Confession Church (Berlin)
The Protestant Confessional Church is a church building on Plesser Strasse in the Berlin district of Alt-Treptow and the seat of the Protestant parish Berlin-Treptow. The church got its name on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1530.
History of the parish and the building
Early years until 1948
The rural community Treptow initially did not have its own church, but belonged to the parish Stralau - Rummelsburg . After the population of Treptow rose sharply at the end of the 19th century as a result of industrialization, a separate church room became necessary, as the faithful had to take the difficult route across the Spree to worship at the time . In 1893 a room in a school in Neue Krugallee was made available to the community. In 1901 she was given another room in the old school on Baumschulenweg. From 1905 Treptow was an independent municipality, which from 1911 had its own church, the church Zum Vaterhaus in Baumschulenstrasse. As the population continued to grow and the residents of the northern part of Treptow had to walk a long way to the church, it was not until 1929 that a plot of land in Plesser Strasse was acquired for the construction of a second church, the confessional church. The planning envisaged the integration of a parish hall and a rectory in the building next to the church. The foundation stone was laid on August 9, 1930 for the 400th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession and the inauguration took place on August 16, 1931. On April 14, 1945, an aerial bomb hit the church and destroyed the altar window, which was then restored in a modified form in 1946. In 1948 the community of Berlin-Baumschulenweg became independent with the church of the father's house, since then the confessional church is the only church in the community of Berlin-Treptow.
Turning point 1989/1990
Under its pastor Werner Hilse, the confessional community opened up in the 1980s to people under political pressure in the GDR . For example, peace and working groups such as the “Working Group Gays in the Church” met here. After the ban on a human rights seminar planned for 1985, the independent group “Initiative Peace and Human Rights” was formed. Furthermore, the underground magazine Context appeared in the community since 1988 . Contributions from politics, society, culture .
From an initiative of oppositionists on the anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1989, the “Citizens' Movement Democracy” emerged the following month. Only four days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 5, 1989, the GDR Green Party was founded .
architecture
The church was built according to plans by the architect Curt Steinberg , who headed the church building department of the Evangelical Consistory . It is a hall church with the classic division into anteroom, church hall and chancel. This traditional division was combined with expressionist forms. Due to the limited space, the church is not faced as usual : the choir faces north. Furthermore, the building fits into the Berlin perimeter block development , which is only broken through by the brass-colored crosses on the two spiers.
Under the church hall, on the ground floor, there is a community hall that is the same size as the church hall. In place of the chancel, however, there is a raised stage. In addition to events, the room also serves as a winter church . On both sides of these halls there are living and community rooms, a book room and a warming room for the homeless. The three-part division of the facade is not continued throughout the building, but only comes together again on the third floor.
The hall has a gray-green flat ceiling, which is structured with beams. The side walls are characterized by clinker columns and narrow, almost room-high rectangular windows. They allow direct sunlight to fall through the essentially brown and ocher-colored panes in the morning and afternoon. The windows on the west side are made of cathedral glass and date from the time the church was built. The glass on the east side was destroyed in World War II and replaced by ordinary window glass. At the base there is a heating system that is no longer in use. More light falls from narrow stained glass windows that are located between the vestibule and the church hall. At the front, a pointed arch that extends down to the floor separates the church hall from the rectangular chancel.
The facade of the church consists of dark red ceramic tiles with decorative elements made of similar-colored clinker bricks . It is divided into three parts by two rising staircases with continuous ribbon windows. The stairwells merge into two belfry with attached metal crosses. In the middle there is a large rectangular portal, behind which a flight of stairs leads to the church hall on the first floor. Above the portal a mosaic shows the name of the church. The stairwells have their own entrances, which are much lower than the main portal, and there is a gate on the right and left outside. Due to the continuous ribbon windows of the stairwells and the high windows in between, the middle section of the facade strives vertically upwards, while the somewhat lower side sections with the wider windows appear more compact. Two more mosaics can be found on the side walls of the entrance stairs. On the left there is a memorial inscription for the fallen of the First World War , on the right there is a note about the construction of the building.
Interior
To the left and right of the pointed arch, Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon , both in a scholarly coat and with a Bible in hand, can be seen in larger-than-life mosaics. In mosaic font of the title is about Luther one he composed the hymn : A Mighty Fortress Is Our God . In Melanchthon the first line from the fourth stanza was shown (“The word they should let stahn”).
Baptismal font and altar
Under the arch there is the baptismal font on the left and the pulpit on the right (as seen from the community) . Both are octagonal and made of dark cast ceramic. Like the altar, they are not movable and date from the time the church was built. The pulpit is decorated with classic motifs: On the sides there are the four evangelist symbols as well as symbol tiles that are also attached to the portal of the church. They show, for example, Alpha and Omega or a chalice and a grapevine as a symbol of Jesus' Lord's Supper . The upper row of tiles is decorated with winged putti heads, which - albeit without wings - can be found on the font. This stands on four decorated acanthus leaves . On the top is the inscription from the Gospel according to Matthew : “Let the little children come to me”.
There are five tall rectangular windows on the back wall of the chancel. Originally, in addition to Jesus Christ, two other people were seen carrying the bread and the chalice of the Lord's Supper. The two outer windows showed two other people with the instruments of torture of the Passion of Jesus. Under the four figures were the coat of arms of the evangelists. After the destruction in World War II, the glass painter Helena Starck was commissioned to redesign the windows around 1946. She did without the four figures and focused on Jesus Christ in her work. The stained glass shows him in the middle window at the moment of his ascension ; The Bible verse runs around him: See, I am with you every day until the end of the world. (Matthew 28:20). The abstract color scheme of the side windows creates a kind of frame around the image of Christ. The predominant color of the window is the purple, symbolizing the passion. Christ himself is wrapped in a red and blue robe as a symbol for the Holy Spirit and - rather unusual for a Protestant church - the blue color for Mary . Above the figure are the alpha and omega as well as three rings symbolizing the trinity . From Christ colored, circular waves go outwards, into the world. They are interrupted by a few golden rays emanating from Christ and the Bible.
Organs
church
In 1930 the Sauer company from Frankfurt (Oder) built an organ with 23 registers for the new church . This cost 12,000 marks . As a special feature, it had an electropneumatic action . In practice, however, they proved unsuitable in the cold and humid environment of a church. The parish church council therefore decided in May 1939 to rebuild, which, however, due to the war, was not implemented until 1948 by the Alexander Schuke company for 4,875 Reichsmarks. It turned out that the organ was still prone to failure.
In 1981 the decision was made to buy a new organ. This should cost 100,000 marks . However, the project could not be completed due to the currency conversion in 1990, as the available funds in Marks of the GDR were insufficient to purchase an organ for German marks . Nevertheless, the parish council decided to solicit offers and in May 1992 awarded the contract to the Sauer company. An organ association supported the procurement of the financial means. In addition, some pipes from the existing organ were sold. This was dismantled in the summer of 1993 and the gallery was redesigned. The new instrument was inaugurated on November 15, 1993. It is located on the left side of the gallery so that there is enough space for a choir or other instruments. Parts of the old organ can still be seen on the right side of the gallery.
The organ has 21 stops and five transmission stops , with two manuals and a pedal . The disposition is
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Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
The swell is played from the second manual. It is in a box that can be opened from the gaming table .
Community hall
In the community hall there is an organ by Johann Christoph Schröther from Sonnewalde in Niederlausitz. This was built in 1827 for the village church in Lieske and was moved to the parish hall of the confessional church in 1980, implemented by Axel Stüber . In 2001 it was restored by Schuke . The organ has 7 registers with a manual and a pedal.
literature
- Parish Church Council of the Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Treptow (Ed.): 75 years of the Berlin-Treptow Confessional Church - Festschrift. P. 108.
- Parish Council of the Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Treptow (Ed.): Festschrift for the organ inauguration on April 24, 1994. p. 18.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Name board in the entrance area, June 25, 1930 ( photograph of the name board ).
- ^ A b Robert Havemann Society : Revolutionary stele in front of the Confessional Church 2009 ( photograph of the stele text ).
- ↑ Organ in the Confessional Church parish hall, organ database, with photo and disposition (Dutch)
- ↑ Hall organ in the Berlin Confessional Church Organ index (restricted access)
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 21.2 ″ N , 13 ° 27 ′ 7.4 ″ E