Holy Spirit Church (Mannheim)
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The Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Mannheim is a large neo-Gothic Catholic church in the Schwetzingerstadt / Oststadt district . It was built between 1898 and 1903 according to plans by Ludwig Maier .
history
Due to the rapid population growth in Mannheim in the second half of the 19th century, the number of Catholics also increased. To the east of the city center , the new districts Oststadt and Schwetzingerstadt were created , where the number of Catholic residents rose from 3,500 in 1888 to 7,900 around 1900. The pastors of the Upper Parish at the Jesuit Church were responsible for pastoral care . In 1888 plans began to found a parish of their own. After long negotiations with the city, Mannheim's Catholic community received the land required for a new church between Seckenheimer, Roonstrasse and Moltkestrasse in exchange for the property of the old school church - the former church of the Augustinian Choir Women Monastery in L1, 1 .
In April 1898 the groundbreaking ceremony for the Heilig-Geist-Kirche took place. A first service in the unfinished church was held on November 18, 1900, when a parish office was established. The church celebrations of the General Assembly of German Catholics , which met in 1902 in the Mannheim Rosengarten , also took place in the new church. The Holy Spirit Church was consecrated on March 15, 1903 by the Archbishop of Freiburg, Thomas Nörber . In 1906 the curate was elevated to a parish . The painter Fritz Muth painted the interior until 1914 . Even after the construction of the church, the number of inhabitants continued to rise steeply, so that in 1919 Heilig-Geist was the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Freiburg and therefore St. Peter's Church was built in the eastern part of Schwetzingen by 1930 .
During the Second World War , the spire and roof structure were hit and the windows destroyed. The church was usable again from 1947 and became an important meeting place for Mannheim's Catholics after the end of the war. Until 1953 the church was renovated under the direction of Hans Rolli and a simplified spire was put on. The windows were renewed and the historical ornamental wall paintings removed, as the "lame neo-Gothic of the turn of the century" was viewed as unattractive and out of date. In 1996 a large modern parish hall was added to the rectory. Since 2004 the parish with the St. Peter parish ( Schwetzingerstadt ) and the St. Pius parish ( Neuostheim ) belong to the pastoral care unit “Am Luisenpark ”. The church is also used by the Croatian Catholic community.
In the summer of 2007, considerable damage was discovered in the pinnacles in the upper part of the outer stone jewelry. During the last renovation in 1978, this ornament was replaced by parts cast in concrete, which were coated with a light red plastic. This combination of materials turned out to be not very durable. The tracery windows and cornices were also damaged. A protective barrier was therefore created around the church for passers-by and around 80 percent of the original 171 pinnacles and finials were removed because they were no longer steadfast enough. The damage to the leaded glazing of the windows was also removed, the pigeon droppings in the gable niches were removed and the openings were closed with nets. This backup work ended in 2008. In 2010 the restoration of the most important pinnacles for the external appearance, 14 large, up to 3 meters high and 44 medium-sized ones up to 1.80 meters high, began after consultation with the monument office. The exterior renovation was finished in 2014, interrupted by the German Catholic Day, which took place in Mannheim in 2012. An interior renovation is planned.
description
The Heilig-Geist-Kirche was designed by Ludwig Maier , the head of the Archbishop's Building Office in Heidelberg at the time, in neo-Gothic forms with echoes of the architecture of the cathedral in Orvieto . The Mannheim architect Josef Kuld took over the construction management . The church is a three-aisled basilica and has a length of 52.5 m, a width of 19.8 m (transept 21.9 m) and in the central nave a height of 19 m. In accordance with the free-standing location, all sides of the east- facing church were designed as display sides . The wall surfaces of the external building consist of yellowish brick clinker bricks, the architectural elements are made of red Alsatian sandstone . The architect added two sacristies to the choir corner, which is directly connected to the rectory. The facade is flanked on the left by a stair tower and on the right by the high bell tower of 68 meters. This houses a six-part chime in the strike tone sequence of 1 –es 1 –f 1 –as 1 –b 1 –c 2 , which was cast in 1958 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling .
German late Gothic forms predominate in the interior. The four-bay central nave is relatively wide, while the two side aisles are comparatively narrow. At the services in the central nave there are sculptures of the apostles and other saints, created by the sculptor Albert Schmidhofer from Offenburg. The high windows and the rose window were designed by Willy Oeser in the 1950s . The sculptor Thomas Buscher created the high altar in 1903. The Mother of God side altar comes from the company Eberle and Mezger from Überlingen. The Marmon company from Sigmaringen received the order for the Sacred Heart side altar in 1914. Some old tombs and epitaphs were transferred from the old school church in L 1.1 . The most valuable art historical monument is the tomb of Countess Ursula von Saint-Martin (1749–1780), who died in 1760 at the age of 30. She was the daughter of the sculptor and architect Peter Anton von Verschaffelt . There is also the epitaph of her husband Claude de Saint Martin (1729–1799), created by Theodor Wagner .
organ
The organ of the Heilig-Geist-Kirche is the work of the organ building company Karl Göckel from Mühlhausen-Rettigheim near Heidelberg. It was consecrated on May 13, 1990 and has 42 stops , divided into three manuals and pedal . The Spieltrakturen are mechanically, the Registertrakturen electrically. The modern oak case with its shapes and ornaments is supposed to symbolize the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit. The sound is based on French romanticism.
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids : 64-fold typesetting system , sequencer
literature
- Festschrift 100 years of the Holy Spirit Choir . Mannheim 2000.
- Sabine Bruss: The work of the architect Ludwig Maier (1848–1915) . Kiel 1999, ISBN 3-933598-04-4 .
- Andreas Schenk: Architectural Guide Mannheim . Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-496-01201-3 .
- Hans Huth: The historical monuments of the city circle Mannheim I . Munich 1982, ISBN 3-422-00556-0 .
- Heinz Bischof: Chronicle of the Buscher Brothers: a forgotten German artist's fate. Fränkische Nachrichten, Tauberbischofsheim 1988, ISBN 3-924780-13-7 .
- 100 Years of the Holy Spirit Church , Heilig Geist Parish Office (ed.), 2002.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Parish Letter No. 3, 2014 , p. 31, accessed on September 13, 2018.
- ^ Karl Göckel organ building
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 28 ′ 53 " N , 8 ° 28 ′ 32.9" E