Former Christ Church
The former Christ Church in Aachen was a Protestant parish church that was built between 1893 and 1896 by Georg Frentzen in the neo-renaissance style in Aachen and was consecrated on November 10, 1896. It had about 1220 seats and stood at the intersection of today's Wespien-, Richard- and Martin-Luther-Straße. The church was badly damaged in World War II and finally demolished in 1959 except for the 76 m high steeple, which itself remained largely undamaged and was preserved as a striking landmark . In the immediate vicinity and leaning against the existing tower of the destroyed Christ Church, the Johannes-Notkirche, consecrated in 1949 by Otto Bartning, was built for the Evangelical Christians in Aachen . After it was completely destroyed by a large fire in 1979, the tower of the former Christ Church was also finally torn down.
Today the community center "Martin-Luther-Haus" is located here, an evangelical family center with an educational facility as well as a place of prayer for the Yehyang Evangelical-Korean parish and a preaching place for the Hungarian-Evangelical community in North Rhine-Westphalia.
A highlight in the history of the Christ Church was the church concert held on April 27, 1932, at which the well-known doctor, theologian and philosopher Albert Schweitzer performed as the organist and, together with the Aachen Bach Society, under the direction of Hans Klotz, works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Guillaume Du Fay performed.
Building description
The plot of land for the church and rectory, sloping from south to north, was 65 m long and 40 m wide. The earthworks were carried out from January 7th to March 1893. The construction plans were approved at the beginning of April. The foundations and the rising cellar masonry were completed from mid-April to the end of November 1893. The damp filling material of the former moat and the foundations of two gasometers of the former gas station made the work more difficult. The architect O. Klemm took over the local construction management.
The church itself was 47 m long and 27 m wide. The rectory had a front length of 11.34 m. The single-nave vaulted hall church surrounded by galleries with around 1220 seats had a symmetrical floor plan. The third vault area in front of the sanctuary formed the transept with short cross arms, which adorned a gable on the outside on the street side and a protruding hipped roof on the back. The polygonal tower was placed on the street corner .
For the exterior architecture, Frentzen combined a medieval basic scheme with Renaissance details, according to his own admission in a picturesque conception. The stone facade was characterized by the contrast between ornamental decorations and calm, simple surfaces.
The Aachen sculptor Karl Krauss created a figure of Christ as well as several apostles and evangelists for the Christ Church . The blessing figure of Christ is Krauss' interpretation of a model by Bertel Thorvaldsen . It stood above the portal in a canopy niche in front of the gable. The figures of John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul were located in the niches of the two front buttresses. A Sermon on the Mount - relief decorated the tympanum in the portal arch, as saying that in this church the word of God was announced. The gable figures were donated by the church master Krabb and the relief by the secret councilor Emil von Wagner. The evangelist sculptures on the long side on the buttresses Matthew , Markus and Lukas as synoptics and John with the eagle were a foundation of the cloth manufacturer Eduard Waldthausen.
Inside the church, the lack of vaulted supports emphasized the hall-like spatial effect as a sign of community unity. Instead, house elements , buttresses , belt arches and vault ribs provided the necessary statics. The wall paintings were made by the Aachen painter Heinrich Hofmann and the glass paintings by the Ferdinand Müller glass painting company from Quedlinburg, as well as all woodwork by the mechanical joinery and wood shop AG from Oeynhausen. The company Ludwig August Riedinger from the branch in Frankfurt am Main provided for a wrought-iron chandelier . The ringing consisting of four bells was made by the Janck company from Leipzig and the organ came from the workshop of EF Walcker & Cie.
literature
The most important contemporary source on the Christ Church is the building report written by Frentzen himself:
- Georg Frentzen: Building report. In: Festschrift for the dedication of the Evangelical Christ Church in Aachen on November 10, 1896. Georgi, Aachen 1896, pp. 30–39.
Building report, p. 30/31
Building report, p. 32/33
Building report, p. 34/35
Building report, p. 36/37
Building report, p. 38/39
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hartwig Beseler u. a .: War fates of German architecture. Loss, damage, rebuilding. Volume I: North. Wacholtz, Neumünster 1988, p. 340.
- ↑ Albert Schweitzer in Aachen, p. 2 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Festschrift for the inauguration of the Evangelical Christ Church in Aachen on November 10, 1896. Georgi, Aachen 1896, p. 21.
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 '24.3 " N , 6 ° 5' 39.8" E