Below village church

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Village church in Below
sloping wooden tower

The village church Below is a medieval stone church in the Mecklenburg town of Below, a district of the Techentin community in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

history

Below was first mentioned in a document in 1296 when Prince Nikolaus II von Werle sold his property in Below and other places in the vicinity of Goldberg to the Cistercian monks of the Neuenkamp monastery in Franzburg , in western Pomerania . The witness at that time was Ywanus de Belowe , whose families were the locators of Below and who gave the village its name. In 1249 the brothers Ivan I and Nikolaus II von Below were still part of the retinue of Prince Pribislaw I.

The Belows also built a capella at this time . On April 8, 1299, the knights Ywan and Dietrich and the squires Nikolaus and Wedekind de Belowe gave their patronage rights to the chapel and cemetery to the Sonnenkamp nunnery in Neukloster . In 1300 Prince Nicholas II guaranteed the patronage of the chapel in Below the Sonnenkamp monastery in Neukloster, even if it were elevated to a parish church. In addition to Below, the southern land ownership of the Neuenkamp monastery extended to Techentin. But why the right of patronage for the Belower Chapel was transferred to the Sonnenkamp Monastery of all places is not clear from the available sources. In 1369 disagreements between the below farmers and the Techentiner pastor Johann von Rostock as church lord of Below were settled in Neuenkamp. As a result, the pastor and his successors were supposed to hold a mass in Below on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and on the most important festivals, despite the poor walk from Techentin to Below. After the Neuenkamp monastery and its property in Goldberger Land had also sold Below to the Mecklenburg dukes Heinrich the Elder and Heinrich the Younger for 1,300 guilders on January 13, 1455 , Below became a domanial farming village. The church patronage remained with the Sonnenkamp nunnery until the Reformation , after which the respective sovereign took over.

Building history

East gable

In Below, too, the first stone building was the field stone church ; here, too, brick bricks were only used in the frames of windows and portals. The richly painted stone church from 1483, built from the small chapel at the end of the 13th century, stands in the center of the village of Below. The structure of today's church, with the exception of the sloping wooden tower built in 1542, is likely to have the same floor plan as that of 1299. Nothing can be learned about the state of construction of the church during the Thirty Years' War . Pastor Joachim Permin had to live in a Techentine farmhouse because the rectory had burned down. It was rebuilt, because in 1662 one wrote: The rectory has been rebuilt and nothing is missing. The difficulties in maintaining the value and renovating the small village churches in Below and Techentin have only been known since the 18th century when the pastors' records and chronicles were handed down to us. 1746 Pastor Aepinus had the Duke Carl Leopold in the so Dilapidated circumstances of the church to a state collection asked who his successor in 1748 Duke Christian Ludwig granted.

On April 9, 1784, Pastor Friedrich Hövet applied to Oberhauptmann von der Lühe in the Goldberg office to repair the roof of the branch church in Below, because it had become very damaged and leaky. He hired his master carpenter Lindner from Goldberg, but Pastor Hövet complained to the duke that it was too expensive. Due to missing roof tiles from the Medow brickworks and the poor Dobbertin construction lime, which the closter itself never needed , the roof repairs were delayed for a few years. Only when the direction of the office had to hand over the supervision of the repair of the church roof below to Pastor Hövet, he should follow the familiar lead. When the church roof was removed in 1791, the west gable towards the tower was also removed and rebuilt. On September 14, 1791, the chief captain von der Lühe from the Goldberg office wrote to the duke: When the lower church roof was removed, more damage was found than one might initially suspect. The whole high gable had to be broken off. As a result, the whitening of the church and then new glazing became necessary, because the old windows, which were slammed with the glazier, could not be repaired. The church has now been put in a state where it will not require repairs for people = thinking, but it has also required higher costs = effort. But by the storm on March 3, 1793 the church roof was damaged again. After the inspection of the damage by Pastor Friedrich Hövet with master bricklayer Fründt and master carpenter Gertz, it was noted: ... that the upper church floor was completely missing. Under the beams with old boards, some of which were worm-eaten, and which would no longer hold a nail, when stepping on them, if one missed the beam, an unfortunate shooting through would be to be expected, in which danger, according to reports, many would have been. The lower blacksmith Casteno and the master carpenter Diederich Schade were involved in the repair of the church floor in 1794. The damage caused by the autumn storms of 1808 was not repaired until 1809. Pastor Christian Mecklenburg wrote to Duke Friedrich Franz on March 30, 1808  : The storms last autumn ruined the church tower in Below very much, several boards from the cladding were torn off and shattered. Repair is necessary. As early as April 4, 1809, the duke ordered the wood to be provided by the forestry college. On September 23, 1815, Christian Borngräber, now pastor in Below and Techentin, reported on the plans of the Grand Ducal land architect Brandt to radically repair the church tower. Construction had already started, the workers were demanding money, but the cash register was empty. The pastor had an idea that the local bell, which had become unusable, could be sold. But in 1824 the bell had still not been sold and the pastor continued to complain about the poor quality of his church.

During Pastor Krüger's term of office, the Techentiner church chronicle noted that a bell had been gone since 1917.

When Pastor Wartmann, who had been in office since 1938, came out of captivity on December 1, 1945, the Belowerians wanted to give him a special treat at the first Christmas service and put electric lights in the church, but on Christmas Eve there was a power cut and the candles had to light up again. I heard from Pastor Ortmann that after much effort and consultation, the damaged roof of the tower was re-covered with Preolit ​​shingles in 1985. In the upcoming renovation of the tower, the tower roof is to be re-covered with cedar shingles. The nave and wooden shaft had to remain with the successor. After the political turnaround, the von Below family, with Eberhard von Below from Kleinburgwedel near Hanover, has made significant financial contributions to the renovation of the Belower Church since 1990 , which they regard as a tribute to their ancestors. After the soil was removed to uncover the field stone foundations and their dehumidification around the church from 1996, the field stones were mortared. The damaged footsteps on the wooden tower were replaced and new tower boards were installed as floor-cover formwork made of softwood.

Building description

Exterior

The small rectangular stone church, only 9 meters wide and 16 meters long, with its flat wooden beam ceiling is a one-nave sacred building . The roof , hipped to the east , was covered with plain tiles. The outer walls were built from hewn field stones and bricks in irregular mixed masonry. Both corners of the east wall were subsequently secured with beveled buttresses . The niches embedded in the buttresses above were probably intended to accommodate figures of saints. Between the two ogival twin windows on the east wall, a walled-up circular screen can be seen below the eaves. The late Gothic windows on the north and south side date from the time after 1784, when the church was repaired.

Weathercock on the top of the tower

On the north side there is a small extension made of monastery format stones . The pressed arch above the entrance with a girder and the window niche above were clad with shaped stones. The sacristy was once located at the walled-up opening on the north side .

Wooden towers, built to the west of the church, were still used as useful structures for bells after the Thirty Years' War, as was the case in Below. The square wooden tower with its eight-sided pyramid helmet and its eight-sided pyramid spire is dated to a construction period around 1542.

To dehumidify the inner wall surfaces and to protect the paintings, soil was removed from the field stone masonry outside with safety measures on the field stone foundations.

Interior

Despite its simplicity, the interior of the small village church is characterized by the almost completely preserved wall paintings from 1470/1480, which were exposed again in 1882 under whitewash . The surrounding picture frieze depicts the life of Jesus in various scenes and thus served as a kind of picture Bible for the local population, as only a few people could write and read at that time.

After several minor modifications, extensive restorations of the wall paintings were carried out in the interior from 1885 to 1891. The tiled stove installed in 1907 under the left window on the north wall with its chimney in the roof structure sloping towards the ridge was removed in 1970. The pews purchased in 1844 were also painted green. The windows in the east gable were replaced by an art glass from Leipzig in May 1971. The lead glass windows with green antique glass in different colors let a warm light fall into the church. The side windows were donated by the von Below family in 1991.

Altar with triumphal cross, 2012

Triumphal cross

An expressive triumphal cross with the corpus from the 14th century, which was preserved in 1971 from the Techentine church, hangs above the altar block . The wooden cross with the body, on which remains of paint can still be seen, represents a tree of life with its branches. The end pieces of the cross, carved as shamrocks, were painted with symbols of the four evangelists . After thorough restoration in the course of the redesign of the chancel, it was brought to Below. Before 1784 the cross still belonged to the church in Zidderich, which was demolished in 1786.

Altar and pulpit

Until 1971, a neo-Gothic altarpiece with an integrated pulpit, built in 1844, took up the entire rear wall of the choir room. The pulpit altar was not removed until 1971 when the Institute for Monument Preservation in Schwerin was redesigned. On either side of the preacher's chair stood two carved half-figures from a cycle of apostles, which probably come from a late Gothic altarpiece. The 71 to 73 cm high figures, representing the Apostles John , James the Elder , Peter and Paul , still had remains of paint. Today you are in the depot of the art service of the north church.

baptism

Carved baptismal font from 1697

The six-sided baptismal font is a splendidly carved high structure, created in the Renaissance style with the inscription: "HANS SUDROW ANNO 1697 DEN 14 APRILIS" and is to the right of the altar. The name Hans Sudrow is likely to be identical to the Goldberg bailiff Suderau, mentioned in 1716, who was responsible for the maintenance of the church building on behalf of the sovereign. The baptismal font was left unmounted, its effect is mainly based on the color of the wood and the flat ornamental carvings that can be stylistically assigned to the rich fittings. The high lid, which ends in a lantern-like, openwork structure with a crown-like attachment, is impressive. The pool building has a circular arched arcade with pillars at the corners.

The baptismal font was restored in 1994 at the instigation of the von Below family by Tilman Tzschichold with the technical supervision of Johannes Voss from the State Office for Monument Preservation.

organ

The organ (I / AP / 4) was built in 1890 by the Rostock organ builder Julius Schwarz and placed on the west wall of the organ gallery built in 1889. The white and gold organ prospect with its neo-Gothic flat case and the straight upper end has been built into the parapet gallery with its Gothic carving. The purchase of the organ with four sounding voices for 890 marks took place in 1890 by Pastor Harm, when "at an earlier wedding the desire for an organ was loud ..." . In 1889 the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Ministry of Finance approved the costs for the construction of the necessary organ loft.

Christian Scheffler from Sieversdorf carried out a number of repairs in 1992, more were carried out in 2009 by Gido Weitendorf from Schwaan.

Murals

The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
The institution of the sacrament
The Descent from the Cross

The medieval wall paintings, hidden under layers of limestone, were uncovered from 1886 by the Wismar court decoration painters Heinrich Friedrich Michaelsen and Krause together with the Goldberg master painter W. Trenck. The drawings of the surviving paintings with the sequence of images were submitted to the Commission for the Preservation of Monuments and Antiquities of the State in Schwerin in 1888 for decision-making. In addition to the archivist Dr. Friedrich Schlie , the archivist Dr. H. Grotefend and the Oberbaurath Georg Daniel even had the Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III. von Mecklenburg-Schwerin with the ducal chamber submit the completed sketches "for the highest approval". The restoration of the wall paintings, which began in 1890, was appraised by the commission in the Belower Church in 1891.

During the renovation of the interior in 1970, the Parchim master painter Pilatz cleaned the medieval tendrils on the walls and repainted the wonderful embellishments in a simplified way. Old slides from the owner Hans Estrum served as a template. However, the tendrils did not achieve the design quality of the original painting. The left-out picture frieze was restored in 1973 by Johannes Voss from the Schwerin Institute for Monument Preservation. The salt efflorescence found in 1998 as well as the moisture and plaster damage on individual pictures were removed by the restorer Andreas Baumgart from Rethwisch. In August and September 2001, the restorers carried out restorations on the damaged areas of the murals 1 to 5 on the north wall.

The sequence of images with scenes from the life of the Virgin begins in the middle of the north wall. The following are shown:

  • The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary
  • Mariaä's visit to Elisabeth
  • The birth of christ
  • The Annunciation to the Shepherds in the Field
  • The adoration of the Magi
  • Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
  • The institution of the sacrament
  • The washing of feet
  • The prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane
  • The betrayal of Judas
  • The interrogation
  • The flagellation
  • The crowning of thorns
  • The ecce homo
  • Carrying the Cross
  • The Descent from the Cross
  • The ascension of Jesus
  • The mercy seat

Consecration crosses still protruding can be seen on five pictures .

Bells

Bell from 1556
Round image of Saint Catherine of Alexandria on the 1556 bell

In the belfry hung three bronze bells. The two oldest are present. The largest bell , cast in 1844 by Johann Carl Eduard Albrecht from Wismar , was given for armaments purposes during the First World War in 1917 .

The oldest and with 57 cm diameter the smallest bell from 1496 has a foundry mark and bears the inscription: O Christ, King of Glory, come with peace. In the year of the Lord 1496. The middle 77.5 cm large bronze bell was made in 1556 by the casting master Hans Timmermann. In addition to coin impressions, the foundry mark, a coat of arms with a double-headed eagle from the Belows as the founder of the church, there is a six centimeter round image of St. Catherine of Alexandria as patron saint of knighthood on the bronze bell . The two-line inscription reads: Help God. By the grace of God, Hans Timmermann cast this bell in 1556. At that time, Mr. Nikolaus Ste [i] nh [a] user Past [or] and Peter Gottschalk [and Math] ias Köster were the [church] leaders.

Pastors

Names and years indicate the verifiable mention as pastor. The rectory was in Techentin.

  • 1300– 0000Pastor Reynerus.
  • 1352– 0000Plebanus Bernhardus.
  • 1369– 0000preacher Johann von Rosteke.
  • 1505–1557 Johann or Nikolaus Steinhe (a) user.
  • 1564–1593 Johannes Hadelmann, previously in Woosten , Luther's student.
  • 1557–1609 Nicolaus Steinäuser, pastor in Techentin.
  • 1594–1623 Joachim Lembke.
  • 1624–1638 Johann Steffens / Stephani from Goldberg.
  • 1645–1670 Joachim Permin, previously cantor in Ratzeburg .
  • 1671–1690 Zacharias Crull from Malchin , later in Plau am See .
  • 1690–1713 Joachim Christoph Danneel, previously field preacher with the Mecklenburg troops in the Turkish war, later prepositus.
  • 1713–1728 Konrad Curtus.
  • 1729–1749 Johann Friedrich Aepinus, pastor in Techentin.
  • 1749–1763 Johann Ludwig Behm from Pomerania , his brother Carl Christian Behm had become pastor in the Dobbertin monastery in 1738 through electoral fraud .
  • 1765–1773 Johann Joseph Gustav Binder, then in Lancken.
  • 1773–1800 Adolf Friedrich Hövet.
  • 1801–1810 Johann Heinrich Christian Mecklenburg, son of a tobacco dealer from Bützow , then in Buchholz.
  • 1810–1847 Carl Christian Borngräber.
  • 1848–1856 Johann Carl Riedel, also deputy at Dobbertin Monastery.
  • 1871–1882 Johannes Friedrich G (a) evert.
  • 1882–1904 Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor Harm.
  • 1905–1938 Friedrich Karl Emanuel Krüger.
  • 1938–1949 Ernst Johannes Wilhelm Wartman, politically arrested in January 1949, fled to the West in May 1949.
  • 1950–1965 Ulrich Schabow.
  • 1965–1980 Christoph Voss.
  • 1983–1991 Matthias Gottfried Ortmann, from Mestlin.
  • 1993-2005 Jens Krause, from Mestlin.
  • 2005– 0000Kornelius Taetow, from Mestlin.

Parish

The Belower Church belongs to the Techentin parish. The parishes of Kladrum, Mestlin and Techentin with their nine village churches belong to the Parchim provost in the Mecklenburg parish of the North Church . The pastorate is in Mestlin. Church services take place monthly in the Belower Church.

See also

literature

  • Horst Alsleben : Lug ins Land BELOW. Mecklenburg departure, Schwerin May 29, 1991.
  • Horst Alsleben: The wall as a picture book. SVZ, Mecklenburg-Magazin, May 29, 2020.
  • Michael Bechtel, Fritz von Below, Kathrin Kweseleit: 800 years of the von Below family. 1217-2017. Stollberg / Rhineland, 2018. ISBN 978-3-941277-32-8
  • Fred Beckendorff: Historic field stone church Below. Regensburg 1998.
  • Fred Beckendorff: In. The village, city and monastery churches in the nature park and its surroundings. 5.3 Below. Ed .: Naturpark Nossentier / Schwinzer Heide, Karow 2003. (From culture and science; Issue 3) pp. 24–25.
  • Fred Beckendorff: The farmer and forest workers' villages in the nature park and its surroundings. Ed .: Naturpark Nossentiner / Scheinzer Heide, Karow 2012. (From culture and science; Issue 7). Geozon Science Media, ISBN 978-3-941971-07-3 , doi : 10.3285 / g.00008 , pp. 53-55.
  • Fred Besckendorff: A little chat about the Techentiner Church. Techentin 2014.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Munich, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-422-03081-6 , p. 58.
  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : Bell inscriptions to Below. In: Yearbooks for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, 27 (1862) p. 235.
  • Oskar Pusch: From Below . A German family from the Baltic Sea region. Dortmund 1974.
  • Fred Ruchhöft: The development of the cultural landscape in the Plau - Goldberg area in the Middle Ages. Rostock Studies on Regional History, Volume 5, Ed. Kersten Krüger / Steffen Kroll. Rostock 2001, ISBN 3-935319-17-7 .
  • Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume 4, the district courts of Schwaan, Bützow, Sternberg, Güstrow, Krakow, Goldberg, Parchim, Lübz and Plau. Schwerin 1901. pp. 408-411.
  • Tilo Schöfbeck: Medieval churches between Trave and Peene. Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86732-131-0 .
  • Holger Haker: Village Church Below. The tower. Schwerin, January 2020 (unpublished)

Web links

Commons : Dorfkirche Below  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

Unprinted sources

  • State Main Archive Schwerin (LHAS)
    • LHAS 1.5-4 / 3 documents Dobbertin monastery
    • LHAS 2.12-3 / 2 Monasteries and orders of knights
    • LHAS 2.12-3 / 5 church visits
    • LHAS 3.2-4 Knightly fire insurance
    • LHAS 5.12-4 / 2 Mecklenburg Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests, Dept. Settlement Office
    • LHAS 5.12-7 / 1 Mecklenburg-Schwerin Ministry for Education, Art, Spiritual and Medical Matters
    • LHAS 9.1-1 Reich Chamber Court case files 1495–1806
  • State Church Archives Schwerin (LKAS)
    • LKAS, OKR Schwerin, Specialia, Dept. 1, 2. Below at Techentin
    • LKAS, OKR Schwerin, Patronatsbauakten, Below. Buildings and repairs to religious buildings

Printed sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MUB III. (1865) No. 2388,
  2. ↑ MUB I. (1863) No. 633.
  3. ↑ MUB III. (1865) No. 2251, MUB IV. (1867) No. 2595.
  4. ↑ MUB Volume X. (1877) No. 7238.
  5. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: A little chat about the Techentiner Church. 2014, p. 26.
  6. ↑ MUB XVI. (1893) No. 9972.
  7. ^ Friedrich Schlie: The Filial Kirchdorf Below. 1901, p. 409.
  8. ↑ a b c Tilo Schöfbeck: Medieval churches between Trave and Peene. 2014, p. 362.
  9. ^ Parish archive of the Techentin Church.
  10. ^ Friedrich Hövet: Excerpt from the Techentiner church chronicle, concerning the Belower Church.
  11. ↑ LKAS. OKR Schwerin, Specialia, Dept. 1. No. 046.
  12. ^ A b Friedrich Hövet: Excerpt from the Techentine church chronicle, concerning the Belower Church.
  13. ↑ Mrs. Wartmann: Excerpt from the Techentiner church chronicle, concerning the Belower Church.
  14. ^ Holger Haker: Village Church Below. The tower. January 2020, p. 2.
  15. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: Historical field stone church Below. 1998, p. 6.
  16. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: A little chat about the Techentiner Church. 2014, p. 36.
  17. ↑ Horst Alsleben: The wall as a picture book. SVZ, Mecklenburg-Magazin, May 29, 2020, p. 21.
  18. ^ A b Fred Beckendorff: Historical field stone church Below. 1998, p. 10.
  19. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: Zidderich, a Mecklenburg village through the ages. 1998, pp. 30-31.
  20. ^ Friedrich Schlie: The Filial Kirchdorf Below. 1901, pp. 410-411.
  21. ^ Horst Ende : Mecklenburg baptisms through the ages. Schwerin 2009, p. 47.
  22. ^ Harm: Excerpt from the Techentine church chronicle, concerning the Belower Church.
  23. ↑ Mecklenburg-Schwerin Ministry of Finance, Building Construction Dept., Patronatsbauakten Below No. 019
  24. ^ Friedrich Schlie: The Filial Kirchdorf Below. 1901, pp. 409-410.
  25. ↑ Horst Alsleben: Grand Duke campaigned for the Belower Church. SVZ Lübz March 27, 1996.
  26. ^ Pasor Christoph Voss: Excerpt from the Techentiner church chronicle, concerning the Belower Church.
  27. ↑ Andreas Baumgart: Restoration assessment of the condition of the wall paintings in the Church of Below. Rethwisch 1998.
  28. ↑ Fred Beckendorff, Detlev Witt: The wall paintings in the historic field stone church Below. 2005, p. 25.
  29. ^ Friedrich Lisch: Bell inscriptions to Below. In: MJB 27 (1862) p. 235.
  30. ↑ Claus Peter: The bells of the Wismar churches and their history. The court bell founder Johann Carl Eduard Albrecht succeeded the Mecklenburg bell founder Peter Martin Hausbrand in Wismar. 2016, p. 222.
  31. ^ Friedrich Schlie: The Filial Kirchdorf Below. 1901, p. 411.
  32. ↑ Gustav Willgeroth : The Mecklenburg-Schwerin Parishes since the Thirty Years' War. Wismar 1925.
  33. ^ Friedrich Schlie: The Filial Kirchdorf Below. 1901, p. 408.
  34. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: 775 years Techentin. 1994, Appendix 11, p. 82.
  35. ↑ MUB XIII. (1884) No. 7582.
  36. ↑ see inscription on the bronze bell from 1556 in the tower.
  37. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: From some Techentiner pastors. 2004, p. 31.
  38. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: From some Techentiner pastors. 2014, pp. 37–38.
  39. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: From some Techentiner pastors. 2014, pp. 33–35.
  40. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: From some Techentiner pastors. 2014, pp. 35–37.

Coordinates: 53 ° 36 ′ 41.4 ″  N , 11 ° 59 ′ 10.9 ″  E