Holy Spirit Church (Calbe)
The Holy Spirit Church in Calbe (Saale) has been the church of the New Apostolic Congregation of Calbe since 1948 . It is near the corner of Schlossstrasse and Grabenstrasse. Originally it was a place of worship for commercial travelers ("Nicolai Church"), for the longest time it served as a hospital church ("Holy Spirit Church").
Church "Sancti Nicolai"
In the minutes of the town council of Calbe and in the church book of St. Stephen's Church in 1673 and 1683, the Holy Spirit Church was designated as Nicolai Church. That was certainly the oldest name of the church, which was still in use over the centuries in addition to the designation as the Church of the Holy Spirit. The patronage of Saint Nicolaus indicates a great age and can also be explained by the location of the church. A few meters away was the northern city gate, later called the " Schlosstor ", a very old north-south trade route and the busy Saale . Saint Nicholas of Myra was primarily the patron saint of boatmen and merchants, which is why you can still find Nicolaikirchen in many old trading locations in a similarly exposed location as in Calbe. The low, almost crouched construction of the church building also points to an early construction period.
Church "Sancti Spiritus" (Holy Spirit Church) (Hospital Church)
When a new market center was set up in Calbe under Archbishop Wichmann von Seeburg in the 12th century , the economic focus shifted from the (later so-called) Altmarktviertel with its Nicolaikirche to the Neuer Markt and the St. Stephen's Church located there. At the beginning of the 13th century , Pope Innocent III. with the establishment of the model hospital " San Spirito " in Rome (1204) and other Holy Spirit churches initiated a movement for the establishment of Holy Spirit hospitals.
The rapid population growth, especially in the cities, rising poverty and crime, combined with a "beggar mischief", increased occurrence of epidemics and pandemics (" Black Death ") as well as repeatedly flaring up social unrest accompanied by heretical movements made it necessary to build a “social network” of hospitals , most of which were consecrated to the Holy Spirit as a symbol of reconciliation and salvation. During this time the St. Nicolai Church in Calbe must have been converted into a St. Spiritus Church.
The Calvian Holy Spirit Church was mentioned for the first time in a contract document dated April 10, 1305, with which a will of the Calber citizen Magister Hermann was put into effect. Hermann had transferred interest to the monastery "God's grace" after his death on the condition that a canon took over the service in the "Ecclesia Sancti Spiritus".
After the secularization of the “God's grace” monastery in 1563, village pastors such as the “ plague pastor ” Cyriakus Müller had to take over pastoral care in the Holy Spirit Church and in the hospital. He held prayer hours for the poor and sick in the collegiate houses and the large hospital courtyard, preached in the Holy Spirit Church and gave the Lord's Supper .
August Hermann Francke is said to have preached in this hospital church for the poor and the wretched in October 1702 , as it was said in a lost biblical note , which was in keeping with his strong social commitment.
The altar shrine “St. Anna selbdritt ”from 1464, who had been saved from the iconoclasm in St. Stephen's Church by a Calbenser , came to the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in the 16th century, in 1878 to the prayer room of the new hospital, in 1953 to the district museum Schönebeck / Elbe and in 1980 back to the Stephanskirche in Calbe.
Hospital complex (collegiate houses) for the "Holy Spirit"
The small houses and huts of the Heilig-Geist-Hospital had been built around the Heilig-Geist-Kirche. Sick, the elderly urban residents, who had fallen into poverty were provided in (urban "house poor" in contrast to the vagrant " impoverished ") or any relatives had and then "looked" at frailty after payment of a sum of money to the day she died more or less could live. In addition, the many pilgrims found a sheltered abode here on their arduous routes.
In the Heilig-Geist-Hospital as well as in Schönebeck / Elbe, the Beguines , who were persecuted and expelled from the 14th century, were dedicated to the problems of caring for the elderly and the sick as well as caring for the dying and the dead .
One of the hospital's main concerns was to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. That is why the poor foundations also ran two public bathing rooms . An isolation ward was also part of the equipment of the hospital facility, in modest beginnings since the Middle Ages as a "infirmary".
The hospital houses were rebuilt behind the church after the town fire of 1683. Only when Germany was unified by Bismarck did the state of care for the sick and the elderly in the centuries-old hospital complex become intolerable for a district capital. A modern hospital was built in Brumbyer Straße (today: Hospitalstraße) in 1868 and a hospital for the elderly in 1878. Now the last hospital huts behind the Holy Spirit Church have been torn down.
Foundations of the Holy Spirit, St. Anne and St. George (poor and "poor" foundations)
The money for this welfare facility came from Calber citizens who were concerned about their souls. Charity and charitable donations were among the main tasks of the people in the Middle Ages. The capital flowed in Calbe in the Elenden- or arms foundations, had its own in St. Stephani Church side altars. (One of them was the rescued Annen Shrine.) In 1878 the "United Foundations" were established from this and from the large number of often personal foundations of wealthy nobles and citizens.
The church as a makeshift and warehouse
After the altar shrine had also been transferred to the prayer room of the new hospital (see above), the old Nicolai and Holy Spirit Church was used for a variety of purposes to save it from demolition. She served as
- Fire department tool shed,
- Warehouse of the castle domain and the city,
- Apartment and
- Garage.
Church of the New Apostolic Congregation Calbe
In 1948, the New Apostolic Church of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the City of Calbe were able to acquire the building of the Holy Spirit Church and renovate and partially redesign the inside and outside in the following years. Today there is a lively parish life in the church, which is certainly 1000 years old.
swell
- State Main Archive Saxony-Anhalt , Dept. Magdeburg, Rep. U 4a Founders and Monasteries in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg Monastery of God's Grace No. 51a.
- Adolf Reccius: Chronicle of the homeland (documentary news ...) , Calbe / Saale 1936.
literature
- Max Dietrich: Calbens resting places . Calbe 1894.
- Johann Heinrich Hävecker: Chronica and description of the cities Calbe, Acken and Wantzleben as well as the monastery of God's grace. Charging with copper stitches . Halberstadt 1720.
- Klaus Herrfurth: royal court and merchant settlement. On the early history of the city of Calbe an der Saale. In: Burgen und Schlösser in Sachsen-Anhalt , Issue 12, 2003, pp. 7-14.
- Gustav Hertel: History of the city of Calbe on the Saale . Hillger, Berlin and Leipzig 1904.
- Hospitals . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , Leipzig 1889, Vol. 10.
- Dieter H. Steinmetz: In search of historical traces. A city tour in Calbe an der Saale . (see web link).
- The same thing: History of the city of Calbe an der Saale (an outline - from the beginnings to 1918) (see web link).
- The same, from the royal court Caluo 936 to the district town of Calbe 1919 - history of a central German city from the beginnings to the foundation of the Weimar Republic, Magdeburg / Calbe / S. 2010.
Web links
- In search of historical traces - a city tour in Calbe an der Saale
- Miszelle: The Holy Spirit and Hospital Church in Calbe / Saale on www.oocities.com
Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 22.8 " N , 11 ° 46 ′ 41.7" E