Johanneskirche (Spandau)

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Johanneskirche, rear view from the west with sacristy extension (after 1875; the tower belongs to the Nikolaikirche)

The Johanneskirche (also: Johanniskirche) in Spandau was the house of worship of the Reformed congregation and was sometimes used for services by the garrison stationed in Spandau . The church was built in the 1670s, rebuilt several times with the same floor plan and demolished in 1902/03. It was located between Potsdamer Strasse and Jüdenstrasse on the northern edge of Spandau's old town, not far from St. Nikolai Church , and was accessible from the east, from Potsdamer Strasse (today: Carl-Schurz-Strasse 57/59).

History of the Reformed Church and the Military Church

According to the Edict of Tolerance issued by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I on September 16, 1664, on November 19, 1666, Colonel Isaak du Plessis-Gouret , in command of the Spandau Fortress, allowed Reformed services for his family and residents of Spandau in his house on the Behnitz to hold. The first preacher was Adam Girck, a teacher at the Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium in Berlin, who was paid privately by du Plessis-Gouret. On August 12, 1673, David Scultetus was hired as a full-time preacher by electoral decree. As the community grew, the colonel asked the electors, a right of use in only on weekdays and "apostle days" used Lutheran Moritzkirche to obtain. However, the Spandau magistrate rejected this. In 1669, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm gave the Reformed community a building site at the northern end of Jüdenstrasse , where the new church, later called Johanneskirche, was built by 1673. The property, a civic office of the arable citizen Sebastian Striepe from Falkenrehde , had come into the possession of the elector through exchange through various structures.

Temporarily used also from Piedmont originating Waldensian its own preachers when French Reformed congregation, the church until 1734, either the French community in Potsdam or the German Reformed congregation joined in Spandau. In 1790 there were 87 Reformed families in Spandau (in addition to 675 Lutheran and four Catholic families). In 1823 the Royal Ministry of Spiritual Affairs approved the name Johannes-Kirche zu Spandau . In 1833 the Johannesgemeinde declared their accession to the church union with the Lutheran congregation.

From 1711, the Lutheran garrison congregation conducted its services in addition to the Moritzkirche in the castle chapel newly built on the citadel by King Friedrich Wilhelm I ; When this was demolished in 1789, the Johanneskirche became a garrison church in addition to its function as a parish church, in which the garrison chaplains and parish preachers - who now called themselves "court preachers" - alternated. In 1838 the garrison parish was officially parish in the Johanneskirche, which was rebuilt accordingly. It now had 493 seats.

In 1876 the garrison community had 3787 souls, the Johannesgemeinde about 2500. A relocation of the Johanneskirche as a parish and military church was requested by the city of Spandau since about 1870 in order to be able to use the church's property to expand the city schools. However, the military treasury rejected this. As a result, the parish was merged with the Nikolaigemeinde, and the Luther Church was built in Spandauer Neustadt in 1895/96 . The military treasury rebuilt the garrison church for the military community , which was inaugurated on March 16, 1890. The last service of the military parish in St. John's Church took place on March 9, 1890. The city of Spandau acquired the property on December 17, 1902 and had the church demolished in the winter of 1902/1903 in order to build a grammar school , which later became the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Oberschule . The former churchyard was included in the school yard area and is protected as a ground monument.

The church building

1673-1750

The church, later called Johanneskirche, was initially a half-timbered church that underwent multiple renovations. The building site donated by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was between Klosterstrasse (from 1754 Potsdamer Strasse, since 1939 Carl-Schurz-Strasse) and Jüdenstrasse. The Preacher's House, first mentioned in 1674, stood on Potsdamer Strasse on the site of the Striepesches Wohnhaus. Behind it, the church was placed in an approximate north-south orientation across the property, where a barn had previously been. Another “little old little house” on the property - the Meierhaus - initially served as a school, according to Preacher Scultetus. The construction of the church began in 1673, as evidenced by invoices received for timber supplied by the city. "Timbered out wood", possibly from the demolished barn, was also used. Construction proceeded slowly, as it was mainly financed by voluntary contributions from parishioners, plus income from fines and small donations from the elector. In 1674 the half-timbered building was still “completely open”, then the roof was erected and the compartments lined with brick. The windows came in 1675, the church ceiling was completed in 1676 and construction was completed.

The church was badly damaged in a storm in the citadel's powder chamber in 1691. The building was repaired in 1692 for more than 700 thalers, but despite several repairs it soon fell into disrepair. A request for funding submitted by Senior Building Director K. Stolze in 1722/23 was rejected by the Evangelical Reformed Church Directorate; King Friedrich Wilhelm I rejected the plan for a new building for 6718 thalers and suggested that St. Nicholas Church be used as a Simultaneum for Lutherans and to use the Reformed, but this turned out to be impracticable. It was not until 1750 that King Frederick the Great made it possible to build a massive church after repeated requests.

The first half-timbered church was a rectangular hall building without a choir with a probable length of 27.90 m and a width of 10 m, the height to the approach of the gable roof was 8.10 m. It was aligned with the massive brick front to Klosterstraße and was entered from this direction. The gable walls, which were windowless except for the hatches in the triangle gable, and the rear wall facing Jüdenstrasse were lined with timber. The main portal was located in the central axis of the asymmetrically structured front, with three window axes on each side with high-lying rectangular windows. Under the left (southwest) window, a door served as access for preachers and church elders to the chancel with pulpit and altar table ; possibly there was a door on the right that led under the organ gallery. This transverse pore on the north-eastern gable wall sat on a half-timbered wall drawn across the room. The church hall had a flat ceiling boarded with boards . The stalls faced the altar and pulpit and were divided by two rows of aisles.

At first, burials took place in the forecourt of the church ; wealthy parishioners were also buried in the vault of the church. In 1715, the community acquired a narrow piece of land behind the church facing Jüdenstrasse, which was used as a burial place until 1814. In 1708 the community was also given the right to bury in a square in front of the Potsdamer Tor, and in the 19th century also in a square in front of the Oranienburger Tor.

Solid construction from 1751

In 1751, the Prussian King Frederick the Great granted 2000 thalers for the construction of a massive church building. The framework of the rear wall and the gable walls were replaced with solid, smooth plastered masonry with the same floor plan. A three-foot-high plinth strip ran around the building, the longitudinal walls were given a profiled cornice under the approach to the sloping roof . In 1752, a sacristy was added to the rear of the church in the central axis , a simple, smoothly plastered, rectangular structure with a gable roof for financial reasons. The rear long wall had six rectangular windows , including the two outer blind windows . Below the left, a doorway closed with a flat arch gave access to the room under the organ gallery. The construction work was under the supervision of the war and domain council Feldmann and was carried out by the master masons Lehmann senior. and jun. executed. The construction of a church tower, requested by some parishioners, was not carried out for reasons that can no longer be clarified.

The interior was redesigned as a transverse church : the altar now stood in the middle of the rear, western longitudinal wall, and above it the pulpit, which came from the Potsdam Palace Chapel and was reached from the sacristy via a staircase. A transverse gallery was built on the southern gable wall, where the altar and pulpit had previously been located, and connected to the organ gallery via a continuous gallery on the eastern longitudinal wall, which stood on planed columns, so that a U-shaped gallery (horseshoe gallery ) was created.

1782-1836

In the period that followed, the front with the main facade of the church was Gothicized , and the individual windows were given ogival panels . There was a small central window above the main portal. The tiled gabled roof was repaired thoroughly in 1799 by master mason Bock Feldt and master carpenter Becker, as the perimeter improperly listed in 1750 had decreased, then the roof that had cleared. Inside, the organ gallery was renovated and its front supporting wall was solidly bricked up.

Renewal as a garrison church from 1836

Last construction stage, front view from Potsdamer Strasse

Before the parish of the garrison congregation, the Johanneskirche was fundamentally renovated by the royal government in Potsdam in 1836. During the construction work, the Johannesgemeinde took part in the church services in the St. Nikolai Church, since the union between Reformed and Lutherans in Spandau was completed in 1833. The church was completed in December 1836.

The walls were repaired and partially renewed, the gable triangles were newly bricked up and each provided with a window opening. Most of the window and door arches had to be tweaked anew because the parting of them had broken. The main entrance in the middle of the front was walled up and the small window above it was enlarged to the dimensions of the other windows. The church was now entered through two double-leaf doors in the two outer window axes. The seven ogival windows on the front were vaulted by a seven-part blind arch. The window arches were designed with wooden tracery panels and had lead glazing with small round panes of semi-white glass. The four inner windows of the rear wall were enlarged, closed in an ogival shape and fitted with tracery and glazing in line with the front wall, the two outer rectangular window windows remained unchanged. The sacristy annex was repaired in its existing form. On April 29, 1866, a cast-iron , gilded cross was placed on both gables ; the design came from P. Rascher.

Inside, the galleries and the supporting wall supporting the northern gallery were demolished and replaced by a continuous horseshoe gallery with uniform parapets . The altar and pulpit remained in the same place. The galleries and ceiling were supported by a system of wooden supports and architraves , which now also created space for seating under the organ gallery . The galleries were accessible from the two entrances at the front via spiral stairs. The rows of benches on the galleries rose three steps towards the church walls, so that the longitudinal gallery overlapped the windows in the front; the windows were therefore boarded in the lower part.

From Potsdamer Strasse a path led between the rectory and the cantor's house through a wooden gate to the church, which was replaced by a wrought-iron gate in 1861.

The construction work in the 1830s was again carried out by master mason Bocksfeldt under the direction of building inspector Butzke, who was also involved in the renovation of St. Nikolai Church at the time. The master carpenters Siecke and Brettschneider and the master carpenters Bernhard Linde and Neupert were also involved.

Furnishing

pulpit

The pulpit in its current location in the St. Nikolai Church

In 1722 there is evidence of a wooden pulpit with a hexagonal pulpit and six steps that stood on the south transverse wall. As early as 1714, the community council had turned to King Friedrich Wilhelm I and asked to replace this older pulpit with the pulpit, which was no longer needed after the renovation of the chapel in the Potsdam City Palace . The request was granted. For reasons no longer verifiable, however, despite a warning from the church administration in June 1717, this pulpit was initially not installed in Spandau. Gunther Jahn believes the congregation's financial problems or the poor state of construction of the Johanneskirche are possible reasons. It was not until the church was rebuilt in 1751 that the pulpit was erected in the middle of the western wall instead of the previous one that had been torn down. A new oak base and a new railing were attached.

The wooden pulpit in Baroque style was created by an unknown master in the last third of the 17th century. Before 1772 the widow Christiane Sophie Haacke had it gilded by the sculptor Labadie. Since the pulpit was too big for the church and hindered the divine service at the Lord's Supper , efforts were made in 1870 to build a smaller pulpit in order to gain space for more rows of pews. However, this plan was discarded because of the “age and originality” of the pulpit. After the Johanneskirche was demolished, the pulpit was moved to its current location in 1904 with a new staircase on the first southern pillar of the nave of St. Nikolai Church.

organ

In the spring of 1783 the church received an organ with 13 stops on a manual and pedal , which was built by organ builder Johann Wilhelm Grüneberg from Brandenburg after designs and cost estimates by organ builder Ernst Julius Marx had been rejected by the Potsdam church administration as "too valuable". The organ was consecrated on July 6, 1783 "with a musical Te Deum and numerous gatherings in the presence of the church councils Sach, Rellstab and Lipten, almost all of the city's notables, including the entire Lutheran ministry". The instrument was financed by a donation from the widow Anne Marie Schneeberg.

After the Johanneskirche was demolished, the organ ended up in the village church in Bärenklau . Several registers were removed. In 1928 Alexander Schuke repaired the instrument, from 1991 it was restored in the workshop of the Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau GmbH on the basis of organ building files found in Spandau and installed in the French Church in Potsdam , where it has been played since Easter 2000.

sculpture

In the 1850s, a bronze figure depicting a reading boy was placed in a latticed roundabout on the church forecourt.

Outbuildings

Preacher and rectory

The rectory built after 1890, later the director's residence, Carl-Schurz-Straße 57 (2020)

A preacher's house on Klosterstrasse - probably a half-timbered house with brick-lined compartments and a tiled hipped or gable roof - was built on the desolate arable citizen site, presumably at the instigation of preacher David Scultetus between 1674 and 1676. It was repaired in 1753/54 and then again in 1772/73 when it got a massive basement. The house was 61 feet long and 25 feet deep and stood with the narrow side on Klosterstrasse, the entrance on the long side. When the church was rebuilt in the 1830s, the preacher's house was also renovated and given a brick upper floor.

The preacher's house was demolished in 1890 and replaced by a parsonage, which master bricklayer A. Kellermann built on the same site. It was two-story and had an additional mezzanine floor ; the six-axis facade faced Potsdamer Strasse. After the Johannesgemeinde was dissolved, it served as the principal residence of the grammar school and was occupied on October 3, 1915. Together with the neighboring school building, it is a listed building as a whole .

School and cantor house

The Meierhäuschen found on the property during the construction of the church initially served the community as a school. A hundred years later it had become too small and could no longer be structurally restored, so that it was rebuilt in 1769 by master mason Martin Vogt with the support of the Prussian king. The school was a two-story half-timbered building with a three-axis facade facing the street, which housed two classrooms in the basement and the cantor's apartment on the upper floor. From 1836 to 1838, renovation work was carried out on the school as part of the church renovation. In 1851 master carpenter A. Siecke built a two-storey wing on the courtyard side. Until 1783 the school was run by the parish as St. Johannes Parochialschule , in 1822 it was incorporated into the association of municipal schools, and the cantor became the municipal teacher. A class of the grammar school was later accommodated there, and when the grammar school was rebuilt in 1913 the former cantor's house was demolished.

literature

  • Gunther Jahn: sacred buildings. Johanneskirche. In: ders .: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 149–160.
  • G. Souchon: The St. Johannis Church in Spandau in the first two centuries of its existence. Invitation to the church's bicentenary celebrations on the 11th after Trinity, August 24th, 1873. Presented to the congregation by G. Souchon, pastor to St. Johannis. E. Hopf, Spandau 1873.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Herbert Möller: The former Moritzkirche in Spandau. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History. Volume 15, Berlin 1962, pp. 59-70, here pp. 65f.
  2. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, pp. 187–193, here p. 150.188.
  3. ↑ Helmut Kißner, Cordia Schlegelmilch: The prehistory. In: Helmut Kißner, Cordia Schlegelmilch: The Church of St. Marien am Behnitz in Spandau. A forgotten work by August Soller. Berlin 2004, pp. 23–38, here p. 33 note 43, with reference to M. Schall: Urkundliche Nachrichten zur Geschichte der Garrison u. Garrison community of Spandau. Spandau-Berlin 1888, p. 146.
  4. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 150.
  5. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, pp. 150-155.
  6. ↑ stadtentwicklung.berlin.de: Monument database , Obj.-Dok.-Nr .: 09080634.
  7. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, p. 150.
  8. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 151f.
  9. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 152.
  10. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 159f.
  11. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 152f.
  12. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 154.
  13. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 154f.
  14. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 154f.
  15. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 156 and 98 (Nikolai).
  16. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 154.157.
  17. ↑ organindex.de: Potsdam Francis Church.
  18. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 155.
  19. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 159.
  20. ↑ stadtentwicklung.berlin.de: Monument Database , Obj.-Doc.-No .: 09085522.
  21. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 154.159.
  • Location according to the historical map:
    • Measuring table sheet 1836: Charlottenburg, 1918 Charlottenburg. - record 1901, ed. 1903, B. 06, N. 13, N. 417, Aufldr. 1918. - 1: 25000. - [Berlin]: Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme, 1918.
    • online excerpt: kartenforum.slub-dresden

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '21.1 "  N , 13 ° 12' 17.3"  E