Friedenskirche (Essen)

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Old Catholic Church of Peace
Gold mosaic in the chancel

The Friedenskirche is on Bernestrasse near the Old Synagogue and the town hall in the city ​​center of Essen . The listed building was built between 1914 and 1916. The creation in the middle of the horrors of the First World War makes the naming easy to understand.

The peace church was in its original state as the most important church of Art Nouveau called in Germany. The Dutch artist Jan Thorn Prikker (1868–1932) played a major role in this reputation . He painted the building with colorful wall and ceiling paintings and also created the golden mosaic in the chancel. There is a window he designed under the organ gallery. It survived the war damage.

Prehistory of the building

The Catholic parish of the Old Catholics Essen , founded on May 17, 1872, did not initially have its own church. It was therefore initially made use of provisional solutions. In 1873 the first old Catholic church service took place in the Evangelical Uniate Paulus Church in Essen. In 1876 the company moved to the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Johannis (today the Adoration Church ). However, tensions between the various denominations called for a permanent church to be built.

Location and surroundings

Century fountain in front of the Friedenskirche

In 1914, the Essen City Council decided to build a church for the old Catholic community. Donors supported the project. The gold mosaic in the chancel, for example, was donated by the large industrial family Krupp / Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach from Essen . On the left flank of the mosaic there is a dedication to commemorate this donation.

A plot of land right next to the Old Essen Synagogue was selected for the construction . The site is located at the intersection of Steeler Strasse and Bernestrasse. In front of the church is the so-called Century Fountain from 1907 designed by Ulfert Janssen . To the right of the fountain is the staircase to the church. The Essen Minster (seat of the Roman Catholic bishop of the Essen diocese ) and the Essen town hall are within walking distance.

The fire in the neighboring synagogue on the night of the pogrom from November 9th to 10th 1938 caused soot on the north side of the Friedenskirche, which has not been cleared to this day.

Overall, the location can be described as central. With the Kettwiger road , the Essen's pedestrian area is a few hundred meters away.

architecture

Original appearance of the Friedenskirche until the Second World War
Old Catholic Church of Peace before the tower renovation in July 2010

The architect at the time was Albert Erbe (1868–1922), who was a local councilor and city building officer , who had worked as a construction clerk in the Hamburg government from 1901 to 1911 before his appointment to Essen . He was able to win over the Dutch artist Jan Thorn Prikker to design the Friedenskirche . This followed strongly the Art Nouveau; however, he found his own way of working in later years.

The brick building with natural stone elements has an octagonal tower. This was originally crowned by an artfully curved copper helmet. Since the church itself is adjoined by community and neighboring buildings on two sides, the interior only has one row of windows facing the street. On the opposite long side there is a gallery inside, which offers space for further church visitors.

Seven parishioners are honored as fallen in the First World War in the tower vestibule .

The church hall has a pressed barrel vault. The chancel with the mosaic is regularly barrel-vaulted, as is the organ gallery opposite.

In 1963 the four large lead glass windows, which were badly damaged in the war, were redesigned. Harry McLean designed symbolic representations of the four evangelists who have since adorned one of the windows. In the course of the renovation in 2006, this work was rated as worthy of preservation. The original windows were therefore not restored. The small double window under the organ gallery designed by Jan Thorn Prikker was not destroyed in the war and can still be viewed today.

There is another room under the actual church interior, the so-called "upper church". Since the renovation in 2005, this “lower church” can be used as a space for events, concerts and church services. The steeple was renovated in July 2010; at the same time, the bells of a divorced Roman Catholic church (St. Peter, Süderichstrasse) were taken over. These are the four smaller bells of the former five-part bronze bell ringing. The bells are tuned to es ′ - f ′ - as ′ - b ′. The largest bell of the former five-bell chime hangs today in the church of St. Georg in Essen-Heisingen. The bells were cast in 1927 by the Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen / Bremen.

War damage and reconstruction

During the Second World War , Essen was very often the target of Allied air raids - as was the entire Ruhr area . The Friedenskirche was also damaged. The original roofs of the church and tower were lost. The loss of Jan Thorn Prikker's paintings also weighed significantly more heavily. The vault that supported them collapsed. The interior was only slightly damaged.

The community managed the reconstruction almost on its own, so that the Friedenskirche could be used again until 1951. However, the once artistic roofs of the church and the tower were only restored in a very simplified manner. The interior was also given an unadorned plastering.

Renovation of the church and reconstruction of the paintings

In the years 2003 to 2006 the small community and its pastor Ingo Reimer, who retired in 2019, managed to carry out extensive restoration and reconstruction work. This was made possible by donations from local companies and private donors. The Rheinisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege also participated in the project.

In 2003, the paintings in the area of ​​the organ gallery were first reconstructed. Three years later, the much more difficult undertaking began - the restoration of the large ceiling painting in the interior. Old photos as well as remains of the originals that were found under the plaster of the post-war years served as the basis for all reconstruction work. The work was directed by the Essen architect Peter Brdenk. Since autumn 2006, the paintings on the ceiling of the interior have been shining again in their remarkable color composition.

In 2005, the aforementioned “lower church” (hall under the church interior) was completely renovated and made accessible again.

In 2011 a glass altar by Volker Küster was added in the upper church .

  • Transition from the row of windows to the ceiling painting

  • Reconstructed ceiling painting in the nave

  • Reconstructed paintings in the area of ​​the organ gallery

Present and Future

The community regularly takes part in action days. These include the “Night of the Open Churches”, the Day of the Open Monument and the “ Culture Path Festival ”.

Further work is required to secure the current building stock over the long term. In July 2010, the provisional tower dome in flat pyramid shape from the post-war years was replaced by a design corresponding to the destroyed original. The brick facade is deliberately not cleaned, in connection with the neighboring Old Synagogue (Reichspogromnacht). A support association was founded in 2006 for the purpose of preserving and reconstructing the Friedenskirche. The declared aim is also to make the listed building better known to the public. For this reason, the community also took part in the European City of Culture Year 2010 in Essen.

The then Essener Verkehrs-AG (EVAG) , Ruhrbahn since September 2017 , has also included the Friedenskirche in its cultural line 107 . This tram connects 60 cultural sights in Essen and Gelsenkirchen over 17 kilometers. The Friedenskirche can be reached in a few minutes on foot from the “ Rathaus Essen ” stop (formerly Porscheplatz).

A new use of the aforementioned Old Synagogue has been discussed since spring 2008 . The subsequent changes in this building have been completed and the previous memorial has been converted into a meeting center for Jewish culture. In the course of this, the synagogue and the Friedenskirche have been given a common forecourt that bears the name of Edmund Körner . He was the architect of the synagogue.

The Essen Peace Church in the media

In spring 2008, the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) shot in the Old Catholic Church of Peace. The report was broadcast as part of the WDR series " west.art Meisterwerke ".

literature

  • Dirk Aschendorf: Farewell to the memorial. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of January 24, 2008.
  • Heinz Dohmen , Eckhard Sons: Churches, chapels, synagogues in Essen. Nobel-Verlag, Essen, 1998, ISBN 3-922785-52-2 .
  • Silke Haps, Wolfgang Sonne: The Old Catholic Church in Essen: A prime example of an urban ensemble of the reform movement. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. No. 3, 2010, ISSN  0177-2619 , pp. 115-120.
  • Sigrun Heinen: Old Catholic Church of Peace: The restoration of the vault design by Jan Thorn-Prikker. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. No. 2, 2004, ISSN  0177-2619 , pp. 93-95.
  • Florin Laubenthal, Wolfgang Schulze: Monument Essen - Guide to the historical sights. Publishing house Pomp, Essen, 1993.
  • Ingo Reimer, Elisabeth Weyerer-Reimer: Old Catholic Church of Peace Essen (= quick art guide No. 2753). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-6852-1 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Friedenskirche (Essen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Pauluskirche was consecrated in 1872 and was located in the city center in the II. Hagen, was then destroyed in the Second World War and replaced by the New Pauluskirche in Essen-Huttrop. However, this has been de-dedicated since December 2007.
  2. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, particularly pages 192, 394, 529 .
  3. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, especially pp. 184, 363, 490 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
  4. ↑ Friedenskirche, Essen. WDR, accessed April 1, 2010 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '21.4 "  N , 7 ° 0' 59.8"  E