Jesus Christ Church Dahlem
The Jesus Christ Church Dahlem is a Protestant church in the Berlin district of Dahlem .
location
The church is located at Hittorfstraße 23 at the intersection with Faradayweg. The associated parish hall is located at Thielallee 1–3. The other church of the Evangelical Parish of Dahlem, the St. Anne's Church, is located at Königin-Luise-Straße 55 .
Church history
The Jesus Christ Church was a place of the Confessing Church from 1933 to 1945 . Martin Niemöller , who was appointed to the third parish of the parish in Dahlem in 1931, preached frequently in this church because of the high demand for his services, even though his parish was actually assigned to St. Anne's Church further north. For the past few decades, the church has had a tradition of serving as an asylum center ( church asylum ) for people who had to experience persecution and flight and were threatened with deportation. The church is also a place of “fine arts”, as such it is a cultural institution in Berlin: Outside of church services, it serves as a “recording studio” and regularly as a music and performance space for international and local greats, mostly classical music.
Building history
At the turn of the century, the state decided not to lease the fields of the Dahlem domain again. They should be divided into villa lots and sold. The population grew rapidly. In 1900 there were 104 inhabitants and 12,600 in 1919. Many well-known personalities, especially high public officials, moved to Dahlem. The medieval St. Anne's Church became too small for the growing number of worshipers. That is why the Evangelical Church Congregation announced an architectural competition for the construction of a second church. On March 15, 1914, Heinrich Straumer's design was selected for the church building. However, because of the beginning of the First World War , this could not be realized.
After the economic situation of the parish stabilized, the parish hall in today's Thielallee was completed in 1927 and concrete steps were taken to build the church. Ludwig Bartning had a decisive influence on the competition announcement ; Otto Bartning's brother was a professor at the University of the Arts and church master of the community. His preference for the directional church with an altar opposite the entrance and his simultaneous neglect of the importance of the pulpit shaped the announcement from November 1928. In addition, a parsonage, an apartment for an employed organist, a servant's apartment and a meeting room were to be built. The winner of the competition in March 1929 was the Dahlem architect Jürgen Bachmann .
The global economic crisis demanded considerable savings even during the construction phase. So the construction of the second house was postponed. The foundation stone was laid on October 18, 1930 . In difficult times, the parish wanted to set an example: The topping-out ceremony was canceled and the planned funds were paid out to the construction workers for the upcoming Christmas festival. On December 20, 1932, the congregation was able to inaugurate their church.
Interior design
The architect wrote about the interior design:
“The room has light walls and a dark ceiling. The altar wall is adorned with a large carpet of writing [the creed ]. Incidentally, the wood of the stalls and the organ gallery is treated in color. By saving in the construction, it became possible to provide the windows with colored lead glazing , which represents a novel effect of the diamond division and, despite their relatively inexpensive production, show an extraordinary richness both in division and in color. "
The chancel has been covered with shell limestone on which the ten-meter high altar cross rises. He does not have a permanent baptismal font , as a small baptistery was originally planned in the attached parish hall. In the end, the pulpit was moved to the corner of the nave for acoustic reasons. The artificial lighting by freely hanging lamps lets the light mainly shine downwards. This creates an effective room atmosphere, bright below, darkening above.
The existing old one from the parish hall served as the organ.
Acoustics
Professor Johannes Biehle had been concerned with issues of room acoustics since autumn 1929. It was not an easy task for him to design the ceiling of the nave, which was up to 22 meters high, and so he expressed great concerns to the architect.
However, the result was surprising. The acoustics are - and this is unusual - ideally suited for both speech and music performances, regardless of the number of visitors. The reason for this is the roof construction with a slotted wooden cladding in front of a huge cavity between the inner and outer shell of the roof, which absorbs the medium frequencies well, but mainly swallows the low frequencies almost completely. This supports the middle frequencies that are important for sound development.
Exterior design
The architect chose light red clinker bricks for the church. These should correspond with the facades of the surrounding Dahlem villas and the green of the parks. The 50 meter high tower with its friendly play of colors made of light red to brownish-red-yellow clinker bricks was intended to become a distinctive symbol of Dahlem. After completion, four bronze bells hung in it, which were tuned to the notes b, d flat, g sharp and f sharp and were rung electrically. A sculpture by the sculptor Ludwig Isenbeck with the title “Christ blesses the community” was placed above the entrance portal of the church, on the large gable surface facing south .
War and reconstruction
By air raids in World War II, the large windows were destroyed, roof and interior plaster damaged. The four bronze bells were confiscated and melted down as material for war production. From 1945 to 1947 the church could not be used for structural reasons, so the services were held in the building opposite, Faradayweg 10. In 1948 the tower received a single bell from the " Glockenfriedhof " in Hamburg, which fell on August 20, 1953 for an unknown cause. On January 31, 1954, the inauguration of the new steel bells (with the original mood). The bells were manufactured by the (no longer existing) ironworks Franz Weeren in Berlin-Neukölln . In the meantime, the anteroom of the church has been enlarged, which is why the gallery has been drawn further into the room.
Use as a recording studio
Thanks to the excellent room acoustics, the Jesus Christ Church is also used as a recording studio . For five decades, the church has served leading orchestras, choirs, international soloists and conductors, as well as worldwide market-leading record companies, radio and television companies as a production location. The following can be mentioned as music guests: The Berlin Philharmonic with conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler , Karl Böhm , Ferenc Fricsay , Herbert von Karajan , John Barbirolli , Claudio Abbado , Daniel Barenboim and Eugen Jochum as well as international soloists such as Swjatoslaw Richter , Mstislaw Rostropowitsch , Anne-Sophie Mutter , Gidon Kremer , Andrej Hoteev , Olga Scheps , Luciano Pavarotti , Mirella Freni , Waltraud Meier , Siegfried Jerusalem , Wolfgang Schneiderhan and many more.
Record companies such as Deutsche Grammophon , EMI , Decca , Philips Classics and, last but not least, RIAS and Deutschlandradio Kultur appreciate the church as a recording studio. In addition to the very good room acoustics, other advantages for artists and technicians are the large installation area for orchestras and choirs, the noise-free heating system, the bells that can be switched off, the glare-free interior lighting and the organ that can be flexibly positioned in the room.
literature
- Gerti Graff (ed.): On the way to the responsible community. The Protestant Church under National Socialism using the example of the Dahlem community. Pictures and texts from an exhibition in the Martin-Niemöller-Haus Berlin . Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-88425-028-0 . Large parts of this exhibition catalog are published at www.niemoeller-haus-ausstellung.de (link checked on May 21, 2015).
- Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Dahlem (Ed.): 75 Years of Jesus Christ Church Berlin-Dahlem 1931–2006. Berlin 2006.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Leiberg: Jesus Christ Church Berlin-Dahlem. Building history and community history 1912–1961. Berlin 1991.
- ↑ Helmut V. Fuchs, Peter K. Burkowitz: Good room acoustics - just a coincidence? A documentary about the Jesus Christ Church in Berlin-Dahlem. In: Health Engineer - Building Services - Building Physics - Environmental Technology , Volume 130 (2009), pp. 16-18.
- ^ Helmut V. Fuchs: Churches as spaces for presenting and recording music. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
- ↑ [1]
Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 59 ″ N , 13 ° 16 ′ 59 ″ E