Sinstorf Church

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Sinstorfer Church south side
Neo-Romanesque extension on the west side

The Sinstorf Church is a listed church building in the Sinstorf district of Hamburg . It is the only medieval church building still largely preserved in what is now Hamburg's urban area. The name St. Ansgar is occasionally used for the church, but this cannot be proven. Correctly are the designations Church Sinstorf and Sinstorfer Church .

Construction and history

The first construction of a church in Sinstorf, as evidenced by excavations from the 1960s, probably dates from the 11th century; it was initially a wooden church. The time of the first church foundation is often given as the first half of the 9th century, which led to the assumption that the church, like the nearby, similarly old St. Mauritius Church in Hittfeld , was owned by Bishop Ansgar after his escape from Hamburg before the Vikings could have been founded. However, there is no evidence for this theory.

There was probably another wooden church building at this point, as two different rows of wooden stakes could be detected in the ground. Around the year 1200 a three-aisled field stone basilica was built on the same site. This church also served as an escape church due to its location on a hill . Weir ditches and a courtyard area protected by ramparts were found on the site around the church. From this construction phase four Romanesque arched windows have been preserved on the north wall , an arcade opening to the east and parts of the old floor can be proven by excavations. At this time Sinstorf is already mentioned as the center of an extensive parish .

After destruction, the church was rebuilt in its current structure in 1416, the north aisle abandoned, the other aisle and the main aisle combined into a single-nave church. The choir in the east also had to be redesigned; its outer wall is still clearly recognizable in today's east wall through a Gothic window niche and five blind niches in the old gable triangle. References to the original floor plan can also be found in two walled arcades on the north side. A round tower was added to the west, remnants of the wall can still be seen in the attic of the church. According to documents, the side altars of the side aisles were dismantled in 1407.

Around 1660 the church was converted into a hall church by widening the choir and removing the separation between the nave and the choir area. The round tower was torn down again and the windows in the south wall were redesigned. In 1690 a free-standing wooden bell tower was added to the building in the southeast. The ridge turret over the eastern gable was added in 1698.

As the last renovation to date, a neo-Romanesque vestibule was added to the west of the church in 1906 and 1907 under the direction of Karl Mohrmann and the windows on the south side were newly divided. In the east and south, masonry struts were placed on the church to support the outward sloping walls. The church has been a listed building since 1940.

When the ground softened and gave way at the end of the 20th century, the elements intended as supports proved to be additional weight, which, contrary to the original intention, exerted additional tension on the walls. The church was therefore reinforced in several places with cement in the walls and foundation between 2004 and 2006.

The present churchyard was used as a cemetery until 1885 . Some gravestones have survived to this day.

Oldest building in Hamburg

Although the wooden "foundation building" of the Sinstorf Church dates from the 11th century and the first field stone building was built around the year 1200, the Neuwerk lighthouse, completed in 1310, is generally considered to be the oldest building in Hamburg. After all, the lighthouse was originally built by Hamburg on a site that has belonged to Hamburg since 1286 and has been preserved in its original form to this day. In contrast, the church with Sinstorf only came to Hamburg through the Greater Hamburg Law of 1937, and it has changed its substance and appearance significantly through renovations over the centuries. Nevertheless, it is one of the oldest still standing and used buildings in today's area of ​​the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

Furnishing

View to the altar

Today's furnishings are baroque : the altarpiece in its current form is dated to 1619. An older altarpiece that has been painted over can still be guessed at when the lighting conditions are favorable. The new altarpiece shows a crucifixion scene, which has been expanded to include a “gallery of prominent sinners”, making the crucifixion a symbol of the forgiveness of sins . Edits from 1643 and 1688 can be verified on the pulpit. The 30 oil paintings on the gallery, which depict apostles and prophets, as well as a relief by the Lüneburg artist Cord Snitker , which depicts the "impotence of Mary" and dates from around 1480, came to the church in the early 17th century.

An old bronze baptism stood in the church until 1694 , which had to be sold to cover the building debts. As part of the renovation in 1906/1907, today's baptism came into the church. The windows on the south wall, made in 1906/1907 by the glass painters Henning & Andres in Hanover, depict scenes from the life of Jesus. The third window is the only one that was not destroyed in the Second World War.

The badly damaged epitaph of Conrad von Windheim, who was a preacher in Sinstorf for over 37 years, hangs on the south wall . Immediately next to the altar is the grave slab of the commander of the Harburg Fortress, Lieutenant General Anton Ulrich Braun (1704–1780), to whom the church owes a major donation.

Bells

The oldest bell was cast by the Hamburg bell founder Johann Nicolaus Bieber on June 9, 1773 from a bell that was 299 years old at the time. Although this bell was given in 1943 for armament purposes , it was returned to the community undamaged on April 24, 1947. Two other bells (a striking bell from 1699 and a smaller bell from 1835) were melted down during the First World War . The smaller bell dates from 1931.

organ

organ

Organs have been used in the church since 1691 . Since then, three new constructions have been necessary, in 1867, 1938 (this instrument was damaged in World War II ) and 1976. At that time, a new organ was built by the workshop of Rudolf von Beckerath Organ Builders . Today's disposition is:

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Principal 8th'
2. Reed flute 8th'
3. octave 4 ′
4th Forest flute 2 ′
5. Sesquialtera II
6th Mixture IV
II upper structure C – g 3
7th Dumped 8th'
8th. Reed flute 4 ′
9. Principal 2 ′
10. Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
11. Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
12. Sub-bass 16 ′
13. Open flute 8th'
14th Chorale bass 4 ′
15th bassoon 16 ′

Church today

The church is very popular as a wedding church because of its ancient appearance. The parish includes two pastors, several Bible study groups, senior, adult, child and youth groups as well as the tribe “Bishop Ansgar” of the VCP .

Photographs and map

Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 27.9 ″  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 29.4 ″  E

Map: Hamburg
marker
Sinstorf Church​
Magnify-clip.png
Hamburg

  • Freestanding wooden bell tower (stack of bells)

  • North side

  • Tower over the east gable

  • altar

  • Gallery and organ

  • Picture gallery on the side gallery

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedhelm Grundmann, Thomas Helms: When stones preach . Medien Verlag Schubert, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-929229-14-5 , p. 31 .
  2. ↑ a b c List of monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, as of March 23, 2009 , No. 149, page 188: “Church building with interior fittings, in particular pulpit, altar, sculptures and sculptures, along with a free-standing wooden bell tower. Field stone church from the 2nd half of the 12th century (?), Parts of the north wall possibly even earlier. During the renovation in 1906, the remains of a Romanesque field stone tower (mid-12th century?) Came to light in the central part of the west wall. In front of the old stone wall, new vestibule and main entrance in the new Gothic style 1906/07. East wall in the upper part in brick with Gothic blind niches (14th century). Choir extension with roof turret from 1698. Pan-roofed saddle roof. ” List of monuments (as of July 29, 2014): ID 28188 Church building, dating: 1200, um; 1906/1907 (reconstruction), draft: cannot be determined; Mohrmann, Karl (remodeling 1906/1907).
    The Dehio Handbuch Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein (1971, edited by Johannes Habich, page 77) describes the vestibule built in 1906/1907 correctly as neo-Romanesque and reports on the building history “largely clarified by excavations in 1963/67”, the “foundation building Wood, probably from the 11th century ”, was“ replaced in the 12th or early 13th century by a field stone basilica with a box choir and flat, closed side aisles ”.
    Likewise Hermann Hipp: DuMont art travel guide . 3. Edition. Hamburg 1996, p. 520 . : “Your building history can be read off the existing structure (supplemented by excavation results from the sixties). The walls of the nave of a new field stone building, probably built around 1200, are visible ”.
  3. ^ Hermann Hipp: DuMont art travel guide . 3. Edition. Hamburg 1996, p. 520 .
  4. ^ Adolf Brockmann: Sinstorfer Church - a construction site. In: Hamburger Abendblatt
  5. ^ Matthias Gretzschel: Hamburg's churches: history, architecture and offers . Axel Springer Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86370-116-1 , p. 289 .
  6. ^ Willi Meyne: A passion relief in Sinstorf and related work from the workshop of the Lüneburg master Cord Snitker. In: Harburger Jahrbuch, 3/1948 p. 22 ff., Sub.uni-hamburg.de ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sub.uni-hamburg.de
  7. ↑ Barbara Leisner, Norbert Fischer: Der Friedhofsführer . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-7672-1215-3 , p. 186 .
  8. ↑ Entry in the organ database orgbase.nl . Retrieved April 14, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Sinstorf Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files