German Church (Tilsit)
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The German Church was a Lutheran church in Tilsit , East Prussia , on the south bank of the Memel . Also town church , popularly Old Church and from 1933 German Ordenskirche called, she was the landmark of the city.
Built from 1598 and subsequently expanded and modified several times, the church was demolished in 1965 after gradual destruction in the war and post-war period. Only the altar and two confessionals are preserved.
Church building
Name declaration
As in Königsberg , the Protestant churches were named after the ethnic groups and religious communities . So there was still the Lithuanian Church and the Reformed Church in Tilsit . Its ruins were demolished in 1951–52 and 1975.
history
As early as 1524, when Tilsit was still a market town , there was a Protestant church in the same place. The corpse stone by Gallius Klemm , who died on December 10th, 1550, is testimony to this. This church was demolished in 1598 . The new hall church was finished in 1610, during the twelve years of construction the service was held in the Lithuanian church . The wooden church tower on the shaft, which was bricked up to the roof, had to be demolished in 1695. From 1699 (or 1702) it was replaced by the baroque spire . In 1752 the entrance building on the south side of Fletcherplatz was built. When the masonry was renewed in 1855–56, the architectural style changed from Renaissance to Neo-Gothic . The basic shape did not change.
The church was 40.8 m long and 20.7 m wide. It was bricked , plastered, and supported with outer buttresses. The choir had a straight (not the usual round) end. The solid masonry of the square tower, about 9 m on each side, was 29 m high. Above was the wooden tower, clad with copper, 34 m high. It had three domes one on top of the other . The lower one rested on the masonry and created the transition to an octagon . The two upper domes rested on openwork lanterns , with the lower dome surrounded by a gallery . Eight spheres, each 1.6 m in diameter, served as supports for the central dome. A slender spire crowned the upper dome. Napoleon Bonaparte admired the spherical construction during the Peace of Tilsit . In 1878 the tower was thoroughly overhauled. The Queen Luise Bridge was built next to the church in 1906 .
The church survived the Second World War and the conquest of Tilsit in 1945 almost unscathed. The wooden interior was completely stolen for firewood, and the top of the tower was removed. When the Russians and Lithuanians built the wooden arch bridge to replace the blown Queen Luise Bridge , the nave was used as a wood store and sawmill. From 1956 to the early 1960s it served as a collection point for used materials . The roof leaked, the roof structure rotted and the building fell into disrepair. It had also suffered badly as a setting for a Soviet war film. After a fire , Tilsit's landmark was torn down in 1965. In its place there is an empty square today.
Disassembled for evacuation and packed in boxes, the altar and the two confessionals were found in the Polish part of what was formerly East Prussia in the 1980s. Renewed by Polish restorers , they are (the altar since 1990) in the parish church (John the Evangelist and Our Lady of Czestochowa) in Bartoszyce (Bartenstein).
Rating
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For Rated wrote Siegfried Harbrucker in July 1995:
The dimensioning is likely to have been carried out according to the rules of construction huts (the "hut secret"). In the churches he examined, Albrecht Kottmann demonstrated the use of the equilateral triangle and the square in most cases. The basic dimension was the greatest width. For the analysis of the Tilsit town church, drawings no. 39 and 40 from the work of Dr.-Ing. Waldemar Thalmann available. It is a building survey from 1854 by the site manager Huwe . The dimensions are written out on the representation of the tower and the drawings show two ladder rulers with information in meters and Rhine feet (= 313.85 mm).
The width of the hall was 21.30 m from the outer edge to the outer edge of the masonry. Due to measurement inaccuracies, a foot measurement of 30.4 cm should have been used as the basis for assessment in order to arrive at a value of 70 feet. The length is then developed from the product of the width and the height of the triangle developed above this side. Theoretically, it is therefore 21.30 * (1 + ½ * √3) m = 39.74 m. The difference of 46 cm may be due to the multiple transfer of the original drawing. If you draw the vertical perpendicular to the triangle, you get the corner points of the columns and the width of the tower at the intersection of the two sides. The outer distance between the columns is set at 10.35 m. The distance of the first column from the wall repeats itself up to the gable at 7.80 m each, ie 25 feet and 8 inches. The height of the outer walls is half the width of the nave and is 10.35 m. It is determined by two squares on the gable wall.
The roof pitch is beyond the scope of these rules. It is 54 ° and, as we know today from structural engineering, the snow load is insignificant. The tower shaft is measured with a square and two equilateral triangles. The proportions of the tower helmet also show the triangulature; equilateral triangles are used, which become smaller towards the top and are interdependent.
Hut saying
A square that goes into a circle, a
circle that stands on three corners,
If you don't understand art,
all efforts are in vain.
inner space
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A flat arched vault covered the central nave and the two side aisles with galleries on the north and south walls. The picture of the resurrection of Christ at the south pore was donated by Mayor Botz in 1748. Epitaphs hung on each column . Portraits reminded of the pastors Johann Flottwell († 1658) and Johann Rosenbaum († 1818) and of the cantor Georg Motz († 1733). A memorial on the 2nd pillar on the right commemorates Friedrich von Kittlitz and his wife, née. from Proeck . A memorial plaque and portraits of Mayor Gabriel Preuck († 1681) and his wife († 1684) were richly decorated with a crown, heart, angels and tendrils .
altar
The altar still preserved today was carved between 1611 and 1650 . It consists of three storeys that rest on a predella .
In the predella stood the statuette of Moses on the left , on the right that of John the Baptist , both in ornamented, shell-adorned arched niches that are empty today. In between hang two oil paintings, the motifs on the left the Passover Supper , on the right the Last Supper of Jesus .
An oil painting by Friedrich Kessler hangs in the center of the first floor . It showed the washing of the feet of Christ by Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha of Bethany, who stood a little apart . The portrait is surrounded by two niches with ornamental plinths, Corinthian columns and round arches in which two statuettes are exhibited, on the left of Simon Petrus , on the right of Paulus von Tarsus . Corinthian columns stood in between on ornamental plinths.
On the second floor there is a painting of the Ascension of Christ between two masked Corinthian columns . Separated from this, on the entablature that separates this stick from the one below, statues of the apostles Luke and Mark on the left and right .
On the third floor there are the statuettes of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in shell-adorned, arched niches . The Eye of Providence is painted between two Corinthian columns with straight entablature . This ensemble is surrounded by two statues of the evangelists Matthew and John .
As the crowning glory above the three storeys is the Lamb of God painted with a chalice and flag, above it in wood carving God with the globe. The crucifix with a flying loincloth, artistically carved from precious wood , apparently came from the 17th century.
Among the altarpieces left behind by the Grande Armée in 1807 was a 31 cm high silver-gilt chalice in the most beautiful art forms of the German Renaissance with an ornament placed halfway up. This also included a simple silver goblet from 1715 and a silver square wafer box . Its lid was decorated with four plastic angel heads and the engraved lamb with the victory flag. Ornate crucifixion and resurrection groups were engraved on the front of the box. The back bore the initials AB (Böhm) 1639 with three shuttles leaning against each other . Both narrow sides were decorated with engraved flowers.
pulpit
The powerful figure of Moses rested on the pulpit , which was carved in 1677 and painted in 1706 . At the eight corners there were twisted Corinthian columns adorned with vine leaves. In the middle of the fields between the pillars one recognized the Savior as a wood carving, on the left John and Peter, on the right Luke, Mark and Paul. The sound cover over the pulpit was decorated with dome-shaped tendrils. As a reminder of the hours of suffering of Christ, angels wore the instruments of torture. As the crowning glory on the sound cover stood St. Michael - Archangel of the Germans - with sword and scales. The stairs leading up to the pulpit were richly decorated with strings of fruit and several apostles between the individual steps.
Baptistery
The baptistery was a square structure made of lime wood in the south-east corner of the church. The lower fields of the chapel were stained brown with superimposed and dark brown ornaments. The “baptism” itself, inside the room, was round and made of stone with shields with a cross painted on it. In it lay the heavy lead baptismal bowl with engraved leaf tendrils in wreaths and the Tilsit coat of arms with the year 1574; the names George Kutzer , Sentoreus Aleman and Hans Kuge were also recognized .
Confessionals
The two confessionals to the left and right of the altar were donated by Mayor Andreas Coppius in 1638 . The inscriptions in Fraktur - minuscules with capital initials of the nouns were:
SERVED MAYOR OF THE PRINCIPAL CITY OF TILSIT HONORED THESE TWO CHAIRS TO HONOR GOD AND HAVE CARVED
and
TO HONOR GOD AND PAINTED
additional
The chairs consisted of parapets with rich carvings in pilasters and cartouches.
The time for the lighting of the church attended two ornate chandeliers made of brass one, beautifully ornamented, of which two series arms and to top a boy with wand or scepter from the 17th century. The second chandelier in the middle was provided with a row of lights and crowned with a double-headed eagle .
The organ , first built in 1575 by Burghart Wiechert from Paderborn , was expanded in 1755 and 1880.
Bells
Two church bells , cast in 1674, were already hanging in the wooden tower and were taken over in the new tower in 1702. Their inscriptions read
DA PACEM DOMINE IN DIEBVS NOSTRIS LIBERALI SVMPTV JOELIS PVSCHEN ET VXORIS VRSVLAE GRVNAWIN 1674 ANNO
Both casts came from the workshop of Johannes von Marienwerder . The third bell with the inscription
jumped and had to be poured over in 1896. It was given up in the First World War . Collections of the Evangelical Women's Aid made it possible to cast a new bell with the inscription at Schilling-Apolda in 1925
reception
The Teutonic Order Church plays an important role in Charlotte Keyser's novel Steps over the Threshold (1966).
His memory of the monastery church Tilsit brought Johannes Bobrowski in verses:
The age-gray building on the broad river
knows very well how one must serve the master
in peace and security and faithfully
and has done it for a long time and will continue to do it.
A good watch face on the strong shaft of
the tower. It has a green domed roof,
on which an arbor rises airily,
which carefully holds the hood on eight spheres
from whose gentle curve eight columns
rise and above it
the roof swings out to the top, where the flag waves.
In his novella Die Reise nach Tilsit ( filmed in 1939 ), Hermann Sudermann has the main character Ansas say:
“In Tilsit there is a church tower that rests on eight spheres, and that's why Napoleon always wanted to take it to France. But it was too heavy for him .... "
Parish
In 1925, 45,000 parishioners belonged to the parish of the German Church in Tilsit. These lived mainly in the urban area, but many also in the parish towns on the outskirts. In addition to the town church (also called "Old Church"), the Kreuzkirche (also called "New Church") belonged to the parish as a branch church. At last five clergymen served here. Before 1945, the parish of the German Church was part of the Tilsit diocese in the Tilsit-Ragnit church district within the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . The flight and expulsion of the local population due to the Second World War put an end to ecclesiastical and evangelical life in the city.
Today Sowetsk belongs to the catchment area of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Slavsk (Heinrichswalde) . It belongs to the Kaliningrad (Königsberg) provost of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia .
Parish locations (Tilsit city)
Until 1945 eight places in the Tilsit district were assigned to the parish of the German Church:
| Surname | Change name (1938-1946) |
Today's name | Today's state affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballgarden | Russia | ||
| Birjohlen | Birgen | Russia | |
| * Kall caps | Russia | ||
| * Moritzkehmen | Moritzhöhe | Russia | |
| Paszelgsten | Siedelhöhe | Bolschije Polyany, lastly: Dubki |
Russia |
| Senteinen | Russia | ||
| * Tilsit Prussia | Russia | ||
| Overmemel | Panemunė | Lithuania |
Pastor
With the Reformation , two pastoral posts were set up at the German Church in Tilsit, followed by a third in 1895, a fourth in 1900 and a fifth in 1912:
- Simon Alector (Hahn), 1534-1538
- N. Balthasar, 1538-1544
- NN., From 1545
- Georg Reich, 1548–1551
- Egidius Löbel, 1547–1571
- N. Siebeneich, 1557
- Gerorg Schepler, 1567–1570
- Johann Frisch (ius), 1571-1575
- Johann Carbo, 1573-1576
- NN., 1576
- Zacharias Blothno d. Ä., 1576-1592
- Hieronymus Mörlin, 1577–1602
- Ambrosius Poplin, 1592
- Patroclus Welwerius, 1593–1598
- Isaac Balthasar, 1599-1602
- Ambrosius Hartwich, 1602-1609
- Caspar Tiefholz, 1603–1612
- Zacharias Blothno d. J., 1609-1614
- Philipp Arnoldi, 1612-1642
- Joachim Brahn, 1614-1616
- Johann Sperber, 1616-1617
- Johann Kluge, 1618–1641
- Heinrich Möllenhof, 1641–1653
- Johann Flottweil, 1642–1658
- Georg Werner, 1653-1660
- Johann Malina, 1658-1672
- Daniel Werner, 1660-1692
- Zacharias Dresler, 1672–1687
- Friedrich Selle, 1687–1710
- Christian Klemm, 1688–1689
- Theodor Weber, 1689–1697
- Johann Flottweil, 1697
- Christoph Mauritius, 1697–1721
- Johann Christoph Teuber, 1711–1747
- Theodor Laudien, 1721–1752
- Christian S. Schiffmann, 1736–1738
- Johann Jacob Saft, 1738-1745
- Andreas Hausendorf, 1745–1759
- Johann Bernhard Suchland, 1752–1772
- Gottfried Carrius, 1759–1801
- Gottfried Samuel Woltersdorf, 1768–1791
- Johann Friedrich Rosenbaum, 1792–1818
- Christoph Frölich, 1795–1800
- Gotth. Fr. Chr. Dreist, 1800–1838
- Ludwig August Weber, 1818–1847
- Otto David Koehler, 1839-1853
- Constans Consentius, 1847-1859
- Julius Gerlach , 1854–1873
- Ludwig Georg Petersen, 1860–1872
- Hermann Erdmann, 1873–1882
- Gustav Eduard Sperling, 1873–1881
- Gustav Friedrich Rudolf Hoppe, 1882–1907
- Hermann artist, 1883–1897
- Friedrich Georg Federmann, 1895–1913
- Louis Ernst Gustav Guddas, 1898–1910
- Adalbert Ebel, 1901-1911
- Hans Albert G. Tribukait, 1907-1918
- Fritz Schawaller, 1911–1923
- Franz Connor, 1911-1932
- Karl Wilhelm Heinrich Müller, 1912–1922
- Franz Großjohann, 1913–1923
- Eduard Maaß, 1919–1931
- Ernst Garmeister, 1922–1927
- Willy Kittmann, 1924–1940
- Georg Wagner, 1924–1930
- Bernhard Teicke, 1928–1931
- Martin Friczewski, 1931-1934
- Georg Kern, 1932–1936
- Paul Bendrich, 1932-1937
- Wilhelm Lenkitsch, 1934–1945
- Egmont Bergatt, 1937–1945
- Gothmar Helmut Küßner, 1939–1945
- Erwin Schmerling, 1940–1945
- Heintz JE Niederstrasser, 1940–1945
Church records
The church registers of the German Church in Tilsit have been preserved and are being kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :
- Baptisms: 1642-1715, 1734-1819, 1821-1944
- Weddings: 1697–1944
- Burials: 1765–1944.
Trivia
Even after 1945 the church was used as a film set, e.g. B. in the Soviet war film Встреча на Эльбе (English title: Encounter on the Elbe) from 1948/1949 . In this film about the Second World War, the then almost intact cityscape of Tilsit from the direction of Übermemel was captured several times. The clash between US armed forces and the Red Army, which actually took place on the banks of the Elbe in Torgau, was shot on the banks of the Memel in Tilsit. Clearly recognizable in the photos is the visually completely intact church building.
In the spring of 1939, the church was also the backdrop for Veit Harlan's film Die Reise nach Tilsit , based on the story of the same name by Hermann Sudermann . Numerous external shoots of the film were done in the old town of Tilsit, which at least set a small cinematic monument to the church.
literature
- Waldemar Thalmann: Building and Cultural History Tilsit , Vol. II.
- Photographs in the archive of the Tilsit city community, Tilsiter Rundbriefe.
- Albrecht Kottmann: Symbol numbers, units of measurement and measurement methods from prehistoric times to the introduction of the metric system . Fink Verlag, 2003. ISBN 978-3-89870-020-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d The Protestant churches in the Tilsit district ( Memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Photo archive East Prussia
- ↑ 25. Tilsiter Rundbrief (1995/96), p. 82
- ^ Ingolf Koehler, Tilsit district community
- ^ German Church in Tilsit. Investigation on the use of triangulature and quadrature in dimensioning , 28. Tilsiter Rundbrief (1998/99), pp. 27–28
- ↑ a b Harry Goetzke: In memory of the interior of the German Church . 21. Tilsiter Rundbrief, pp. 32–36
- ^ Friedrich Kessler (Tilsit district) ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ East Prussian Provincial Landtag: The architectural and art monuments of the province of East Prussia (1895)
- ↑ 40. Tilsiter Rundbrief (2010/11), p. 31.
- ^ Hermann Sudermann: The trip to Tilsit. (1917) Project Gutenberg.de
- ^ A b Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume 3 Documents , Göttingen, 1968 pp. 488–489
- ^ Evangelical Lutheran Provosty of Kaliningrad ( Memento of August 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The * indicates a school location
- ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg, 1968, pp. 142–143
- ^ A b c Member of the Corps Littuania
- ↑ Member of the Corps Palaiomarchia
- ↑ Christa Stache, Directory of the Church Books in the Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin , Part I: The Eastern Church Provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Berlin, 1992³, pp. 111–113
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from July 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Documentary: Back then in East Prussia , Part 2/2, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIe8R_rwwk4 ( Memento from July 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from 1:13:27
- ↑ Film fragment from Die Reise nach Tilsit , available at: youtube.com from 1:32 and 2:35
Remarks
- ↑ When the Russians withdrew after the six-week occupation of Tilsit on September 12, 1914, they had prepared to blow up the Luisenbrücke. The Prussian artillery captain Fletcher smashed the cables that had already been ignited.
- ↑ Preuck founded the pen named after him
Coordinates: 55 ° 4 ′ 57 ″ N , 21 ° 54 ′ 13 ″ E