Monastery of the Good Shepherd (Berlin)

The church in the center of the monastery complex

The Monastery of the Good Shepherd is a Christian institution in the Marienfelde district of Berlin , which goes back to a monastery of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and belongs to the pastoral area of Lankwitz-Marienfelde in the Archdiocese of Berlin .

history

In the year 1858 in Alt- Lietzow (today: Charlottenburg ) the monastery of the good shepherd was built - rescue center for fallen girls . Around 1860 there were 20 penitents living in the institution. In 1875 the monastery was closed according to the regulations of the Prussian monastery abolition law. Most of the sisters left Berlin and the girls and women were placed elsewhere or released. Then the statutes were changed and the house was continued as a hospital. In 1887 the monastery abolition law itself was repealed. The house was now a monastery again. Since 1894 the monastery was a training center for prison guards.

Due to the tightness in the Charlottenburg house, the sisters opened another branch in April 1887 in Reinickendorfer Residenzstrasse. In 1900 there were 325 inmates in Charlottenburg and the buildings were bursting at the seams, so that the building complex in Marienfelde was built as a necessary extension . Between 1903 and 1905, a new monastery from the Good Shepherd , a closed institution for girls and women , was built on Malteserstraße in Marienfelde according to plans by Josef Lückerath . Facilities of the monastery were a household school, a girls' shelter, a washing and tiling facility, agriculture and bakery as well as a separate burial place. On February 8, 1905, the sisters and their pupils moved to Marienfelde, and the order's activities in Alt-Lietzow ended. During the First World War , the monastery became a military hospital under the direction of the Marienfeld doctor Moritz Jacobsohn . The buildings were also used as a hospital again during World War II .

Since around 1960, the agricultural areas of the monastery have been built with apartments by the Petruswerk . The monastery was closed in 1967 due to a lack of young people, in 1968 the nuns gave up the location, and the residential wings were converted into a social center from 1968 to 1974. Since then, the monastery church has been used by the newly founded Catholic parish of the Good Shepherd.

In February 2017 the neighboring parishes of Mater Dolorosa in Lankwitz and Vom Guten Hirten were incorporated into the pastoral area of Lankwitz-Marienfelde for a three-year development phase.

A girl from the girls' shelter as part of the Paste Up History - Marienfelde Goes Street Art project in 2020

In 2020 the building of the former monastery became part of the art project Paste Up History - Marienfelde Goes Street Art by the artist duo Maria Vill and David Mannstein on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Marienfeld . The photographs of two girls from the girls' shelter were attached to the facades above the main entrance to the church and to the rectory.

church

Church and former monastery of the Good Shepherd seen from the north

The foundation stone of the monastery church was laid on October 28, 1903, its benediction on February 8, 1905, but its consecration only on June 29, 1927.

Building description

The heptagonal, neo-Gothic central building has four separate naves facing south-west with four bays as transitions to the four-storey residential buildings , which are arranged in a star shape around the central chancel . The conception of the floor plan goes back to the construction of prisons in the early 19th century. The surrounding parapet is crowned with a battlement , under it runs a frieze , is typical of these prison buildings and also gives the monastery buildings a castle-like character. The masonry is faced with red clinker , the areas particularly exposed to rain with dark green glaze stones. The sanctuary is covered with a heptagonal tent roof on which a bell tower in the form of a lantern with a pointed tent roof is placed. Two single-storey building wings are symmetrically connected to the sanctuary , one for the sacristy and one for the former parish hall for the Catholic residents of Marienfeld, who were not allowed to enter the monastery church. The walls of the church are structured by Gothic style elements. Two large ogival windows open between the buttresses on the walls of the nave . The three sides of the sanctuary without an attached nave have a facade with a triangular gable in which there are two-lane arched windows with a rose window above . Each nave has its own painted stations of the cross , but the historical picture frames are missing . The high altar with the tabernacle had a neo-Gothic retable with a sculpture of the Good Shepherd in its center on a pedestal , crowned with a carved ciborium . He was eliminated in 1957 and by a people's altar replaced, a simple table of marble . The vaults were painted in the Nazarene style and have been preserved, as have the glass paintings with motifs from the Old and New Testament .

Peal

Heptagonal church tower with weathercock, cross, tower clocks, baffle plates for the bells, beaver tail crown cover and brick battlements

Originally the church had two bells, but in 1941 they had to be made available to the armaments industry . In his bell room , which was prepared after the Second World War to accommodate three bells, hangs a ring made of three bronze bells, which was made in 1965 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling .

Chime	Weight (kg)	Diameter ( cm)	Height (cm)	inscription
e "	130	60	51	QUEEN OF PEACE, PRAY FOR US.
a "	070	48	41	HL. JOSEF - WORRY +.
cis "	035	35	29	HL. MARIA EUPHRSIA, PROMOTE THE WORK.

organ

The organ with a simple prospect dates from 1888 and was taken over from the Charlottenburg monastery, although the location there is unknown. It was created in the Münster organ building company Friedrich Fleiter and was expanded and revised in 1979 by the Freiburg organ building company Hartwig Späth , after a final move to its current location. Today it is the oldest playable organ in a Catholic Berlin church. The fully mechanical organ was expanded by a few registers to fill the church space. The original registers corresponded more to the taste of the time and had a rather soft, romantic sound and it was intended for making music in small rooms.

The tonal expansion was problematic and did not correspond to the principles of a careful restoration; For the first time, however, it made possible the typical roaring organ sound and the playing of virtuoso baroque works. According to Gerhard Jas, the community organist, the organ is one of the most beautiful sounding organs in the diocese, despite certain flaws in the sound design, and allows for characterful and attractive timbres. The organ, on which the dust layer from two church restorations had settled and many parts had become brittle and brittle, was overhauled in 2009 by the organ building company Karl Schuke .

Todays use

Since 2006, the monastery buildings have housed the Catholic parish center Vom guten Hirten , schools, Caritas facilities , which has been offering senior citizens' apartments here since 1973 , as well as some privately rented apartments.

Church and Monastery of the Good Shepherd are a Berlin cultural monument .

literature

Hans-Werner Fabarius, Marienfelde - From the village to the district of Berlin , published by the parish council of the Protestant parish Marienfelde, Berlin 2001.
Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Berlin. 3rd edition, reviewed and supplemented by Michael Bollé. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin et al. 2006, ISBN 3-422-03111-1 .
Parish of the Good Shepherd: 100 years of the monastery church of the Good Shepherd. Berlin 2005.
Christine Goetz and Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam. Berlin 2003.
Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part 6: Sacred buildings. Ernst, Berlin a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-433-01016-1 .
Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory (= The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. Supplement 16). Mann, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7861-1443-9 .