Gertrudenkapelle (Güstrow)

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Gertrudenkapelle from the south (2003)
Gertrudenkapelle 2019

The Gertrudenkapelle in Güstrow is a listed former chapel, which got its current form through two radical changes in use in the 20th century. Since 1953, it has served as an exhibition space for Ernst Barlach's works and a memorial to him.

Building history

The chapel, which bore the patronage of Saint Gertrud von Nivelles , is first attested in 1430 when a vicarie was founded as capella beate Gertrudis extra muros opidi Gustrow . It was located in front of the Hageböker Gate in the city of Güstrow and was probably connected to a hospital or a pilgrims' hostel. Ecclesiastically it was considered a branch church of the Güstrow parish church of St. Marien and was subordinate to the diocese of Cammin .

In its outward appearance it resembles the infirmary chapels in Klein Grönau and before Dassow . However, it differs in its length and in that the side walls are not made of solid bricks, but consist of a framework frame with a brick layer in front of it. The rectangular, single-nave building, which is not vaulted but has a flat wooden ceiling, has a very flat three-sided choir end towards the east, with the east wall today (and probably only since 1937) being provided with three two-lane window openings. The massive west facade is decorated with five long, arched double niches. Inside it had weak pilaster strips . The shape of the windows and the arched niches inside under the choir windows point to the 16th century. In 1936, A. F. Lorenz suspected that the half-timbered chapel was built as an emergency church after the town fire of 1503 and that it was later clad with bricks. The portals of the chapel are in the north and south walls in a brick core and have a structured and decorated brick frame on the outside.

The chapel has probably always been connected to a burial site, which became the Gertruden churchyard after the Reformation . In the 18th century several mausoleums were built along the cemetery wall and the chapel was also used for burials during this time; The tombstone of the pharmacist Johann Jacob Wahnschektiven from 1737 was found in it. Funeral ceremonies were held in the chapel until the 19th century; but as soon as it was described by Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch in 1856 it was deserted, empty and desolate, long since given up and cleared away . The pulpit disappeared around 1820. The chapel now sometimes served as a morgue and a shed for the tools of the gravediggers .

Inside, Lisch saw painting with brick joints. Still get to the "restoration" of 1936 and documented by photographs Renaissance -Rankenmalerei under the windows and figurative representations in the choir area, including St. Michael as a weigher of souls .

National Socialist ancestral hall

West wall of the ancestral hall with a bust of Hitler from 1937 to 1945

After decades of decline, the town of Güstrow acquired the chapel and the abandoned cemetery from the church in 1931. Efforts by the preservation authorities to restore the chapel initially fizzled out. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the plan arose to rededicate the chapel as a National Socialist ancestral hall . In the Nazi ideology, ancestral halls served to publicly preserve the family history, which was highly stylized in the racial sense . To this end, it was extensively restored from October 1935 . The entire roof was torn down and rebuilt, as well as the longitudinal walls, the wood reinforcement of which had rotted away, and the west facade was also removed except for a remnant and rebuilt. The entire construction process and the extent of the renovations are well documented by photographs taken by the Güstrow photographer Berthold Kegebein . He also recorded remains of wall paintings that were destroyed or whitewashed when the walls were rebuilt. At the same time, the overgrown cemetery was reorganized as a public park .

The inauguration of this second ancestral hall in Mecklenburg took place on August 30, 1937 by Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Friedrich Hildebrandt . In the words of the Mayor of Güstrow at the time, Lemm, it should be a monument to the Volkish idea . Inside the whitewashed hall there was a bust of Hitler on the west wall under a sun cross . In front of the east wall was a massive oak table with chairs and plaques with the names of the oldest Güstrow families were attached to the walls. The equipment included a book of honor with family trees from Güstrow families and descriptions of the graves at the Gertrudenfriedhof.

Barlach memorial

Memorial plaque for Marga Böhmer at the Gertrudenkapelle

With the end of the National Socialist regime in 1945, the ancestral hall , which had remained undamaged during World War II , was initially empty again. In 1949 the Güstrow city council decided to set up a Barlach memorial and exhibition site in it. As early as 1934, Berthold Kegebein took a portrait photo of Barlach, which later became very famous, in front of the chapel's portal, which was still in ruins at the time. The driving force behind the memorial project was Barlach's former partner Marga Böhmer , who later found her home on the upper floor of the chapel, which was converted into an apartment. The chapel was freed from National Socialist symbolism, but structurally retained the state of 1937. It was inaugurated on October 31, 1953 as a Barlach memorial. Barlach's sculptures were permanently exhibited in it.

Part of the Ernst Barlach Foundation since 1994 , the building was renovated from 2006 to 2007. The roof was re-covered and the statics improved. Inside, parts of the wall paintings have been found and a field showing the flagellation of Jesus has been restored. In 2008/2009 the chapel received a visitor pavilion based on plans by the architect Diethelm Hoffmann with sanitary facilities and a museum shop in a restrained extension.

Today the Gertrudenkapelle is one of three museums in Güstrow that commemorate the life and work of Ernst Barlach. It houses wooden sculptures and sculptural works. In his former studio house on the Inselsee, wooden sculptures, sculptures and work models are shown. The exhibition forum directly adjacent to this will show other works by Barlach and a graphics cabinet with drawings, prints and manuscripts.

literature

  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : The S. Gertrud Chapel to Güstrow. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Antiquity 21 (1856), pp. 283–284 full text
  • Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume 4, Schwerin i. M. 1901, pp. 253-254
  • Wilhelm Lemm: To St. Gertruden. In: Mecklenburgische Monatshefte. 12 (1936), pp. 296–297 Digital copy (PDF; 615 kB)
  • Adolf Friedrich Lorenz : St. Gertrud. In: Mecklenburgische Monatshefte. 12 (1936), pp. 298–299 digitized version (PDF; 615 kB)
  • Ernst Barlach memorial / Gertrudenkapelle Güstrow. In connection with the Barlach Board of Trustees, ed. from the city council. Güstrow: City Council 1957
  • Bernhard Blaschke: Ernst Barlach, Güstrow Gertruden Chapel Memorial. Schwerin: State Museum 1971
  • Tilo Schöfbeck: The Güstrower Gertrudenkapelle: from half-timbered to brick Gothic . In: Cultural heritage in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. Schwerin: State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation, ISSN  1863-9445 6 (2010), pp. 43–48

Web links

Commons : Gertrudenkapelle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Lorenz (Lit.), p. 298 with a drawing of the construction
  2. ^ Catalog 1000 years of Mecklenburg. Rostock: Hinstorff 1995 ISBN 3-356-00622-3 , p. 483
  3. German Photo Library. Retrieved June 8, 2018 .
  4. German Photo Library. Retrieved June 8, 2018 .
  5. The first was set up in November 1934 in the St. Marien chapel in Wismar .
  6. Lemm (Lit.), p. 297
  7. See the catalog entry in 1000 Years of Mecklenburg. Rostock: Hinstorff 1995 ISBN 3-356-00622-3 , p. 483
  8. The sculptor Ernst Barlach in front of the portal of the Gertrudenkapelle
  9. See Marga Böhmer in her apartment in the Gertrudenkapelle in Güstrow, Gertrudenplatz 1
  10. Helmut Schmidt : Do not tear what belongs together in: Die Zeit , 19/1995.
  11. Visitor pavilion at the Gertrudenkapelle (PDF; 3.4 MB), in: Landesbaupreis MV 2010. 28 promising projects. Info and texts


Coordinates: 53 ° 47 '43.6 "  N , 12 ° 10' 9.4"  E