Jakobikirche (Dresden)
The Jakobikirche in Dresden was a neo-Romanesque church building in the city and was built between 1898 and 1901 according to plans by Jürgen Kröger based on models from Rhenish high Romanesque. Until its destruction in 1945 and the subsequent demolition of the ruins in the 1950s, it stood on Wettiner Platz in the Wilsdruffer suburb . Since 2011, a designed green area has been reminiscent of this sacred building.
history
Collegiate Church as a predecessor
At today's Wettiner Platz, the "old hospital" stood since 1568, to which from 1681 a "special prayer room" belonged. This prayer room was later extended to a chapel, a “poor building with a house-like appearance”, the interior of which is said to have consisted of remains of older altars and monuments. In 1738 the chapel was rebuilt, raised and provided with galleries with funds from the recently established Ehrlich Foundation , and it now served as a collegiate church.
The inhabitants of this urban area belonged to the Annenkirche parish, which, however, had become the largest parish in Dresden in the middle of the 19th century with 41,000 parishioners. In 1884, therefore, about 15,000 parishioners were cleared and the Jacobi community was founded. This took over the dilapidated and much too small collegiate church for a few years. The name Jakobigemeinde is reminiscent of the old, abandoned Jakobihospital, which stood between the streets Am See, Annenstraße and Jakobigasse.
The last service was celebrated in the collegiate church on June 27, 1897. The demolition then began immediately.
Building history
The Jakobigemeinde had announced an architectural competition for the new building of the church. 68 designs were submitted for the new building. The jury chose the work of the Berlin architect Jürgen Kröger (1856–1928).
The first groundbreaking for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. James took place on November 11th, 1897, the foundation stone was laid on March 22nd, 1898. The outer glazing and heating system were completed by the winter of 1899/1900 and the cross was erected on July 15th, 1900 placed on the top of the tower, the consecration was on the 1st Advent in 1901.
Richard Schmidt was cantor and organist here from 1901 to 1916 .
Building description
The sacred building was created in solid sandstone as an externally visible central building. In fact, the interior was a short three-aisled basilica with a short transept and a retracted semicircular choir on a floor plan 55 meters long and 31 meters wide. The church was created in the neo-Romanesque style by the Berlin architect Jürgen Kröger based on the type of Romanesque churches of the Rhineland (see also Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ). The dominant feature was the strong, octagonal, 80 meter high central tower, which consisted of a steel structure on the inside and was enclosed by a rhombic roof.
The interior was formed by a central nave and two transepts with galleries above. In front of a triumphal arch, steps led to the raised chancel, on which the pulpit made of terracotta limestone was located. A communion relief adorned the altar of the church and originally came from the tomb of the knight of Taubenheim. The stalls made of solid oak provided space for 1,300 people.
Opposite the altar was the organ gallery with space for 100 singers. The organ with three manuals, 55 registers and 3708 organ pipes came from the court organ company Gebrüder Jehmlich from Dresden, as only Dresden companies were involved in the construction, which cost a total of 750,000 marks.
A double cast bronze portal designed by Hans Hartmann-MacLean and financed by the Tiedge Foundation was cast in the Dresden foundry A. Milde & Co. On the preserved portal, which was recovered in 1947, there are four fields in the shape of a cross. They depict the fall of man and the carrying of the cross, as well as the creation of Adam and the ascension to heaven.
The ringing consisted of four bronze bells from the Bierling foundry in Dresden in the pitches B, Des, F (prayer bell) and As (baptismal bell).
Destruction and demolition
One of the heaviest air raids on Dresden took place on the afternoon of April 17, 1945 . Although the Friedrichstadt marshalling yard was the main destination, there was great destruction in the adjacent areas, with numerous incendiary and high-explosive bombs hitting the Jakobikirche.
Church inspector Karl Meise reported in a letter on April 19 about the destruction of the church building: “ (...) The steel structure of the tower, as far as there was wood in it, is burned out and lies obliquely to the right in front of the standing tower, which collapsed to under the clocks is. Both gallery roofs, the organ gallery roof and the connecting roof between the church vault and the chancel vault have collapsed, as have the choir and both galleries. The nave and the galleries including the organ are burned out, as is the sacristy for the clergy. (...) Above all, there is a risk that the tower will collapse. (...) I left the sacrament implements in the safe and also housed the altar candlesticks and the crucifix that were pulled out of the rubble, (...) The paraments are in the closet that is available for them and is locked. The only other inventory left is the chairs in the baptistery and the harmonium (...) "
In the time that followed, unauthorized persons repeatedly gained access and took what they could use. After the war, the city council issued a rescue permit, whereupon the wall reliefs were initially removed in December 1945, and later additional items of equipment were recovered. The company Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden dismantled the still existing organ, bells and remains of wood from the tower were recovered. The latter could be used for the roof structure of the Annenkirche. The two bronze door leaves of the fixed door with the reliefs by Hans Hartmann-MacLean were put into storage in 1947.
Even if the bent iron girders of the tower protruded for a long time over the ruins, the masonry appeared to be stable and in relatively good condition. However, the regional church had no interest in rebuilding, so the church ruins were blown up in 1953 and all rubble had been cleared by 1955. The Jakobikirchgemeinde had already been dissolved in August 1945.
Reuse
After the demolition, an undesigned green area expanded in this part of Wettiner Platz for decades. Only in 2011 did the state capital Dresden have the square redesigned by the landscape architecture office May. The two richly decorated door wings of the main portal, which were salvaged in 1947 and were temporarily located in the Striesener Reconciliation Church , have been protected from the weather as a monument at the former location of the Jakobikirche since 2011 and are now part of a designed green area in which the floor plan of the church can be recognized and the arrangement of the benches is reminiscent of the church stalls.
literature
- Paul Göhler: Festschrift for the inauguration of the Jakobikirche in Dresden. Naumann, Dresden 1901 ( digitized version )
- Volker Helas: Architecture in Dresden 1800–1900 . Verlag der Kunst Dresden GmbH, Dresden 1991, ISBN 3-364-00261-4 .
- Matthias Lerm : Farewell to old Dresden - Loss of historical building fabric after 1945 . Forum Verlag, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-86151-047-2 .
- Fritz Löffler : The old Dresden - history of its buildings . EASeemann, Leipzig 1981, ISBN 3-363-00007-3 .
- Joachim Winkler, Claudia Posselt: The Jakobikirche . In: City of Dresden (Hrsg.): Lost churches: Dresden's destroyed churches. Documentation since 1938 . 3rd, change Edition. Dresden 2018, p. 56–61 ( online edition. PDF; 6.4 MB).
Web links
- Jakobikirche in the Stadtwiki Dresden
- Speech by Pastor Paul Göhler at the laying of the foundation stone of the Jakobikirche in Dresden on March 22nd, 1898
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Winkler, p. 57.
- ↑ According to Winkler, p. 57. Helas, p. 189, gives Ch. Schramm as the draftsman.
- ↑ a b c d Winkler, p. 58.
- ↑ Helas, p. 189 [Jakobikirche. Wettiner Strasse. 1898/1901 by Kröger] and Löffler, p. 351f. [Neo-Gothic: The Neo-Gothic - Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Gothic Church Buildings]
- ↑ Winkler, pp. 57-58.
- ↑ a b c d Winkler, p. 60.
- ^ Matthias Lerm: Farewell to the old Dresden - Loss of historical building substance after 1945. Forum Verlag, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-86151-047-2 , p. 128
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 11.9 " N , 13 ° 43 ′ 26.4" E