Golgotha ​​Church (Berlin)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Golgotha ​​Church, 2010

The Golgotha ​​Church is a Protestant church in the Berlin district of Mitte , Berlin-Mitte . It was built between 1898 and 1900 according to plans by Max Spitta and is a listed building . The church belongs to the Evangelical Parish at Weinberg in the parish of Berlin Stadtmitte . The name of the building and the community was chosen after the hill Golgotha , which lies outside of ancient Jerusalem and on which Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been crucified .

location

Memorial plaque on the house at Borsigstrasse 6 in Berlin-Mitte

The church in the Oranienburger Vorstadt has the address Borsigstrasse 6. Immediately next to it is the building complex of the Theological Konvikt (the front building was called Marienheim when the church was being built ).

Building history

In the first half of the 19th century, the people who moved here belonged to the parish of St. Elisabeth's Church . In order to ensure closer proximity to the population, a massive chapel was built as a branch for the western part of the community on Borsigstrasse, which was laid out in 1859/60 . The designs come from Georg Gustav Erbkam . These Calvary Chapel in Rundbogenstil contributed to the gable of the west entrance side of a ridge turret where the bell was hung. On the first floor it contained a confirmation room and the preacher's apartment. Above was the sacral room , which offered 325 seats.

This first church was located on the site of the Borsigwerk . However, August Borsig increasingly relocated the industrial facilities from this area to areas further outside of Berlin. Subsequently, barracks for working-class families were built on the site . This resulted in an explosive increase in the number of church members. Thus the church council of the St. Elisabeth parish decided to outsource the western part of the parish . This comprised around 14,000 parishioners and became independent on January 1, 1877 under the name of St. Golgotha .

The chapel was too small for the growing community, so negotiations about the purchase of a building plot for a new larger church building were necessary. Because the negotiations failed, the Golgotha ​​Chapel was demolished in 1897. A new church was to be built in their place. The preliminary drafts came from the government building officer Karl Wilde , the planning was carried out by the secret senior building officer Max Spitta . The foundation stone was laid in 1898, and the construction itself was carried out under the royal building inspector Paul Graef by the government master builder Erich Peters. After almost two and a half years of construction, the building was inaugurated on August 29, 1900. At this point in time the church had about 30,000 members.

During the Second World War , on November 23, 1943, the church suffered considerable damage in a bomb attack, especially on the western structure. The street-side gable was destroyed and the vault was broken through. All the windows were broken. Since the organ is not - as usual - on the west gallery , it was preserved - as did a large part of the stalls , the font , the pulpit and the altar on the east side. The bell storey with the bells also remained undamaged . However, as a result of the war, the three predelles of the altarpiece were lost. After the major damage had been repaired, the church was handed back to the congregation in October 1949. However, there was no full recovery. Among other things, the high west gable with its glare fields was no longer fully built, and a large part of the interior painting had given way to new plastering.

In 1965 and 1966 the interior was extensively renovated. All plastered surfaces were given a uniform white color, which makes the red color of the brick strips and straps stand out. In accordance with the color scheme of the new windows - which can be seen as the most successful part of the renovation work - the church pews and galleries were painted a blue shade. The church also received new heating and lighting.

In the 1990s, the renovation of the damaged roofs began. For the centenary of the building in 2000, the roof renewal over the nave and renovation work on the tower were completed.

In the same year, the Golgotha ​​congregation merged with the surrounding parishes of Graces , St. Elisabeth, St. Philip the Apostle, Sophia and Zion to form the Evangelical Church Congregation Sophien , today the Evangelical Church Congregation am Weinberg .

Building description

Exterior

Like the previous chapel, the Golgotha ​​Church is in line with the eastern development of Borsigstrasse. The northern longitudinal wall runs along the fire wall of the neighboring property, which means that there is no window through.

With his design, the lead Max Spitta was based on the medieval model of North German brick Gothic. The outer front is kept strict and simple. The side of the nave - the rise of the west in height by a large group of three of pointed arch tracery windows makes its appearance - the square is tower high peak inserted effectively into the street front. It has a height of 61 meters. The lavishly designed main portal is located in the tower front . In the arched field and the framing friezes it has rich tracery jewelry and is crowned by an eyelash . The door is richly forged .

From the first courtyard of the Konvikt another portal leads directly into the southern arm of the cross. The sacristy adjoining the choir to the south also extends to the courtyard .

The nave with an approximately rectangular floor plan is about 26 meters long and 20 meters wide. With the tower entrance area on the side, the building is wider because the confirmation hall was planned in it.

Interior

The church interior is a cross-shaped, centralized gallery hall with a short nave , narrow cross wings and a recessed rectangular choir with a straight choir closure. The large, star-rib vaulted crossing hides a circular skylight five meters in diameter in its center , which partially compensates for the missing windows on the north side. The nave and choir have ribbed vaults , the cross wings have pointed arched barrel vaults .

Originally, paintings adorned the walls and vaults, which were executed by Max Selinger with the assistance of Paul Graef. They were simpler in the nave and richer in the choir. So were the triumphal arch of the rise of the blessed dead in above the chancel Engels shape the Heavenly Jerusalem , and to see in the fields of the five arched niches of the choir wall angel musicians.

The wooden galleries in the nave and cross arms rest on a solid substructure. The capitals of the columns supporting the galleries are decorated with symbols of the evangelists and rich foliage . With the galleries, the church has a total of 1000 seats.

The first glass windows came from Alexander Linnemann from Frankfurt (Main) . They contained a representation of the Holy Communion above the southern gallery . The windows over the west gallery offered eight life-size apostles and prophets . The rosette in the choir had the bust of Christ blessing in the middle, surrounded by eight angels making music. The skylight showed the shining sun surrounded by a colored frieze.

First, after the war, the windows were provisionally restored from remains. In 1966, the Rostock artist Lothar Mannewitz installed today's glazing. Their change from an unobtrusive shade of blue - which increases towards the top - with white fields gives the room calmness. Mannewitz installed the first concrete glass window in a church in East Berlin above the altar . It shows the symbols of the four evangelists.

The chiseled baptismal font is placed on the right side of the choir . It comes from the sculptor Rudolf Bauer from Schöneberg and shows art nouveau motifs. On the left side of the choir is the pulpit, carved from oak in early Gothic forms . It was created by the sculptor Georg Maletz, co-owner of the Gustav Kuntzsch company , Wernigerode . A stone pillar covered with an openwork frieze carries the pulpit. The altar is of particular artistic importance. A reredos carved in oak and richly gilded rises above a simple canteen made of reddish sandstone . Like the organ brochure, it is made by Lober based on a design by Paul Graef. The main picture by Ernst Christian Pfannschmidt shows - with reference to the name of the church - the crucifixion of Christ, weeping by his people, on Golgotha. The three lost pictures of the predella came from the same artist and showed Jesus in Gethsemane , Christ before Pilate and the burial of Christ .

On the altar is the cross from the war-torn and later blown up Gnadenkirche , which was located in Invalidenpark . In addition, the cross from the St. Elisabeth Church, which was also destroyed in the war, hangs under the southern side gallery.

In addition to the actual church space, a meeting and assembly room was also built on the first floor of the tower, and a confirmation room on each of the two floors above.

organ

The organ of the Golgothakirche was built in 1900 by the court organ builder Wilhelm Sauer ( Frankfurt / Oder ). In keeping with the taste of the time, when GF Steinmeyer & Co. ( Oettingen ) expanded in 1925 , many basic voices were replaced by aliquot and mixture registers . Due to the high susceptibility of the action mechanism electrified in the course of the conversion , the condition of the instrument deteriorated to the point of being unplayable. Since 2011, the instrument has been gradually restored by the Christian Scheffler organ workshop ( Sieversdorf ) with the aim of restoring the original condition from 1900. At the moment only a few stops of the organ are playable (marked with *).

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
01. Principal 16 ′ *
02. Principal 08th' *
03. Viol 08th'
04th Flute harmonique 08th'
05. Gemshorn 08th'
06th Covered 08th' *
07th Octav 04 ′ *
08th. Reed flute 04 ′ *
09. Intoxicating fifth II 000*
10. Cornett III-IV
11. Trumpet 08th' *
II Swell C – g 3
12. Lovely Gedackt 16 ′
13. Violin principal 08th' *
14th Solo flute 08th'
15th Schalmey 08th'
16. Dumped 08th' *
17th Aeoline 08th'
18th Voix Celeste 08th'
19th Fugara 04 ′
20th Transverse flute 04 ′ *
21st Progressio II-III
Pedal C – d 1
22nd Principal 16 ′ *
23. Sub bass 16 ′ *
24. Octavbass 08th'
25th Bass flute 08th' *
26th Octav 04 ′
27. trombone 16 ′
28. Trumpet 08th'
  • Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Playing aids : 3 free combinations, 3 fixed combinations (piano, mezzoforte, tutti), roller

literature

Web links

Commons : Golgathakirche (Berlin)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monument Golgotha ​​Church, Borsigstrasse 6, 1898–1900 by Max Spitta
  2. ↑ Plan of the Golgotha ​​Chapel in the Architecture Museum of the TU Berlin
  3. ↑ Two floor plan sketches of the church in the architecture museum of the TU Berlin
  4. ^ Bauer, Rudolf, sculptor . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1922, part 1, p. 127. “Schöneberg, Ebersstrasse 16”.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '44.2 "  N , 13 ° 23' 26"  E