Christ Church (Mainz)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View from the southeast

The Christ Church of Mainz is an evangelical church that from 1896 to 1903 according to designs by Eduard Kreyßig was built. As early as 1894, the church council called an urban planning competition in which three out of five designs were awarded. In addition to Kreyßig's first design, those by Skjøld Neckelmann and Johannes Otzen were awarded. The static investigations and calculations, which are difficult due to the proximity to the Rhine , were carried out by Theodor Landsberg , Technical University of Darmstadt . The church was consecrated on July 2, 1903. After it was destroyed in the air raids on Mainz on February 1, 1945, it was rebuilt from 1952 to 1954 and consecrated on October 31. The consecration service was musically arranged by the Laubacher Kantorei .

In Mainz, which was dominated by Catholicism, there were just a few hundred Protestants at the end of the Electorate in 1802 . Only the Organic Articles granted the respective denominational minorities with the right to freely practice their religion also full civil rights. Before they were just "tolerated" people in the city, a status they shared with the Jews. By 1900 more than a third of the population of Mainz was of Protestant faith ( denomination distribution of the residents of the city of Mainz ).

After their previous church became too small for them, the expansion of the inner city to include the so-called Neustadt in the last third of the 19th century gave Mainz Protestants the opportunity to show their self-confidence with a new church building. With the Kaiserstraße a large double-lined boulevard was created, in the middle of which the church planned by the city architect Eduard Kreyssig is clearly visible. Intended as a representative counterweight to the Catholic Mainz Cathedral, the mighty, 80-meter-high dome towers over other churches and buildings in the city center. The building is reminiscent of the style of the Italian high renaissance .

In addition to church services, the Christ Church is also popular with music lovers in Mainz, as has been the case since 1954 by the Mainz Bach Choir and Orchestra, founded by Diethard Hellmann at this church . Traditionally, the university services of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz take place here at the beginning of the semester.

The organ was built in 1962 by Förster & Nicolaus Orgelbau . It has 44 stops on three manuals and a pedal .

  • Kaiserstrasse with a view of the Christ Church

  • Aerial view of the Christ Church in Mainz on the Rhine

  • View from the west

  • The Christ Church on the day of its inauguration on July 2, 1903

  • Christ Church

  • The organ

literature

  • Franz Fredriksson: The new Protestant Christ Church in Mainz . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung . Vol. 23 (1903), No. 65 (August 15, 1903), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-36739 , pp. 406-408. (Five pictures)

Web links

Commons : Christ Church (Mainz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniela Tratschitt: The mighty dome of the Christ Church. Expression of self-confidence. (No longer available online.) In: Heft 261. Der Mainzer Die Stadtillustrierte, June 2012, archived from the original on December 13, 2013 ; Retrieved December 8, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Information about the Christ Church on the website of the state capital Mainz

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 '26 "  N , 8 ° 15' 59"  E