Parish Church Weißensee
The village church Weißensee , Protestant parish church Weißensee since 1539 , is a late medieval Berlin church building that was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style. It stands east of the White Lake in the core of the former village of Weißensee on Bundesstrasse 2 ( Berliner Allee 180-184) at the corner of Falkenberger Strasse and is a listed building .
Building history
The oldest surviving part of the church is the west tower built in the 14th century ; it shows the irregular field stone masonry typical of this period . It was the western addition to a wooden church that was probably built shortly after 1230. A stone tower for bells was more stable than a wooden tower.
Around the second half of the 15th century, the wooden nave was replaced by a brick building. The eastern half of this nave is apparently the older: it shows bricks larger in size than the western half; in addition, pointed arches are preserved on the north side: a portal and two windows. The village church is the only one on the Barnim to show continuous medieval brick masonry.
In 1664 the church was restored after the destruction and looting in the Thirty Years War . Between 1822 and 1833 a high-quality neo-Gothic tower was built on the field stone tower substructure: a brick building with a pointed helmet . The tower also received a new west portal.
The building was extended to the east in 1863 with a five-sided brick polygonal choir . From 1899–1900 a projecting transept and a similar polygonal choir were added based on designs by Theodor Prüfer , which effectively moved the choir to the east. The transept in particular gave the growing community more space.
After bombing in the Second World War , the church burned down completely in August 1943, except for the surrounding walls, and the rich furnishings from the 16th century were also burned. In 1948/1949 the reconstruction took place according to designs by Herbert Erbs with a tower in a simplified form and a modern interior design.
Above the main entrance there is the following slogan on a metal plaque on the facade:
"I am far too little of all the mercy and loyalty that you have shown your servant."
Interior design and use
The interior of the church building is modern, as all of the old furnishings have been destroyed. The altar table, baptismal font, stand-up pulpit, candlestick and organ prospect are by Werner Richter, the metal altar cross was created by the sculptor Fritz Kühn .
On the gallery is a small pneumatic organ from the Eule company from 1952 , reconstructed in 2009. Its disposition can be viewed here. The large organ in the south aisle was built by the Sauer company ( Frankfurt / Oder ) and installed in 1978. Your disposition can be viewed at Orgel Databank .
The colored choir windows with a depiction of the New Testament were designed in the mid-1950s based on templates by the painter Gerhard Olbrich ; previously there were only plain, clear altar windows.
In addition to church services, baptisms, confirmations and weddings, concerts take place regularly (once or twice a month) and church celebrations are held. The Protestant parish maintains a choir (25–30 singers under Cantor Thomas Lanz), a wind choir and organizes events with children and young people.
Steeple
In the 1830s, a change was made to the tower top. From a club-tower with a circular observation deck was a new building of brick, a somewhat lower tower with sound openings as narrow pointed arch window. When it was rebuilt after the Second World War, the tower was given a simple pointed helmet made of copper, the bricks on the outside were retained. During the renovation work from June 2005 to summer 2007, the tower top was provided with white plaster.
Bells
Of the earlier bronze bells (a bell cast in 1474 was the oldest according to the documents), one was melted down in World War I and the second in World War II , the last one being destroyed by fire after the air raid in 1943.
Today's peal in the parish church consists of three bells. The ringing sounds in the tone sequence a ′ h ′ d ″. The large and small bells are two hard-cast iron bells from Schilling & Lattermann from 1962. The middle bell is a bronze bell from 1949. The big and small bells ring on cranked yokes and are equipped with counterweight clappers, the middle bell rings on the straight yoke.
environment
To the right of the church entrance is a former mausoleum , which Johann Heinrich Leberecht Pistorius (owner of the Weißensee estate and successful entrepreneur) had built here in the 19th century. First his sister, then he (1858), was buried here. The mausoleum now serves the community as a small common room; it was renovated in 2006/2007.
Between the church building and the former parsonage, the Katharinensaal was built in 2007 with a modern wooden structure for up to 300 people.
literature
- Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments in the GDR, capital Berlin I , Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984
- Old Berlin village churches. Heinrich Wohler's drawings , ed. v. Renate and Ernst Oskar Petras, Berlin 1988, p. 76 f.
- Markus Cante: Churches until 1618 , in: Berlin and its buildings, Part VI: Sacred buildings. Ed .: Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin , Berlin 1997, p. 349.
- Ulrich Waack: Church building and economy. On the relationship between the structural features of medieval village churches on the Barnim and its economic and settlement history , Berlin 2009, pp. 112–114.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Architectural monument village church (parish church) Weißensee
- ↑ Disposition of the owl organ
- ↑ Disposition of the Sauer organ
- ↑ Source: Weidener Glockenfreund's own assessment
- ↑ The ringing of bells on YouTube by Weidener Glockenfreund: Berlin-Weißensee (B) - The bells of the Protestant parish church. December 1, 2018, accessed January 15, 2018 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 33 ′ 17 ″ N , 13 ° 28 ′ 7 ″ E