Wartenberg village church
The village church of Wartenberg , built in the 13th century, was the center of the village of Wartenberg, founded by German newcomers around 1230 . It was blown up in the last days of World War II . Its structural remains were completely removed after the war.
Building history
The village church of Wartenberg was a church building with the floor plan of a complete system (better: four-part apse church) - it had a nave with a retracted choir and apse as well as a nave-wide rectangular west tower . In the area around Berlin with around fifty village churches there were only three such places of worship. All components were erected in carefully square stone masonry . The small windows had round arches, so that architects and art historians called them late Romanesque . This means a construction time of 1250 or even before.
Among connoisseurs it was considered the most beautiful village church in Berlin. A special feature was the square nave, which made the entire building appear compact but stocky. In the early 16th century, the nave and choir were given a late Gothic ribbed vault on figural consoles and a sacristy extension with a gable on the south side of the choir . This is how it can be seen in Wohler's illustration from 1834. This drawing shows that the walls of the transverse rectangular tower (as is often the case) did not extend beyond the height of the eaves of the nave. Later, the church received a square, baroque -looking plastered roof tower that rested on the masonry of the west wall and carried a lantern . In 1834 some areas of the nave were also plastered. In 1848 the windows were enlarged.
Consequences of war
On April 21, 1945, Wehrmacht specialists blew up the church together with the neighboring village churches of Falkenberg and Malchow shortly before the evacuation of the village, in order to prevent the advancing Soviet army from using the towers as landmarks and placing artillery observers on them.
The church was not rebuilt in the following years, but its remains were completely removed. A dense grove of trees in the listed churchyard marks their location. A wooden bell carrier is set up next to it. A memorial plaque on the annex to the churchyard has been a reminder of the historic church since 2010 .
Modern church building from 2000
Only after the political change was it possible to build a new church building for the community at the other location. Except for the weather vane with the year 1795 and two epitaphs, nothing of the earlier furnishings was preserved, so that artists were commissioned to redesign the altar , pulpit and baptismal font . The new works come from Anna Franziska Schwarzbach's studio , who used cast iron as the material , which forms an irregularly shaped surface and - contrary to the artist's other preference, who likes to use warm red-brown tones - is kept in dark black and gray. The parish had set great store by a low-key appearance that was as uniform as possible; the smoked glass plate on the pulpit had to match the base and the dark-patterned floor tiles. The principals were given their place in the modern nave in 1999.
The church was inaugurated on January 19, 2000. The new village church in modern architectural style is located at Falkenberger Chaussee 93 in the Berlin-Neu-Hohenschönhausen district , but is directly adjacent to Wartenberg.
The historical parts mentioned above were installed as wall decorations in the entrance area of the new building. A small organ is part of the church furnishings .
Ten years after the consecration, the district and the parish celebrated their first anniversary, which is why Schwarzbach was invited to an exhibition of her other works. In addition, the curators won over the Ecuadorian painter and poet Diego Gortaire (* 1967) (called "D. Gorter") for the anniversary exhibition. For a month he presented ink paintings on the subjects of nature, landscape and living beings on ancient maps of his home country. The nave in the form of a rotunda is accompanied by a slender, graceful campanile . Daylight falls into the church, which is clinkered all around , through a ribbon of windows in the upper corners of the main nave.
The catchment area of the evangelical parish includes the new large settlement Neu-Hohenschönhausen and the former villages of Wartenberg and Falkenberg, as well as the Wartenberg settlement, which lies in the direction of Lindenberg . At the end of 2014, the parish had 2030 members.
In addition to church affairs, the church is also used for public cultural events.
literature
- Old Berlin village churches. Heinrich Wohler's drawings , ed. v. Renate and Ernst Oskar Petras, Berlin 1988.
- Markus Cante: Churches until 1618 , in: Berlin and its buildings, Part VI: Sacred buildings. Ed .: Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin , Berlin 1997, p. 333.
- Matthias Friske : The medieval churches on the Barnim. History - architecture - equipment , Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2001 (churches in rural areas, vol. 1), ISBN 3-931836-67-3
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ The other two churches with a complete system are Mariendorf and Marienfelde .
- ↑ Organ, Wetterfahren from 1795 and the epitaphs shown on the church website.
- ↑ Homepage of Diego Gortaire
- ↑ Wartenberger Kirchweihjubiläum , about an exhibition in January 2010 in the new church building of the district.
Coordinates: 52 ° 34 ′ 27.5 ″ N , 13 ° 31 ′ 8.8 ″ E