Kreuzkirche (Kassel)
The Kreuzkirche is a Protestant church in the Kassel district of Vorderer Westen , which was inaugurated in 1906. The church was completely destroyed in World War II. Today the new church, consecrated in 1959, stands under its historical name at the same location.
history
Until it was destroyed in 1943
At the beginning of the 20th century, the community area of the Oberneustädter Church, today's Karlskirche , was expanded. As a result, the number of members grew so much that a new church was necessary. In 1896 the Oberneustädter community had 9,000 members, shortly before the inauguration of the Kreuzkirche already 15,000. The community was divided into three districts, each cared for by a pastor.
On February 25, 1902, the church council finally decided to build a new building. There was even talk of building the new church together with the Lutherans , who were also busy with new building plans in the west of Kassel. The planned construction cost of 350,000 marks was to be covered by the consistory and the regional church. A donation campaign by Pastor Neumeister brought in another 25,000 marks. A piece of land was acquired from the city, the so-called Murhard Garden. The architects from Kassel, Hans Fanghänel and Anton Karst, were able to win the architecture competition . Their design was a neo-baroque central building over a shortened Greek cross (with the head of Christ) with a dome-like tower, the cross gussets of which were filled with stair towers. The hood on the dome roof of the Kreuzkirche was similar to that of its mother church, the Karlskirche. During the construction, various changes were made to the design, thereby emphasizing the central building more clearly and changing the neo-baroque ornamentation more in favor of Art Nouveau . The central building above the Greek cross was deliberately part of the Reformed building tradition of Johannes Otzen . The shape of the church was based on the Dresden Frauenkirche , but did not see itself as a baroque new building, but as something new, as it was created in the spirit of modern Art Nouveau.
The foundation stone of the Cross Church took place on August 2, 1904, and the church building was after a more than two-year construction period on November 7, 1906 as the second church in the Upper New Town Municipality inaugurated . The trade journal Die Architektur des XX. Century judged the building of the church in 1907: "The building of the Reformed Kreuzkirche in Kassel, designed and executed by the architects A. Karst and H. Fanghänel, is modern and peculiar in its layout and structure." The total construction costs amounted to 290,000 marks and a further 60,000 Mark for the construction site. The entrepreneur's wife Sophie Henschel donated a communion jug and 18 small goblets for the new church . The tower clock was a gift from the city of Kassel and Empress Auguste Viktoria donated a splendid altar Bible.
The church offered space for over 1000 visitors, 600 of them in the central building, around 300 in the three galleries and a further 200 in the two attached confirmation halls , which could be integrated into the church through collapsible doors.
As early as the First World War , the two largest of the three bronze bells had to be handed in for armament purposes. But they could already be replaced by two new ones in 1918. In 1933 the congregation became independent as a cross parish.
During the Second World War, the winter services were held in the two confirmation halls due to a lack of coal, which could be combined into one large room. In May 1941 the community newspaper was discontinued. On September 9, 1941, a bomb hit damaged the church. All the windows broke and the roof structure was moved. However, the damage could be repaired quickly. On January 16, 1942, two of the three bells had to be returned for armament purposes, only the small bell remained in the tower. The confirmation halls were provided with a gallery for church services. An air raid on August 28, 1942 destroyed this provisional facility, but it was able to be prepared so that 300 parishioners could find a place.
During the great air raid on Kassel on October 22, 1943 , which completely destroyed a large part of Kassel's inner city, the Kreuzkirche was also severely damaged. The steel roof structure collapsed into the interior, but the walls and the vaults of the cross arms were preserved.
From now on, the services took place in the nearby Friedenskirche .
New building of the church
After the end of the war, the community found shelter in various rooms until one of the two confirmation halls was prepared so that it could be used again.
In view of the remaining building structure, the community wanted the church to be rebuilt. But neither the regional church nor the city of Kassel planned to rebuild the original location. Instead, a new building on Luisenplatz or the area of the city barracks (between Luisenstrasse, Westendstrasse and Westerburgstrasse) was considered. The Munich architect and church builder Gustav Gsaenger , who was consulted for the reconstruction of the Martinskirche in Kassel, learned of the fate of the ruins of the Kreuzkirche and campaigned for its preservation. In 1955, a competition to rebuild the church at the historic location was announced, but none of the submitted designs were popular. In the end, Gsaenger was commissioned to design a new building after approval by the regional church office and the church council.
Construction work began in January 1957 and the topping-out ceremony was held on October 22nd. The rectory was built parallel to the church. On February 22, 1959, the parish hall was ready for use. The church tower was then built in 1961–1964. From the old cruciform church only a sandstone relief is preserved today, which was originally located on the south side of the cruciform church. Today it stands to the left of the main entrance and shows a scene in which Jesus is blessing children. On the right is a woman in traditional Schwalm costume.
With the striking tower of the Kreuzkirche in Kassel, Gsaenger created a design that can be found in several of his later church buildings. The 55-meter-high bell tower with a square floor plan, which is located to the east of the Kreuzkirche on Luisenstrasse, cannot be overlooked in Kassel's city skyline .
In addition to church services and church events, the Kreuzkirche is often used for concerts. Particularly noteworthy is the concert series “World Music in the Kreuzkirche”, which has been held since 2003 from September to May.
Between 2006 and 2013 the Kreuzkirche housed the youth culture church in Kassel, which is now located in the Luther Church .
architecture
The foundations of the old church, which was destroyed in the war , were used for the new construction of the Kreuzkirche, which was carried out according to the plans of architect Gustav Gsaenger at the historic location . The round shape of the new building was thus given. During the reconstruction, old stone was reworked for the outer walls and supplemented with rubble stones. As in the previous building, the roof was designed as a mighty dome and covered with copper .
The base of the church tower was erected at the same time as the rotunda. A connecting side part between the tower and the church was designed as a reinforced concrete structure . The construction of the other tower floors took place in the later construction phase in the 1960s. The ground floor and the corner cuboids of the tower show natural stone, while the remaining facade surfaces are plastered and painted light. The four sides of the façade of the tower, which is square in cross section, are structured by differently sized, rectangular windows and the tower clock arranged on each of the four sides of the tower, as well as by the elongated lamellar covers of the sound openings. The four tower clocks each have a striking, red-brown dial with gold numerals and hands. The bells are located behind the lamellar panels on two opposite sides of the tower, which are made of wooden blinds. The tower is closed at the top with a raised balustrade and behind it a low conical helmet with a copper roof. Architect Gsaenger "cites the typically Lower Hessian Gothic roof shape in a freely modified form ". The orientation and height of the tower are characterized by the upper part, which is pierced on both sides by the covered sound openings, the top of which carries a weather vane .
organ
The Werner Bosch company built the organ as Opus 275 in 1962. The instrument has 32 registers spread over three manuals and a pedal . The disposition is as follows:
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, I / P, III / P
Altarpieces
The Kreuzkirche has had four altarpieces in its history. The first picture from 1906 filled the entire altar wall. The “miraculous story of the raising of the youth of Naïn ” ( Gospel of Luke 7: 11-17) was depicted with sparkling mosaic stones .
Today's altarpiece is a large cross by the Brazilian artist José de Quadros . The picture is entitled “The Messenger: The Appearance of the Divine in the Earthly” and was inaugurated in 2001. The image is dominated by a broken, crooked cross. In the horizontal bar of the cross there are motifs of the old cruciform church. On the left you can see the cross relief with the head of Christ and a crown of thorns, which was on the outer wall of the chancel from 1906, on the right the tracing of the wall mosaic that was behind the altar of the destroyed Kreuzkirche. The artist wants to depict the earthly death of Jesus of Nazareth on the left and the divine power on the right, which leads from death into life. The vertical bar of the cross is intended to remind of the Old Testament Jewish tradition of Christianity. Below is the story of Moses before the burning thorn bush (Exodus 3: 1–16). On the right, vertically at the edge of the burning bush, the sentence Exodus 3.2b is quoted in Hebrew letters: "And he saw that the bush was burning in the fire and yet was not consumed". Diagonally to this text is the Hebrew sentence from Genesis 28, 122 in which it says: "And, behold, a ladder stood on the earth, its tip touching heaven." The entire picture is shadowy in white color an angel depicted based on an angel depiction from the old cruciform church.
Below the large altarpiece is the altarpiece, which was designed in 1963 for the rebuilt Kreuzkirche. The stretched mosaic panel was designed by the Kassel artist Christiane Wollenhaupt-Brenner and is entitled "The Great Supper". It is a series of images that can be read from left to right and depicts Jesus' parable story of the Great Supper (Luke 14, 16–24).
Another altarpiece is on the south inner wall. It is a brightly colored picture with the title “The All-encompassing Angel of God”, painted with strong colors, and was created by the artist Werner Kraus.
Parish
The parish became independent in 1933 when the original Oberneustädter parish was divided into the three parishes Kreuzkirche, Karlskirche and Südstadt. As early as 1913, on the initiative of Pastor Neumeister, the “Kinderhort des Westens” was founded. At first it was located in the north wing of the municipal barracks in Westendstrasse, but at the beginning of the First World War it was moved to the barracks of the Luisenschule and later to a converted horse stable of a former brewery on Wilhelmshöher Allee . Initially, the day care center was the sole responsibility of the parish. After the inflation , however, he received a grant from the city of Kassel. The day care center was destroyed in 1944. Today, the Kreuzkirchengemeinde, in addition to the city parish, is the sponsor of an integrative day-care center founded in 1969. In the Königstor elementary school, the Kreuzkirche parish has been running a three-group all-day care center for elementary school students since 2011.
In 1955 the "Kasseler Motettenchor" was founded, which by 1960 already had 80 members. Today it is known as the "Kantorei der Kreuzkirche Kassel" and regularly gives concerts in the Kreuzkirche and outside. The current choirmaster is Jochen Faulhammer.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b vorderer-westen.net: Article about the Kreuzkirche.
- ↑ a b c Christa Pflüger-Alheit: Church towers in Kassel. A publication for the city anniversary. Büro Kassel 1100, Kassel 2013, pp. 28–29 ( PDF; 8,719 kB ( Memento from March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).
- ↑ History of the concert series "World Music in the Kreuzkirche" ( Memento from July 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Evangelical Church in Kassel: Synod resolves a youth church for Kassel
- ↑ jugendkulturkirche-kassel.de
- ^ Organ in Kassel, Kreuzkirche , accessed on April 24, 2015.
- ↑ Welcome to the after-school center of the Kreuzkirche at Königstor ( Memento from May 1st, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ History of the choir of the Kreuzkirche
literature
- Bernhard Scholz (Ed.): 100 years of the Kreuzkirche . Kassel 2006.
- Hans-Gernot Jung (arrangement): Festschrift for the inauguration of the new Kreuzkirche. Church council of the Kreuzkirche parish, Kassel 1959.
Web links
- Homepage of the Kreuzkirche
- Parish of the Kreuzkirche
- Choir of the Kreuzkirche
- World music in the Kreuzkirche
Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 46.8 " N , 9 ° 28 ′ 25.8" E