Gatow village church
The village church Gatow is one of more than 50 under monument protection standing village churches in Berlin . It has been Protestant since the Reformation in the Mark Brandenburg in 1539 and is still used for church services today. The church in today's Berlin district of Gatow was rebuilt or repaired several times, for example in 1741, 1816, 1844, 1913 and 1935, which can be seen in the external appearance. Its origins date back to the 14th century, but the year 1350 in the weather vane from 1953 has been chosen arbitrarily.
history
The village of Gatow was subordinate to the Benedictine Monastery of Spandau until it came into the possession of Elector Joachim II (Brandenburg) through secularization in 1558 and was subordinated to the Spandau office. Gatow, Kladow and Groß Glienicke formed a parish unit until the Berlin Wall was built . In 1966 the Gatow parish became an independent village parish again. This restored the state that existed until 1500.
Nave
The church consists of four clearly distinguishable parts, which belong to different construction times. These are characterized by the material used ( field stones or plastered brick masonry ).
Since the village has belonged to the Spandau monastery since 1258, it is difficult to imagine that it did not have at least one wooden church. The construction of stone blocks began at the beginning of the 14th century, which still relatively carefully laid stone blocks in layers. The floor plan shows that the walls are stronger than the ones that continued as a continuation to the west. The greater wall thickness also indicates a higher age as well as two horizontal narrow wall recesses over the windows. Due to the narrow width, the conclusion must be drawn that this construction section was originally intended as a retracted choir (cf. the example of the Hohenschönhausen village church ). Around the 15th century, the core structure above the windows was raised and extended to the west in the same nave width, so that instead of the originally planned choir square church , a hall church was built. The westernmost part, marked by buttresses , was apparently intended to be the substructure of a ship-wide tower. The supplementary building from the 15th century is made of less carefully squared or even only split fieldstones, which are still laid in layers, but whose joints had to be pinched out. The cause of a narrow strip of wall to the west of the central window, both on the south and on the north wall, which was built completely irregularly from smaller splits (overmoulding?) Is not known.
After repairs in 1723, 1741 and 1816, a new boarded roof tower was built between 1844 and 1846 , nothing is known about its predecessor. In 1869 a plastered altar house was added to the east and in 1913 the plastered sacristy was added further east . The large windows of the current ship were unified in the 19th century with their current round arches . The last window was added in 1935. In 1935 the access to the church on the south side of the church next to the eastern buttress was walled up, a niche bordered with bricks marks this point. Next to it is a crucifixion relief made of limestone. There, in the area of the medieval entrance, there was also a massive porch since 1913. When the main portal was broken into the west wall in 1935, the cladding of an old gate was found, of whose existence nothing was known for centuries. The stichbogig closed guise of clinker from 1935 had 1953 a copy of an early Gothic pointed arch portal of field stone blocks soft to give the impression it was from the late Gothic period. Max Glöckner and Erich Rothe led the renovation in 1953.
Furnishing
The renovation of 1935 changed the interior of the church the most. Previously there were longitudinal galleries on both sides of the ship that rested on supports. The interior was also completely redesigned in 1953, the ceiling was raised considerably and emphasized by exposed beams. The reason for the renovation was that the ceiling and roof beams had been eaten away by wooden trestles. After the entablature was restored, the smooth shuttering of the ceiling was dispensed with. This resulted in a noticeable increase in space. However, the original character of the village church was lost.
Until 1953 the organ gallery still had four wooden supports, today it is freely stretched between supports in the side masonry. A staircase leads from the tower hall to the organ gallery, until 1953 there was another one on the opposite side.
Principal pieces
The baroque pulpit altar, presumably from 1741, was removed during the last major redesign in 1953. The altar wall is decorated with a painting from the Berlin Marienkirche , the epitaph of the Berlin patrician Martin Wins by a Middle Franconian master from Michael Wolgemut's workshop around 1495. The eight-flame Flemish crown from the 18th century, the altar candlesticks and the crucifix from the 17th century Acquired in the Berlin art trade. The former wooden baptismal stand from 1692 now serves as an offering box in the vestibule. The corresponding baptismal bowl was sold to the Märkisches Museum in 1893 , the new baptismal bowl dates from 1892.
organ
The organ comes from the workshop of the Berlin organ builder Karl Schuke and was installed in 1953. Before that, the organ built by Carl Eduard Gesell from Potsdam in 1877 stood here .
Bells
There are three bells hanging in the church tower. The oldest is from the 14th century, and two more bells were added in 1953.
| No. | Chime | material |
Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( mm) |
Height (mm) |
Caster | Casting year | ornament |
| 1 | d ″ -1 | bronze | 312 | 770 | 640 | unknown | 14th century | In the shoulder between two pairs of bars, four medallions (diameter 60 mm) with biblical scenes, one coin (diameter 25 mm); in the upper part of the flank two medallions (60 mm in diameter) with figurative representations |
| 2 | e ″ -4 | Chilled iron | 380 | 850 | 630 | Franz Weeren | 1953 | |
| 3 | g ″ –6 | Chilled iron | 200 | 720 | 530 | Franz Weeren | 1953 |
Literature (chronological)
- Kurt Pomplun : Berlin's old village churches. Berlin 1962 (6th edition 1984).
- Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin. Berlin 1978.
- Hans-Jürgen Rach: The villages in Berlin. Berlin 1990.
- Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Old Churches in Berlin. Berlin 1991.
- Markus Cante: Churches until 1618 , in: Berlin and its buildings, Part VI: Sacred buildings. Ed .: Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin , Berlin 1997, p. 343.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Band Berlin. Munich / Berlin 2006.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7861-1443-9 , p. 134.
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 11.5 " N , 13 ° 10 ′ 54.1" E