Frankfurt city bells

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The cathedral tower during the city bells on Christmas Eve

The Great Frankfurt City Bell is the harmonious coordination of all 50 bells of ten churches in the city ​​center of Frankfurt am Main , which have been the property of the city since the secularization of 1803.

In addition, it describes the custom of the city of Frankfurt am Main, which has existed since 1856, to ring all bells four times a year for 30 minutes each time, regardless of the times of worship. Traditional dates for the town bells, corresponding to the solemn festivals of the church year , are

Even on New Year's Eve, all bells ring for a quarter of an hour at midnight.

history

It has always been a custom in Frankfurt to ring all the city bells together on certain occasions. The first recorded overall bell took place on October 28 and 29, 1347 in honor of the late Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria . In the imperial elections , the town bells were part of the traditional opening ceremony when the electors walked together from the Roman to the electoral chapel in the Bartholomäuskirche.

The cathedral bells from the Middle Ages until today

The bell bottoms in the cathedral tower
The lower bell base with the gloriosa during the city bells

A special focus was always the bell of St. Bartholomew's Cathedral . In 1438 the first bells were hung in the tower of the Bartholomäuskirche, the construction of which had started in 1415. Little by little, the parish tower began to ring ten bells, six of which belonged to Bartholomew and four to the city. The Catholic monastery and the city council were in constant dispute over the use of the bells, especially after the introduction of the Reformation in Frankfurt in 1533. The monastery bells were essentially only allowed to ring on liturgical occasions. Three of the city bells served as chiming bells for the tower clock , while the storm bell was only rung in emergencies.

All cathedral bells were destroyed in the cathedral fire on August 15, 1867. In 1877 the rebuilt cathedral received a new bell, which was created by the Hermann Große foundry in Dresden . The nine bells together weigh 23,385 kg. Among them is the 11,850 kg Gloriosa , one of the largest bells in Germany. The model for this bell was the famous Erfurt Gloriosa by Gerhard van Wou in Erfurt Cathedral .

Five tons of bronze from the rubble of the destroyed bells and 13 tons from captured French guns from the war of 1870/1871 were used to ring the bell .

On March 22nd, 1878, on the birthday of the German Emperor Wilhelm I, the first big city bell took place with the participation of the new cathedral bells.

On December 24, 1878, the magistrate issued a statute that is still valid today, in which the use of the city cathedral bells by the Catholic parish is regulated. In return, the city reserved the right to keep the entire cathedral bells available at any time for municipal or national public, non-church purposes . The bell team (44 people were required to ring all cathedral bells for one hour) was paid half of the city budget.

The cathedral bells survived the First World War undamaged, only the historically significant but musically insignificant storm bell was melted down in 1917 and no longer replaced.

In addition to the bells in the so-called bell bottoms of the parish tower, the cathedral also had other bells at times that were not part of the city bells. So was z. For example, until the cathedral fire in 1867 there was a small storm bell in the lantern on the tower, the Gemperlin . In the roof turret on the crossing there was also the prime or council bell until 1867 , which was rung for the first morning mass at 6 o'clock and for council meetings. The measuring bell in the little ridge on the choir had to be delivered in 1942.

On August 27, 2005, the roof turret on the crossing was put back in its place after a year and a half of restoration . On this occasion, a 132 kg sacraments bell was hung up, which has since been supposed to ring during Mass for the conversion . At the same time, the roof turret on the choir again received a small measuring bell, the only 76 kg Mary bell . Both bells were cast in 2004 by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry in Gescher and are not part of the town bells .

Endowment churches

Since the introduction of the Reformation in 1533, the six Lutheran churches have been supported by the city. With the secularization of 1803, all Catholic collegiate and monastery churches as well as the rest of the church property fell to the city, which also had to provide for its maintenance. On February 2, 1830, after long negotiations , the Free City of Frankfurt issued the two endowment documents for the Evangelical Lutheran (but not the Evangelical Reformed) and Catholic churches, in which the state obligations for the maintenance of the churches and their equipment as well as for the Salaries of the clergy were regulated. The churches were given to the respective parishes “for their cult for perpetual and exclusive use”. The city is obliged to keep the “church buildings and their parts, such as organs and the like, in good condition at all times”.

In 1866 Prussia annexed the Free City of Frankfurt. In the Frankfurt recession in 1869 the assets of the Free City were divided. Assets with more of a state character should fall to the Kingdom of Prussia, and municipal assets to the Prussian city of Frankfurt am Main. The endowment obligations were transferred to the city of Frankfurt am Main.

After a series of changes over time, there are now eight endowed churches in Frankfurt am Main: five Protestant ( Katharinenkirche , Peterskirche , Heiliggeistkirche , Dreikönigskirche and Alte Nikolaikirche ), as well as three Catholic ( cathedral , Liebfrauenkirche and Leonhardskirche ). The Carmelite Monastery and the Paulskirche also belong to the city, but are not counted among the endowment churches because they are no longer used for church purposes.

The city of Frankfurt has always fulfilled its obligation from the endowment. This also included the reconstruction of the churches destroyed in the Second World War during the air raids on Frankfurt am Main . The endowment gives rise to the unique situation in comparison to other German cities that all bells within the historic city walls do not belong to the parishes, but to the urban community. The only exception is the Teutonic Order Church in Sachsenhausen , which did not fall to the city of Frankfurt during the secularization, but to Prince Friedrich August von Nassau-Usingen and, after various changes of ownership, came back into the possession of the Catholic Church in 1881.

The big city bells as an urban institution

On May 6, 1856, the Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt decided : “In the future there will be high festivities: Easter, Whitsun and Christmas on the previous evening from 5 am to 6 am, as well as a general one on the first day of the festival from 7 am to 8 am All bells ring. ”This so-called Big City Bell has been confirmed several times, most recently by a decision of the municipal authorities on September 29, 1978. Since then, the Big City Bell has been held four times a year“ as an enrichment for the citizens ”and as a“ contribution to the promotion of tourism ” instead of.

Second World War and Reconstruction

Until the Second World War , the bells of the town bells were not musically coordinated. Although many valuable bells were melted down during the First World War, the older bells of the endowment churches and the cathedral bells remained undamaged. In 1944, all the endowment churches except the Leonhardskirche were destroyed in the air raids on Frankfurt am Main in the bombing war . In most cases this also meant the end of the bells that remained in the churches. However, as early as 1940 all bronze bells in the Reich had been confiscated as a metal donation by the German people to create a long-term reserve of raw materials. Only a bell, usually the smallest one peal, was allowed as each Läuteglocke remain on the towers.

Most of the Frankfurt bells also had to be delivered to the Reich Office for Metals in 1942 , including eight of the nine cathedral bells except for the Bartholomäus bell. Due to favorable circumstances, the cathedral bells remained intact. At the end of the war they were in the Hamburg bell cemetery and could be brought back to Frankfurt in October 1947, where the remaining Bartholomew bell survived the war undamaged.

In 1954, the city had the Mainz bell and organ expert Paul Smets (1901–1960) and the bell founder Fritz Rincker (1895–1969) draw up a report from Sinn in order to design the new bells to be created for the upcoming reconstruction of the endowed churches. Smets suggested that all the bells be harmonized with one another. The two octaves, nine-part cathedral bells form the basis. The other endowment churches received new bells, the mood of which was determined by Smets. The only special feature was the Paulskirche , which had already been rebuilt in 1948 and received a new bell. The three preserved historical bells from 1685 and 1830 were not taken into account. In 1987, the bells from 1948 that did not match the sound of the city peal were handed over to the city's historical museum and replaced by newly cast bells in accordance with the Smets report.

With the new Paulskirche bells, the musical concept of a harmoniously coordinated town bells was essentially realized, even if, in the strict sense, the bells of the Carmelite monastery, cast in 1995, completed the town bells. The ten bells were not given a central electronic control . With the decentralized controls available in many churches, the ringing machines can be programmed individually for the city bell, if manual operation is not preferred.

Disposition

The two small bells of Paulskirche and the smallest bell of St. Leonhard were not originally included in Smets' plans. The bell of the Carmelite Church was planned an octave lower. Smets distinguished three sound groups, one of which formed the cathedral bells in major , the second one in minor (Pauls, Katharinen and Liebfrauenkirche). The bells of the third group (Old Nikolaikirche, St. Leonhard and Dreikönigskirche) were integrated into the overall sound. Next to it are the bells of St. Peter's Church and the Church of the Holy Spirit, while the Carmelite Church was supposed to form the crown of sound in order to bring about "the splendid conclusion of the overall bells upwards".

The four-part bell of the Teutonic Order Church in Sachsenhausen , on the other side of the Main opposite the city center, is also harmoniously coordinated with the town bell.

The individual bells are described below in the order in which they were made.

St. Bartholomew's Cathedral

St. Bartholomew's Cathedral
The Gloriosa is the largest bell in the city peal

The nine-part bell of the cathedral was cast by Hermann Große in Dresden in 1877 and has a total weight of 23,384.5 kg; half of this is accounted for by the gloriosa . In 1987, Gloriosa and Bartholomäus had to be welded on due to casting defects, which also increased their decay time by 60 seconds each.

Four bells are used to strike the clock : the quarter- hour strike is given by the smallest bell and John (9 and 7), the full hour strike by Salveglocke and Bartholomäus (4 and 3).

The bells, beginning with the largest, have the following inscriptions - not reproduced here to the letter (German translation in brackets).

Katharinenkirche

Katharinenkirche

In 1954, St. Catherine's Church was rung out of four bells that were cast in Sinn by the Rincker foundry :

The four bells together weigh 7943 kg, so the ringing is the third largest of the city bells after the cathedral and Paulskirche.

Church of Our Lady

Church of Our Lady

When it was rebuilt in 1954, the Liebfrauenkirche received five bells from the foundry Gebr. Rincker with a total weight of 3619 kg. The angelus bell , which was cast by Benedict and Johann Schneidewind in Frankfurt in 1745, hangs in the roof turret on the church choir. It is not part of the city bells.

St. Leonhard

Leonhard's Church

The six-part bell of the Catholic parish and former collegiate church of St. Leonhard was cast in 1956 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling in Heidelberg . It has a total weight of 2619 kg. The bells have the following dimensions and inscriptions (translation in brackets):

Old Nikolaikirche

Nikolaikirche

Due to their slim tower, the four bells, cast in 1956 by the Rincker foundry in Sinn, are relatively small and sound in a one- to two-stroke pitch. Together they weigh 1319 kg and bear the following inscriptions:

In addition, this church has had a carillon since 1939 , which is not part of the city bells . It was cast in 1957 and expanded to a total of 47 bells in 1959 and 1994. It covers the range from g 1 to c 5 (of which c 2 to c 5 is chromatic). The bells together weigh 3500 kg, with the largest of them weighing 560 kg alone. It can be heard three times a day at five minutes past the hour at 09:05, 12:05 and 17:05. Two programmed melodies are played, a church song and a folk song. The glockenspiel can also be played using a keyboard and pedals . Such concerts generally only take place on special occasions.

Dreikönigskirche

Dreikönigskirche, Sachsenhausen

The five bells of the Dreikönigskirche come from the foundry Gebr. Bachert in Bad Friedrichshall- Kochendorf. They were cast in 1956 and together weigh 3984 kg.

Holy Spirit Church

Holy Spirit Church

In 1958, the Heiliggeistkirche in the Dominican monastery received a small peal of three bells from the Rincker brothers. Together they weigh 841 kg and coincide with the three smallest bells of the cathedral peal.

Peterskirche

Peterskirche

As the last of the inner-city churches destroyed in the war, the Peterskirche received its current ringing from four bells, which also come from the Rincker company, when it was rebuilt in 1964. Together they weigh 5013 kg and are named:

Paulskirche

Paulskirche

When it was rebuilt in 1948, the Paulskirche initially received a musically unsuccessful bell, which also did not match the later concept of the town bell. The Chamber of Commerce of the British zone of occupation donated a monumental steel bell , the Evangelical Church in Thuringia four bronze bells from the Schilling foundry in Apolda . All bells had failed musically, which was due to the wrong construction of the steel bells and the lack of high-quality bell bronze for the bronze bells. Only the historical Christ bell from 1830 had musical value.

It was not until the extensive church renovation in 1987 that the plan of the bell expert Paul Smets was completed. The post-war bells were handed over to the Historical Museum , whose holdings had meanwhile rediscovered two preserved bells from Paulskirche from 1685 and 1830. The three historic bells were supplemented in 1987 by three new bells from the Karlsruhe bell and art foundry .

The citizen bell (f sharp 0 ) commemorates the proclamation of civil and human rights by the National Assembly. It bears the inscription BÜRGERGLOCKE HEISSE ICH / DER BÜRGER RECHTE KÜNDE I / DIE KARLSRUHER BELL FOUNDRY GOSS MICH 1987 and a book of pictures with events in German history from 1848 to 1949. It is one of the largest bells made in Germany after the Second World War. The city bell (h 0 ) is intended to commemorate the dead in the war and the destruction of the city. The historic Christ bell cis 1 broke out of its yoke when the city bells on Pentecost Saturday 1997 and fell down, completely destroying it. As a replacement, the Rincker company in Sinn cast a new c-sharp 1 bell of the same weight in 1998 , the anniversary bell , named after the 150th anniversary of the Frankfurt National Assembly.

The Paulskirche today has two historical and four modern bells with a total weight of 15,942 kg. This makes it the second largest in Frankfurt after the cathedral bell.

Carmelite monastery

Carmelite monastery

The Carmelite Monastery received four small cymbal bells in 1995, which form the treble of the city bells . With this, the disposition of the city bells was completed after more than 40 years. However, the tuning of the bells is an octave higher than Paul Smets planned in 1954, so the total weight is only 141 kg instead of 585.

tour

There is no place from which all the bells involved in the ringing of the city can be heard at the same time. Rather, the sound experience is only accessible through a walk. Only then can one take a position for all the churches, which are spread over an area of ​​approx. 1.1 × 0.75 km, which allows all individual bells to be heard, because the sound range and vocal penetration of the individual bells are very different. Since the sound is refracted and reflected in many cases by the dense development of the inner city, the sound impressions can often change significantly within a few meters.

Since a city bell only lasts 30 minutes, the listener should keep moving almost continuously in order to be able to visit all the churches; Depending on the weather, it can also make sense to complete the route by bike, which allows you to change location more quickly. However, pedestrians can cause significant disabilities, especially on Christmas Eve when thousands of visitors flock to the city center to hear the bells ring. The liveliest places are mostly the Neue Kräme , Paulsplatz , Römerberg and Eiserne Steg .

The following description is one way to experience a city chime:

The listener begins at the Hauptwache with the bell of the Katharinenkirche. From there the path leads over the Zeil to the confluence with Brönnerstraße. Here you should make a short detour over to Stephanstrasse in order to be able to hear the Peterskirche, which is somewhat decentralized with its bells. Back on the Zeil, the route leads directly to the Hasengasse towards the cathedral tower, where its mighty bells can be heard for the first time. After about 200 m, turn right through Töngesgasse . On the Liebfrauenberg , the five-part bell of the Liebfrauenkirche sounds, and if the visitor walks a few meters further or turns briefly to the right, the bell is combined with that of the Katharinenkirche.

From Liebfrauenberg it goes down the Neue Kräme to Paulsplatz . On the way there, the big peal of the Paulskirche becomes more and more clear. After crossing Braubachstrasse , the listener reaches Römerberg . Here the three bells of the Paulskirche, the Nikolaikirche and the cathedral connect with each other.

The walk leads over the old market towards the cathedral, which is circled on the north and east sides. The bells of the Heiliggeistkirche can be heard at the level of the cathedral choir through the Kannengießergasse.

The best sound impression of the cathedral can be heard south of the tower from the Weckmarkt . Here, especially on Christmas Eve, when the town bells take place in the dark, the gloriosa can be clearly seen in the illuminated bell house. Their sound is so dominant that the other eight cathedral bells can hardly be heard at this point.

That changes as soon as the visitor walks a few meters to the west into Saalgasse and enters one of the inner courtyards of the blocks there. The sound of the Gloriosa is muffled by the perimeter block development so that all cathedral bells and above the bells of the Old Nikolaikirche can be heard.

From here the path goes to the Main, which is reached approximately at the level of the Saalhof chapel . The bells of the Dreikönigskirche ring across the river. If you walk a few meters north in the direction of Saalgasse, you can suddenly hear the bells of three churches (cathedral, Dreikönig, St. Nikolai).

The example route goes along the banks of the Main, past the Eiserner Steg to the Leonhardstor, where the Leonhardskirche with its six bells can be heard. On the way back through Buchgasse , the little bells of the Carmelite monastery can still be heard.

Paulsplatz is suitable as the final place for the great Frankfurt city bells. The large civic bell of the Paulskirche rings for another five minutes.

The city bells as an instrument of political debate

In 2005 the first Advent fell in November. As a result, the Frankfurt magistrate permitted the opening of shops in the city center for the first time on an Advent Sunday, because the legal situation that had been in effect until then only forbade shops to open on Sundays in December. On November 18, 2005, the Evangelical and Catholic Churches in Frankfurt announced in a joint press conference that the bells of the inner-city churches should be silent on Saturday, November 26th, 2005 as a "sign of silent protest" against the first Sunday in Advent, which was open for sale. The churches saw this as a departure from the “special public and political appreciation of church holidays”. Thus the requirement for the 1978 contractually agreed big city bell on the part of the city no longer applies. The Catholic Church called on its members to boycott Sunday shopping.

For the first time since 1978 there was no city bell. The magistrate had declared that the opening of the shops on the First Advent in 2005 was intended to prevent Frankfurt residents from migrating to the surrounding area to shop. In numerous communities in the Rhine-Main area and in the large shopping centers, the shops were also open on the First Advent in 2005.

The decision of the churches was discussed controversially in the city public for weeks. The President of the Hessian Retail Association estimated that over 90% of the shops in downtown Frankfurt and in Sachsenhausen were open on the first Advent in 2005 and regretted that "no reasonable dialogue had been conducted in advance".

On December 19, 2005, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs announced that Hesse would submit its own shop opening law as soon as the federal government had created the legal basis for this . On November 23, 2006, the Hessian state parliament passed the new store closing law , which came into force on December 1, 2006. It stipulates that in future all Advent Sundays must remain free from special openings, even if the first Advent falls in November.

literature

  • Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch . Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0211-0 .
  • Erwin Hoheisel: The Frankfurt Cathedral Bells - then and now . In: Almanach '77, yearbook for the Diocese of Limburg . Verlag Josef Knecht, Limburg 1977, pp. 106-108.
  • Konrad Bund: Booklet to the record documentation (see below), 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0312-9 .
  • Michael Bermeitinger: Frankfurt's invention is very proud of Frankfurt - Big city bells - Professor Paul Smets created the bell symphony of the ten inner city churches 60 years ago . In: Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz. Christmas 2014 (December 24, 2014); P. 14.

Sound carrier

  • City archive Frankfurt am Main (ed.): The Frankfurt cathedral bell and the Frankfurt great city bell. 1986. 2 records 30 cm, stereo; with booklet by Konrad Bund (see above)
  • Frankfurt am Main. Bells, chimes, great city chimes. Axel-Gerhard-Kühl-Verlag, 1999, CD recorded in summer 1999, digital quality (DDD), with a detailed booklet.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Die Tagespost: Two new bells for the Frankfurt Cathedral
  2. Certificate concerning the endowment for the Evangelical Lutheran religious cult and document concerning the endowment for the church and school system of the local Catholic community
  3. Law on the dispute between the state and the city of Frankfurt am Main from 5./10. March 1869 . (No. 7344). In: Law Collection for the Royal Prussian States . Berlin March 5, 1869, p. 379-392 ( digitized version ).
  4. Resolution No. 566 of the Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt on the joint report of the Evangelical Lutheran Consistory, the Catholic Church and School Commission and the Police Office . Minutes of the Grand Council, quoted from Konrad Bund: The Great Frankfurt City Bell. In: Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1986.
  5. ^ Konrad Bund (Ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch . Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0211-0 , p. 436.
  6. ^ Kurt Kramer: The welding of the two Gloriosa bells in the domes in Erfurt (1985) and Frankfurt (1987) . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Born in 1989/1990, p. 106 ff.
  7. ↑ The bell in the Paulskirche crashed
  8. ↑ The bell of the Paulskirche is complete again ; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 16, 1998.
  9. The bells will be silent ( Memento of December 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Press release of the Frankfurt churches of November 18, 2005.
  10. Controversy over shop opening on the 1st of Advent “We retailers are also Christians” ( Memento from March 15, 2006 in the web archive archive.today ) - Hessischer Rundfunk report from November 21, 2005.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 23, 2007 in this version .