Belief Church (Berlin-Lichtenberg)
The Church of Faith in Berlin's Lichtenberg district on today's Roedeliusplatz is a former Protestant church that was built from 1903 to 1905. Since 1998 the building has been owned by the Coptic Church , which is gradually renovating it, expanding it into a Coptic bishopric and transforming it into an ecumenical center. The entire ensemble around Roedeliusplatz is a listed building .
location
The almost completely symmetrical church building stands in the middle of today's Roedeliusplatz ( Wagnerplatz at the time of construction ), the altar is unusually oriented to the north. The square is surrounded by the streets Roedeliusplatz (street at the district court), Magdalenenstraße , Normannenstraße and Schottstraße / Alfredstraße .
Building the church
The skyrocketing population of the community of Lichtenberg and with it the growing number of Christians (around 1900 around 48,000 inhabitants are given) made it necessary to build a large new church next to the existing village church . The village church, which at that time was not sufficient either in terms of the places in the church or the distances for the residents, used the auditorium of a school in Siegfriedstrasse as an additional location for church services. Empress Auguste Viktoria was able to be won as a prominent supporter for a new building; she left the building land for free heritable building rights and, together with a church building association , contributed 80,000 marks to the total of 338,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 2.16 million euros) high construction costs at. The architect and secret council Ludwig von Tiedemann , "who wanted to build against the cold calculating time", carried out a preliminary draft free of charge. Robert Leibnitz , who also carried out the construction from the laying of the foundation stone on May 14, 1903 until the inauguration on Accompanied June 14, 1905. The church was consecrated personally by the German Empress, and the building was named Glaubenskirche . With reference to its two churches, the Lichtenberg congregation subsequently bore the name Evangelical Church Congregation of the Parish and Belief Church .
The orientation of the church to the north is a concession by the builders to the conditions of the building permit: Because the new Lichtenberg Royal District Court building with a representative castle-like facade was planned in the immediate vicinity, the church should form a static and structural counterweight. So construction could not begin until Magdalenenstrasse had been moved five meters to the west. A historical postcard shows Wagnerplatz with the Church of the Faith and the District Court - Lichtenberg-Berlin around 1910.
Style elements of the building
Like many buildings from around 1900, the Church of the Faith was designed with medieval elements in a historicizing mix of architectural styles. The choice of materials and shapes was intended to create the illusion of a Gothic building on the foundation walls of a previous Romanesque building . The masonry construction in the base area was faced with roughly hewn Rüdersdorf limestone , which exudes the defiant Romanesque fortified churches and is also a trademark of Tiedemann. In the area of the towers, however, there are window shapes that are more likely to be assigned to the Renaissance . The wall surfaces above are reminiscent of North German brick Gothic through the use of Rathenow hand-drawn bricks , which is supported by tracery decorations , pointed arches, etc.
Diverse tracery was used on the gables of the side chapels and in many other places on the facade . On the upper floor of the bell tower, the otherwise rather compact facade was dissolved by sound arcades.
The reference to the Middle Ages is particularly emphasized by the fact that the tile format used at the time - the so-called monastery format - was chosen and the old principle of monk and nun tiles was used for the roofing .
In order to meet the demand for a representative face, the gable surfaces and the upper floor of the tower were provided with plenty of tracery. In addition, the two portals have been particularly emphasized by the decorative field above with a tracery structure.
Church interior
General
The Belief Church is a two-aisled hall church with a floor plan based on the Latin cross . The interior is divided into four bays , with the addition of side chapels in the second and third bays to accommodate the galleries. This widening of the room, similar to a transept, creates the impression of four aisles. The fourth yoke is formed by a so-called four-sixth choir, that is, its shape results from the four sides of a regular hexagon. The upper part of the room is formed by reticulated vaults that are not uniform and are not entirely regular. The row of slender sandstone pillars had to be placed in the middle of the room, which ends at the top of the triangular choir . According to sources, this was planned to create a suitable place for the magnificent carved altar from the Bethanienkirche .
On the south side of the building there is a chapel, which is flanked by two round stair towers with conical roofs and which in turn delimits the main room. These towers lead to the galleries with an organ in the southern area. Along the outer walls, narrow walkways lead to the side chapels, in which the gallery is for the audience.
Altar, choir, pulpit and jewelry
In the choir apse stands the above-mentioned altar , which is framed by side chapels that are created by the tent roofs of the two north towers. The pointed arched tracery windows on the outer wall of the choir are decorated with colored glass mosaics and show figures from the Bible. The altarpiece is a gothic carving made of oak by the Wernigerode sculptor Gustav Kuntzsch and was previously in the Bethanienkirche , where it had covered the splendid central window. It has been preserved and is now also used by the Copts.
The pulpit , which is also wooden , was made by Gustav Stein in 1905. The pulpit is also decorated with copper reliefs.
As a tribute to the fashion of the time, Art Nouveau elements were incorporated into the furnishing elements such as church pews or railings in the galleries . When it was completed, the church provided space for 1,350 people. The original colored wall paintings, of which only minor remains can be discovered, were later painted over in one color.
Church tower and bells
The central bell tower on the south front of the church has a rectangular floor plan, but was designed as a twin tower in the upper area. With its octagonal copper helmets and a total height of 61 meters, it protrudes from the surrounding buildings and is therefore visible from afar; it shapes the effect of the church and district court ensemble. In the tower there is a three-part chime made of cast steel bells that were cast by the Bochum association . An inventory list of the foundry contains the following information: the ensemble of bells with clapper, bearing, axes and chime lever cost 5726 marks to manufacture .
| size | Chime | Weight (kg) | lower diameter (mm) |
Height (mm) | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| greatest | H | 2202 | 1773 | 1480 | unknown |
| middle | dis | 1266 | 1430 | 1275 | unknown |
| smallest | f sharp | 783 | 1260 | 1120 | unknown |
use
Due to the poor structural condition of the building and the dwindling number of members of the Protestant parish, the church was no longer used for church services from the 1970s; instead, like other church events, these took place in the parish hall opposite at Schottstrasse 6. Today the old parish church in Lichtenberg is used exclusively for the parish services.
The Lichtenberg Protestant congregation temporarily organized an evening café for the homeless in the church and an emergency overnight stay in the winter months .
In 1996 the church building was taken over by the Coptic Orthodox Congregation in Berlin, which is one of ten Coptic congregations in all of Germany. The church is to be converted into a Coptic bishop's seat , for which renovations, especially in the roof area and inside, were and must be carried out; a lot is done in-house and thus remains financially manageable. The cost of a complete renovation was estimated at around 1.5 million euros. The previous restoration measures have been continuously supported by the German Foundation for Monument Protection with over 460,000 euros to date.
The services of the Coptic congregation take place in the former baptistery. In 2000, the Copts named their Berlin church St. Antonius and St. Shenouda .
literature
- Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin. Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag (CZV), Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-7674-0158-4 , p. 415.
- The architectural and art monuments in the GDR. Capital Berlin . Vol. II, Institute for Monument Preservation at Henschelverlag, Berlin 1987.
- Jan Feustel : Walks in Lichtenberg. Berlinische Reminiszenzen 75, Haude and Spener, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7759-0409-3 .
- Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin (ed.): Berlin and its buildings , part VI, sacred buildings . Verlag Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-433-01016-1 , p. 108 f., 383, figs. 251–253 .
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Website of the Coptic Community of Berlin
- Berit Müller: Center for the Copts: Former religious church was consecrated by the empress. In: Berliner Woche , January 8, 2018.
- Seventh funding contract for St. Antonius and Shenouda in Lichtenberg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Huhn: Cold times, warm rooms . From the series Walks in Berlin on the Berlin Street Media website, accessed on April 14, 2018.
- ↑ Religious Church and District Court on Wagnerplatz , accessed on April 14, 2018.
- ^ Emil Unger: History of Lichtenberg up to the acquisition of city rights , Verlag W. Weber, Berlin 1910, p. 147.
- ^ Ernst Kaeber (ed.) With the collaboration of KH Wels and Eberhard Krätschell: Lichtenberg - building blocks for the history of a cosmopolitan district. R. v. Decker's Verlag G. Schenck, Berlin 1935, p. 176.
- ^ Jan Feustel: Walks in Lichtenberg , Verlag Haude and Spener, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7759-0409-3 , p. 29
- ↑ a b compilation of the bells delivered to Berlin and the surrounding area ; Bochum Association, around 1900. In the archive of the Köpenick Church of St. Josef, viewed on August 6, 2019.
- ^ Coptic Orthodox Congregation
- ↑ German Foundation for Monument Protection, Magazine for Monument Culture in Germany - Monuments, February 2020 edition: Happiness for the former religious church in Berlin-Lichtenberg (p. 56)
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 53.6 ″ N , 13 ° 29 ′ 22.5 ″ E