Dahlem village church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The St. Anne's Church in Berlin-Dahlem , 2017

The St. Anne's Church is a church of the Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Dahlem in the Berlin district of Dahlem .

location

Tomb in the outer wall of the church, 2009

The church and the associated St. Anne's cemetery are located at the intersection of Pacelliallee and Königin-Luise-Straße 55. Next to it, in Pacelliallee 61, is the former rectory and opposite, in Thielallee 1–3, the parish hall. The other church in the Evangelical Church Community in Dahlem is the Jesus Christ Church .

history

Church history

The St. Anne's Church is the oldest building in Dahlem and connects over 700 years of village and town history with recent history: During the National Socialist era (1933–1945) the church was a place of the Confessing Church . From July 4, 1937, after the arrest of their pastor Martin Niemöller , the congregation met here every evening at 6 p.m. for intercession services for all prisoners. The second Synod of Confessions met in the parish hall opposite on October 19 and 20, 1934 . Pastors Franz Hildebrandt and Helmut Gollwitzer also worked at St. Annen during this time.

Building history

West portal, 2009
Interior, 2007

The St. Anne's Church is a village church made of field stones and bricks . Its first building was probably built between 1215 and 1225 as a wooden structure, which was followed by a stone structure around 1300. The late Gothic choir extension and the crypt extension in the north were probably built at the end of the 15th century. The church was burned down during the Thirty Years War .

The structural history can be divided into six phases:

  1. It can be assumed that between 1215 and 1225 a wooden structure with a simple, rectangular floor plan was built on the church hill, which is still recognizable today. The village of Dahlem was first mentioned in a document in 1375.
  2. Around 1300 the wooden structure was replaced by a rectangular stone structure with a flat beamed ceiling. Bricks in the " monastery format " were built up on a roughly two meter high field stone plinth made of little carefully hewn field stone blocks . The narrow windows on the north side have the windows from this building period.
  3. The late Gothic choir extension with large tracery windows followed around 1490 . The south portal was elaborately designed. The late Gothic crypt extension with the oldest half-timbered gable in Berlin followed 1504–1507. Around 1511/1512 the walls of the nave were raised to the height of the choir in order to give the building a uniform appearance. A deep frieze band formed the upper end of the wall. The nave was also given a vault. At the same time, the two windows on the south wall were enlarged.
  4. The structure of the church was badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War. The landlord Cuno Hans von Wilmersdorff had the church renovated from 1671 to 1679. The ribbed vault, the gallery and the wooden pulpit in rural late renaissance date from this time, so the interior of the church received its present shape. The wall frescoes, which had already suffered severe damage from the breakthrough of the two pointed arch windows, were whitewashed as a rejected relic from the Catholic era. In 1781 the church received a wooden roof tower. From 1832 to 1849 this tower served as the second relay station of the Prussian optical telegraph from Berlin to Koblenz . A square room was created above the bell chamber for this purpose. Above was an open platform with a signal mast that carried six wings in three pairs. After this communications technology was obsolete, after 1853 a small turret was placed on the former guardroom of the operating staff.
  5. According to the rapidly growing population of the community of Dahlem, the church was renovated and redesigned from 1905 to 1906 under Wilhelm Blau. Pews and chairs were completed. Electric lighting and air heating with a fan were installed. The crypt annex became a sacristy. The south portal - still in use as a wooden gate in 1892 - was bricked up. In connection with this renovation, the wall paintings were exposed again.
  6. The Second World War caused major damage : the tower and belfry were shot to pieces, the roof without tiles. A shell hit the west wall with a large hole. The extensive reconstruction work that began after 1945 was completed in 1953. During this time the church was given a pyramid-shaped tower roof, the central pillar for the organ loft was replaced by two lateral pillars for reasons of better access. The village church in Dahlem has officially been called St. Anne's Church only since 1913. Saint Anne , mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus , was considered the epitome of divine grace and maternal love.

Works of art

Crucifixion sculpture
by Bernhard Heiliger

Crucifixion sculpture

The modern crucifixion sculpture comes from the Berlin sculptor Bernhard Heiliger . It has been located above the south gate since 1983 and was originally intended for the newly built Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church . The then parish council of the Memorial Church opposed the installation of the sculpture. Heiliger then made the crucifixion sculpture available to the parish of Dahlem for a symbolic price.

triptych

Triptych for Auschwitz
by Doris Pollatschek

The triptych for Auschwitz on the right choir wall is by Doris Pollatschek . This ceramic relief was acquired in 1992. The artist not only wants to show the terror, but also to point out the inaction and failure of the churches. Seen from the cross, the triptych shows the flagellation on the left, the crucifixion in the middle and the burial / cremation “on the right”. In the depiction, it is not Christ who is crucified, but a Jew with the “yellow stain”, whose only “offense” is to be a Jew. The work of art was criticized from the Catholic side, especially its installation in a Protestant church. The clergy shown in the middle section can be clearly identified as Catholic by their clothing, namely as a prelate, bishop and religious. This account was taken by the critics as a one-sided assignment of blame. A reply from Pastor Marion Gardei can be found in the parish gazette. The explanation of the triptych for visitors to the church was subsequently revised to clarify, but the work was left in its place.

Altar shrine

Altar shrine with figures of saints

The shrine with its colorful and gilded figures of saints was probably built into the Renaissance altar, which is decorated with paintings, in 1679 . The center piece of the shrine is now on the north wall of the choir. During the Second World War , the original shrine with its paintings (Cranach School) and the altar structure were lost. Today's shrine is a non-folding replica. Three figures of apostles and a female saint were lost due to robbery in the early 1980s. The figures were replaced by donations for a reconstruction.

In the middle of the field, St. Anne herself is the main figure. She holds Mary in one arm, the baby Jesus with the globe on the other. The apostles Peter and Paul are to be determined with certainty , with great probability the four martyrs Barbara , Katharina , Dorothea and Margareta .

Today's altar painting comes from the Berlin monastery church and only came to the St. Anne's Church in 1984. The depiction of the crucifixion from around 1490 is attributed to the master of the Berlin dance of death .

South wall stained glass window

South wall stained glass window

The left window was created in 1951 by Hermann Kirchberger and shows the symbols of the four evangelists and the Holy Spirit in the top five fields, and the passion of Jesus in the nine lower scenes.

The right window was designed by Professor Kowalski and acquired in 1964. It shows images from the creation story and from the parable of the Good Samaritan .

Mural

Annen picture, mural (color enhanced)

In 1893 the medieval paintings were rediscovered under the wall paint. They are evidence of the oldest painting in Berlin. It is assumed that they date from the end of the 14th century. They were probably designed by Bohemian migrant workers. First attempts at reconstruction had negative consequences, so the faded remains were only cleaned and fixed with great care from 1936 to 1939 and 1951.

A Coronation of Mary can be seen on the left side next to the pillar. Next to it, cut up by the pillar, one sees three saints. Only a few remains can be seen on the opposite wall. The murals showed the suffering Jesus and the risen Christ. The Annen picture is evidence of an early veneration of Anne in the Mark Brandenburg .

Further equipment

Big bell

The art forged chandeliers by Karl Weiß in Karlsruhe and the carved baptismal stand date from 1906 . Two of the original bells from the 15th century had to be handed in for war purposes in 1917 . The remaining one was replaced by two steel bells in 1922. The larger one, tuned to the g tone , survived the Second World War, the smaller one was shot to pieces in 1945 and replaced in 1950 by a new one tuned to b flat.

organ

The organ was built by Emil Hammer and installed in 1974. She has the following disposition :

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Principal 8th'
2. Dumped 8th'
3. octave 4 ′
4th Reed flute 4 ′
5. Gemshorn 2 ′
6th Sesquialter 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th Mixture IV
Tremulant
II Swell C – g 3
08th. Coupling flute 8th'
09. Principal 4 ′
10. Flûte douce 4 ′
11. octave 2 ′
12. Sif flute 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
13. Cymbel III
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
14th Sub bass 16 ′
15th Wood octave 08th'
16. Pommer 04 ′
17th Rauschpfeife III
18th trombone 16 ′

Churchyard

Memorial in the St.-Annen-Kirchhof

The community had the memorial to remember for the future built on the St. Anne's churchyard , where the graves of many important personalities are located .

Rectory

Former rectory of Martin Niemöller

The parsonage next to it, designed by architect Heinrich Straumer , was completed in 1910. Today it is known as the Martin-Niemöller-Haus and offers work and conference rooms. The Martin-Niemöller memorial, which opened on July 1, 2007, is also located in the house.

Parish hall

Parish hall of the Protestant parish in Dahlem

The parish hall was inaugurated in 1927. It was built on the site of the former Dahlem village pond. On October 19 and 20, 1934, the second Confessional Synod met here, at which the "Church Emergency Law" was formulated. Every second Monday, Martin Niemöller gathered the congregation here for the “catechism hours”. Between 1939 and 1945 it served as a military hospital, later it was a rehearsal room for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for many years.

Others

In 1968, the opening scene of the Edgar Wallace film Under the Spell of the Eerie was filmed in the church.

literature

  • Gerti Graff (ed.): On the way to the responsible community. The Protestant Church under National Socialism using the example of the Dahlem community. Pictures and texts from an exhibition in the Martin-Niemöller-Haus Berlin. Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-88425-028-0 .
  • Wolfgang H. Fritze : Dahlem St. Annen. Times of a village and its church. Berlin 1989.
  • Gundolf Herz: The St. Anne's Church in Berlin-Dahlem. Large monuments , issue 376. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1986.
  • Gundolf Herz: The St. Anne's Church in Berlin-Dahlem . DKV art guide No. 376/0. 2nd, modified edition. Munich / Berlin 2000.
  • Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Old Churches in Berlin. 33 visits to the oldest churches in the western part of the city. 2., revised. Edition Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-88981-048-9 . Pp. 97-108.
  • Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Paths to Berlin Churches. Suggestions for exploring church sites in the western part of Berlin. Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-88981-031-4 . P. 9 and 12 f.
  • Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Dahlem / Domain Dahlem (Ed.): Dahlem - St. Annen. Times of a village and its church. (=  Dahlem materials 2.) Domain Dahlem. Verlag und Ökonomie, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-9802192-1-6 .
  • Günther Kühne / Elisabeth Stephani: Protestant churches in Berlin. Second edition, CZV-Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-7674-0158-4 . Pp. 318-320.
  • Carl Nagel: The adoration of St. Anne in the Mark Brandenburg on the eve of the Reformation. In: Yearbook for Berlin-Brandenburg Church History. 41st year 1966, p. 30 ff.
  • E. Rachvoll: Festschrift for the dedication of St. Anne's Church […] on November 4, 1906. Berlin-Lichterfelde
  • Walter C. Türk: The village churches of Berlin. Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Berlin 1950.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c St. Anne in the Landesdenkmalbank
  2. ^ Community letter 02/2007, pp. 1 and 2 (accessed on May 21, 2015).
  3. ↑ Martin Niemöller House. Retrieved June 9, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Julia Ricker: Freedom behind brick. The Martin-Niemöller-Haus in Berlin Dahlem was a place of resistance . In: Monuments Online 4/2016

Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 31.2 "  N , 13 ° 17 ′ 11.7"  E