French cathedral

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View of the French Cathedral from the Gendarmenmarkt

The French Cathedral is a monument on Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin 's Mitte district . Built on behalf of Frederick II in the years 1780–1785 by Carl von Gontard in the Baroque style , it borders the French Church to the east and is opposite the German Cathedral . After being damaged in the Second World War , the French Cathedral was rebuilt from 1978–1983 true to the original and modern inside. Since 1931 it has been home to the Huguenot Museum .

Origin of the term

The French Cathedral is a domed tower that was added to the east of the French Friedrichstadtkirche between 1780 and 1785. This was built in 1701–1705 for Reformed religious refugees from France, the Huguenots . The connected buildings are often referred to as the French Cathedral . The name cathedral for the tower, which has no spiritual function, does not designate an episcopal church in this case , but comes from the French word "dôme", which means "dome". The same applies to the German Cathedral on the south side of the Gendarmenmarkt. The associated church was built at the same time as the French Friedrichstadtkirche for the Lutheran residents of Friedrichstadt as the New Church .

history

View from the German to the French Cathedral, October 1951

In the course of the redesign of the Gendarmenmarkt, which began in 1773 , the Prussian King Frederick the Great had both churches added to a representative square with two symmetrical, functionless towers in order to enhance the splendor and the urban development effect. The model for the domed towers on the Gendarmenmarkt were the domed churches on the Piazza del Popolo in Rome , but also the Thames view of the building complex of Greenwich Hospital in London by Christopher Wren . The design of the dome towers themselves in the tradition of Palladian and rezipiert also the church then under construction Sainte-Geneviève in Paris , now the Panthéon , by Jacques-Germain Soufflot . The builders of the tower were Carl von Gontard and Georg Christian Unger .

The cemetery of the Huguenot congregation had to give way to the construction of the French Cathedral, which received a free right of use for all time for the tower, which now belongs to the city of Berlin. In the 19th century, in addition to the apartments of the sexton and the clerk, the French Cathedral School Berlin was housed in this tower : on the north side a boys 'school, on the south side a girls' school with six classrooms each and the headmaster's apartment. The tower, which was expanded inside in 1929/1930, has since housed the Erman Hall in the central rotunda and, from 1931, with an interruption during the war, the Huguenot Museum.

During the Second World War , the Allied air raids burned the nave on May 7, 1944 and the tower dome on May 24, 1944. The floors below were spared from the fire because of the concrete ceiling that was drawn in in 1930. The services of the French Reformed congregation took place from 1944 to 1982 in the Erman Hall, which was converted into a church. The rescued holdings of the Huguenot Museum could be exhibited again, and the valuable library was also preserved.

While the church was rebuilt between 1978 and 1985, the reconstruction of the dome began in 1981. It was connected with the installation of a staircase in the tower instead of the Erman hall leading to the now public dome gallery. The Huguenot Museum, which was closed in 1981, was housed from 1983 to 1987 on the newly built ground floor of the French church. On the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin , the tower with a viewing balustrade at a height of 40 meters, a restaurant on the fourth level, a carillon with 60 bells and a Huguenot museum was opened to the public on August 9, 1987 . The Sauermann Salon replaced the Erman Hall .

In 1998 the restaurant in the tower closed. From 2004 to 2006 the facade of the cathedral was renovated for six million euros and 18 of the 60 bronze bells were repaired or re-cast. On August 25, 2006, a carillon marked the end of the renovation and repair work.

Panorama of the Gendarmenmarkt, in the middle the theater or concert hall, on the left the German and on the right the French cathedral, 2008

Carillon

Glockenspiel in the French Cathedral

The dome tower received a carillon in 1987. The instrument consists of 60 bells, has a range of five octaves and a total weight of 29  tons . The bells were cast by Apolda's last master bell-maker, Franz Peter Schilling and Margarete Schilling . The bell with the lowest pitch has a g sharp 0 and weighs 5700 kg. The smallest bell with a G sharp 5 strike weighs 14 kg.

The carillon in the French Cathedral, initiated and first played by Martin-Christian Schmidt , is the second largest in the city because in 1987, also on the occasion of Berlin's 750th anniversary, a carillon with 68 bells was set up in the Tiergarten .

When the technology of the glockenspiel was renewed in 2006, a. some of the hammers were replaced and an amplifier and loudspeaker system was installed.

literature

  • French church and tower. Documentation for the preliminary investment decision, Berlin 1978. Client: Bund der Evangelische Kirche in der DDR, ed. from the Magistrate of Berlin, capital of the GDR, Department of Culture. Drawings of all eleven tower levels and illustrations of the interior of the tower.
  • Margarete Schilling : The new carillon in the French tower. In: Kulturbauten , Heft 1, Berlin 1987.

Web links

Commons : French Cathedral  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes E. S. Schmidt: The French Cathedral School and the French Gymnasium in Berlin. Student memories 1848–1861. Edited and commented by Rüdiger R. E. Fock. Publishing house Dr. Kovač , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3478-0 .
  2. ↑ Götz Eckardt (ed.): Fates of German architectural monuments in the Second World War. A documentation of the damage and total losses in the area of ​​the German Democratic Republic. Volume 1. Berlin - capital of the GDR, districts Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Frankfurt / Oder, Cottbus, Magdeburg . Henschel, Berlin 1980, p. 6 f. (with pictures).
  3. ↑ Gerd Fischer: The Huguenots in Berlin. 1985, p. 62.
  4. ↑ Ursula Fuhrich-Grubert: The French Church in Berlin, its institutions 1672-1945. 1992.
  5. ↑ The bells are ringing in the French Cathedral. In: Berliner Zeitung . August 26, 2006
  6. ↑ Jeffrey Bossin : Martin-Christian Schmidt - First Carillonneur at the French Church in Berlin. In: Communication from the German Glockenspielvereinigung. No. 20, December 1991. On-line at author's website, accessed December 28, 2011.
  7. ↑ See also: Jeffrey Bossin : The Carillons of Berlin and Potsdam. Stapp, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-87776-556-4 .
  8. ↑ Information on the Glockenspiel ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. (PDF) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ottobuer.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 52 ″  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 32 ″  E