Immanuelskirche (Wuppertal)
The Immanuelskirche in the Wuppertal district of Oberbarmen is the former reformed church of the district of Wupperfeld and has been used as a concert church since secularization in 1984.
history
The Immanuelskirche was built as the second church for the Reformed parish of Barmen -Gemarke, as the previous building of today's Gemarker church had become too small for the parish, which was growing enormously in the course of industrialization in Barmen. The Hamburg architect Ernst Heinrich Glüer emerged as the winner of a building competition in 1866 ; the building was carried out according to his plans in 1867–1869 and opened on May 27, 1869.
Building description
The Immanuelskirche is a three-aisled basilica with five bays , stylistically designed primarily neo-Gothic , but inside predominantly characterized by steel and wood structures that are reminiscent of the industrial Gothic of the 19th century. The altar was in the north, the south facade is in front of an octagonal helmeted tower between two portals, through which the church can also be entered. The exterior is veneered with the gray wacke typical of the Bergisches Land . The four corners of the building frame polygonal stairwells. The northern end, which appears from the outside as a rectangular choir, conceals the sacristy, above which there is a gallery connected to the church interior by means of early Christian columns. The pulpit and altar were in a vaulted apse in the center of this gallery. Galleries are also set on narrow steel columns above the aisles; the south side is dominated by a large organ and choir gallery. The steel columns also support the open wooden roof structure. The church originally had space for 1,284 people.
With the union of the Lutheran and the Reformed congregations of Wupperfeld, the Immanuelskirche became superfluous as a place of worship in the 1980s, as the originally Lutheran church (the Old Church of Wupperfeld ) is only a few hundred meters away and from then on served as the main sermon place. Parishioners founded a sponsoring association that was able to save the church from demolition and has continued to operate it as a concert church ever since. For this, the orientation of the building was reversed (the stage is in the south), and a foyer and sanitary facilities were installed in the southern entrance area. The listed church has also been extensively restored since 2003.
organ
The church has an organ made by Schuke (Berlin), which replaced an older Ibach organ in 1967 and has since been the largest church organ in the city. The instrument has 54 stops on four manuals and a pedal . The Barmen-Gemarke Kantorei continue to use the church for their concerts, and numerous other concert and theater events take place in it. The church is also used for CD recordings (including MDG ).
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- Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, IV / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids : 4 general composer combinations, 1 split composer combination
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Homepage of the Immanuelskirche
- Werner Franzen: Places of worship in change: Protestant church building in the Rhineland 1860–1914 . Diss., Duisburg 2002 ( online )
- With cantatas against demolition, a contribution to the Immanuelskirche at Monumente Online
- Sigrid Lekebusch, Florian Speer : Churches and places of worship in Barmen , churches and places of worship in Wuppertal Volume 2 (= contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal, Volume 43), Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-87707-721-4 ( info )
- Immanuelskirche is about to reopen . Westdeutsche Zeitung (online), August 21, 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ More information about the Schuke organ on the municipality's website
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 33.4 " N , 7 ° 12 ′ 58.6" E