Luther Church (Kassel)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Church tower of the old Luther Church (2013)

The Luther Church in downtown Kassel, named after Martin Luther , is the tallest building in the city at 76 meters. The Protestant church, consecrated in 1897, was badly damaged in the Second World War and then removed down to the tower. In 1970 a new building was erected in the immediate vicinity.

First construction

The church was built on a foundation by the pharmacist Gottlieb Ferdinand Fiedler. In 1858 he bequeathed a sum of 89,314 thalers to the Lutheran congregation, which was linked to the construction of a church for the rapidly growing congregation. In 1889 the community bought the abandoned Old Town cemetery from the city of Kassel for 160,000 marks. In 1894 the foundation stone was laid for the three-aisled Luther Church, which was built in neo-Gothic style according to plans by Hugo Schneider and inaugurated in 1897. Some gravestones in the former cemetery had to be moved in favor of the church building, but the cemetery remained as a green area.

Emergency church

On the night of October 22nd to 23rd, 1943, this open space with its extinguishing water pond became a saving refuge for around 1000 people who fled there from a British bombing raid. The church was badly damaged in the bombing, only the tower and the outer walls of the ship remained. An emergency church , which was used from 1949, was later integrated into the ruins . In 1953 this emergency church was supplemented by a rectory with a nurses' station.

New building

In 1966, in the course of a competition, a decision was made about the redesign of the Luther Church: a concrete church with a parish hall was added to the old tower of the first church building. The complex was inaugurated in 1970. The historic nave was therefore torn down. The plans for this came from Heinz Rall . The church is decorated with concrete reliefs by Emil Kiess and with windows by Sigrid von Liebenstein .

To preserve the neo-Gothic tower, the Friends of Luther Church Tower Kassel e. V., who took care of the renovation and set up a café in the tower in 2003. The Luther Church has not been used as a parish church since 2012. In 2013 the parish hall was rebuilt for 1.5 million euros. The office of the Diakonie stations and the senior citizens' department of the church have moved there. The CROSS Jugendkulturkirche Kassel , an institution of the Evangelical City Church District of Kassel , has been using the Luther Church since October 2013 .

Church as a breeding ground for peregrine falcon and eagle owl

In 2017, an eagle owl brooded in a nest box in the church tower for the first time . Before that, a peregrine falcon had bred there for years .

Web links

Commons : Lutherkirche Kassel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ regiowiki.hna.de
  2. ↑ ekkw.de
  3. ↑ ekkw.de
  4. ↑ hna.de
  5. ↑ jugendkulturkirche-kassel.de
  6. ↑ He drove away the falcons: Eagle owl nests in the Kassel Luther Tower. In: HNA . May 8, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 5 ″  N , 9 ° 29 ′ 48 ″  E