Kreuzkirche (Berlin)
| Kreuzkirche Schmargendorf | |
|---|---|
_Ensemble.JPG) Ensemble of the Kreuzkirche |
|
| Construction year: | 1927-1929 |
| Inauguration: | December 15, 1929 |
| Architect : |
Ernst Paulus , Günther Paulus |
| Client: | Parish of Schmargendorf |
| Dimensions: | 24 × 19 × 20 m |
| Space: | 1000 seats |
| Tower height: |
54 m |
| Location: | 52 ° 28 '56 " N , 13 ° 17' 27" E |
| Address: |
Hohenzollerndamm 130 Berlin-Schmargendorf Berlin , Germany |
| Purpose: | church service |
| Local community: | Protestant parish Schmargendorf |
| Website: | www.kreuzkirche-berlin.de |
The Evangelical Kreuzkirche at Hohenzollerndamm 130 in the Berlin district of Schmargendorf , one of the rare expressionist sacred buildings , was built between 1927 and 1929 according to the designs of Ernst Paulus and his son Günther Paulus . After the laying of the foundation stone on December 4, 1927, it was inaugurated on December 15, 1929, and Schmargendorf received its second Protestant church next to the old - now too small - village church. The building complex is a listed building .
history
As early as 1910, a limited architectural competition was announced for the construction of a new church on the property , which Ernst Paulus and his then partner Olaf Lilloe won. As a result of the First World War , it was initially impossible to build. In the mid-1920s, the pastor of the Protestant parish Schmargendorf asked the public to finally tackle the project, because the Catholic Salvator Church was to be built in the immediate vicinity . The pre-war project by Paulus and Lilloe was no longer considered timely because of the increased needs outside of worship. Ernst Paulus and his son Günther, Lilloe had left in the meantime, presented a revised draft in May 1927, which was then implemented.
After the end of the Second World War , the church could not be used due to considerable damage to the roof and windows. Most of the original glazing was destroyed. Remnants of it can be seen in the bridal hall, in the cloister and especially in the chancel. When the work for the restoration of the church was largely completed in 1953, the church, with new windows by W. Rakutis, could be returned to the parish for worship.
In 1984 the now listed Kreuzkirche had to be closed for two years for security reasons. The dome, apse , roof and roof truss showed cracks, the structure was threatened and the building had to be thoroughly renovated. Following this work, the interior was redesigned in collaboration with the state curator, with the aim of restoring the original expressionist concept of 1927 as far as possible.
The Evangelical Kreuzkirchengemeinde Berlin-Schmargendorf is today one of 19 parishes in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf parish , which belongs to the Berlin district of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia .
architecture
The tower placed on the Hohenzollerndamm - “as a defense against the worldly hustle and bustle” (Paulus) - with its three spiers, “the pagoda -like , East Asian -looking portal porch with its blue-glazed ceramics (which comes from the sculptor Felix Kupsch along with the column figures ) and columns made of hard-burned clinker, handcrafted in a masterly manner, the masonry with its lively play of colors and surfaces, for the production of which, as is reported, two and a half million stones were bricked up “- these are the characteristics that give the Kreuzkirche its unmistakable character.
"An attempt was made here [...] to create a structure that might be a step forward in Protestant church building," wrote Ernst and Günther Paulus, the two architects of the Kreuzkirche, in 1930.
It is high time - according to the architects - to remember that the floor plan must be as adaptable as possible to a Protestant church of speakers. “The requirement that was not always carried out in the past to give every space a good view can only be met with a suitable floor plan. The Protestant church must be given an audio floor plan ”. And they formulated the program: "A church for 1000 seats and a community hall with a stage and kitchenette for 600 seats, a rectory, two confirmation halls, a parishioner's apartment and sextonry."
The shape of the church is intended as a massive solid structure , a brick shell faced with Oldenburg iron clinkers . However, the entire structural analysis is left to a steel and concrete skeleton . Stylistically, it is assigned to the Schumacher and Höger era.
The building consists of three individual structures that are directly adjacent to one another. A cloister is attached to the bell tower on Forckenbeckstrasse and ends at the central building . At the Hohenzollerndamm, the tower is connected at obtuse angles to the single-storey sexton, which continues in the two-storey rectory .
Church building
_Kirchenschiff.JPG)
The central building has an eight-sided floor plan with transverse rectangular extensions for the organ gallery in the west and the chancel in the east. The longitudinal axis is around 19 meters, the transverse axis around 24 meters and the clear height around 20 meters.
The church space is spanned by an eight-sided freely spanning dome made of brick masonry . The wooden lattice girders under the flat tent roof lie on a ring anchor made of steel, which transfers the vault thrust to the buttresses . Between the buttresses there are tall, triangular windows.
The floor in the central room, in which the chairs are set up, slopes down towards the apse . Optimal visibility of the altar is achieved by standing on a dais . The large community hall is located under the central room.
Steeple
On the street corner is the inclined church tower , crowned by three pointed, copper-covered pyramid helmets . It is 54 meters high and 16 meters wide. With the box-shaped transverse structure, the architects use the medieval westwork . The massive building wing , which forms the core of the building complex, is visually reinforced by buttresses at the corners. In front of it there are screw-shaped brick columns, which are interrupted by sculptures . Above the buttresses, the walls up to the eaves are exposed and provided with typical expressionist zigzag friezes. The open portal consists of a canopy that is reminiscent of the roof shape of a pagoda .
Below the bell chamber there is the old, no longer in operation, clockwork and underneath there are community rooms , an apartment and at street level the so-called bridal hall . Under the bridal hall is Café Tower to find where the foundation can be seen. It serves as a meeting point for young people from the neighborhood . Rock concerts and other musical events take place here under the responsibility of the parish.
Bells
Half a year before the construction of the church was completed, four chilled cast iron bells were raised in the tower, cast in 1928 by Schilling & Lattermann (Apolda and Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz). They have the beats as o –c' – es' – f '. The division results in a flat major chord or the "Salve Regina" motif on as o .
| Chime | Mass (kg) | Diameter (cm) | Height (cm) | Crown (cm) | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| as o | 6700 | 245 | 190 | - | + BLESSED ARE THE DEAD + |
| c ' | 2500 | 180 | 142 | 38 | + LIFT + YOUR + HEARTS + |
| it' | 1650 | 150 | 119 | - | + Lord + have mercy + you + |
| f ' | 1150 | 134 | 107 | - | + ALONE + GOD + IN + DER + HÖH + SEI + EHR! + |
The big bell loosened from its anchorage on May 6, 2008 during a memorial service and fell. A steel girder in the tower stopped the bells, which weighed tons, so that nobody was harmed.
During a planning and construction period of about two years, a new belfry was built using the preserved bells. The bells rang for the first time in nine years at the church services on December 24, 2017.
Interior
_Altar.JPG)
The church hall itself consists of an octagonal room with no access. The modern windows and the restored wall painting, a yellow-turquoise-colored zigzag pattern, are dominated by the primary colors violet, blue and turquoise. The earlier painting of the church came from Erich Wolde. It corresponded to the colors of the rainbow : the bridal hall in yellow, the cloister in red, the church room in green, the benches in blue - today the only original color - and the sanctuary in purple.
Altar, pulpit, window, painting
A five meter high cross made of Meissen porcelain gave the Kreuzkirche its name. This cross, which formerly - before the destruction of the church by the Allied air raids of World War II - adorned the altar, was the biggest cross, which until then ever in Meissen had been burned. The cross, altar, central pulpit and baptismal font came from the artistic advisor of the State Porcelain Manufactory Meißen (and important artistic employee of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin ) Max Esser . When the church was rededicated, it received a wooden altar table with a silver-plated crucifix and six turned candlesticks.
The four evangelist symbols (also by Max Esser) were made of bronze based on Donatello's models from the Chiesa del Santo in Padua. The glass windows were copied from the originals from the St. Viktor Cathedral in Xanten .
organ
_Orgelempore.JPG)
In the church there was originally an organ with 41 registers from 1929 from the Steinmeyer company , which was damaged in the war .
A gallery was built across the entire width above the entrance, on which the modern organ from 1957 by Karl Schuke is located with two manuals , pedal and 17 stops on purely mechanical slides . She has the following disposition :
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Bridal hall
Immediately behind the entrance portal is a yellow bridal hall from which a reddish cloister leads into the church hall.
Web links
literature
- Berlin. Sacred places. , Grebennikov Verlag, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-941784-09-3 ; Pp. 102, 104-107
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, Volume Berlin , Munich / Berlin 2006
- Christine Goetz , Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam . Berlin 2003
- Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings . Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin, Berlin 1997
- Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory . Berlin 1987
- District Office Wilmersdorf of Berlin (ed.), Karl-Heinz Metzger: Churches, mosques and synagogues in Wilmersdorf. Berlin 1986
- Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin . Berlin 1978
Individual evidence
- ^ Church on Hohenzollernplatz
- ↑ Berlin. Sacred places , p. 105
- ↑ Berlin. Sacred places , p. 102
- ↑ adb Ewerien and Obermann - Cross Church Schmargendorf. Retrieved March 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Detailed information on the organ of the Kreuzkirche ( Memento from December 2, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )