English Church (Hamburg)

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View from the northwest
Entrance portal in 2015

The English Church , actually Church of St Thomas Becket in Hamburg's Neustadt am Zeughausmarkt, is a classicist building from 1838 without a church tower or bells. It was inaugurated in 1838 and has been a listed building since 1941. The church has been dedicated to Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century, since the late 1940s . For a long time in its history, the church in Hamburg was simply known as the "English Church", this term is still used today.

The Anglicans in Hamburg

After the Reformation, the English merchants' guild Merchant Adventurers , which is represented in Hamburg, obtained the first and for a long time only permission to conduct religious services in their non-Lutheran religious community in Hamburg according to their own ritual and in English. The free practice of religion was officially granted to the Anglicans in 1611, a significant exception at the time; the Catholics, for example, did not receive this privilege until 1811. This shows that the city council considered the economic benefits of working with Hamburg's major trading partners more important than religious reservations.

Previous buildings

The old English church at Johannisbollwerk on a painting by the Suhr brothers , the sailing masts in the harbor can be seen in the background.

The first devotions took place in a chapel in the “English House” on Gröningerstrasse. During the French period in Hamburg , the Merchant Adventurers were expropriated and driven out of the city, but returned after the French occupation. For the losses they received compensation from the city, from which they built their own church at the Johannisbollwerk . Similar to today's church on the Zeughausmarkt, the building was also a classicist building with a temple-like entrance front on the narrow side. Due to the structural similarity, this church is sometimes incorrectly referred to on old etchings and lithographs as the English church on the Zeughausmarkt.

The English Church on the Zeughausmarkt

inner space

Area at the Zeughausmarkt

The artillery armory was located on the site of today's church near the St. Michaelis Church from 1661 to 1826. As part of the demolition of Hamburg and the demolition of the neighboring defenses, the entire square was given a uniform classicist development on the north and west sides from 1823; today's houses 33 to 38 still date from this time. The new church should fit into this building concept

Building the church

The church property was signed on April 15, 1835, and the Danish architect Ole Jörgen Schmidt from Altona , a student of Christian Frederik Hansen , was hired as the architect . Schmidt's design is said to have been based on the Christiansborg Palace Church . The church was placed in the center of the ensemble at right angles to the location of the former armory. Construction began in 1836 and was inaugurated on November 11, 1838. The plastered building , kept simple, is considered the purest classical church building in the Hamburg city area. It is a 30 m by 17 m square hall building , the exterior design of which has completely dispensed with typical sacred elements. The main facade to the Zeughausmarkt is adorned with a portico supported by four Ionic columns .

Destruction, reconstruction and redevelopment

During the Second World War , the church suffered damage in the years 1944–1945. It was rebuilt in the post-war years 1946-1947 under the architectural direction of Fritz Pahlke by pioneers of the British Army of the Rhine .

From 1991 to 1995 the building was extensively renovated. The leading architects were Viglas Schindel and Hans-Jürgen Kahle . In 2013 the facade and masonry had to be renewed, in this context the lettering and lighting ("English Church") above the entrance portal were added.

Furnishing

The flat-roofed interior has galleries in the longitudinal direction. In the eastern part of the interior there is an altar niche, which is separated from the rest of the interior by a barrel vault with a coffered ceiling. It is a copy of the Sistine Madonna . The side of the altarpiece is supplemented by tablets with the creed, the Lord's Prayer and the ten commandments.

A plaque commemorates the visit of the British heir to the throne and his wife in 1987.

organ

Organ prospectus

The organ is raised in the western part. Its core dates back to 1904 and was built by Ernst Röver . In the course of the reconstruction of the church, Paul Rother rebuilt the organ in 1947, and in 1997 Heinz Hoffmann restored the instrument. He fully electrified the action , increased the range of the pedal and expanded the swell by a register and the tremulant .

Your disposition is:

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Drone 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Dolce 8th'
4th Dumped 8th'
5. octave 4 ′
6th flute 4 ′
7th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
8th. octave 2 ′
9. Cornett III
10. Trumpet 8th'
II Swell C – g 3
11. Violin principal 8th'
12. flute 8th'
13. Dumped 8th'
14th Praestant 4 ′
15th Reed flute 4 ′
16. Pointed flute 2 ′
17th Scharff III
18th Dulzian since 1997 8th'
Tremulant since 1997
Pedal C – f 1
16. Sub-bass 16 ′
17th Violon 16 ′
18th Drone 8th'
19th Choral bass 4 ′
20th trombone 16 ′

The community

The congregation has 120 members, mostly from Africa , the Bahamas , India , Canada , the United States, and the United Kingdom . The church belongs to the diocese in Europe of the Church of England . The services, which are open to all Christians, are held in English according to the Anglican rite and take place every Sunday. The church and its Reverend are not financed through church taxes, but from donations from parishioners and sponsors.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Jens Meyer-Odenwald: A piece of England in a Hamburg church . In: Hamburger Abendblatt of October 21, 2014, p. 9.
  2. ↑ a b c d e St. Thomas Becket Hamburg. Classicist church in the new town ; Presentation on hamburg.de . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c d English church on Zeughausmarkt freshly renovated. In: Hamburger Abendblatt, September 10, 2013, p. 10.
  4. ↑ Brief description of the history of the church on the parish homepage. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  5. ↑ Information board at the "English House" in Gröningerstrasse. See picture on Commons .
  6. ^ Short biography and catalog raisonné of Fritz Pahlke. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  7. ↑ The company entry at orgbase.nl names Heinz Hoffmann as the successor to Franz Grollmann. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  8. ↑ History of the Hoffmann Orgeln company according to own presentation. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  9. ↑ Entry in the organ database orgbase.nl . Retrieved December 23, 2016.

Web links

Commons : St. Thomas a Becket Church (Hamburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 55.4 "  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 28.6"  E