Christ Church (Detmold)

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Christ Church in Detmold

The Evangelical Reformed Christ Church in Detmold on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz is a neo-Gothic church building, consecrated on January 12, 1908, based on a design by the architect Otto Kuhlmann .

history

Interior of the church
Loan from the Reformed City of Detmold from 1905 with a depiction of the Christ Church in negative pressure

Towards the end of the 19th century, the members of the Reformed town and country community of Detmold together numbered around 13,000 people. The only church available to them was the parish church on the market square (today the Church of the Redeemer ), but it only had 1,300 seats. Although three services were held every Sunday, many visitors could not find a place. As early as 1886 there were initial plans to build a new church. Auguste von Donop , the widow of the Hofjägermeister von Donop, had left a will after her death in 1883, in which she bequeathed half of her assets to the Paulinenanstalt and the municipal poor fund and the other half to the princely consistory for the building of a Protestant church. However, she had not decreed whether the Reformed or the Lutheran congregation should receive it for church building. After lengthy disputes, an agreement was finally reached between the two communities, according to which the legacy of around 58,000 marks was divided in half.

The next problem arose in the form of the location question. Initially, there were seven different building sites up for discussion, including the so-called Totenhof at Lemgoer Tor , on which the Weerth School is now located. In the end, an agreement was reached on the site at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz as the location of the new church. In the meantime the Reformed community of Detmold had separated into a town and a rural community. According to the contract from 1903, the municipality was divided into two parishes and a second pastor was hired. The rural community kept the parish church on the market square, while the city community received the church building fund of 53,000 marks, which had meanwhile grown.

The municipality no longer had a church and pushed for the construction of the new church to begin soon. A first architectural competition was launched in 1895. In 1904, a limited number of architects were asked to submit designs. Ultimately, the church council decided on the design by the Detmold-born architect Otto Kuhlmann. Construction began on April 27, 1905 and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on September 15, 1906 . The consecration of the new church took place on January 12, 1908 by General Superintendent Weßel.

During the Second World War , the Christ Church was damaged several times by bombs and grenades, for example on the roof, the masonry and the windows. A shell had penetrated the roof of the nave, but the vault below held up. However, penetrating rainwater caused further damage, especially in the wall and ceiling paintings. The first repairs were made in the post-war years of 1946 and 1947.

The neo-Gothic style, windows, chandeliers and interior decoration no longer corresponded to the taste of the time and the population was increasingly critical of this. During the necessary renovation of the interior in 1961/1962, the church was given a completely new look. Little more than the outer shell remained of the church building by the architect Otto Kuhlmann. The removal of the damage to the outer masonry in 1983 caused high costs when many stone blocks had to be replaced or repaired. In 2008, the centenary of the Christ Church was celebrated with a series of events.

architecture

Prince Leopold IV to the Lippe

The 65.5 meter high church tower faces the city center and is one of the landmarks of the city of Detmold. The choir is not, as is generally the case, in the east, but in the west of the church tower. The interior of the church measures 25 meters to the choir step and 34 meters to the rear wall of the choir, while the transept measures 21 meters.

Under the choir in a neo-Romanesque lower church is the crypt of the Lippe princely family, which was laid out at the will of Count Ernst zur Lippe , who died in 1904 . Four columns with decorated cube capitals support the vault above the radially arranged adjoining rooms with the sarcophagi .

Furnishing

When the church was inaugurated on January 12, 1908, the interiors were artistically painted and the windows were decorated with stained glass. The three choir windows were donated by Prince Leopold IV zur Lippe on the occasion of his accession to the throne on October 25, 1905, while the rest of the splendid interior furnishings were mainly financed from donations from the population, including the oak stalls with 830 seats. In the course of the interior renovation in 1961/62, Professor Hartmann from the Werkkunstschule in Bielefeld presented a completely new artistic concept. The colored painting of the walls was whitewashed and the colored glass paintings had to give way to monochrome lead glazing. The old bronze chandeliers were replaced by simple hanging lamps. The pulpit, the altar, the baptismal font and the parish stalls, however, have been preserved in their old form.

organ

Organ in the Christ Church

The organ of the Christ Church was built in 1957 by Paul Ott (Göttingen), the organ prospectus comes from the Hagen architect Wulf Knipping. The instrument has 40 registers on three manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.

I main work C–
1. Quintad 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Dumped 8th'
4th octave 4 ′
5. recorder 4 ′
6th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th octave 2 ′
8th. Mixture VI-VIII
9. Third cymbal III
10. Trumpet 16 ′
11. Trumpet 8th'
II breast swell C–
12. Quintad 8th'
13. Reed flute 8th'
14th octave 4 ′
15th Dumped 4 ′
16. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
17th Forest flute 2 ′
18th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
19th Sharp V-VI
20th Dulcian 16 ′
21st shawm 4 ′
Tremulant
III crown positive C–
22nd Wooden pipe 8th'
23. Praestant 4 ′
24. Reed flute 4 ′
25th Gemshorn 2 ′
26th Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
27. octave 1'
28. Cymbal III-IV
29 Vox humana 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C–
30th Principal 16 ′
31. Sub-bass 16 ′
32. octave 8th'
33. Ged.pommer 8th'
34. octave 4 ′
35. Night horn 1'
36. Mixture V
37. trombone 16 ′
38. Trumpet 8th'
39. Clarine 4 ′
40. Singing Cornett 2 ′
Tremulant
  • Coupling : II / I, III / I, I / P, II / P

Bells

The ringing consisted of three bronze bells, which were tuned in the major triad c 1 - e 1 - g 1 . It was donated by Countess Karoline zur Lippe. The suspension took place in an iron belfry. During the First World War in June 1917, the two larger bells were removed to be melted down. They smashed them and threw the fragments down through the opened sound hatches. In 1922 the missing bells were replaced by two steel bells that were tuned to c sharp 1 and e 1 . In March 1942, the Reich Office for Metals confiscated the last bronze bell. It was not until 1962 that the two remaining steel bells were reinforced by three new bronze bells to a five-tone chime and now sound in c sharp 1 (steel) - e 1 (steel) - a 1 (bronze) - h 1 (bronze) - c sharp 2 (bronze). Since March 1990 the Westminster hour has sounded from the tower of the Christ Church.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. Page 6f
  2. ^ Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. Page 3
  3. ^ Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. page 8
  4. ↑ a b Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. Page 22
  5. ^ Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. Page 17f
  6. ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Community Detmold-West (ed.): The Christ Church in Detmold. A guide through the Evangelical Reformed city church . Detmold 2005.
  7. ↑ More information about the organ of the Christ Church
  8. ^ Lippischer Heimatbund: Lippische Kulturlandschaften - The Christ Church in Detmold. Page 24f

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 '16.7 "  N , 8 ° 52' 25.4"  E