Frauenkirche (Grimma)

The Frauenkirche in Grimma

The Frauenkirche zu Grimma is a church building of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony in Grimma in the district of Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony . The sacred building, with its two 46-meter-high towers, has a significant impact on the cityscape of Grimma. The church has its origins in a small market church of Our Lady St. Mary, built after 1170, near the old market, today Baderplan.

history

Side view from the south

portal

View of the old town of Grimma with the Frauenkirche

Transept

North-east side

At the end of the 12th century a Romanesque church was built near the old market square (today's Baderplan) , where a wooden church previously stood.

From 1220 the Frauenkirche was expanded in a Gothic style. The nave has four pointed arch arcades on square pillars that lead into a ribbed vault . The transept was built around 1462; the city fire of 1430 also damaged the church. Until the Reformation, the Frauenkirche was subordinate to the Bishop of Merseburg and was the seat of an archdeacon . In 1529 Grimma received a superintendentage .

Building

The Frauenkirche Grimma is a three-aisled pillar basilica made of Rochlitz stone with a transept, a right-angled main choir in the east ( chancel ), two semicircular apses (niches) and a wide west porch with towers.

The oldest part of the church is the west tower front, built in the late 12th century, in Romanesque style. The wide tower structure forms a hall with coupled arched windows. Above it, it is divided into two individual towers, each with three floors, also with coupled arched windows with differently chiseled capitals . The height of both towers is around 46 meters.

The nave or nave, built in the Gothic style, was probably completed by 1240 , originally without a transept. This was created during the partial renovation around 1462.

The original subsoil of the church is gravel and clayey loam in the flood area of the Mulde . Like the churchyard, the site was therefore raised by around 1.5 meters. Structural changes were made in 1837, 1888 and 1928.

The ship originally had a flat ceiling and was probably vaulted during the renovation in 1462. The pillars, which are provided with plinths and spars , have pointed arches. The three connecting, slender windows of the sanctuary can be found in the same way on the hollow or east side of the Grimma monastery church .

altar

Baptismal font and altar by candlelight

Left chancel window in the Frauenkirche Grimma

The most important work of art in the Frauenkirche is the late Gothic winged altar from around 1510. It is considered the work of the "Master of the Knauthainer Altar". In the middle part it shows the birth of Christ, in the lower part and the wings further scenes from the Christmas story (Maria and Elisabeth, the Adoration of the Wise Men, the announcement of the birth of Christ). The altar bears a late Gothic winged shrine from around 1510, which was removed in 1837 and re-erected in 1924.

The altar has the following sculptures:

Lower part ( predella ): The angel announces the birth of Jesus to the kneeling Mary.
Middle shrine: Christ Nativity. The child on linen, two angels bend over it. Mary praying. Joseph approaches with the lantern and protects his eyes from the light. Cattle and donkeys in the stable of Bethlehem. Landscape with shepherds and flocks on a gold background.
Left wing: Maria with Elisabeth (mother of John the Baptist).
Right wing: Adoration of the Wise Men from the Orient.
Outside of the altar, which was closed during Passion:
- Painted sculptures: Saint George, Saint Christopher.
- In the middle: flight to Egypt, child murder in Bethlehem.

The pictures with influence, apparently from the Cranach School, were probably made between 1520 and 1530. The altar crucifix is a Baroque sculpture from 1729.

From the Nikolaikirche, which was demolished in 1888, there are three artistic altar figures made around 1519: Peter (left in the chancel), Paul (right) and Maria with child (left in the nave).

Pulpit and font

The neo-Gothic pulpit was built in the 19th century: Jesus in the middle, the four evangelists on both sides.

The font originally stood in the Nikolaikirche in Grimma, which was demolished in 1888. It was created in 1598 in the Renaissance style. In 1943 he was brought to the Frauenkirche, whose former baptismal font was placed in the Grimma monastery church and is now in the town church of St. Aegidien in Colditz . The brass baptismal font is from the 15th century and shows Adam and Eve, the snake, the gate of paradise and tendrils. The inscription in Gothic letters probably reads “Maria hilf”.

organ

The pneumatic organ with originally 25 registers was created in 1890 by Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden , which was extensively rebuilt in 1928 by Hermann Eule Orgelbau Bautzen (Eule-Opus 167) and renewed in 1974 and 1995. It has 32 registers, divided into two manuals and the pedal . The game and stop action are pneumatic. In 2005 the swell was expanded to include the 8 'oboe register from the owl organ of the Maria and Martha Church in Bautzen, which has not survived. The disposition is as follows:

Manual range (56 keys) C - g ³

Pedal range (30 keys) C - f ¹

I Hauptwerk C – g ³
1.	Principal	08th'
2.	Reed flute	08th'
3.	Quintatön	08th'
4th	octave	04 ′
5.	Pointed flute	04 ′
6th	Fifth	02 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
7th	octave	02 ′
8th.	Mixture IV
9.	Cornett IV
10.	Trumpet	08th'

II Swell C – g ³
11.	Drone	16 ′
12.	Violin principal	08th'
13.	Dumped	08th'
14th	Salicional	08th'
15th	octave	04 ′
16.	Reed flute	04 ′
17th	Harp pipe	04 ′
18th	octave	02 ′
19th	third	01 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
20th	Fifth	01 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
21st	Sif flute	01'
22nd	Mixture III
23.	oboe	08th'
24.	Tremulant

Pedal C – f ¹
25th	trombone	16 ′
26th	Trumpet	08th'
27.	Sub bass	16 ′
28.	Principal	08th'
29	Dacked bass	08th'
30th	Gemshorn	04 '
31.	Zinc IV
32.	Choral Bass IV

Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P, sub-octave coupling II / I, super-octave coupling II / II; II / I, general coupling
Playing aids: 2 free and 2 fixed combinations; Tongue holder; Sill; roller
Pocket and cone shop with pneumatic action

Bells

The original bells were three bronze - Church bells : the great from the year 1453 with the sound "d", the small from the year 1463 with the sound "g" and another dating from around 1400, which was sold 1940th The newly cast bell had to be given to the Nazi regime in 1942 as a " bell donation ". In 1997 the parish managed to raise money for a new medium bronze bell that was cast in Karlsruhe and completed the three-way bell. The belfry is made of oak. Below is a data overview of the bell:

No.	Casting date	Caster	diameter	Dimensions	Chime
1	1453	Bell founder unknown	1383 mm	1350 kg	d´
2	1997	Bell founder A. Bachert	1121 mm	915 kg	f´
3	1463	Bell founder unknown	1097 mm	650 kg	G

literature

A tour through the Frauenkirche Grimma - our city church . Published by the parish, A4 format, folded twice, no year (2005 or younger)
Cornelius Gurlitt 1897 about Grimma and the Frauenkirche Grimma , digitized

Varia

Monument to Martin Luther in the Frauenkirchhof

On July 1, 2018, the radio station MDR Kultur broadcast the service from the church as a direct broadcast and thus drew national attention to the sacred building, the organ and the parish.
At the Frauenkirche there is a memorial designed by Ernst Rietschel for the reformer Martin Luther . The monument on the Frauenkirchhof was unveiled on Luther's 400th birthday on November 10, 1883, it commemorates Luther's ten stays in Grimma between 1519 and 1544. The bust is one of the first five casts of the monument in Worms . These first five were still considered originals at the time and were therefore signed by the artist. This is why the Luther bust in Grimma bears Ernst Rietschel's name on the back.
Concerned about expensive repair work, there was a plan around 1535 to demolish the Frauenkirche and use the stones to build a new Mulde bridge. Luther's friend Georg Spalatin was able to prevent this. In Grimma at that time there was the opinion that the monastery church Grimma and the Nikolaikirche would be sufficient.
The area around the Frauenkirche was the cemetery for the Upper Town until a new cemetery was laid out in front of the Pappischer Tor in 1542. The inner city cemetery wall was removed in 1799.

Individual evidence

↑ A tour of the Frauenkirche Grimma - our city church . Published by the parish, page 2, no year
↑ Disposition of the Owl Organ in Grimma , p. 14 in the brochure Church Music in Grimma - Annual Program of the Evangelical Luth. Parish 2017 ; template
^ A corresponding decree to the Reichsminister was issued on February 23, 1940. In this decree by General Field Marshal Hermann Göring it says: “In the last world war the collection of metal objects was initiated so late that the collection results could not be used to the necessary extent for the purposes of warfare. I therefore order that all objects made of copper, tin, nickel, lead and their alloys that are owned by the public sector in administration and teaching buildings, libraries, state hospitals, rest homes, etc., are accelerated (...), to be sorted out and (...) to be kept ready for free delivery to the offices to be named by the Reich Minister of Economics. ” - Source: Jutta Heller / Fanny Wuttke: The history of the parish church of St. Wenceslai zu Wurzen . Publisher: Friends of the Wurzner Stadtkirche (chairman: Karl-Heinz Maischner), A4 format, 74 pages, Wurzen 1999, page 33 (The documentation is available in the archive of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Community of Wurzen.)
↑ http://www.navigator-leipzig-emittelachsen.de/inhaltsverzeichnis/details/poi-901000049-1-Frauenkirche_Grimma.html
↑ A tour of the Frauenkirche Grimma - our city church . Published by the parish, page 2, no year
^ Rainer Thümmel: Bells in Saxony; Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 : p. 300
^ Rainer Thümmel: Bells in Saxony; Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 : p. 301
↑ https://www.mdr.de/kultur/radio/ipg/sendung-304098.html - accessed on July 22, 2018
↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung , Muldental edition, August 27, 2014, p. 34
↑ http://www.frauenkirche-grimma.de/