Church of Ss. Corpus Christi (Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg)

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Street front of the church with adjoining residential buildings

The Catholic Church Ss. Corpus Christi ( Latin : Sanctissimum Corpus Christi = 'Holy Body of Christ') in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg is a neo-Gothic church built by the architect Max Hasak in 1904 and is located at Conrad-Blenkle-Straße 64. The foundation stone was laid on July 10, 1904, the consecration on December 15, 1904. In 1990 the church tower was raised to a height of 40 meters. The entire complex, including the residential buildings built on both sides in the same style, was extensively renovated in 1992.

history

The first years

On October 29, 1900, Archpriest Wilhelm Frank , pastor of the St. Pius congregation in Berlin, initiated the establishment of a collective association for the construction of a new church. The building plot in what was then Thorner Strasse (today Conrad-Blenkle-Strasse) was purchased in 1902, and Max Hasak , an architect who was already experienced in church building, was acquired. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 31, 1904 , and the Kuratie Ss. Corpus Christi and on December 15, 1904 the new church was consecrated. However, this church building was only a partial church, as the financial means were insufficient for Hasak's original plans. The Curatie Ss. Corpus Christi became an independent parish on August 3, 1911 . Corpus Christi raised.

In 1907/1908 the five-storey residential buildings were added on both sides according to Hasak's plans and the facade of the church was completed.

From the First World War to the end of the Second World War

A fire on June 21, 1915 completely destroyed the eleven year old church. The cause of the fire is considered to be spontaneous combustion, which is associated with the First World War . In 1917 it was decided to completely rebuild the church, which now took place directly on the plans of Hasak. In that year the community acquired the St. Mary's altar made by the sculptor Georg Busch in Munich from 1892–1894 . Reconstruction began in 1918 and the new building was consecrated on December 5, 1920 . The building complex is significantly larger than the first church. For the consecration of the church, Pope Benedict XV donated the congregation a ciborium and relics of the martyrs Sebastian , Theodor and Eustachius . On October 18, 1922, the high altar created by Georg Schreiner was consecrated. The consecration of the Steinmeyer organ followed on December 6, 1925.

In 1944 parts of the church were destroyed by a bomb strike. The cellar under the church served as an air raid shelter at the end of the Second World War .

From 1945 until the reunified Germany

In the first post-war years , the war damage to the church was repaired by parishioners. The church was given the status of a provisional episcopal church .

The church was renovated in 1960 and 1976/1977, the latter mainly following the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council , leading to a simplification of the interior.

In the GDR , too, there was an active community life that was repeatedly enriched by unusual events, for example on April 17, 1988 when a gospel group of the US Army performed in the church.

In 1990 the church received a bell tower again after it was rebuilt after the fire of 1915. The three new bronze bells were financed by numerous donations inside and outside the Corpus Christi community. Especially the then parish priest, Josef Herrmann Weinsziehr was, for months on the road to donations for the bells acquire . They were consecrated on October 3, 1990, on German Unity Day . They weigh 724  kg , 420 kg and 315 kg and are tuned to the tones g ', b' and c '. The largest bell bears the inscription: "Call the people to praise God, to reconciliation and to peace."

architecture

Main entrance

Street front

The church in its current form is rather inconspicuous from the street side. The narrow church front is set back slightly between the two residential buildings completed in 1908. The tower-like tower above the main portal of the church, which was only added in 1990, protrudes only insignificantly over the roofs of the flanking houses and carries a two-meter-high cross. The facades of the church and the residential buildings consist mainly of brick-faced masonry . The windows are made in the arched style and two or three are grouped next to each other like a curtain. The double arched window on the entrance facade of the church building extends over two and a half floors, in the arched segment there is a colored glass rosette in the shape of a Jewish star.

Courtyard side and interior design

Church main nave

Since it is a Berlin court church that fits into the block development, the entire nave extends into the back courtyard, which is not visible from the street.

The inside of the hall church is very spacious and significantly larger than it can be assumed from the outside. The wide central nave with gray sandstone columns dominates ; in contrast, the aisles are very narrow. The columns are adorned with vegetable and figurative capitals and wall brackets. The pillars on the wall brackets with figurative keystones were mainly donated by parishioners, as can be seen from the lower inscriptions. The church ceiling is shown as a starry sky with three-dimensional angel busts and banners. The sanctuary is surrounded by red sandstone pillars. The sacristy is to the left and the chapel to the right. In the back of the nave is the organ gallery. The floor is lined with Solnhofen tiles, most of which date from the first construction period in 1904.

Furnishing

High altar
Mary Altar
pulpit

Except for the hero's altar, the works of art in the church were not specially made for this church. For the Corpus Christi Church, distinctive and typical individual items were acquired from artists from southern Germany.

High altar

The sculptor Georg Schreiner from Regensburg and the painter Martin Feuerstein from Munich created the winged altar on behalf of the Corpus Christi parish in 1922. This altar with a crack rising high into the choir vault was designed according to late Gothic models . The main theme of the entire complex is the sacrament of the altar .

The wings of the closed shrine (weekday side) show the depiction of Christ in distress on the Mount of Olives (left) and his entombment and lamentation (right). The shrine is accompanied by Saint George (left) and Saint Florian (right), large sculptural figures in armor. They are only visible when the shrine is closed. In the conversation Enge are four Angel statuettes .

When open, eight gilded wooden reliefs can be seen. They show various scenes from the Bible such as the Annunciation , the birth of Christ , the Adoration of the Shepherds, the wedding at Cana , the Last Supper , Jesus carrying the cross and farewell to his mother, and the crucifixion of Christ . These representations are stylistically influenced by the art of the Renaissance .

The central axis of the high altar striving upwards can be seen both in the open and in the closed state. From bottom to top it consists of the following elements: the tabernacle , the exposure niche for the great monstrance , the apocalyptic lamb, the blessing Christ and at the top God the Father with the dove of the Holy Spirit .

Mary Altar and Heroes Altar

The wooden St. Mary's altar was created in 1895 by Georg Busch in a mix of neo-renaissance , neo-gothic and art nouveau styles . It represents the Mother of God with the baby Jesus sitting on a raised throne. To the left and right of them are a total of 16 boys making music. This altar was acquired by the Corpus Christi congregation in 1917 and is located in the right aisle. A wooden crucifix is attached to the wall above the Mary's altar .

The heroes' altar was created in 1916 by Martin Feuerstein and is dedicated to "The heroes who fell in World War 1914–1918" (base inscription). The altar is essentially a painting showing the dead Jesus lying on the ground, mourned by two women. The hero altar was ordered by the community in 1915.

Murals, baptismal font and pulpit

Mary icon
  • In the side aisles there are carved depictions of the Way of the Cross , which date from 1920.
  • Under the gallery, a large oil painting shows the Lamentation of Christ , which was also painted by Martin Feuerstein.
  • To the left of the high altar, on the front of the aisle, there is a sandstone baptismal font, its wooden lid was added later.
  • The pulpit in the nave is carved from oak and dates from the 1930s. The pulpit is decorated with figures of the four evangelists.
  • In the entrance area there is an icon of Mary in a gold mosaic wall , surrounded by adoring angels, opposite a gold mosaic depicting Saint Joseph , venerated by father and mother.

organ

Gallery with organ

The organ of the Ss. Corpus Christi Church, built in 1925 as Opus 1400 by the Steinmeyer company and consecrated on December 6, 1925, has 4,700 pipes, 107 of them in the wooden neo-Gothic prospectus and 4593 inside the organ. It survived the Second World War almost unscathed and is still in its almost unchanged original condition. Due to heating dust, unfavorable and strongly varying climatic conditions in the church and frequent liturgical use and the associated damage, however, the organ required renovation, which was carried out by the company Orgelbau Fleiter from Münster. The re-inauguration took place on June 10, 2018. It is the second largest organ in a Catholic church in the Berlin area. Four angel figures sit above the pipes. She has the following disposition :

I main work C – c 4
01. Principal 16 ′
02. Big flute 16 ′
03. Principal major 08th'
04th violoncello 08th'
05. Dolce 08th'
06th Covered 08th'
07th Double flute 08th'
08th. Octave 04 ′
09. viola 04 ′
10. Reed flute 04 ′
11. Octave 02 ′
12. Cornet III-V 08th'
13. Intoxicating fifth II 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
14th Mixture IV-VI 02 ′
15th Cimbel III 01'
16. Trumpet 16 ′
17th tuba 08th'
18th Big bells (E, G-g ')
II Swell C – c 4
19th Drone 16 ′
20th Principal minor 08th'
21st Gamba 08th'
22nd Covered 08th'
23. Quintatön 08th'
24. Viennese flute 08th'
25th Unda Maris 08th'
26th Minor principal 04 ′
27. Transverse flute 04 ′
28. Salizet 04 ′
29 Piccolo 02 ′
30th Sesquialtera II 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
31. Progressio III-V
32. clarinet 08th'
33. French horn 08th'
Tremulo
III Swell C – c 4
34. Covered 16 ′
35. Horn principal 08th'
36. Gemshorn 08th'
37. Aeoline 08th'
38. Vox coelestis 08th'
39. Lovely covered 08th'
40. Concert flute 08th'
41. Prestant 04 ′
42. violin 04 ′
43. Distance flute 04 ′
44. Flautino 02 ′
45. Nasard 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
46. third 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′
47. Seventh 01 1 ⁄ 7  ′
48. None 08 ⁄ 9 ′
49. Campanella IV 02 ′
50. bassoon 16 ′
51. Field trumpet 08th'
52. oboe 08th'
53. Clarine 04 ′
54. Vox Humana 08th'
Tremulo
Pedal C – g 1
55. Principal bass 32 ′
56. Principal bass 16 ′
57. Violon 16 ′
58. Sub bass 16 ′
59. Echobass (No. 19) 16 ′
60. Octave bass 08th'
61. Covered bass 08th'
62. Viol bass (No. 21) 08th'
63. Choral bass 04 ′
64. Quintbass 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
65. Pedal cornet III 03 1 ⁄ 5  ′
66. Mixturbass IV 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
67. Bombard 32 ′
68. trombone 16 ′
69. Bassoon bass (No. 50) 16 ′
70. Trumpet (No. 51) 08th'
71. Bassclarine (No. 53) 04 ′
  • Pairing :
    • Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
    • Sub-octave coupling: I / I, II / I, III / I, II / II, III / II, III / III, I / P, III / P, P / P
    • Super octave coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, III / III
    • Melody coupling: II / I, III / I

Church life today

Community life is characterized by offers and activities for people of all ages, such as B. a so-called “crawling circle” for toddlers and their parents, religious instruction for primary school children, youth groups, meetings of young adults, numerous family groups, several senior circles as well as a children's choir and a church choir. The migrant and refugee pastoral care of the Jesuits celebrates church services with Catholic Vietnamese in Ss. Corpus Christi.

literature

  • The architectural and art monuments in the GDR, capital Berlin , Volume I, ed. from the Institute for the Preservation of Monuments, edited by a collective from the Research Department (Ingrid Bartmann-Kompa, Horst Büttner, Horst Drescher, Joachim Fait, Marina Flügge, Gerda Herrmann, Ilse Schröder, Helmut Spielmann, Christa Stepansky, Heinrich Trost), overall editor Heinrich Trost, 2nd, unchanged edition, Berlin 1984, pp. 424-426.
  • Festschrift 100 Years of the Catholic Parish of Ss. Corpus Christi , ed. from the parish of Ss. Corpus Christi, 2004, various authors.
  • Leaflet The pipes of the Steinmeyer organ by Ss. Corpus Christi Berlin looking for sponsors , ed. from the parish of Ss. Corpus Christi.
  • Leaflet The State of the Organ , ed. from the parish of Ss. Corpus Christi.

Web links

Commons : Church Ss. Corpus Christi  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f information sheet from the CC Church from February 2011
  2. ↑ The ringing of bells on YouTube from Weidener Glockenfreund: Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg (B) - The bells of the church Ss. Corpus Christi. June 1, 2018, accessed January 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ The Steinmeyer organ from Corpus Christi, Berlin. Retrieved May 6, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Information on the organ of the Corpus Christi Church ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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.corpus-christi-berlin.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 41 ″  N , 13 ° 26 ′ 58 ″  E