegiate church flagged. In general, the church institutions in Germany were exposed to fierce criticism: only three years later, Martin Luther posted his theses on Wittenberg , and the Reformation began.
The west tower of the Bartholomäuskirche became the crown and the new emblem of the imperial city despite its meager conclusion (called "sleepy head" by the people) . The dimensions of the late Gothic towers were less based on the building they belong to than on the city as a total work of art, the effect of what we would call the " skyline " today. And the idea of crowning the imperial elective and soon also the coronation city was expressed very specifically in this case: the upper end of the tower with its octagon and ribbed dome should deliberately resemble the shape of the one created in the 10th century, by everyone since Otto I. Remember the imperial crown worn by the emperor . The new tower, which was already a popular vantage point during the construction period, for example for Maximilian I , who had a gala dinner on September 20, 1495, was intended to express the self-confidence of the Free Imperial City through its size and beauty. Gerthener's steep dome, which was controversial among conservative contemporaries as early as the 15th century, is an original creation without any precedent in architectural history.
Late Gothic extensions
During the 15th century, apart from the west tower, only a few side chapels were added to St. Bartholomew's Church , but important furnishings were acquired . The completely preserved Maria-Schlaf-Altar has stood in the Marienkapelle since 1438 , it shows the death of Mary under a richly designed canopy in the circle of the mourning apostles. The altar, a foundation of the patrician Ullrich von Werstatt and his wife Gutge Schelmin , is perhaps the most expressive work of art in the cathedral, the oldest example of the “ soft ” or “wrinkle style” on the Middle Rhine.
On the walls of the high choir, above the choir stalls , the Bartholomew frieze was created between 1407 and 1427 , which depicts the life story of the main saint in 28 scenes. The original for the paintings (a foundation of the cathedral scholastic Frank von Ingelheim ) was the " Legenda aurea " of the Dominican Jakob von Vorago , a collection of legends of saints from 1260. An old edition of this work was in the library of the Frankfurter Stift, and the masters of the Bartholomew's frieze stuck to this template down to the last detail. It is a Secco painting , i. H. painted on the dry plaster. The artist is not known by name, but he is a representative of the “ Cologne School of Painting ”, his style is similar to that of Stefan Lochner , compare his altar wing in the Städel Museum with the depiction of the martyrdoms of the Apostles. He evidently had a penchant for splendid clothing, none of the royal robes shown is repeated.
Behind (to the east) of the Magdalenenkapelle a further, simply designed four-bay hall was added from 1425, here too, as in the tower basement that was built at the same time, the rare Gothic arched windows appeared again. The room initially served as the chapel of Saints Peter and Marcellinus and as a collegiate library. In 1438 the Habsburg Albrecht II was elected king in this room , which established a tradition. 16 of the last 22 German kings and Roman emperors are elected in this simple room, now also known as the electoral chapel , which makes it an important witness to German history.
After a donation from the patrician Nikolaus Scheid , the two- bay Scheid chapel was built in 1487, adjoining the south aisle and the older Wolfgang chapel, in rich late Gothic forms, with flat arched niches and net vaults. Since the Scheids and Wolfgang chapels, together with three bays, are the same length as the nave, they almost look like a second south aisle.
In 1509 the merchant and councilor Jakob Heller and his wife Katharina von Melem donated a crucifixion group to the church , which was created in the workshop of the Mainz sculptor Hans Backoffen and which was set up in the cathedral cemetery , behind the choir. It is a work of the virtuoso "baroque" phase of the late Gothic, a lively representation with great expressiveness and a successful arrangement and combination of the figures in the group. In the lower part of the trunk of the cross, above the coat of arms of the donor couple, covered by a round, gilded brass plate, a cross relic acquired by Heller 1500 in Rome was incorporated.
The cathedral in the early modern era
The Reformation in Frankfurt
The medieval construction history of St. Bartholomew's Cathedral ended in 1514 with the torso-like completion of the west tower under Jakob Bach. As already described, people had other worries in the meantime, the religious euphoria from which the enthusiasm for church building of the 13th and 14th centuries gave way, at the end of the Middle Ages, to a fundamental criticism of the church, its omnipresent power, its privileges and the oppressive tax burden. The increased self-confidence of the urban bourgeoisie contradicted the traditional claim to power of the Roman official church, which was viewed as corrupt and morally depraved . Various renewal movements of varying radicalism, such as the Anabaptists , the revolutionary peasants and humanism , expressed the discontented mood of this time. However, Luther's doctrine of the Reformation spread the fastest from 1517 . Since she saw the state as a divine order and gave the sovereigns authority over church affairs, she was very welcome by the princes and also by the ruling class of the cities. In 1522 the barefoot monk Hartmann Ibach , at the invitation of influential councilors around Hamman von Holzhausen , gave the first sermons in the spirit of the Reformation in the Katharinenkirche . Politically, this was quite risky for a city that was so dependent on the emperor. Luther was a year before the pope banned and at the Diet of Worms of the new Emperor Charles V with the outlawed been occupied.
The cathedral becomes Protestant and Catholic again
In 1525 the Bartholomäuskirche was divided : the canons and the citizens who remained loyal to the Roman church had to hold their services in the choir. The Protestants got the rest of the church. It was not until 1530 that the city officially joined the Reformation.
After Dionysius Melander's demagogic sermons, altar panels and relics of the church were destroyed in a downright iconoclasm . On April 23, 1533, all Catholic services in the city were banned, including in the choir of the cathedral, which was previously the last refuge of the old faith. To protect against imperial punitive measures, the Lutheran states joined together in 1531 to form the Schmalkaldic League , which Frankfurt joined in 1536. Ten years later, war broke out between the warring parties. The city seized the opportunity and confiscated large parts of the monastery property. After the defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, the Protestant imperial estates fell on the defensive. In 1548 the city accepted the Augsburg Interim against the resistance of the Lutheran clergy and large parts of the bourgeoisie and returned the St. Bartholomew Church and four other collegiate and religious churches to the Catholic Church. As a precaution , the cathedral was consecrated again on October 14, 1548 by the Archbishop of Mainz, Sebastian von Heusenstamm .
The peace with the emperor, combined with financial generosity, meant that the city did not have to submit to any further imperial reprisals. The citizenry retained its Lutheran confession and the city retained its privileges as a trade fair city , in which the cities of Mainz and Worms , which remained Catholic, had already shown an interest, and as the city of royal elections. When the Protestant princes rose again against the emperor in the prince revolt in 1552 , the city remained loyal to the emperor. A three-week siege and bombardment by their own allies was the result. Although the entire area around the city was devastated and the city was also heavily damaged (for example, stone balls weighing several pounds hit the cathedral during a service, but they did not injure anyone), the besiegers were held out with the support of the emperor.
The cathedral becomes the coronation church of the Roman-German emperors
Your loyalty to the emperor paid off for the city. In 1562 it became the coronation city of the Holy Roman Empire, albeit more by chance. In that year the Habsburg Maximilian II was elected Emperor in Frankfurt. Since the Archbishop of Cologne , Gebhard von Mansfeld , who actually (according to Charles IV. Golden Bull ) should have carried out the coronation in Aachen , suddenly died and adverse weather conditions made the long journey to Aachen impossible, it was decided to have the coronation on site and place in the Frankfurt Bartholomäusdom. This remained the case with almost all later coronations up to the last of Franz II in 1792.
As a result of the coronation celebrations, the unloved collegiate church returned to the center of interest in the Protestant city for a short time. In the rest of the time, the cathedral only played a role for the small, mostly craftsmen's Catholic community and the monastery, which is hardly significant any more. Catholics were no longer represented in the council or in the city government.
Italians save Frankfurt's Catholic community
During the Thirty Years War , 1631, the city was occupied by the Swedish King Gustav Adolf and his army. The St. Bartholomew Cathedral became a Protestant church again. The occupation was lifted by the Peace of Prague in 1635 and the cathedral was returned to the Catholics, this time for good.
As the owner of the church, the monastery had lost its reputation, wealth and influence. The situation changed from 1670 onwards with the immigration of numerous Italian merchant families, which brought the Catholic community a numerical (from 0.5 to 6% of the population), but above all economic strength. The wealthy families - especially from the area of Lake Como originating Brentano and Guaita - brought a revival by foundations and personal commitment to the Bartholomew pen. They took on important positions in the chapter of the colleges and in 1740 also gained citizenship .
Baroque remodeling
The important role as the electoral and coronation site of the German emperors, as well as the financial resources that were made available again by the wealthy immigrants, made it possible for the first time in almost 200 years to reflect on the structural form of the church. A splendid baroque redesign began around 1700 so that the emperors no longer had to face dark and old-fashioned medieval walls. Outstanding Gothic works of art were destroyed, the Bartholomew frieze and the entire interior of the church were whitewashed, the Gothic rood screen, the place of proclamation of the newly elected emperors for centuries, torn down and replaced by a wrought iron grille in 1711.
At this time it became customary to refer to St. Bartholomew as “ cathedral ” or “ imperial cathedral ” , even though it was not a bishopric , but a collegiate and parish church , depending on the size and importance of the coronation site .
The end of the Old Kingdom and the Bartholomew pen
From 1742 to 1745 Frankfurt served - for the first time since the Middle Ages - as a permanent imperial residence: with the coronation of Karl Albrecht of Bavaria as emperor (Charles VII) on February 12, 1742, a Wittelsbacher broke through the line of Habsburg emperors for the first time in centuries , since the House of Habsburg with the death of Charles VI. Was extinct in the male line in 1740. Charles VII claimed the succession in the Habsburg hereditary lands and therefore waged war against the daughter of Charles VI, Maria Theresa . Just two days after the imperial coronation in St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, Munich was occupied by Maria Theresa's troops ( War of the Austrian Succession ). Since the way back was blocked for Emperor Charles VII, he took up quarters in the Barckhausen palace on the Zeil . After his death on January 20, 1745, Maria Theresa's husband, Franz I, reunited the imperial crown with Austria.
On July 14, 1792, Franz II, the last Emperor of the Old Empire, was crowned in Frankfurt. The end of the almost 1,000 year old empire was already in sight. In October of that year Frankfurt was occupied by the French revolutionary troops, but on December 2nd it was retaken by Prussia and Hesse . Nevertheless, after Napoleon came to power, the German states were subject to the predominance of France.
On October 19, 1802, the ecclesiastical principalities were dissolved and all ecclesiastical and monastic property was expropriated. The aim was to replace the princes who had lost territories there after the annexation of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine by France. Although Frankfurt had no areas west of the Rhine, the Bartholomäusstift fell to the city along with all the other churches there (the reason was the loss of the villages of Soden and Sulzbach, which had previously belonged to Frankfurt ). The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss on February 25, 1803 confirmed the expropriations. This ended after 951 years the history of the monastery founded in 852 by King Ludwig II . Since then, the cathedral has been the property of the city of Frankfurt am Main as a donation church .
The history of the Old Empire and with it that of the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt as an imperial city ended on August 6, 1806, when Franz II laid down the imperial crown and declared the empire dissolved.
The cathedral fire in 1867 and the reconstruction
The renovation from 1854–1856
After the Congress of Vienna, Frankfurt was restored as an independent city republic and continued to maintain the traditionally close ties to the Viennese imperial family . The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph financed a renovation of the cathedral carried out between 1854 and 1856, certainly not without symbolic intentions. In 1849, the Frankfurt National Assembly had spoken out in favor of a small German solution and offered the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV the imperial crown. The restoration of the traditional coronation church of the Old Empire, in which numerous Habsburgs had received the dignity of emperors, could be understood as a confirmation of their own claims.
During the restoration , the first in the modern sense, the vaulting caps were repaired, various of the remaining Gothic furnishings in the cathedral and the neighboring St. Michael's Chapel , which was demolished in 1829, were renovated or redesigned, and the entire church was repainted. A few years earlier, a crowning lantern , which was illuminated at night, had been placed on the flat dome of the tower (known as the “Reichslaterne”).
The cathedral fire
In the German war was the Free City of Frankfurt, although officially neutral, set on 16 July 1866 by Prussian troops, on orders of King on October 3, William I annexed .
The night before the king's first visit, on August 15, 1867 at around 1.30 a.m. , fire broke out in Müller's beer tavern in Fahrgasse , directly behind the cathedral. Strong east wind and flying sparks caused the fire to spread to the roof of the cathedral, where shortly afterwards the entire roof structure was in flames. The upper half of the tower including the magnificent ringing of twelve bells was completely destroyed. Apart from the items in the high choir, the entire interior including the organ was burned. Four people were killed.
In the morning King Wilhelm stood in the ruins of the cathedral and promised help for the immediate reconstruction. For the population, however, the encounter between the king's visit and the cathedral fire was a gloomy sign of the guilt of Prussian imperialism for the downfall of the old imperial glory and the free city republic. The journalist and writer Friedrich Stoltze , editor of the satirical-liberal newspaper Frankfurter Latern , which has been repeatedly banned by offended authorities , wrote:
- Everything that is dear to us
- What is holy, high and dear to us:
- Our temples ate the fire
- Our freedom ate the sword
It took many years until the hatred of the occupying power was halfway overcome and the relationship to the state, to which Frankfurt now reluctantly belonged, could be normalized to some extent.
Rebuilding
The reconstruction was quickly initiated. Just four weeks after the accident, a cathedral building association was founded on the initiative of pastor Eugen Thyssen , in which numerous citizens got involved. Donations from all parts of the population, including Protestants and Jews, supported the work of the city and the cathedral building association. The master builders of Vienna, Cologne and Regensburg, Friedrich Schmidt , Richard Voigtel and Franz Josef Denzinger, published a first report on the structural damage at the end of March 1868. In September 1869 the latter, Franz Josef Denzinger from Würzburg , was entrusted with the reconstruction.
From the beginning, not only the restoration, but also the completion of components that remained unfinished in the Middle Ages was considered.
Reconstruction and completion of the west tower
For the completion of the tower, Denzinger based himself on Madern Gerthener's original plan (cracks A and B) that had been preserved in the revision by Hans Flücke von Ingelheim. The damaged by the fire upper 12.50 m of the tower were removed and (strongly stretched in height) newly supported, this time with the scheduled by Gerthener achtrippigen ball dome and lantern with crowning finial . The shape of the tower, which was planned in 1415 and is reminiscent of the shape of the imperial crown , was only given after the crown was laid down and the empire dissolved.
However, this was by no means a given. The dome was controversial as early as the 15th century , but Nikolaus Queck's counter-proposal was not accepted. Since the early 19th century, the dome has been called into question again. In 1818 Anton Kirchner published Gerthener's Riss A and criticized the fact that they had not created a “pyramid point” instead of the “round cap that doesn't fit the whole thing like a carter's hat on the venerable head of a bishop” . In 1849, several art historians, including the director of the Städelsche Kunstinstitut, called for the tower to be closed off by means of an open pyramid, as in the Freiburg Minster . The spire there was considered by the neo-Gothic of the 19th century as the ideal model of a German high Gothic cathedral tower and served as a model for well-known completion projects such as the Cologne Cathedral or the Regensburg Cathedral . In the case of the latter, it was Denzinger who put two spire helmets in the style of the 14th century, based on the Freiburg model, on a late Gothic substructure. It is to his credit that he opted for the original plan in Frankfurt.
Since the tower had inclined to the northwest, the 450-year-old foundations had to be reinforced and the structural conditions corrected. The reconstruction of the tower was completed on October 6, 1877. While the tower was just 72.50 m high before the fire, it now measured 94.80 m after completion. Denzinger did not base his tower end on the existing structure, but on the medieval cracks. The height extension beyond this can be explained by the competition with other tower completion projects of the time, such as the Ulm Minster , where the ambition was to build the highest tower in the world and, above all, there was a real height competition with the Cologne Cathedral.
In 1877 the tower received a new, nine-part, magnificent peal with the almost 12 t heavy Gloriosa , the second largest bronze bell in Germany after the Petersglocke (24 t) in Cologne Cathedral. The bells were cast in Dresden and were given the names and inscriptions of their predecessors. Experts describe the chime as a musical masterpiece of 19th century bell casting. It was only through fortunate circumstances that all bells survived both world wars of the 20th century unscathed.
Neo-Gothic idealized reconstruction of the interior
The roof was rebuilt with a new type of iron construction. The annealed vaults in the choir and transept had to be removed and reconstructed. The early Gothic nave was deliberately described as particularly badly damaged in Denzinger's damage report in order to justify its demolition. After removing the vaults, north wall, crossing piers and the other outer walls up to a height of 6 to 8 m, it was easy to implement not the old state, but an idealized one that was adapted to the height of the choir and transept. Although this was already planned in the Middle Ages, it largely destroyed one of the oldest Gothic hall churches in Germany. Gerthener's ingenious solution to the problem of the crossing vault also fell victim to standardization. The interior height of the vault was increased by 6 m, struts and windows were completely changed. A new organ loft cut off the tower hall from the nave, making it appear even shorter than it already was, thereby destroying the centralizing spatial effect.
The repair of the nave turned into an almost completely new building. In order to achieve a uniform, idealized high-Gothic spatial impression, irregularities that documented the centuries-long construction history of the cathedral were sacrificed.
Destruction of the developed urban context
The neo-Gothic of the 19th century was dominated by the opinion - even then hardly tenable at a close study of the tradition - that church buildings of the Middle Ages were designed to be viewed from all sides and accordingly erected in free-standing spaces in the city. In fact, in the Middle Ages the cathedral was almost completely surrounded by houses on the south and west sides at least as late as the 19th century, which were first mentioned in documents at the beginning of the 14th century.
On the occasion of the neo-Gothic-purifying reconstruction, these remaining houses were torn down - the east side of Höllgasse was still in 1901 - and the cathedral was exposed, a condition that did not exist in the building's past. Everything that did not fit into the image of a pure high Gothic, which in the opinion of contemporaries disrupted the uniformity and clarity of the monument, disappeared without regard to its own monument value and the ensemble effect that was thus destroyed. So countless buildings and parts of the building adjacent to the cathedral, from the butcher's shop to the western part of the cloister completed by Madern Gerthener in 1418, fell victim to Denzinger's purism. After all, the cloister was the meeting point for the imperial procession at the coronation ceremony. But it protruded westward over the tower, which Denzinger believed justified demolition. The Gothic Michael Chapel, the old chapel of the cathedral cemetery, was only separated from the cloister by a narrow alley, the parish travels, had already been demolished in 1829 to create a space north of the cathedral.
Instead of the destroyed part of the cloister, a vestibule was created as the main entrance in front of the north portal of the tower . Before it was “uncovered”, the tower was integrated into a block of houses; H. built into a vacant lot that was created in 1415 with the demolition of the old town hall. This explains the lack of the otherwise usual representative west portal and the sparse design of the lower tower floor, which was adapted to the integration into the development. The removal of the surrounding buildings destroyed the urban development situation, which Denzinger tried to repair through his vestibule. The effect of the exposure, which was completely alien to the Middle Ages, can still be impressively seen today when you stand in front of the bare, openingless west wall of the tower base, which was once covered by the tall houses on Höllgasse.
New equipment and painting
Denzinger was a representative of the generation of builders who, in the tradition of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, preferred a historicizing restoration to a historically correct preservation of the original substance.
His carefree handling of old buildings, however, aroused the anger of the new city pastor Ernst Franz August Munzenberger , who had been in office since 1870. The dispute ultimately led to the fact that the city, as the owner, at the instigation of Denzinger Pastor Munzenberger , issued a ban on his own church . Disputes between authorities of the Prussian state and the Catholic Church were not uncommon during the time of the " Kulturkampf ".
The disciplined pastor then devoted his energies to an area for which the city had no jurisdiction: the decor of the cathedral in keeping with class, the old one was largely burned in 1867. Well educated in terms of art history, he spent ten years looking for Gothic altars that were no longer in use in attics and village churches , had them renovated, and in some cases assembled new altars from different, harmonious pieces and installed them in the cathedral.
The reconstruction was completed by the historicizing painting of the Viennese " Nazarene " Eduard von Steinle , who created depictions of events from the Old and New Testament, in the transept, scenes from the history of the German Empire. This painting, which covered the entire interior, was able to conceal questionable transitions from the original structure to Denzinger's additions at critical points and helped to create a uniform spatial impression. The cathedral was to become a total work of art, a “treasure trove of German history” .
On Palm Sunday , April 14th 1878, the cathedral was returned to the community with a festive service.
- 1947/8 destroyed fresco cycle by Eduard von Steinle (selection)
Charlemagne at the Frankfurt Synod in 794
Bishops at the Frankfurt Synod 794
Capistran's Sermon of Penance
Burial of King Günther von Schwarzburg in the cathedral
Election Conclave 1489
Coronation of Maximilian II
Train of the Emperor to the Römer (Emperor and Elector)
Procession of the emperor to the roman (heralds)
The destruction in 1944 and the post-war period
March 22, 1944
Central Europe's largest Gothic old town was largely destroyed in six heavy Allied air raids on Frankfurt am Main between October 1943 and March 1944 . The physical extinction of the old imperial city was intended to break the will of the population to go to war. The heaviest damage was caused by the attack of March 22, 1944, in which over 1000 buildings in the old town, mostly half-timbered houses , were almost completely burned. The cathedral also suffered great damage when the old Frankfurt fell. High-explosive and incendiary bombs penetrated the roof of the south transept, all roofs and windows as well as the vaults in the south transept, the election chapel and the chapel were destroyed, and as in 1867 the interior of the cathedral was completely burned out again. This time, however, the valuable interior had been brought to safety beforehand. Eight of the nine bells, including the Gloriosa, had already been requisitioned in 1942 and transported to the bell cemetery in Hamburg in order to later melt them down as a “long-term reserve of raw materials”. Fortunately, the tower with the bell that remained in it survived the bombing raids largely unscathed.
The second reconstruction
After the rubble had been removed, in July 1947 the bell was brought back from the bell camp, where it had survived the war, and ceremoniously re-inaugurated. The actual restoration of the cathedral only began in 1948. Hermann Mäckler and Alois Giefer directed the construction work. During this reconstruction, too, attempts were made to correct past mistakes, thereby destroying historical substance.
According to the historicism at that time, the changes to the building from the time immediately after the cathedral fire were particularly affected. Denzinger's organ loft in the west of the nave was removed and the interior was given a completely new color scheme. The painting by Steinle - who is now considered one of the most important painters of the 19th century - was knocked down together with the plaster and the wall surfaces were plastered in an off-white tone. The load-bearing elements were highlighted by making the bare sandstone visible; remnants of older paintwork were fitted into the concept with darkening overpaintings. The spirit of modernism that dominates the measures becomes very clear here, as the new painting did not adhere to historical models based on color findings, but found a new solution typical of the simplicity of the post-war period. The destroyed windows were replaced by windows made of bright, lightly colored industrial glass donated by Frankfurt companies. Despite the good spatial impression achieved, the church now looked quite sober and unholy. This second reconstruction was completed in 1953.
Restorations and post-war projects
In 1954–1955, the west tower, which was comparatively slightly damaged, was repaired; a second restoration of the exterior followed in 1972–1977.
The musically valuable bells of the cathedral, the only completely preserved large bells from the 19th century in Germany, served in 1954 as a harmonious basis for a church music project that is probably unique not only in Germany. The Mainz bell and organ expert Paul Smets suggested in a report that the bells of all ten inner city churches should be harmonized with a Frankfurt city bell . In 1995 it was completed with the casting of the smallest bells of the Carmelite monastery , financed by donations from citizens . Today it consists of 50 bells and can be heard four times a year at church feasts.
In terms of construction, the interior restoration carried out in the run-up to the 1200th anniversary of the city's first mentioning from 1991 to 1994, combined with an archaeological excavation campaign inside the cathedral, during which the foundations of several previously unknown predecessor buildings were found. The interior renovation largely reversed the changes made in the early 1950s; according to historical findings, the interior was again painted in a dark red with decorative joints (covering the actual construction). In the south transept, parts of Steinle's 19th century painting have been restored.
For the 1200th anniversary itself, the cathedral tower was the focus of a major event: on June 12, 1994, the French tightrope walker Philippe Petit crossed the 350-meter stretch on a tightrope in a breathtaking three-quarter-hour performance in front of over 300,000 spectators at a height of over 50 meters , which was stretched between the tower of the Paulskirche over the Paulsplatz and the peripheral buildings of the Römerberg to the west tower of the cathedral.
From 2003 to 2005 the roof and facades of the high choir were renovated. The west tower has been renovated again since 2000. Until June 2006, the upper floor of the tower, the most spectacular structural element of the cathedral, was hidden behind a tarpaulin. The last phase of the renovation began in June 2007, during which the 40-meter-high base of the tower was renovated. In particular, the parts made of the substitute building material Minéros that were used for the renovation in the 1970s had to be replaced. In addition, the Gloriosa received corrosion protection for its bell cage and new sound boards in front of the windows of the bell room. The work was completed in spring 2010. Since August 21, 2010, the tower has been open to the public for the first time since 1997.
In 2014, the renovation of the roof and the facades in the nave and transept began. The roofs were last re-tiled in 1950/51 and are now damaged in many places. The steel roof truss will also be renovated during the work . The construction work should be completed by mid-2017. The city bears the costs of 6.5 million euros as part of the endowment obligation. On February 10, 2020 at around 1 a.m., hurricane Sabine buckled a crane boom, which damaged the roof ridge and the roof of the southern transept.
The cathedral today
The urban environment
Even if the reconstruction of the 1950s did not change the exterior of the cathedral, its surroundings are no longer recognizable. The medieval maze of alleys that surrounded the cathedral until 1944 has disappeared. To the east and south of it, a new residential area was built in the 1950s on a greatly reduced street network, winding courtyards connected with passageways, quiet and now lush greenery. The Fahrgasse , once one of the most important traffic arteries in the city, as it led from the Friedberger Pforte to the Main Bridge , became a dead end, since one of the two new broad main traffic axes was created east of it over the centuries-old road system, making Frankfurt “car-friendly City ”should do. The second of these traffic aisles, Berliner Straße , today limits the cathedral district to the north.
To the west of the cathedral lies the so-called Dom-Römerberg area , which for decades represented the most difficult problem in Frankfurt city planning to solve. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a car park between the Dom Tower and the Römer, one of the most historic old town areas in Central Europe . After extensive archaeological investigations (excavation of the old town), the remains of the royal court of Ludwig the German were found , which were made accessible in the archaeological garden in front of the cathedral tower. Starting in 1966, an excavation pit was dug between the two most important structures in the old town, in which a subway station and an underground parking garage and, to the north, an administrative high-rise building that overwhelms the entire historical environment in style and dimensions (including the cathedral tower directly opposite) ( the " Technical Town Hall ") emerged. The Schirn Kunsthalle , built on a very long and narrow plot of land, has been located south of the historical garden since 1985, similar to the Carolingian Palatinate once upon a time, which is oriented along a strict east-west axis .
Opposite the south portal, the canvas house built by Gerthener survived the war. Opposite the north portal, the Haus am Dom , an educational and cultural center of the Limburg diocese, has been located since 2007 . This is where Domstrasse begins , which together with Braubachstrasse forms the center of the "art district". In addition to numerous galleries, the Museum of Modern Art has been located at the intersection of both streets since 1991, a few steps from the cathedral .
In 2007, the city council decided to demolish the Technical Town Hall and to rebuild the entire 7,000 square meter Dom-Römer area. This resulted in 35 new buildings, including 15 reconstructions of historic old town houses that were destroyed in World War II. After the Technical City Hall was demolished in 2010/11, the new construction project for the new Frankfurt old town began with the laying of the foundation stone in January 2012.
Vestibule, cloister and tower hall
Since Denzinger's renovations, the cathedral has been entered through the star-vaulted vestibule (1879/80) in front of the north portal. In it is the last surviving Baroque altar of the cathedral, the Assumption Altar donated in 1728 by one of the Italian immigrants, Johann Nikolaus Martinego , canon and dean of the monastery .
If you turn left after entering the vestibule, you get to the rest of the cloister shortened by Denzinger . Today it is covered and houses the cathedral museum . There you will find, among other things, the remains of the monastery treasure, which has shrunk badly over the centuries, a very old copy of the imperial insignia (the original is in the Vienna Hofburg ), models of the previous buildings and, since 1994, the finds from the grave of the Merovingian princess' daughter.
A monumental stone relief ( Hans Mettel , 1957) is attached to the outside of the cloister . It shows the martyrdom of the Apostle Bartholomew as a representative of the people of all times tortured by inhuman violence.
The northern tower portal (Gerthener 1422/23) leads to the tower hall , which today houses the crucifixion group , originally in the cathedral cemetery and created in 1509 by Hans Backoffen . A copy has been at the old location since 1919, so you will come across the same work of art twice on a tour of the cathedral.
The mostly closed southern tower portal ( Hans Wissel , 1958) has doors with copper plates and depictions from the history of the German emperors.
Longhouse
When entering the nave , the first thing that surprises you is the bright red of the color scheme, which was reconstructed in the course of the interior renovation from 1991 to 1994 based on original findings from the 14th century, and immediately afterwards the shortness of the nave. Little remains of the original substance of the 13th century, such as the lower halves of the outer walls.
In the rear wall, i.e. the western one, there are still the (walled up) early Gothic passages to the old Carolingian western towers. On the wall of the north aisle there are numerous grave monuments from the 16th to 18th centuries, including the magnificent Baroque tomb of Worms Bishop Johann Karl von und zu Franckenstein (1610-1691), who died here as a war refugee . The most valuable piece is the epitaph of councilor Andreas Hirde , who died in 1518 , a figurative work of the Flemish early Renaissance .
A grave slab has been in the floor of the central nave since 1994 over the grave of a girl who died around 680.
The pillars of the nave are square with bevelled corners and four slender round services, which merge into the vault ribs in painted leaf capitals . The keystones bear face and plant motifs, that of the tower hall the Frankfurt eagle, the city coat of arms .
The partition chapel, built in late Gothic style in 1487, adjoins the south aisle . Today it serves as a prayer room and baptistery . The baptismal font is carried by a putto and dates from the early 18th century. Another baroque John watches over the event. In the southwest corner there is a much revered neo-Gothic Pietà ( Caspar Weis , 1890). The Wolfgang chapel (14th century) adjoining to the east is the anteroom to the discussion and confessional room, in it a crucifixion painting of the “Danube School” of the 16th century. Between the Wolfgang chapel and the south aisle, the “Red Door” (1298) has been preserved, a court hearing in the 14th century, after the chapel was added it was redesigned to form an open arch.
South transept
It was replaced by the south portal of the transept, created in 1350/51 . In addition to the medieval sculpture program already described, a double door with bronze reliefs by Hans Mettel ( prophet of the Old Testament ) was added in 1962 .
The dimensions of the transept make up for the shortness of the nave; its equipment is also impressive. Here you can find the carved altars collected by Pastor Munzenberger around 1880.
In the south transept , most of them are, mostly dating from around 1500, further a sacrament housing with a rich structure ( Nicholas and Michael Eseler , 1480) and an Immaculata -Muttergottes of Speyer sculptor Gottfried racing (1818-1900) in a gothic Terracotta canopy (15th century). Above the portal is the organ loft from 1957. Next to it, on the west wall, the last remnants of Steinle's painting, which was restored in 1993. One recognizes the reconciliation of Otto I with his brother Heinrich (941) and the crusade sermon of Bernhard von Clairvaux. Opposite is a Gothic fresco (around 1400) with scenes from the life of Mary. In addition, there are also numerous grave monuments here.
In front of the crossing , the Magdalen Chapel, built in 1355, opens on the right , also known as the Christ's Sepulcher Chapel since the cathedral renovation in 1855. Since then, it has housed the Holy Sepulcher, donated in 1435, from the demolished Michael's Chapel. The altarpiece of the former Magdalen Altar (1710) hangs in a pompous frame above the epitaph for the Vicar Apostolic of the North, titular bishop von Spiga and musician Agostino Steffani , who died in Frankfurt in 1728.
A narrow door leads into the electoral chapel , the actual place of the royal elections. In 1993 it received new windows that refer to the history of the chapel in abstract representations. The seven leather-covered elector armchairs and the eagle plate floor, however, have seen imperial elections. On the new altar there is a passion triptych from the 15th century.
In the center of the cathedral, the crossing, is the altar island (Ulrich Hahn 1993), above it a baroque crucifix that Cornelius Andreas Donett originally created in the 1720s for the Capuchin Church in Frankfurt am Main, which was demolished in 1803 . At the corners of the choir, in the north, there is the Gothic apostle's farewell altar from 1523 and in the south the Liebfrauen Altar , a southern German work of the 15th century.
High choir
The high choir is the best preserved part from the Middle Ages, as it was largely spared from the destruction in 1867 and 1944. You can get inside via a few steps. In the middle is the Gothic high altar . It was also assembled from various parts by Pastor Munzenberger, but most of it comes from a forgotten Saxon altar from the 15th century, which Munzenberger found in a dusty tower chamber of the Katharinenkirche in Salzwedel . The wings of the predella come from Franconia .
On the main wall of the choir, a secco painting with resurrection scenes. The most important treasures of the choir, however, are the choir stalls preserved from the time of construction and the Bartholomew frieze from 1407 above .
While the nave was used as a parish church for the people, the choir served the noble canons as the actual collegiate church. This difference in rank also made it a coveted burial place for wealthy personalities. On the north wall, for example, there is a family grave stone (1832) of the imperial postmasters of Thurn und Taxis . Opposite the most magnificent tomb in the cathedral for the only German king who is buried in Frankfurt, Günther von Schwarzburg, who died in 1349 . In 1352 a tumble grave was built for him in the middle of the choir, the plate of which was attached to the south wall in 1743. It shows the relief of the king in full armor, with sword and shield and two lions at his feet. Left and right of the tracery opening in which the king stands, the figures of saints and prophets. The coats of arms of his few remaining allies that surround the plate come from the former Tumba . The medieval depiction of the king surprises with a striving for realistic characteristics, which is rare for this time.
To the north of the choir is the Maria-Schlaf-Kapelle , in which the impressive altar of the same name (1434/38) is located. On the walls of this chapel, all of the 19th century paintings have been preserved, including the windows (Dixon, 1881).
North transept
In the north arm of the transept there are other valuable altars, such as the Anne Altar , which contains three late Gothic Franconian figures and in the predella a likewise late Gothic Last Supper relief . On the inner wings of the otherwise neo-Gothic (1898) altar, the painter Heinrich Nüttgens immortalized the meritorious city pastor Munzenberger and his colleague, the historian Johannes Janssen , along with their namesake Franz of Assisi and Johannes the Baptist .
The Altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , completed by the Memmingen painter Ivo Strigel in 1505, was found in Miinzenberger in 1868 in the parish church of Seth in Graubünden .
The north portal has since 1965 new, Hans Mettel designed bronze doors with the patriarchs of the Old Testament.
To grave monuments find of the 14th century on the west wall, so that of 1371 died viscount of Castle County Friedberg of Friedberg in Friedberg (Hessen) and city mayor of Frankfurt Rudolf von Sachsenhausen , a follower of anti-king Gunther, and a member of the main Frankfurt patrician family, of the mayor Johann von Holzhausen , died 1393, and his wife Gundula Goldsteyn , who died 1371 . There are also other graves of the von Thurn und Taxis family.
Above it hangs a large painting with an eventful history: a 1627 Descent from the Cross by Anthony van Dyck . He originally painted it for the Archbishop of Mainz, who did not want to pay for it after it was completed. The disgruntled painter finally gave the picture to an impoverished Franciscan monastery. The latter was happy about the gift in the middle of the war and soon sold it on, which saved the picture: The monastery was burned down by an enemy army shortly afterwards. The painting ended up in the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna and from there into the possession of the Birkenstock family . Daughter Antonie later married a Frankfurt patrician son , Franz Brentano , and brought the picture with her to Frankfurt. After Brentano's death the widow bequeathed it to the Bartholomäusstift in 1852. In 1952 the picture was given its present place of honor in the north transept of the cathedral.
Organs
The cathedral contains two organs : the main organ in the south transept, and a choir organ in the high choir. Both instruments can sound simultaneously, from the console of the main organ and from an electric free-standing console in the high choir. With a total of 115 registers and 8801 pipes, the organ is the seventh largest organ in Germany .
The main organ with a free pipe prospect is located in the south transept. It was built in 1957 by Klais as Opus 1109 in neo-baroque style and inaugurated on June 11, 1957. In 1994 it was again restored by Klais and expanded to 86 stops on five manuals; In 2008 the trumpeteria was supplemented by a mirabilis tuba .
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- Coupling : I / II, III / II, IV / II, Tromp./II, III / I, IV / I, Tromp / I, IV / III, I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P , Tromp / P, CO.HW - I, CO.HW - II, CO.HW - III, CO.SW - I, CO.SW - II, CO.SW - III
- Game Aids : Setzer combination: 128 times; Pedal switch P2; FC 1, FC 2; General combination A – H; Sequencer up / down; Roll off.
The choir organ is located as a swallow's nest organ in the high choir and was built by Klais in 1994. It has 28 stops on two manuals and a pedal .
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Bells
The nine-part bell for the cathedral was cast by Hermann Große in Dresden in 1877. The total weight of the bells is 23,384.5 kg, half of which is accounted for by the gloriosa . In 1987, Gloriosa and Bartholomäus had to be welded on due to casting defects, which also increased their decay time by 60 seconds each.
Four of the bells are used to strike the clock : the quarter- hour strike is given by the smallest bell and John (9 and 7), the full hour strike by Salveglocke and Bartholomäus (4 and 3).
In 2005 the cathedral received two ridge bells, which were cast in 2004 by the foundry Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock in Gescher . They serve as measuring bells and are not part of the city bells .
The bells, beginning with the largest, have the following inscriptions - not reproduced here to the letter (German translation in brackets).
| No. |
Surname |
Nominal ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
Weight (kg) |
Diameter (mm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gloriosa | e 0 +1 | 11950 | 2585 | Gloriosa nominor Guilelmus imperator dono dedit fecit IG Grosse Dresden MDCCCLXXVII. ("I am called Gloriosa, Kaiser Wilhelm donated me, JG Große, Dresden , created me in 1877.") |
| 2 | Carolus | a 0 −4 | 4630 | 1924 | gloria tibi trinitas aequalis una deitas et ante omnia saecula et nunc et in perpetuum anno domini MDCCCLXXVII fecit IG Grosse Dresden. Osanna in excelsis deo. ("Honor the Trinity, equal and one in the deity, as it was before all time, now and in eternity. In the year of the Lord in 1877 JG Grosse, Dresden, made me. Hosanna God in the highest".) |
| 3 | Bartholomew | cis 1 −3 | 2380 | 1547 | libera nos salva nos iustifica nos o beata trinitas MDCCCLXXVII fecit IG Grosse Dresden ("Free us, save us, justify us, o Holy Trinity. In 1877 JG Grosse, Dresden made me.") |
| 4th | Volley bell | e 1 +1 | 1520 | 1291 | ave Maria gratia plena dns tecum ("Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with you".) |
| 5 | Mettenglocke | f sharp 1 ± 0 | 984 | 1147 | I flowed through the fire XV August MDCCCLXVII to the glory of God I was poured MDCCCLXXVII IG Grosse Dresden. |
| 6th | Small clock bell | g sharp 1 −4 | 690 | 1020 | turris fortissima noun domini ad ipsum currit iustus et exaltabitur. ("The strongest tower is the name of the Lord, to him the righteous goes and will be exalted".) |
| 7th | John | a 1 ± 0 | 552 | 946 | soli deo gloria glory to God alone. In the name of God I flowed, IG Grosse in Dresden poured me. |
| 8th | Time bell | h 1 −1 | 403 | 851 | gloria in excelsis deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis MDCCCLXXVII ("Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to the people of his good pleasure 1877".) |
| 9 | Smallest bell | c sharp 2 +5 | 276 | 752 | o rex gloriae veni cum pace MDCCCLXXVII ("O King of Glory, come with peace 1877".) |
attachment
Dimensions
- Inside vault height: 23.20 meters
- Vault height of the nave until 1867: about 17 meters
- Length of the transept (including crossing): 64 meters
- East-west axis (without tower hall): 64 meters
- Width of the transept: 11 meters
- Height of the west tower: 94.75 meters
- Height of the west tower, before 1867: 72.50 meters
List of builders
- Madern Gerthener (1415-1430)
- Jörg Östreicher (… –1472)
- Hans Flücke von Ingelheim (1483–1490)
- Nikolaus Queck (1490–1497)
- Jakob Bach of Ettlingen (1499–1514)
- Franz Josef Denzinger (1869–1880)
- Hermann Mäckler and Alois Giefer (1948–1953)
Chronicle of construction activities
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Previous buildings (7th - 13th centuries)
- Around 680: Merovingian hall church (Building I)
- Around 790: Carolingian hall church (building II) in the dimensions of today's central nave
- Around 820: Extension (Building IIa), connecting passage to the Royal Palace
- ~ 844–852: Salvator basilica (building III)
- 1238–1239: Romanesque choir, renovation of the Carolingian building, expansion of the westwork (building IV)
- 1250–1269: Early Gothic nave (building V)
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High Gothic construction phase (1315-1369)
- 1315–1349: High choir
- 1346–1353: north transept
- 1352–1358: south transept
-
Smaller components
- 1351: Marienkapelle, sacristy, reconstruction of the choir roof after fire
- 1355: Magdalenenkapelle, Wolfgangkapelle
- 1418: cloister
- 1425 ff .: abbey library (electoral chapel)
- 1487: chapel
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West tower (1415–1514)
- 1415–1423: West tower, first floor
- 1423–1472: west tower, second floor
- 1483–1508: west tower, third floor
- 1508–1514: west tower, temporary flat dome
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Remodeling and restorations (1700 to today)
- 1700–1711: Baroque, demolition of the rood screen, white wall mount
- 1854–1856: renovation, re-Gothicization, new painting
- 1869–1880: Reconstruction after fire, completion of the west tower and the nave, painting
- 1948–1955: Reconstruction after a bomb was destroyed by fire, simple wall frames
- 1972–1977: restoration of the west tower
- 1991–1994: Interior renovation, partial restoration of the Gothic wall frames, archaeological excavations
- 2000–2009: restoration of the west tower
- Completion of the repairs to the west tower carried out in 3 construction phases in 2009
Imperial coronations in Frankfurt Cathedral
- November 30, 1562: Maximilian II (coronation)
- June 24, 1612: Matthias
- September 9, 1619: Ferdinand II.
- August 1, 1658: Leopold I.
- December 22, 1711: Charles VI.
- February 12, 1742: Charles VII.
- October 4, 1745: Franz I.
- April 3, 1764: Joseph II (coronation)
- October 9, 1790: Leopold II.
- July 14, 1792: Franz II.
Consecration of the Salvator and Bartholomew Church
- September 1, 852 by Rabanus Maurus , Archbishop of Mainz (Salvator Basilica)
- August 24, 1239 by Ludolf I, Bishop of Ratzeburg (Romanesque choir)
- April 13, 1349 by Heinrich III. von Appoldia , Bishop of Lavant (high Gothic choir)
- October 14, 1548 by Sebastian von Heusenstamm , Archbishop of Mainz (after the cathedral was re-catholicized)
- April 14, 1878 (festival service after completion of the reconstruction)
Frankfurt Cathedral Singing School
The Frankfurter Domsingschule , founded in 2011, is a mixed ecumenical children and youth choir that not only accompanies numerous masses and evensongs in the Kaiserdom, but also participates in official receptions and openings. Every singer, regardless of denomination, is given free basic vocal training in regular rehearsals as well as individual and group voice training or with early musical education. This extensive basic training is unique for Frankfurt. The Domsingschule now has more than 160 singers under the direction of Andreas Boltz .
Frankfurt City Church Festival
In honor of the city patron Bartholomäus , the Catholic Church organizes the city church festival in Frankfurt every year on the Sunday after August 24th, the day of the saint's remembrance . Groups of pilgrims from different parts of the city travel to the festival by means of transport such as ship , underground or bicycle . The apostle's skull plate is venerated in a procession. After the festive service, the actual festival takes place on Domplatz with food, drink, music and conversation. Various initiatives and groups present themselves with stand campaigns . After the city church festival, the Bartholomäus plaque in the Bartholomäus vesper is awarded to two deserving members of the city church.
See also
- List of Roman-German rulers
- History of Frankfurt am Main
- Frankfurt city bells
- List of cathedrals and domes
- List of the tallest sacred buildings
literature
Major works
- Johann Georg Battonn : Local description of the city of Frankfurt am Main - Volume III. Association for history and antiquity in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1864 ( online ).
- Johann Georg Battonn, Ernst Kelchner: The Imperial Cathedral in Frankfurt aM Contribution to the history of the St. Bartholomäus-Stift and its church. Published by Franz Benjamin Auffahrt, Frankfurt am Main 1869 ( online ).
- Andrea Hampel: The Imperial Cathedral in Frankfurt am Main. Excavations 1991–1993 (Articles on Monument Protection in Frankfurt am Main, Volume 8). Rolf Angerer Verlag, Nussloch 1994.
- Jakob Herr: Pictures from the Catholic life of the city of Frankfurt aM in the light of the cathedral consecration. Festschrift for the 700th anniversary of the inauguration of the Imperial Cathedral (St. Bartholomew's Church). Herdersche Buchhandlung, Frankfurt am Main 1939.
- Building Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): The Frankfurter Domturm. Cityscape, history, restoration. German Foundation for Monument Protection , Monuments Publications, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-86795-017-6 .
- Wolf Erich Kellner : The Reichsstift St. Bartholomäus in Frankfurt am Main in the late Middle Ages (studies on Frankfurt history, 1). Waldemar Kramer publishing house , Frankfurt am Main 1962.
- Johann Bernhard Müller: Historical message from the well-known Kayerlichen Wahl- und Dom-Stifft S. Bartholomaei in Franckfurt, which composed from the most reliable writings and documents, and presented as the first part of the Franckfurt church histories. Stock and Schilling, Franckfurt am Mayn 1746.
- Benedict Jacob Römer-Büchner: The electoral and coronation church of the German emperors at St. Bartholomäi in Frankfurt am Main. Published by Heinrich Keller, Frankfurt am Main 1857 ( online ).
- Guido Schoenberger : Contributions to the building history of the Frankfurt Cathedral (writings of the Historical Museum III.). Publisher Englert & Schlosser, Frankfurt am Main 1927.
- Elsbeth de Weerth: The furnishings of the Frankfurt Cathedral. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-7829-0498-2 .
- Carl Wolff : The Imperial Cathedral in Frankfurt am Main. A building history representation. Carl Jügel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1892.
Further works
- Hartwig Beseler, Niels Gutschow: War fates of German architecture. Loss - damage - reconstruction. Documentation for the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. Volume II: South. Panorama Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-926642-22-X .
- Nicola Borger-Keweloh: The medieval cathedrals in the 19th century. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-406-31248-9 .
- Folkhard Cremer (edit.): Handbook of German Art Monuments. Hesse II. Darmstadt administrative district. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 .
- Klaus Greef (Ed.): The organs of the imperial cathedral St. Bartholomäus Frankfurt am Main. Lade, Langen near Bregenz 1994.
- Ernst-Dietrich Haberland: Madern Gerthener "the city of Franckenfurd Werkmeister". Builder and sculptor of the late Gothic. Verlag Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-7820-0654-2 .
- Julian Hanschke: An unknown medieval floor plan of the Frankfurt cathedral tower . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 4 (2/2012), pp. 195–206.
- August Heuser, Matthias Theodor Kloft: The Frankfurt Imperial Cathedral. History - Architecture - Art (Great Art Guide, 217). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 3-7954-1687-6 .
- Carl Maria Kaufmann: The Frankfurt Imperial Cathedral. Its monuments and its history. A guide through its sights and art treasures. Fourth, improved edition. Verlag Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, Munich 1922.
- Hans-Jürgen Kotzur , Hildegard Lütkenhaus: The Frankfurt Cathedral Treasure. Volume 2 - The gold and silver work: liturgical vessels and implements 15th to 20th centuries. Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0439-7 .
- Ernst Mack: From the Stone Age to the Staufer City. The early history of Frankfurt am Main. Verlag Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7820-0685-2 .
- Karl Heinrich Rexroth (Ed.): 750 years of the Frankfurt Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew. 1239–1989 (Small writings from the Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, 45). Historisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-89282-016-3 .
- Heinrich Schüßler: The Frankfurt Cathedral (Kleine Frankfurter Reihe, 11). Waldemar Kramer publisher Frankfurt am Main 1951.
- Wolf-Christian Setzepfandt : Architecture Guide Frankfurt am Main / Architectural Guide . 3. Edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-496-01236-6 , p. 3 (German, English).
- Karen Stolleis: The Frankfurt Cathedral Treasure. Volume 1 - The vestments: liturgical vestments and embroidery 14th to 20th centuries. Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-7829-0421-4 .
- Karen Stolleis: The Frankfurt Cathedral Treasure. Volume 3 - Inventories and directories: Sources for the history of the cathedral treasury. Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0440-0 .
- Carl Wolff, Rudolf Jung : The architectural monuments in Frankfurt am Main. Bd. I. Church buildings. Frankfurt am Main 1896 ( online , PDF 50273 kB)
- Bettina Schüpke: Alexander Linnemann and the lost glass paintings for the Frankfurt Cathedral after the fire in 1867 . Text tape. Volume 1, 2002.
Web links
- 360 ° panorama of the interior (accessed October 31, 2018)
- iGuide Europe 360-degree tour of the interior (accessed October 31, 2018)
- The imperial cathedral. altfrankfurt.com (accessed October 31, 2018)
- Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew. In: ArchInform . (accessed on October 31, 2018)
- Church location Dom St. Bartholomäus on the website of the Cathedral Parish St. Bartholomäus (accessed on May 7, 2020)
- Renovation of the west tower - St. Bartholomew's Cathedral , published by the Building Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main pdf brochure, 13.3 MB ( memento of October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on October 31, 2018)
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Cathedral / Catholic Parish Church of St. Bartholomäus In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen (accessed on October 31, 2018)
- Frankfurter Domsingschule (accessed October 31, 2018)
- Virtual tour of St. Bartholomew's Cathedral (accessed October 31, 2018)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Eusebius of Caesarea : Kirchengeschichte, V, 10 .
- ↑ Michael Matthäus: The history of the laying of the foundation stone of the cathedral tower from the perspective of the Frankfurt Council . In: Bettina Schmidt, Ulrike Schubert (eds.): Madern Gerthner and the parish tower of St. Bartholomäus . 600 years of the Frankfurt Cathedral Tower. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7954-3080-1 , pp. 52–59 (catalog for the exhibition in the Dommuseum Frankfurt from November 20, 2015 to January 24, 2016).
- ^ Johann Josef Böker and Julian Hanschke: A tower plan by Ulrich von Ensingen for the Frankfurt parish tower . In: INSITU - Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 2 (2/2010), pp. 191–202; Johann Josef Böker : Madern Gerthener and the question of the authorship of the Frankfurt cathedral tower plans . In: INSITU - Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 8 (2/2016), pp. 163–180.
- ↑ a b c Ulrike Schubert: On the chronology of the tower . Findings, construction phase plans and cracks in comparison. In: Bettina Schmidt, Ulrike Schubert (eds.): Madern Gerthener and the parish tower of St. Bartholomäus . 600 years of the Frankfurt Cathedral Tower. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7954-3080-1 , pp. 34–41 (exhibition in the Dommuseum Frankfurt from November 20, 2015 to January 24, 2016).
- ^ The cathedral in Frankfurt am Main. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung. Vol. II, No. 46, 1868, p. 487 ( online )
- ↑ The color of the pants . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 29, 1994.
- ↑ Roof renovation on the cathedral continues , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung No. 167 of July 22, 2014, p. 30
- ↑ Damage to the cathedral from a buckled construction crane. In: faz.net . February 10, 2020, accessed February 10, 2020 .
- ↑ PDF document on depictions of Mary, with its own page on the Immaculata by Gottfried Renn, in the Frankfurt Cathedral (page 7)
- ^ Heinrich Nüttgens, 1866–1951, was a representative of the Düsseldorf School of Painting , cf. http://www.stiftung-volmer.de/main.php?g2_itemId=498
- ↑ Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus on YouTube , November 17, 2013, accessed on June 12, 2019 (48 min).
- ^ Konrad Bund: A Chronicle of the Frankfurt Cathedral Bell . In: Konrad Bund (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch (= messages from the Frankfurt city archive . Volume 4 ). Verlag Waldemar Kramer , Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 228-313 .
- ^ Kurt Kramer: The welding of the two Gloriosa bells in the domes in Erfurt (1985) and Frankfurt (1987) . In: Konrad Bund u. a .: Yearbook for Bells. Born 1989/1990, W. Kramer & Co., Frankfurt 1990, p. 106ff.
- Jump up to now, for example, the Hessische St. Jakobusgesellschaft e. V., which is the mental and physical well-being and to protect the pilgrims on the Way of St. James cares ( Hessian St. James Society eV. In: . Website of the Hessian James Society eV Accessed on September 26, 2016 . ).
- ↑ Jonas Gätze FR : City Church Festival Frankfurt - With the ship to the church service. In: FR-Online . August 28, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2016 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 38 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 6 ″ E
Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew | Old Nikolaikirche | Leonhardskirche | Carmelite Monastery | Paulskirche | Dominican monastery | Church of Our Lady | Katharinenkirche | Peterskirche | Dreikönigskirche | Teutonic Order Church
Former churches: All Saints Chapel | Antoniterkirche | Barefoot Church | German Reformed Church | French Reformed Church | Holy Spirit Church | Johanniterkirche | Weißfrauenkirche
