Augustine Church (Heilbronn)

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Augustinus Church in Heilbronn, view of the tower and the attached rectory
Rear view of the nave

The Augustinus Church is a Roman Catholic church on Goethestrasse (corner of Villmatstrasse) in Heilbronn . The church was built in 1925/26 according to plans by Hans Herkommer and showed features of Expressionism , but also echoes of the Gothic . Inside, the church was the first German church to be spanned by a wooden lamella vault that dominated the space. After its destruction in the Second World War , the church was rebuilt in a simplified form from 1947 with the help of architect Herkommer and his son Jörg.

history

After the Teutonic Order Church had long been the only Catholic church in the evangelical town of Heilbronn, towards the end of the 19th century it was no longer sufficient for the then over 4,000 Catholics. The first votes for a new church were heard as early as 1899. In order to benefit from a sum promised by the state for the redemption of the construction work of the Teutonic Order Church, the parish acquired a building site in 1912 on the corner of Sicherheitsstrasse and Schäuffelenstrasse, which was then not built. In 1916, the municipality finally acquired the property actually intended for construction on Vilmathöhe, a hill in the northeast of the city. The course of the First World War and the inflation delayed the construction planning for years, while five services per Sunday were held in the Deutschhofkirche for the Catholic community, which has now grown to around 7,000 people. Only from 1924 onwards the plans became more concrete and in 1925/26 the community was able to have the Augustinus Church built on the Vilmathöhe by the construction company Ensle & Wolz according to plans by Hans Herkommer . The church was large with 550 seats and numerous ancillary rooms; the construction costs were only 330,000 marks due to the economical and simple construction.

Despite the low budget, Herkommer created a church that was unusual for the time, which also attracted and impressed a national specialist audience. Externally, the building, made of unplastered stone masonry made of Heilbronn sandstone , was 43 meters long and 14 meters wide and was based on historic castle and monastery architecture. A massive wall facing Paul-Göbel-Strasse gave the impression of medieval fortifications, and the large outside staircase that led to the porch on the north side was just as massive. The stepped gable in the west and the pointed window and portal closings took up Gothic features. In addition, a massive outer pulpit was built into the west gable so that the large space adjoining it to the southwest could also be used for outdoor services. In contrast to the nave was the church tower built on the side in the northeast with a square base area of ​​8 by 8 meters, which had only a small group of pointed windows, while the remaining windows and the sound openings of the bell chair were extremely simple. At the top, the tower had a pagoda-like, picturesque smaller tower tower. With its top and cross, the tower was 44 meters high.

Interior view of the church before the destruction in World War II with Zollinger vault
Interior view 2015, view of the choir
Interior view 2015, view of the gallery

Inside, the single-nave church impressed with a wooden lamellar vault that defines the space, the first of its kind in German church construction. The rest of the furnishings were kept very simple and concentrated mainly on the ten-step high main altar made of Ruhpolding marble and the colored Augustine window behind it by the Heilbronn artist Johann Paulweber in Ummendorf, while the marble side altars were also very small the baptistery and confessional chapel to the right of the choir was set back a little. With the interior of the church, Herkommer succeeded in achieving a solution that was reduced to its purpose and which, thanks to clever proportions as well as color and design, made a solemn impression even without much decoration. The nave had a dull yellow tone, in the choir various components were also painted red, green, gold and blue. The vestibule was burgundy, with green and gold spandrels.

The external bulk of the church was not an end in itself, but rather a building had been created that could unite almost all the facilities of the parish under one roof. The sacristy and five two-room apartments as well as an accommodation room for traveling companions were set up in the tower . In the substructure of the church there was a community library with 3000 volumes and a separate reading room, a conference room for 200 people and a children's school and nurses' room. All the rooms in the church had central heating and electric light. The rectory and parish hall were added to the church shortly after it was completed. In 1927 the church became a parish church for the Catholics in the north and east of the city.

The nave , the tower and the rectory were destroyed in the attack of an Allied bomber fleet on the night of December 4, 1944 . The reconstruction began in 1947 under the Heilbronn government master builder Kern. In 1957 the building was rebuilt in a simplified form by Hans Herkommer and his son Jörg. During the reconstruction, the expressionist gable was omitted and a simple gable roof was used instead of the Zollinger roof . The result of the reconstruction was a modern creation using existing building remains. The choir window was created by Wilhelm Geyer in 1957. This was followed in 1968 by a tabernacle , a holy water font and candlesticks by Jürgen Weber . The statue of St. Anthony, an 18th century Madonna, St. Augustine and a crucifix from 1530.

In an architectural competition announced in 2004 for the redesign and renovation of the interior, the office of the Freiburg architect Günter Pfeifer Pfeifer Roser Kuhn emerged as the winner and was commissioned. The renovation was completed in 2008 and was awarded the Hugo Häring Prize in 2012.

Today the interior of the church is spanned by a metal construction that roughly takes up the shape of the old wooden vault. The choir and the worship equipment located there are simply designed so that the colored choir window continues to be the focus. The baptismal font and the historical figures of saints were located under the gallery, where the lower ceiling height creates a chapel-like impression. The only wall decoration is a modern series of passions.

Art historical classification

Saarbrücken-St. Johann, interior of the St. Michaelskirche with a view of the choir area

The Augustinus Church in its original form was regarded as a special example of Expressionism and as the only Expressionist sacred building in Heilbronn.

“ A massive structure with pointed pointed gothic windows and an equally massive square tower with loopholes-like windows speak the language of expressionist architecture. The wooden lamellar vault in the nave was the first of its kind in German sacred buildings. "

The rustic stone cladding and the distinctive three-aisled choir area of ​​the Augustinus Church in Heilbronn have their architectural model in the Michael Church of Hans Herkommers in Saarbrücken - St. Johann, built between 1923 and 1924 . Here, however, Herkommer had chosen round-arched shapes rather than pointed arches.

literature

  • Erich Endrich: The St. Augustine Church in Heilbronn . In: Archive for Christian Art: Organ of the Rottenburger Diözesan-Kunstverein , No. 42, 1927, pp. 28–33. ( Digitized version )
  • Erich Endrich: Cult devices of the St. Augustine Church in Heilbronn . In: Archive for Christian Art: Organ of the Rottenburger Diözesan-Kunstverein , No. 43, 1928, pp. 18-20. ( Digitized version )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ St. Augustine website, Geschichte - from 1944. Retrieved November 27, 2014 .
  2. ^ Julius Fekete: Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn . Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , page 43
  3. ↑ Julius Fekete, Simon Haag, Adelheid Hanke, Daniela Naumann: Monument topography Baden-Württemberg Volume I.5 Stadtkreis Heilbronn . Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1988-3 . P. 57 (reconstruction by Hans Herkommer and son Jörg 1957). However, Hans Herkommer died in 1956 so that either the year or the circumstances mentioned cannot apply.
  4. ↑ a b Bernhard Lattner with texts by Joachim J. Hennze: Stille Zeitzeugen. 500 years of Heilbronn architecture . Edition Lattner, Heilbronn 2005, ISBN 3-9807729-6-9 . P. 121
  5. ↑ Julius Fekete, Simon Haag, Adelheid Hanke, Daniela Naumann: Monument topography Baden-Württemberg Volume I.5 Stadtkreis Heilbronn . Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1988-3 , p. 57
  6. ^ Julius Fekete: Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn . Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 . P. 43
  7. ↑ Address by Prof. Günter Pfeifer in St. Augustinus on September 14, 2008. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 5, 2014 ; Retrieved November 27, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Architecture prize for the renovation of St. Augustine . In: Heilbronn voice . August 31, 2011 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 25, 2012]).
  9. ^ Kra [Kilian Krauth]: Shimmering church rooms. In: Heilbronn voice. March 25, 2012
  10. ^ Julius Fekete: Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn . Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 . P. 19

Web links

Commons : St. Augustine Church  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 8 '50.2 "  N , 9 ° 13' 54.9"  E