Evangelical Church Fischingen

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Fischinger Church from the west

The Evangelical Church of Fischingen in the parish of the same name in the district of Lörrach was built in the 13th century and enlarged at the beginning of the 16th. Its predecessor dates back to the 8th century. Its organ from the beginning of the 19th century is a listed building.

history

The first documented mention of a church in Fischingen - dedicated to Saint Peter - goes back to the year 772: "sacrasancta eclesia sancti Petri qui est constructa in villa, qui dicitur Fisgincas". Excavations in 1971 inside the present building confirmed a church built in the 6th or 7th century, which enclosed the foundation walls of a Roman building, possibly a holy place. If one can even guess the underlying intention (helmet ...), this construction site was certainly chosen deliberately, as comparable facilities can also be found elsewhere. As has also been observed several times, the church was built at a 45-degree angle on the remains of the Roman building. The reason for this is not known; actually the angle should have been about 90 degrees to face the church to the east as usual . The roughly square nave was closed off in the east (seen from the church) by an apse , the rounded chancel .

An expansion in the 8th century already resulted in a rectangular floor plan that completely included that of its predecessor; the north wall followed its foundations, while the east and south walls were moved slightly and the west wall considerably. The choir was slightly raised and separated from the ship by a barrier. A grave was found inside the ship, possibly that of the founder. On the west side the building probably had a vestibule with a baptismal font.

A new building with an extension to the south and east was built on the foundations of this church in the 13th century. The transition from the nave to the choir was roughly at the old location and the altar also rose on the foundation of its predecessor. In the 15th century, this building was completely covered with frescoes , although the remains that have been preserved indicate that there was already a gallery in the west .

Around 1525, a new choir was added to the existing building - the choir was thus added to the nave - which was probably also frescoed. It is slightly higher than the nave, presumably with the never-realized intention to raise it too. A square, three-storey bell tower was added to the north of the choir. In the course of this work, large, arched windows were broken into the side walls of the ship. For this, the original small Gothic windows were enlarged or walled up; only one remained as a niche on the south wall. In 1739 the gallery was extended from the west wall to the north wall.

In the 19th century the entire church was redesigned in the neo-Gothic style. The frescoes were whitewashed. In 1972/73 the church was comprehensively renovated together with the installation of a heating system, during which the excavations mentioned were carried out. The galleries were removed, as were all the neo-Gothic furnishings (floors, windows, altar, pulpit, pews). The frescoes, rediscovered in 1934 and then only exposed above the former west gallery, have now been made fully visible again.

Another renovation took place in 2002/03, primarily to ensure the preservation of the frescoes.

description

View from the north
View to the west wall of the church
View into the choir of the church

The church is located in the center of Fischingen. The church tower stands on rocky ground, but the rest of the structure is on clay. As a result, the building is not stable enough, so that cracks in the masonry and damage to the roof of the nave occur again and again. As early as the 19th century, this was the reason for erecting inclined pillars next to the church portal to support the masonry. During the investigations carried out on the occasion of the work in 2002/03, no solid foundation could be found down to a depth of 20 meters from the perspective of today's engineers. Concrete injections were therefore carried out to secure the foundation, but this did not have the desired effect. In 2011 there was again damage due to movements underground. “These processes take place so slowly that you don't have to worry about maintaining it [...]. With the thickness of the clay layers, it is not possible to consolidate the subsoil with a reasonable amount of effort, ”explained Mayor Axel Moick in 2013;

The church consists of a rectangular nave from the 13th century and a higher offset choir with an attached bell tower from the 16th century. Choir and nave are having an acute gable roof covered. The three-story tower also has a gable roof that runs parallel to the nave. On the upper floor, arched acoustic arcades open on each side. A clock face of the tower clock is attached to both the roof gable sides and next to the acoustic arcades. The tower gives the impression of being fortified because it only has narrow slits to illuminate the individual floors. From the basement to the lower edge of the roof, it is provided with a corner cuboid, like the choir and the aforementioned sloping pillars on the west wall.

Inside the church is covered with a flat wooden ceiling. The choir, which is one step higher and has a polygonal finish, is optically separated from the nave by two lateral stub walls in which there is a small arched opening to the north and a larger one to the south. Like all the windows in the church, three pointed arch windows are clearly glazed and have no tracery. The only door through which the tower can be reached is in the choir.

The simple wooden entrance portal leads into the building through the otherwise uninterrupted west wall. The steps of the former stairs to the gallery can still be seen on its north side.

The north wall is opened by just one large window that has replaced an original 13th century church window. In addition, it only has a small, modern, colored glazed window below the ceiling. A window niche of the choir of the church from the 13th century, which is now directly in front of the choir from the 16th century, is walled up. The same applies to the former “women's door” - it used to be customary for men and women to enter the church separately and sit on different sides.

There are three windows of slightly different sizes in the south wall. At least one of them has also replaced a 13th century church window on this side. Two of the previous windows can still be seen, one walled up flush with the wall, the window reveal of the other has been preserved. In the man's door, which was also walled up, there is now a Gothic font. Below the last window in front of the choir is a small niche, the sacramental niche of the original choir from the 13th century.

Murals

Painted clock in the choir of the church

In 1934 the wall paintings from 1420–1430 were rediscovered and recognized as a coherent cycle of images with depictions of the Old Testament. Due to time and cost reasons, the Mezger brothers' art workshop from Überlingen only uncovered the area above the western gallery at that time. During the renovation in 1972/73, the painting on the north and south walls of the nave was made visible again. It is believed that the choir was also painted (around 1528); there they limited themselves to the uncovering of a clock painted on the wall, dated 1551; further fragments are hidden under the whitewash. In 1984 the painting was taken stock and documented by Hermann Kühn from Munich. As a result, conservation work to strengthen the paint layer, cleaning, desalination and lining of the damage caused by the cracking of the building was carried out again and again.

In the individual pictures the figures are spread out side by side. “The figures, lined up according to the Byzantine pattern, were a tried and tested stylistic device to suggest harmony and unity. Spatiality is only hinted at, which is why the figures - in contrast to the Blansinger masters - are not so sculpted. Instead, the drawing element dominates. ”Two phases of painting can be clearly recognized or the handwriting suggests two artists; possibly a third was involved with the ornaments. Only a few motifs fall out of the otherwise uniform painting scheme: a fresco with the legend of St. Alexius in the area of ​​the former gallery staircase on the west wall and a saint (St. Nicholas?) With St. Barbara in the niche of the window of the former choir the north wall.

Old testament

In the upper frieze, individual scenes are each depicted in an arcade field, alternating on a red and green background. These fields are summarized by a continuous crown with dwarf arcades and a row of battlements painted over them. At the bottom, the frieze is limited by the decorative edging of the picture frieze below, unless the walls are painted with brickwork. The frieze initially contains scenes from the Old Testament , all by the hand of an artist. It can be read starting on the north wall and of course contains the creation story at the beginning. However, the first days of creation are only preserved in fragments or destroyed by the breaking of the window, as is another picture that must have shown the fall of man. The frieze continues over the west wall to the north wall and ends there with the sacrifice of Isaac.

  • The upper picture frieze

  • South wall left: God creates heaven, earth and water / not preserved / God creates the birds

  • South wall right: God creates Eve / Sabbath rest of the Creator (rarely depicted) / not preserved / expulsion from paradise

  • West wall on the left: Adam and Eve work / Cain and Abel's sacrifice / Cain murders Abel

  • West wall right: Noah's Ark / The intoxicated Noah (rarely depicted) / Fall of Sodom

  • North wall left: Abraham and Isaac / Isaac's Sacrifice / Annunciation

  • North wall right: Saint: St. Nicholas (?)

New Testament

The pictorial narratives from the New Testament begin immediately after those from the Old Testament in the upper frieze on the north wall. The second artist was active here: “The figures stand differently in the picture, they go beyond the scope; the angel is clothed in a choir mantle in contrast to the angels of the Old Testament scenes. Although the same framing of the pictures continues, another master continued to work here, a younger one. ”Unfortunately, only the Annunciation can be seen there; the other paintings are only fragmentary or have been completely destroyed. The story continues, however, in the lower frieze on the same wall, initially in three rectangular pictures without a frame, then corresponding to the upper frieze with scenes that have partly not survived and are framed by arcades. The other pictures are again rectangular without a frame, beginning opposite on the south wall with crucifixion and resurrection and ending on the west wall with the Ascension. Here the pictures are no longer alternating on a red and green background. The lower frieze is also held together - if the walls do not show the ashlar masonry - with decorative borders, which show arcade arches or cassettes at the bottom and cubes or houses framed by arches at the top. "These representations were made by a third master who is closer to the Blansinger masters than to those in Fischingen."

  • The lower picture frieze

  • North wall inks: Entry into Jerusalem / Last Supper / Christ in Gethsemane

  • North face center: Judas kiss / questionable / flagellation / not preserved

  • South wall, left window niche: questionable

  • South wall right window niche: The hanged Judas (rarely shown)

  • South wall center: Crucifixion scene / Descent from the Cross and Entombment

  • South wall right: Descent from the Cross and Entombment / Resurrection

  • South wall right: Resurrection

  • South wall right: Christ in limbo

  • West wall left: Ascension / Pentecost scene

Bells

Two or three bells have hung in the church tower since it was built. The largest, with an estimated weight of 776 kilograms, was cast in 1519. It bore the inscription: “CH / O sanna, my name is Hans Majer Bester gos me. 1519 ". This bell escaped collection as a raw material in the First World War and was the oldest in the Markgräflerland when it was traded in by the Fischingen municipality in 1925 for a new bell and was nevertheless melted down, against the protests of the Ministry of Culture, the preservation of monuments and numerous local associations. The two larger bells newly cast by the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe had to be given back in 1940 for use in the war industry; only the middle one came back from the bell cemetery in Hamburg after the Second World War . The lost Luther bell was replaced by a new one in 1965, cast again in Karlsruhe.

Surname Chime Mass (kg) Casting year Caster inscription
Luther bell G' 655 1965 Bachert, Karlsruhe "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"'
Osanna bell b ′ 366 1925 Bachert, Karlsruhe “I am called Osanna after the sister who was shattered, I proclaim her song anew in evangelical tongues. Glory to God in the highest. Luke 2, 14 "
Peace bell d ′ ′ 81 1925 Bachert, Karlsruhe "It was war a lot of noble people fell in a quarrel / I call it for all sorrow in the country / diligently to keep the unity / In the right spirit the bond of peace"

organ

The organ by Xaver Bernauer
Register pulls
Decoration of the instrument

The organ , which is now a listed building , was built in 1810 by Xaver Bernauer (1768–1831) from Staufen im Breisgau . It is the only almost completely preserved organ by this master, of which, in addition to a few prospectuses, the work of the organ from St. Cyriak (Sulzburg) only exists in St. Ilgen .

In the uncertain and eventful times of the French Revolution and the coalition wars, especially on the Upper Rhine , only a few municipalities could think of buying new organs. The contract of September 18, 1810, in which the instrument to be manufactured is described in detail, makes it clear how difficult it was to pay in Fischingen. In the end it says:

“The case should be made of clean red fir wood and decorated with sculptural work. So these would be the main things that need to be noted here, above Haupt's work, to put the work well and permanently in place, to take over the sculptors, as well as the Schlosser work, for all of this the most exact demand is six hundred and 35 guilders The community promises to pay the remainder to Georgii 1812 cash to the organ maker Bernauer when the organ is installed . "

The greater part of the already low purchase price had to be paid almost a year and a half after delivery of the new organ. It was picked up in Staufen in November 1810 and it was completed on January 29, 1811. Obviously, it was an instrument that had been made in reserve due to a lack of orders, which the organ builder had already financed in advance. The fact that he had to get involved in such business shows the hardship of his trade at the time and makes it understandable that after falling into Gant (bankruptcy) in 1823 , he died impoverished in 1831.

The organ has a mechanical game and register action with eight registers . The play equipment is located on your side of the instrument and has a manual and an attached pedal .

Manual C – c 3
Drone 8th'
Principal 4 ′
flute 4 ′
Quint 3 ′
Octav 2 ′
Cornet V
Mixture IV 1'
Trumpet 8th'

The organ was restored by EF Walcker in 1950 ; also in the years 1971 to 1972 by Peter Vier from Oberweier . The entire work with bellows , wind chest and keyboards is original. This applies to the registers for drone, flute, quint and (with the exception of the pipes in the prospectus) principal and octave, the other registers have been replaced according to the disposition found.

During the last restoration, the organ was moved to the choir, because its original location no longer existed due to the removal of the gallery above the main entrance to the church.

literature

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Fischingen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Pictures of the frescoes on fischingen.de online
  • Pictures of the frescoes online at gotteshaeuser.net

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Wartmann: Document book of the St. Gallen department , 1853 ff, Volume 1, p. 66 f. on-line
  2. ^ A b c Karl List: An earlier church in a Roman court location . In: Helmut Fehse: Ortssippenbuch Fischingen , 1972, p. 125 ff.
  3. ↑ Helmut Fehse: Ortssippenbuch Fischingen , 1972, p. 128
  4. ↑ Cracks on the Fischinger nave stable for the time being , Die Oberbadische, August 12, 2013, online ; All-clear for church construction , Badische Zeitung, July 19, 2013, online
  5. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler , 1964, p. 128
  6. ↑ Founded by Josef Eberle (sculptor) , at times the largest employer in Überlingen with over four hundred employees. A desideratum in Wikipedia . Literature: Yvonne Herzig: South German sacred sculpture in historicism. The Eberlesche Werkstätte Gebr. Mezger , dissertation, Michael Imhof Verlag 2001, ISBN 978-3932526886 ; Anna Barbara Lorenzer: Between Conservation, Restoration and Construction. Restoration concept around 1900: the Mezger brothers in Überlingen on Lake Constance , dissertation 2008 Introduction online ; Anna Barbara Lorenzer: Between Conserving, Restoring and Constructing Restoration concept around 1900: the workshop of the Mezger brothers in Überlingen on Lake Constance , article in Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg , 2010, pp. 82–86 online
  7. ↑ According to Helm, p. 102, according to the report by Joseph Sauer of December 19, 1934
  8. ↑ Interview from 2008 with him about his scientific work online
  9. ↑ Ehrenfried Kluckert: Südbadische Malerschulen, Fischingen , 2013 online
  10. ^ A b c Annemarie Heimann-Schwarzweber: Art landscape Markgräflerland . In: Wolfgang Müller (Ed.): Das Markgräflerland , 1969, p. 145
  11. ↑ Helm, p. 101 (01.3)
  12. ↑ Little guide through the church in Fischingen , without year (after 1972), p. 4
  13. ↑ 1923 after Helm, p. 102, with reference to Fehse, p. 150 f.
  14. ↑ Little guide through the church in Fischingen , p. 5 ff. The bell can be heard: online
  15. ↑ Bernd Sulzmann: Sources and documents about the life and work of the organ maker family Bernauer-Schuble in the Markgräflerland. In: Acta Organologica Volume 13, 1979, p. 178
  16. ^ Bernd Sulzmann: Historical organs in Baden , Schnell & Steiner, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7954-0421-5 , p. 144.
  17. ^ Sulzmann: Sources and Documents , p. 148 ff.

Coordinates: 47 ° 39 ′ 4.5 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 49.7"  E