St. Lukas Church (Leipzig)
The Lukaskirche is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Leipzig . It forms the center of the Volkmarsdorf district . Its construction is closely related to the rise of Volkmarsdorf to a populous working class suburb. Originally part of the parish of Schönefeld , it was decided in the course of incorporation in 1890 to found an independent parish and to build a spacious church .
Building history
The Leipzig architect Julius Zeißig was commissioned with the planning . After the parish of Volkmarsdorf had been cleared out of the parish of Schönefeld on May 1, 1891, the foundation stone was laid on August 9, 1891 on the Volkmarsdorfer Markt south of Eisenbahnstrasse. On March 19, 1893 ( Judika ), the church named after the evangelist Luke was consecrated with a festive service. At that time the community had around 18,000 members (today around 350).
Architecture and equipment
Both the external form and the internal design of the church are shaped by the outgoing historicism . The open, hall-like nave is a total of 46 meters long and a maximum of 21 meters wide. It is lit on both sides by five large windows and opens up to the simple choir room , which is closed on three sides . The left annex served as a wedding and baptistery or as a classroom for confirmands, while the sacristy is housed in the right annex . The 71 meter high tower, crowned by a pointed helmet, is a landmark of the district that can be seen from afar. The five scenic tile pictures in the arched fields of the entrances, whose designs come from Erhard Lieberstein, professor at the Leipzig Art Academy and which were produced by the company Villeroy & Boch in Dresden 's suburb of Leipzig, are considered particularly valuable .
The interior of the nave is strongly characterized by the self-supporting wooden ceiling, originally set off with paint and gold; wooden galleries , chairs and wall panels combine to form an effective whole. A rosette pattern covered the walls and ceilings of the choir extensions like a carpet. The large window in the chancel, made by the Zittau company Türcke & Schlein , forms the focal point of the interior: the evangelists are depicted in four pointed-arched openings , the rest of the room is filled with an ornamental rose with the image of Christ raised in the middle. The formerly magnificent and elaborate interior design can hardly be guessed today. One reason for this is the air raids on Leipzig towards the end of the Second World War (particularly on April 6, 1945), during which the tower was damaged, a third of the church windows were broken and a door was badly hit. On the other hand, little of the original equipment was preserved after the renovations.
Up until 1914 there were three bronze bells (notes a, d and f) in the tower . Two of them fell victim to the bell expropriation in the First World War . In 1924 a new chime with three steel bells was consecrated. Today, as then, the bells in the tower of St. Luke's Church are rung manually.
Five years after the end of the Second World War, the heavily damaged church windows were re-glazed, and in 1957 the tower, which was in need of repair, was repaired. During renovation work from 1964, the wooden furnishings of the chancel and the front part of the pews in the nave were removed, as well as the pulpit and the altar. The altar plate was used in the construction of the new, simple altar table. The altered chancel could now be used for smaller church services. During the last renovation work, the frame of the ceiling was also simplified.
The cross in the chancel reminds of the redesign of the district in the 1980s, the demolition of the three- and four-storey houses that were still damaged by the war and their replacement by prefabricated buildings. It was made from roof beams from a neighboring demolition house.
Since the church has been used by the St. Trinity Congregation of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church , it has been extensively renovated. The chancel has been restored to its original form with the restored high altar .
organ
The Rühlmann company in Zörbig built the pneumatic organ with 32 stops and a neo-Gothic prospect in 1893 . In 1936 and 1939 the organ was heavily modified by the Jehmlich company in Dresden . The organ, which had not been playable for several decades, was repaired in 2018.
Today's disposition
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P, III / P, upper octave II / II, upper octave II / I, upper octave I / I, general coupling
- Playing aids : two free combinations, storage (hand register, tongues, crescendo), tutti, baroque tutti, tutti pedal, crescendo roller .
- * Pipes from the original Rühlmann organ, registers partially renamed
- ** high octave of one of the two Rühlmann's Vox-coelestis pipe rows, beat results together with Salicional 8 '
Younger story
In the 1980s the Lukaskirche developed into a gathering point for GDR oppositionists . In 1986, the Human Rights Working Group was founded with Pastor Christoph Wonneberger , which later worked closely with the Leipzig Working Group on Justice , which was mainly made up of students from the Leipzig Theological Seminary . A concert by the songwriter Stephan Krawczyk on March 22, 1987 led to a reprimand from pastor Christoph Wonneberger by the church administration. On the occasion of the church convention of the regional church of Saxony, the instead of the church convention was held from July 6th to 9th, 1989 , which was directed against the exclusion of politically critical groups from the official church convention. Several meetings of the Saturday group took place in the parish hall. The appeal for nonviolence on October 9, 1989 was also written and printed in the parish hall.
The St. Trinity Congregation of the SELK has used the St. Luke Church as a place of worship since 2015 and has been in their possession since September 5, 2017.
Impressions
literature
- Neuschönefeld, Neustadt, Volkmarsdorf. A historical and urban development study, Pro Leipzig, 1999,
- Thomas Rudolph , Oliver Kloss , Rainer Müller , Christoph Wonneberger (eds.): Way in the uprising. Chronicle of opposition and resistance in the GDR from August 1987 to December 1989. Vol. 1, Leipzig, Araki Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-941848-17-7 ; Preface as a reading sample.
- Judge, Frank: We are so free. The “Human Rights Working Group” , in: Pausch, Andreas Peter: Resistance - Pastor Christoph Wonneberger , Berlin, Metropol, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86331-184-1 , pp. 189–195.
Web links
- History of the Lukaskirche
- Working group on human rights: Self-understanding text of April 13, 1989
- Municipal Library of Luke church in Leipzig: library regulations from April 3, 1989
- Leipzig Justice Working Group / Human Rights Working Group / Environmental Protection Working Group: Appeal of organized resistance to nonviolence on October 9, 1989
- IFM Archive Saxony: Leipzig Human Rights Groups 1989 (Sheet 1/1999): January 15, 1989 - The protest moves to the provinces
- IFM Archives Saxony: Leipzig Human Rights Groups 1989 (sheet 9/1999): October 9, 1989 - day of the decision
- Human rights working group / Justice working group (Ed.): Die Mücke. Documentation of the events in Leipzig , GDR samizdat, Leipzig, March 1989.
Individual evidence
- ^ Church in Leipzig-Volkmarsdorf goes back into operation. Retrieved June 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Sankt Lukaskirche on the website of the St. Trinitatisgemeinde Leipzig, accessed on January 18, 2016
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 35 " N , 12 ° 24 ′ 33.8" E