Little Michel

The "Little Michel" from the east with the tower of the "Big Michel"

St. Ansgar and St. Bernhard, view of the main portal from the west

The Kleine Michel (actually: Catholic parish church St. Ansgar and St. Bernhard) in Hamburg is a sacred building of the classical modern in the Neustadt , whose building history is closely connected with today's Protestant main church St. Michaelis - called "Michel". The first church building at this point was consecrated as a Roman Catholic church during the Hamburg French era . After the total destruction by the air raids on Hamburg in the Second World War, the parish church was rebuilt with French help in the form of a passage and parish church and consecrated again in 1955. It is a memorial of the Franco-German friendship .

history

Precursor church of St. Michaelis

Around the year 1600, the main parish of St. Nikolai had a plague cemetery built outside the city walls at that time, which received a smaller branch church. This chapel with tower, weather vane and bell was dedicated to the Archangel Michael . The first regular church service was held in 1605. In 1647 the main parish of St. Nikolai sold this building to the parish council of the new main parish of St Michaelis, which had been created through the expansion of the city. A little later, due to the increasing population, he decided to build the much larger new main church St. Michaelis 200 m west on the Krayenkamp street; the permission of the Hamburg citizenship is documented in a resolution from 1647. The new building was inaugurated in 1661. The old church, now called "Little Michel", fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1747.

Emergency church for St. Michaelis

After the “Michel” burned by lightning on March 10, 1750, the “Little Michel” was rebuilt as a baroque church through a private donation from Senator Joachim Caspar Vogt (1707–1781), opened in 1757, consecrated and used as an emergency church until in In 1762 the new St. Michaeliskirche was inaugurated.

Roman Catholic Church of St. Ansgar

In 1807, Spanish troops from Emperor Napoleon I (1769–1821) held the first Catholic service in the confiscated “Little Michel”. Italian, Spanish and French soldiers of Catholic faith were among the Napoleonic troops. In 1811, the prefect of the French troops declared the "Little Michel" a Roman Catholic Church, which was consecrated on February 3rd in the name of St. Ansgar. In 1814 the French troops withdrew from Hamburg.

Catholic services continued to be celebrated here in silence. In 1824 the Senate and the citizenship bought the “Little Michel” from the parish council of the Protestant “Great Michaeliskirche” for 30,000 marks because it claimed part of the churchyard for itself. The city later left the building to the Catholic community with its now 6,000 members for 5,000 marks, a fraction of the previous purchase price. In 1830 the church was so thoroughly renovated that it was almost completely new.

Before the composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was appointed to the court opera in Vienna, he prepared for his conversion to the Catholic faith. On February 23, 1887, he converted together with his two sisters Justine and Emma and was baptized by Vicar Swider in the St. Ansgar Church in Hamburg. The godfather was Theodor von Meynberg.

Building history of St. Ansgar and St. Bernhard

Destruction and rebuilding

The "Little Michel" after the reconstruction - 1950s

The "Little Michel" after the redesign of 1977/78 (picture 2012)

The "Little Michel" - interior view after the redesign in 2012/2013

On March 11, 1945, the baroque church was completely destroyed by Allied explosive bombs. The solidarity of French Christians and their active help made it possible to rebuild another church in the years 1953–1955.

According to plans by the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Moreux (1889–1956), who based his design on the concept of the Burgundian Passagenkirche , the building was erected under the direction of the Hamburg architect Gerhard Kamps on the foundations of the first church building. The modern church in neoclassical garb received the secondary patronage of St. Bernard of Clairvaux . On July 10, 1955, it was consecrated to Saints Ansgar and Bernhard. A weekly mass is held in French by the “Mission Catholique Francaise et Francophone de Hambourg”. The Filipino community is also looked after in the “Little Michel”.

In 1973 the Catholic Academy Hamburg was inaugurated on the church premises.

Statue of Emperor Charlemagne - church forecourt

In 1977 the bronze statue of Emperor Charlemagne (747 / 48-814) as the founder of the city of Hamburg was erected in front of St. Ansgar and St. Bernhard . It comes from the Kaiser-Karls-Brunnen, which the sculptor Engelbert Peiffer (1830-1896) created in 1889 for the former cathedral square on the Alter Fischmarkt street .

In 1977/1978, the interior of the church was fundamentally redesigned by the Hamburg architecture association Bunsmann + Scharf with the aim of "meeting the requirements of an academy church, a preaching church and a church for pontifical and concelebration offices in this exposed location in terms of functionality and aesthetics." In 1995 the decision was not made for the “Little Michel”, but for the Cathedral of St. Mary to be the seat of the Archbishop of Hamburg , which necessitated a structural reorganization of the interior. Since u. a. The pontifical arrangement of the sediles was unjustified and there was an urgent need for renovation in the area of ​​building technology (heating, electrical, energy efficiency, sound), the church was renovated again from October 2012 to August 2013 under the direction of the Oldenburg architect Klaus Dörnen.

In 2007/2008 the leadership of the pastoral work at the “Little Michel” was entrusted to the Jesuits , who provide the pastor and live with a community in a part of the academy building.

On March 20, 2011, in memory of the last Lutheran sermon on March 18, 1811, a celebratory service took place with a dialogue sermon by today's Evangelical Lutheran main pastor of the “Great Michel” and the Roman Catholic pastor of the “Little Michel”.

Furnishing

Archbishop Ansgar with attributes

Madonna

Two figures by the Hamburg artist Franz Bernhard Schiller (1815–1857) (“Madonna of the Little Michel” and “Ansgar”) and two icons (“Heart of Jesus” and “Maria”) were saved from the church of the 19th century . They are not dated and come from the pre-war church and were probably acquired or made for altars in the baroque church in the 19th century. After the renovation in 2013, these pieces were u. a. added to permanent church furnishings . In addition, there are changing exhibitions in the open space of the church.

The "Way of the Cross", which is now attached to the approach to the chancel, was made by the sculptor Fritz Fleer (1921–1997), whose work is represented in all of Hamburg's main churches.

Relics

On the 1000th anniversary of Ansgar's death , the first bishop of Hamburg, in 1865, Bishop Paulus Melchers (1813–1895) of Osnabrück gave the parish a forearm relic of the saint. Visible in a bezel in the altar of the church, it represents the grave of St. Ansgar for the city and the Archdiocese of Hamburg .

Arm relic of Saint Ansgar

Church treasure

The "Little Michel" has a church treasure, some of which was confiscated around 1811 from the Cologne Cathedral for the church in Hamburg (various baroque vestments), some of which probably came from the holdings of the chapel of the imperial residence in Hamburg, which after the Destruction and plundering from 1719 had been re-established and abandoned at the beginning of the 19th century: an eternal light traffic light and a censer by Joh. Friedrich Breuer from around 1748, a monstrance by Johann Martin Maurer from 1732, further chalices and liturgical devices from the time before 1750 and silver candlesticks by the Hamburg masters Jürgen Richels (1664–1711) and Jacob Barthels (masters 1727–1769).

Organs

In 1958, the organ building company Krell built a large cone chest organ in the neo-baroque style on the gallery . This instrument was discontinued in 2005 and no longer playable. It was dismantled in 2012 with the storage of usable pipe material, which mainly comes from the workshop Laukhuff (labial pipes) and Giesecke (lingual pipes).

Mauracher organ

In church services and concerts from 2006 to 2012, a small, romantic choir organ from 1890 by the Matthäus Mauracher company , which was originally located in Klöch in Styria , played. The instrument had 11 registers on a manual mechanism and pedal with mechanical action and hanging valve shutter . The pipe material of this organ was stored in 2012 when the renovation work began on Kl. Michel.

Today's "Angel of Peace"

In 2015 Ute Louis donated a new organ in memory of her late husband Detlev Louis. The instrument was built from 2016 to 2019 by the organ builder Thomas B. Gaida . Based on the idea of ​​rebuilding the Little Michel after the Second World War as a Franco-German gesture of reconciliation (see the inscription above the neoclassical entrance portal: "SERVATE VNITATEM SPIRITVS IN VINCULO PACIS" - Preserve the unity in the spirit in the bond of peace ) called the instrument the Angel of Peace .

Using the pipes and wind chests from the two previous organs and adding further historical registers (e.g. an Open Wood 16 ′ from an English inventory (around 1900) and a Quintadena 8 ′ from the Steinmeyer workshop of the 1920s), Gaida built a technically complete one new organ. The 32 'and 16' positions of the tuba, the double-glazed pipes of the tibia pomposa as well as all pipes visible in the prospectus (the gamba and the principal major of the main work and the principal and the octave for the choir organ) have been newly made .

The instrument has 33 drawer registers (two more windchests in the Echowerk are still vacant) and 18 further rows of pipes from which a large number of further registers can be derived; These auxiliary registers are used in several extracts (in the manuals, depending on the configuration, either in 8 '/ 4' position or 16 '/ 8' / 4 'position and in the pedals (divisible, sic!) depending on the configuration from 32' -Layer up to the 2 'position). The aliquot auxiliaries (single tone control) that are not lined up in the main control unit (on the console on the left) can be played via separate auxiliary setter, as well as the wide fifth and third from the lowest to highest register and circuits such as Cornett VI. The new organ has two identical, independent, parallel playable, four-manual console tables , which allude to seven partial works (Hauptwerk, Positiv, Schwellwerk, Großschweller, Echowerk, choir organ on the left, choir organ on the right and the predominantly non-independent pedal work), five of which are swellable ( Schwellwerk, Großschweller, Echowerk and both choir organs). All works can be freely assigned to the manuals and played in three octaves (sub-octave, aequal and super octave). The main organ with its store registers and a work-independent auxiliary mechanism (individual tone control) are controlled via cone chests, while the choir organs are controlled with electrical slide chests. The sostenuto effect is a special feature. The gaming table on the gallery is fixed; the game table below can be moved freely in the church. With six 32 'registers, five string registers (including three viols), a large number of reed registers as well as various labial registers in 8 positions that can be used as soloists, the instrument occupies a unique position in the otherwise predominantly neo-baroque organ landscape of Hamburg. The overall sound corresponds primarily to that of a German-Romantic organ, although it can also be used as a universal organ thanks to the combination options extended by individual tone control.

According to American counting, this results in 162 ranks including circuits. In the following disposition , shop registers are marked with ordinal numbers (left), auxiliary registers with the letter A and the number of the respective pipe row from which it is derived, and acoustic circuits with S.

Major work C – c 4 Open Wood (A 1) 16 ′ Bourdon (A2) 16 ′ Viol (A 3) 16 ′ Principal major (A 4) 08th' 1. Principal minor 08th' Concert flute (A 5) 08th' 2. Wooden flute 08th' Bourdon (A2) 08th' Viol (A 3) 08th' 3. Dolkan 08th' Octava major (A 4) 04 ′ 4th Octava minor 04 ′ Concert flute (A 5) 04 ′ Reed flute (A 2) 04 ′ 5. Gemshorn 04 ′ 6th Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 7th octave 02 ′ 8th. Mixtura maior III 0 02 ′ 9. Mixtura minor III 01' Bassoon (A 6) 16 ′ Bassoon (A 6) 08th' Bassoon (A 6) 04 ′ Tremulant

Positive C-c 4 10. Dumped 08th' 11. Quintadena 08th' 12. Reed flute 04 ′ 13. Sesquialter II 14th Forest flute 02 ′ 15th Rohrschalmey 08th' Tremulant

Swell C – c 4 Lovingly covered (A 7) 0 16 ' 16. Horn principal 08th' 17th Harmony flute 08th' Lovingly covered (A 7) 08th' 18th Gamba 08th' Vox coelestis (A 8) 08th' 19th Fugara 04 ′ Vox coelestis (A 8) 04 ′ 20th Reed flute 04 ′ 21st Nasat 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 22nd flute 02 ′ 23. third 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Mixture IV (A 9) 02 ′ Bombarde (A 10) 16 ′ Bombarde (A 10) 08th' Bombarde (A 10) 04 ′ Oboe (A 11) 08th' Oboe (A 11) 04 ′ Tremulant

Echowerk C – c 4 (swellable) 24. Quintadena 16 ′ 25th (vacant) 26th Aeoline 08th' 27. (vacant) 28. Harmonia aeth. III-IV Dulcian (A 12) 16 ′ Krummhorn (A 12) 08th' Wing tremulant

Large sill C – c 4 Tuba (A 16) 16 ′ Tuba (A 16) 08th' Tuba (A 16) 04 ′ Unda maris (A 17) 08th' Unda maris (A 17) 04 ′ Tibia pomposa (A 14) 08th' Tibia pomposa (A 14) 04 ′ Free auxiliaries (manuals) C – c 4 Grand Principal (A 4) 16 ′ Concert flute (A 5) 16 ′ Tibia pomposa (A 14) 16 ′ Wide fifth (A 13) 05 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Wide fifth (A 13) 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Wide fifth (A 13) 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Wide fifth (A 13) 02 ⁄ 3 ′ Third (A 15) 06 2 ⁄ 5  ′ Third (A 15) 03 1 ⁄ 5  ′ Third (A 15) 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Third (A 15) 04 ⁄ 5 ′ Mixture (A 09) 01' Cornet VI (S) Polish cymbal II (S)

Choir organ (right) C – c 4 (swellable except No. 29/32) 29 Principal 08th' 30th Gemshorn 08th' 31. Salicional 08th' 32. octave 04 ′ 33. Mixture IV 02 ′

Choir organ (left) C – c 4 (swellable) 34. Philomela 08th' 35. Dumped 08th'

Choir organ pedal C-g 1 (swellable) Choir bass (A 18) 32 ′ Choir bass (A 18) 16 ′ Choir bass (A 18) 08th'

Pedal C – g 1 Bassus magnus (S) 32 ′ Open Wood (A 1) 32 ′ Sub bass (A 2) 32 ′ Lovely covered (A 7) 0 32 ′ Open Wood (A 1) 16 ′ Viol (A 3) 16 ′ Sub bass (A 2) 16 ′ Lieblich Gedackt (A 7) 16 ′ Fifth (A 13) 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Grand Principal (A 4) 08th' Viol (A 3) 08th' Concert flute (A 5) 08th' Gedackt (A 2) 08th' Tibia pomposa (A 14) 08th'

continuation Lovingly covered (A 7) 08th' Fifth (A 13) 05 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Third (A) 15 06 2 ⁄ 5  ′ Grand Principal (A 4) 04 ′ Viol (A 3) 04 ′ Concert flute (A 5) 04 ′ Tibia pomposa (A 14) 04 ′ Lovingly covered (A 7) 0 04 ′ Third (A 15) 03 1 ⁄ 5  ′ Fifth (A 13) 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Grand Principal (A 4) 02 ′ Viol (A 3) 02 ′ Gedackt (A 2) 02 ′ Concert flute (A 5) 02 ′

continuation Tibia (A 14) 02 ′ Third (A 15) 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Fifth (A 13) 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Concert flute (A 5) 01' Third (A 15) 04 ⁄ 5 ′ Fifth (A 13) 02 ⁄ 3 ′ Pedal Cornet VI (S) Septnon circuit IV (S) Mixture IV (A 9) 02 ′ Mixture IV (A 9) 01' Polish cymbal IV (S)0 Tuba (A 16) 32 ′ Tuba (A 16) 16 ′ Bombarde (A 10) 16 ′

continuation Bassoon (A 6) 16 ′ Dulcian (A 12) 16 ′ Tuba (A 16) 08th' Bombarde (A 10) 08th' Bassoon (A 6) 08th' Oboe (A 11) 08th' Dulcian (A 12) 08th' Tuba (A 16) 04 ′ Bombarde (A 10) 0 04 ′ Bassoon (A 6) 04 ′ Oboe (A 11) 04 ′ Tuba (A 16) 02 ′ Bassoon (A 6) 02 ′

• Coupling : Pedal coupling of all store registers and store accessories, work-related sub- and super-couplers, work-related assignment of store registers and store accessories to the manuals, melody solo coupler, pizzicato coupler, coupler Ped to Man I.
• Playing aids : setter system (9 × 999), auxiliary setter, auxiliaries with individual tone control manual / pedal, freely selectable pedal division in pedal bass and pedal disc, sequencer forwards and backwards (invertible), sostenuto, midi in / out. Four swell kicks, free assignment (setter) of swell kicks to swell structures (possibly coupled). Swell step positions can be set. Register crescendo step (formerly roller) can be freely assigned to a swell step and freely adjustable in the register.
• Remarks:

(S) = acoustic switching

(A ...) = Register from auxiliary register series no. ...

Bells

In 1959, the Otto bell foundry from Bremen-Hemelingen delivered four bells with the chimes: e ¹ - g ¹ - a ¹ - c ² and the following diameters (in mm): 1214 - 1020 - 909 - 796.

Web links

Commons : Kleiner Michel (St. Ansgar Hamburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Little Michel (St. Ansgar Hamburg)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The new Michel. In: image. Hamburg. Special production from around 2010, section: The history of the baroque church.
2. ↑ Johann Heinrich Bartels: Answering a question about the 24th article of the Hamburg Main Precess and about the Präliminar-Reglemnet for the gentlemen ministerials mentioned therein. In addition to an appendix concerning the Reformites and Catholics in Hamburg. Hamburg 1828, p. 59f.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Holmer Stahncke: A Franco-German symbol of reconciliation. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . December 24, 2010, p. 46.
4. ↑ Johann Heinrich Bartels: Answering a question about the 24th article of the Hamburg Main Precess and about the Präliminar-Reglemnet for the gentlemen ministerials mentioned therein. In addition to an appendix concerning the Reformites and Catholics in Hamburg. Hamburg 1828, p. 59f.
5. ^ H. Brenner, R. Kubik: Mahler's world. The places of his life. St. Pölten / Salzburg 2011, p. 131.
6. ^ Jean-Charles Moreux in the French language Wikipedia; the original files of the “Little Michel” can be found in the Archives d'architecture du XXe siècle, Fonds Moreux, Paris; http://archiwebture.citechaillot.fr/
7. ↑ Kleiner Michel (St. Ansgar Hamburg) , accessed December 27, 2010.
8. ↑ On the history of the statue , documented there from Schütt: The Chronicle of Hamburg. ; Studt / Olsen: History of Hamburg
9. ↑ Image and information about the statue
10. ^ Minutes of the meeting of the building committee on April 15, 1977.
11. ↑ Information on church renovation 2012/2013 ( Memento from October 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
12. ^ Opinion by Dr. Bernhard Heitmann on October 14, 2012.
13. ^ Organ Databank: Krell Organ , accessed on January 30, 2020.
14. ^ The Mauracher organ (1890) in the Little Michel Hamburg 2007. Document for the inauguration of the organ. (PDF; 940 kB)
15. ^ The Mauracher organ (1890) in the Little Michel Hamburg 2007. Document for the inauguration of the organ. (PDF; 940 kB)
16. ↑ A new organ for Little Michel. Accessed January 30, 2020.
17. ↑ Günter Seggermann, Alexander Steinhilber, Hans-Jürgen Wulf: The organs in Hamburg . Ludwig, Kiel 2019, ISBN 978-3-86935-366-1 , pp. 9 .
18. ↑ Günter Seggermann, Alexander Steinhilber, Hans-Jürgen Wulf: The organs in Hamburg . Ludwig, Kiel 2019, ISBN 978-3-86935-366-1 , pp. 8 .
19. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty. Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 559.
20. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 56.9 "  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 58.7"  E