Luther Church (Berlin-Spandau)

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Luther Church in Berlin-Spandau

The Luther Church is a Protestant church in the Berlin district of Spandau . It was built from 1895–1896 and fundamentally rebuilt from 1994–1997 and divided into a church and a residential building.

Building description

East side of the Luther Church

location

The Luther Church in Spandauer Neustadt is located on a representative town square that has been named after the church patron Martin Luther since 1890 . Lutherplatz is located north of the old town of Spandau between Neuendorfer and Schönwalder Straße at the intersection of Lasiusz-, Neumeister-, Hedwig-, Lynar-, Jagow- and Lutherstraße.

architecture

The red brick building was built based on the model of the so-called transition style from Romanesque to Gothic as a three-nave hall church with three bays in an approximate east-west orientation and thus belongs to the Neo- Romanesque and Neo-Gothic . The architect was Arno Eugen Fritsche . The compact nave, structured by strong buttresses , continues into a rectangular chancel with a polygonal sacristy extension. The church was originally built with 1,100 seats and 500 standing places for around 32,000 parishioners.

The tower is placed asymmetrically in line with the west facade in front of a side aisle and covered with a short spike.

Reconstruction 1994–1997

Since the 1960s, the church has proven to be too big for the smaller community with around 4000 members , which is now located in a neighborhood with over 30% foreigners. In 1981 an architectural competition was therefore held to build a community center within the nave for all events and matters outside of worship. The results could not be approved by the preservation authorities and could not be pursued further for cost reasons.

The architect Dieter Ketterer , who later also led the redesign of the St. Bartholomew Church in Friedrichshain , designed an installation of nine apartments - originally planned as a convent  - on three levels in two bays of the nave from 1985 . The first yoke and the chancel are separated from the apartment levels by a white partition in the full width and height of the nave and are still available as a church with a maximum of 300 seats: a kind of central room with a cross-shaped floor plan. The renovation was carried out in the years 1994–1997 after sometimes heated discussions in the specialist public and was based on the principle of destroying the space-forming elements of the church interior as little as possible. Modern fixtures should remain recognizable as such, which was achieved through the design and white coloring.

The two lateral galleries with their historical ornamentation have been retained and are connected on the west side by a concave curved gallery, the white balustrade of which stands out clearly from the historical structures. The baptism and the wooden pulpit with canopy have been preserved in the church. The rest of the interior was outsourced. The altar has been in the Melanchthon Church in Spandauer Wilhelmstadt since 1994 .

So the outside of the building was preserved in the best possible way. The unsuspecting viewer is only amazed at the sight of blossoming flowers in the windows of the apartments in the church, which are not immediately recognizable, which is unusual in a church.

history

Church building and community building

The territory of the municipality of Luther was in the 19th century in the Oranienburger suburb of Spandau, which the fortress rayon the Spandau Citadel owned and subject therefore special building restrictions. The agricultural settlement became a residential area for the workers of the Spandau armaments factories. The rayon regulations were not lifted until the end of the 19th century. Between 1880 and 1900, intensive building with tenements began, the suburb of Oranienburg became the Spandau Neustadt, and the population increased tenfold to 35,600 at the turn of the 20th century, including workers in the state armaments industry and now also workers in the industrial districts on Nonnendamm and in Klosterfelde.

The church on Lutherplatz, 2010

The Nikolaigemeinde owned numerous properties in the Neustadt area, most of which they sold from the mid-1870s. From the beginning, the space for a church building in the new district - in the center of the 54  acre church dairy property - was kept free, today's Lutherplatz . Part of the income from the sale of the property went into the construction of the Luther Church.

The foundation stone was laid on April 27, 1895. On April 27, 1813, the French occupation of Spandau came to an end. With the choice of the anniversary for the laying of the foundation stone one wanted to express the closeness of the Evangelical Church to the Prussian monarchical state. The inauguration of the church was on November 10, 1896, the birthday of Martin Luther , who gave the church its name. Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia brought a Bible with the dedication of Empress Auguste Viktoria as a gift .

On April 1, 1897, the Luther parish was established as an independent parish with three, later four parishes, but was still financially connected to the Nikolaigemeinde. The municipality stretched north of Feldstrasse to the city limits and included Hakenfelde , Radeland and Falkenhagener Feld , all of which were still sparsely populated at the time. The first pastor was Superintendent Wilhelm Hensel.

Large associations and groups existed in the community. The "community association" had 3,000 members, the women's aid 900. The community maintained a "hostel to home" for traveling journeymen and the unemployed, the children's home "Sonnenhof", a day care center, a nurses' station and at the beginning of the 1930s a "church emergency feeding" for New town unemployed. In the first decades of the 20th century, church attendance on Sundays was between 400 and 500 people, and fewer in summer. On Sundays, in addition to the service at 10 a.m. and a children's service, there was an evening service at 6 p.m. The number of baptisms fell from 1,032 in 1898 to 539 in 1912, also caused by a drop in birth rates as a result of contraception ("special machinations to prevent births", according to the parish council in 1912). In 1903 a total of 541 young people were confirmed on two dates , in 1912 there were 195 marriages and 243 church burials. During the First World War , "war services" were held on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., at which the fallen parishioners were remembered.

Nazi era and World War II

At the time of National Socialism , there were also clashes in the Luther Community between representatives of the opposition Confessing Church and the German Christians loyal to the regime . In the election for the parish council on July 23, 1933, 75% of the votes were cast by the candidates of the German Christians, manipulated by the registration of numerous SA men from outside the church in the electoral roll. Pastor Hermann Stephan was close to the Confessing Church and worked closely with Superintendent Martin Albertz , as well as Pastor Hermann Bunke , who was responsible for the Wichernkirche in Hakenfelde, and also, to a large extent, the Church Elder Walter Friedrich. Pastor Johannes Rehse, who belongs to the German Christians, and his followers spoke of Bunkes' "rooting out work" and reported him repeatedly to the Gestapo ; It went so far that in December 1936 the church elder Adolf Otto was sentenced to a fine of 300 marks for insulting Pastor Bunke  . In 1935, Bunke was placed under house arrest once , and another time transferred to a different municipality. Ultimately, the church leadership confirmed Pastor Bunke by hiving off the parish of the Wichernkirche from the Luther parish on January 1, 1937 and raising it to an independent parish, whose pastor was Hermann Bunke.

Since the parish church council of the Luther parish increasingly proved incapable of acting because of the differences, the provincial church committee dissolved it in November 1936 and set up a five-person “parish committee” made up of neutral parishioners and professing Christians. Subliminally, however, the conflicts remained virulent until the end of the war , even if the influence of the German Christians had decreased significantly compared to 1933.

The roof structure and leaded glazing of the church were badly damaged in an Allied air raid in 1945 , the interior remained undamaged. The British occupation used the Luther Church as a military church, and a thorough renovation took place in the mid-1950s. The rectory had been completely destroyed and was rebuilt in 1950.

Second half of the 20th century

Community life in the immediate post-war period was characterized by the influx of refugees, especially in a refugee camp on Pionierstrasse. As a result, this led to the spin-off of the Paul Gerhard community in 1947 and the refuge community in the early 1950s, so that the Luther community only included Neustadt.

The 1970s brought close cooperation with Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (ARSP), whose young volunteers lived in the Paul Schneider House and worked in the community. Conversational worship and “breakfast worship ” were tried out as new forms of worship . The community got involved in the work with foreigners, mainly Turkish children and young people, who moved to Neustadt, as well as in the "Citizens' Initiative Kraftwerk Oberjägerweg", which prevented the construction of a thermal power station in Hakenfelde. The meeting center for Kurdish women HÎNBÛN in Jagowstraße later became the sponsorship of the Spandau church district . In the 1980s, the church granted repeatedly threatened with deportation refugees church asylum . Community life was shaped by social, ecological and community-oriented accents in cooperation with other groups in the district; the meeting center for women “Eulalia Eigensinn e. V. ", the association for the promotion of renewable energies" Solarpfennig e. V. ”and the debtor and insolvency counseling service“ Treffpunkt Regenbogen ”, the rectory received a thermal solar system for hot water and a photovoltaic system for power generation.

Luther congregation today

The Luther community lies today in the church district Spandau the diocese Berlin of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz . The municipality includes the Spandauer Neustadt and the southeastern tip of Hakenfelde . Two part-time pastors , a cantor , a deacon and a sexton (head of the parish office) as well as a caretaker and church warden work full-time in it. The parish office is located at the address Lutherplatz 3 as an installation in the church.

In the community there is the "Luther Choir" as a mixed choir, a children's choir, a gospel choir ("Spirit Singers") and the "Spandauer Stadtstreicher" as an instrumental group. A series of organ concerts are held on Saturdays in the winter months under the motto “Organ Winter”. For the German Evangelical Church Congress 2017 , a series of events "Organ Forum 2017" was held in the Luther Church.

The Paul Schneider House on Schönwalder Strasse, named after Pastor Paul Schneider, who was murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939, is available for further congregational work in groups and open events .

List of pastors

  • 1897–1910: Wilhelm Hensel, Superintendent
  • 1897–1922: Alexander Spengler, from 1910 first pastor
  • 1904–1942: Rudolf Schmidt († February 1945)
  • 1910-1914: Max Rose
  • 1914–1926: Karl Schlaeger
  • 1915–1947 (†): Hermann Stephan
  • 1922–1926: Paul Wiedermann
  • 1927–1934: Herbert Küster
  • 1926–1937: Hermann Bunke, then Wicherngemeinde
  • 1934–1947: Johannes Rehse
  • 1942–1956: Siegfried Bluhm
  • 1945–1948: Hans Wägner, then refuge community
  • 1947–1954: Herbert Kittel
  • 1949–1956: Alfred Großnick
  • 1956–1962: Gerhard Rother
  • 1956– early 1970s: Heinz-Georg Hartmann
  • 1956– early 1970s: Gotthold Gueinzius
  • 1962–1968: Franzgerhard von Aichberger
  • Early 1970s: Florian Sorkale
  • 1970–1982: Wolfgang Jung
  • 1975–1983: Klaus Wiesinger
  • 1981–1999: Christian Maechler
  • 1986 / 1987– ?: Peter Kranz
  • currently: Stefan Kuhnert
  • currently: Karsten Dierks (also chairman of the college in the church district Spandau)

Furnishing

organ

The Mayer organ, inaugurated in April 2015

Soon after its completion in 1896, the Luther Church received an organ from the organ building company Gebrüder Dinse with 36 electro-pneumatic stops on two manuals and a pedal , which was located on the west gallery. In 1914 Schlag & Söhne added nine registers and an additional manual. The restoration and expansion in 1929 by Furtwängler and Hammer came close to a new building. Since the organ was neglected after the Second World War and later also impaired by water damage and was ultimately almost impossible to play, it was removed in 1996 as part of the renovation of the Luther Church and sold piece by piece, also because of the lack of space in the reduced church. Since 1996 the congregation has made use of a four-register organ positive from the Ilisch company, which until then had stood in the parish hall and was heard at children's services. A bass register and pedal have been added for use in the church.

At Easter 2015 a new organ made by Hugo Mayer Orgelbau ( Heusweiler / Saarland ) was inaugurated. The instrument is based on romantic Alsatian organs and has 1572 pipes in 27 registers on two manuals and a pedal, an additional register is created by means of a preliminary pull . The planning was designed by the Berlin organ expert Michael Reichert and the prospectus by Dieter Ketterer, who had also directed the church renovation. A “Friends of the Evangelical Luther Church Congregation” was founded for the planning and financing. V. ”(called“ Orgelverein ”). In addition to around 100,000 euros in donations, the Evangelical Church District Spandau made a grant of 300,000 euros.

The organ is in the middle of the east wall behind the altar and covers the door to the former sacristy, today's cantor's room. The body has a height of around eight meters. The wooden components of the pipe casing in a matt, glossy, ruby ​​red finish contrast with the polished prospectus pipes and the horizontal metal ornamental bars that are placed in front of the prospectus. The organ's narrower foot forms the backdrop for the altar and is characterized by square and right-angled infills, with dimmable LED light emerging between the spacing joints . The console is positioned on the left of the organ base.

Disposition

I main work C – a 3
1. Bourdon 16 ′
2. Principal 08th'
3. Harmony flute 08th'
4th Octave 04 ′
5. Flûte allemande 04 ′
6th Sesquialter II
6a. Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′ (advance deduction)
7th Duplicate 02 ′
8th. Mixture IV 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
9. Trumpet 08th'
Tremulant
II Swell C – a 3
10. Horn principal 08th'
11. Pipe bourdon 08th'
12. Viola pomposa 08th'
13. Vox coelestis 08th'
14th Fugara 04 ′
15th Hollow flute 04 ′
16. Nasard 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
17th recorder 02 ′
18th Tierce 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′
19th Piccolo harmonique 01'
20th Cor Anglais 08th'
21st Trompette harmonique 08th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – g 1
22nd Violon 16 ′
23. Sub bass 16 ′
24. Octavbass 08th'
25th Flute 08th'
27. Jubilee flute 04 ′
28. trombone 016 ′

Bells

In the church tower there are three cast steel bells with the "Gloria" ringing arrangement , cast by the Bochum Association .

No. Chime Weight
(kg)		 Diameter (
mm)		 Height
(mm)		 Casting year inscription
1 e ' 1210 1400 1120 1896 GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST
2 fis' 0860 1240 1020 1896 AND PEACE ON EARTH
3 a ' 0500 0980 0820 1957 AND THE PEOPLE WELL PLEASED - 1957

literature

  • Evangelische Luthergemeinde Spandau (Ed.): 100 Years of the Luther Community in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Texts on the history of a Spandau district. Berlin-Spandau 1997.
  • Parish church council of the ev. Luther church community Berlin-Spandau (ed.): A new organ for the Luther church. Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hugo Mayer organ. o. O. (Berlin-Spandau) 2015
  • Christine Goetz , Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz (ed.): Churches Berlin Potsdam. Guide to the churches in Berlin and Potsdam. Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-87554-368-8 / ISBN 3-88981-140-X .

Web links

Commons : Luther Church (Berlin-Spandau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Maechler: Church renovation - implementation. In: Parish Church Council of the Protestant Luther Church Community Berlin-Spandau (ed.): A new organ for the Luther Church. Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hugo Mayer organ. 2015, p. 17.
  2. ↑ a b Dieter Ketterer: The new organ - design concept. In: Parish Church Council of the Protestant Luther Church Community Berlin-Spandau (ed.): A new organ for the Luther Church. Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hugo Mayer organ , 2015, pp. 32–34.
  3. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, pp. 8 f., 19 f.
  4. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 9.
  5. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 35 f.
  6. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 38.
  7. ↑ hzh-ev.de
  8. ↑ ev-sonnenhof.de
  9. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 40 f.
  10. ↑ Gotthold Gueinzius: Streiflichter on the 80-year history of the Luther community. Manuscript, n.d. (1976), pp. 4-8.17.
  11. ^ Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : Resistance in Spandau . ( Resistance in Berlin from 1933 to 1945. German Resistance Memorial Center ) Berlin 1988, ISSN  0175-3592 , p. 101.115 f.
    Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, pp. 58-62.
  12. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 74.
  13. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 83 f. 101.
  14. ^ Matthias Bender: Church renovation - organ prospectus. In: Parish Church Council of the Protestant Luther Church Community Berlin-Spandau (ed.): A new organ for the Luther Church. Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hugo Mayer organ. 2015, pp. 20–22.
  15. ^ Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7861-1443-9 , p. 136.

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 54 "  N , 13 ° 12 ′ 16.6"  E