Heiliggeistkirche (Frankfurt am Main)

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Holy Spirit Church and Dominican Monastery

The Heiliggeistkirche is a Protestant church in Frankfurt am Main. It was inaugurated on the second Advent in 1961 as a reconstruction of the late Gothic hall church of the Dominican monastery that was destroyed in an air raid in 1944 . The Dominican monastery is the seat of the Protestant city dean of Frankfurt am Main and the Protestant regional association , an association of all Protestant communities in Frankfurt.

The Heiliggeistkirche in the Dominican monastery got its name in the tradition of the Gothic Heiliggeist Church , which was demolished in 1840 and which emerged from the church of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit and served the Protestant community of Frankfurt from 1533 to 1840.

History of the Hospital Church

Church and Hospital of the Holy Spirit on the Merian map from 1628
The Heiliggeist Church shortly before its demolition in 1840

The church of the Heilig-Geist-Spital was on the south side of the small Heiliggeistplätzchen in the Saalgasse , which led from the imperial cathedral St. Bartholomäus to the Saalhof . It was originally a small chapel built shortly before 1288. That year, 12 Italian bishops gave indulgences to visitors to this chapel on certain feast days . From the beginning, the chapel not only served the pastoral care of the sick in the hospital, but also the residents of the surrounding district. When the Magdalen floods in July 1342, the chapel is said to have stood four shoes high under water. Siegfried zum Paradies was buried in the chapel in 1386 , next to his wife Katharina zum Wedel, who died in 1378.

In 1447 the city council donated two piles of stones for the construction of a sacristy . He had the monstrance kept in the church , which served the council in large processions to the cathedral and back to the hospital. Between 1460 and 1467 the chapel was replaced by a new building. The late Gothic hall church had two bays with star vaults , richly decorated corbels and a hexagonal choir . The slate hipped roof carried a small ridge turret with initially three small bells, which were cast over in 1723 to form a large bell of 443 pounds. At the same time the hospital was built, a two-aisled hall with seven cross vaults each, which was attached at right angles to the south side of the church. The sick could attend the service from the hall. Half of the hall was later added to the church.

After the Reformation was introduced in Frankfurt in 1533, all images of saints were removed. The small church served the Protestant community for over 300 years. It often served as alternative quarters, for example in 1668 during the renovation of the Barfüßerkirche and from 1678 to 1681 when the Katharinenkirche was rebuilt and from 1786 when the Paulskirche was rebuilt. During the Seven Years' War it served the French occupation troops as a fourage magazine from 1759 to 1762 .

After 1816 the Free City of Frankfurt considered profaning the church and replacing it with the old Nikolaikirche on Römerberg, which had not previously been used as a parish church . A corresponding clause was expressly included in the grant agreement issued in 1830 . In 1839 the Heilig-Geist-Spital moved to a spacious new building on Langen Gasse . On February 16, 1840, the solemn farewell service took place in the old hospital church. Pastor Becker preached about the word break this temple and on the third day I will raise it up ( Joh 2,19  LUT ). On February 20, it was sold to a private investor against the resistance of Frankfurt architects, historians and politicians and was demolished by autumn of that year. The epitaphs Siegfried and Catherine and other ornaments of the Holy Spirit Church were transferred to the Nikolai Church.

Clergy of the Holy Spirit Church

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Wolff , Rudolf Jung : The architectural monuments in Frankfurt am Main . First volume. Church buildings. Völcker, Frankfurt am Main 1896, p. 348 ( digital copy [PDF]).
  2. ↑ The Frankfurt shoe length was 28.46 centimeters

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 36 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 1 ″  E