Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord
The Roman Catholic Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is a church building in Berlin from the end of the 20th century in the modern style. It was built between 1984 and 1987 on the initiative of Berlin Bishop Alfred Cardinal Bengsch and his successor Joachim Cardinal Meisner in connection with the redevelopment of the Marzahn district . It is located at Neufahrwasserweg 8 and is a common community center for the approx. 2200 Catholics of the Marzahn-Hellersdorf parish. The community belongs to the Archdiocese of Berlin .
history
The former Catholic dignitary in East Berlin , Alfred Cardinal Bengsch , had campaigned for the construction of a new house of God with the start of construction in the new residential district of Berlin-Marzahn. The responsible city administration supported the project by transferring a suitable piece of land. A special construction program of the government of the GDR served to finance the construction, with which a total of four new church buildings could be realized in the East Berlin districts. The commissioning and supervision of the executing construction companies was the responsibility of the state foreign trade company Limex and, on the part of the church, the central office of the German Caritas Association in East Berlin.
In 1982 the parish priest Kaschubowski was able to commission the architect Hermann Korneli from the building academy of the GDR to design a modern church building and its interior design. The foundation stone was laid in October 1984. The parish church, a multi-storey rectory and a single-storey connecting building with the parish hall and other parish rooms were built in the complex. An attached bell tower on the northwest corner of the building complex forms the dominant conclusion.
After three years of construction, the church consecration ceremony took place on October 31, 1987, at which Joachim Cardinal Meisner placed the new sacred building under the patronage “Of the Transfiguration of the Lord”. The name refers to the transfiguration of the Lord shown in the Bible ( Mt 17 : 1-8 EU ).
architecture
A steel frame construction is the load-bearing element of all components. The spaces in between were lined with bricks, the facade clinkered . The half-open church tower, visible from afar, is 29 meters high and contains a ringing of three bronze bells . A four meter high gold-plated steel cross forms the end of the flat roof. The three typical naves of a church building are clearly offset in height. The building has a structured, fan-shaped floor plan, the center of which is the sanctuary of the main nave. The entire building complex occupies an area of around 2,350 square meters.
Church interior
The entire interior is plastered white and thus offers a neutral background for the design of the room elements. The light falls into the nave through one or three rows of white windows. A wooden Corpus Christi, which came to this place of worship in 2000, dominates the chancel. The side aisles connect to the main nave without columns. The left north aisle serves as a baptistery, in which a baptismal font , a sculpture of Johannes Minne and an apostle chandelier form the eye-catcher. The figures were carved in the Middle Ages and given to this church by a southern German community.
A concrete frieze designed in a modern design language decorates the wall of this aisle, which depicts Christ's Way of the Cross . The frieze comes from the workshop of the sculptor and graphic artist Werner Frischmuth .
The right south aisle, originally planned as a chapel for masses on weekdays, serves as the Marienkapelle . The focal point of this ship is a statue of the Virgin Mary carved from linden wood. It stands on a three-part marble pedestal. An unnamed artist from Eichsfeld created the figure especially for this church. His girlfriend served as a model, although a Romanesque Madonna was initially planned. Obtaining the soft wood was associated with some difficulties.
A historical stone from the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is embedded in the wall . It is one of the stones with which the gate is walled up for 25 calendar years during a holy year . Bishop Meisner had brought him back from a trip to Rome. Originally, the stone was supposed to be walled in when the foundation stone of the church was laid, but this was not realized.
The main nave has a multi-span wooden beam ceiling and is a light-flooded component with the center of the altar area. At the consecration of the church, a large tapestry with a symbolic representation of the twelve apostles adorned the back wall of the altar. Since Easter in 2000 , a four-meter-high body of Christ made in 1930 by the sculptor Hans Perathoner in front of a smooth white wall has attracted the attention of visitors. The unpainted sculpture, roughly carved out of an oak trunk , is on loan. It was made by the artist for the St. Martins Church in Berlin-Kaulsdorf , but was soon taken to a depot because the figure did not correspond to the usual church ideas. The depiction, which appeared very painful and realistic, received bad reviews from the time, such as showing a "Christ frozen in agony", it was a "deformity" and it was "too Darwinian". Between 1964 and 1986 the Corpus Christi was in the Evangelical Hope Church in Berlin-Pankow .
On the side of the altar a tabernacle is integrated into a column, on which there is also a small seven-armed stainless steel candlestick . To the left and right of the entrance door, an offering box, a small statue of St. Anthony , patron saint of the poor, and a relief portrait of Don Bosco complete the interior.
On the gallery above the entrance area there is a small organ that was built in the 1960s by the organ construction company Walcker from Ludwigsburg for the Protestant church in Maintal-Bischofsheim . The Catholic parish Von der Transfiguration bought this instrument in 1999 and had it expanded and installed here by the Johannes Kircher company from Heidelberg. The organ has 20 sounding voices on two manuals and a pedal. This church musical instrument allows the musical accompaniment of church events and festivals as well as church concerts.
Bells
The three bronze bells were cast in 1989. They are designed with three different motifs (drawings and text) from the history of the Bible. The big bell takes on the name of this church and represents the transfiguration of the Lord. The middle bell depicts the prophet Elijah and the small bell shows the image of Moses. At the inauguration of the church building there was still no bell.
| Bell no. | Surname | Chime | function | Caster | Casting year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transfiguration Bell | g 1 | Death bell |
Bell foundry in Apolda |
1989 |
| 2 | Elijah Bell | b 1 | Angelus bell | ||
| 3 | Moses bell | c 2 | Sunday and holiday bell |
Church life
The Catholic community, together with the Protestant community of the Marzahn village church, maintains an ecumenical church choir with around 50 members, which also organizes concerts in other parishes upon invitation. In addition, there is a women's group, a youth club, a senior citizens group, a lecturer's group and she is an active member of the Kolping Society , the Catholic social association.
See also
literature
- Harald Schwillus (Ed.): Archdiocese of Berlin - a young diocese with a long tradition . 2009, pp. 280 f., ISBN 978-3-88786-395-1
- Alexandra Wolff: The unusual creation of a way of the cross. In: Day of the Lord , No. 9/2015, February 22, 2015, p. 16 (on the history of the Way of the Cross)
Web links
- Official website of the municipality
- mahe.berlin - pictures , videos and information about the church
- organ
Individual evidence
- ↑ Based on a representation by the Luisenstädtischer Verein Berlin. Günter Peters: The Berliners did not want a "wrong church". Architecturally attractive places of worship in the midst of monotonous slabs . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 4, 1996, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 78-82 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ↑ Brief information on the Defa film Knirpse und Huhn ( Memento from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 71 kB)
- ↑ a b “Of the transfiguration of the Lord”. Catholic parish Berlin-Marzahn, accessed on March 27, 2015 .
- ↑ List of German organ builders accessed on September 26, 2009
- ↑ Internet portal “Music in Churches”, accessed on September 27, 2009
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 34.2 " N , 13 ° 33 ′ 9" E