Luther Church (Bonn)

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View from Reuterstraße to the church, March 2009

The Luther Church in Bonn 's Südstadt district is located at Reuterstraße 11 . It is the second oldest Protestant town church in Bonn and stands as a monument under monument protection . The church has been named after Martin Luther since 1949 and is used by the Protestant community in Poppelsdorf and Bonn-Südstadt. It stands on the border between Bonn's Südstadt and Poppelsdorf in the immediate vicinity of the Botanical Garden .

history

In 1897, four members of the evangelical community had bought the building site for the church at their own expense. They offered it to the community at a cost of 60,000 marks . On July 11, 1898, the purchase was approved by the Bonn presbytery . The 1899 tender for the building of the church called for a separation of the nave and the choir , and thus a clear view of the pulpit from all seats; the construction costs could not exceed 150,000 marks. The design in the Gothic style was expressly excluded; a tower and galleries were to be provided. 110 designs were submitted and presented to the community. Ten projects were shortlisted. Selected drafts for the "new building of the Protestant parish church in Bonn-Poppelsdorf" were published in 1899 in the Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung . On November 17, 1899, the judges, headed by Eduard Simons, decided on the design by the Berlin architects Johannes Vollmer and Heinrich Jassoy , who had worked out a project in “moderate, noble forms of the German Renaissance” - an era that began with the emergence of Protestantism was connected.

The excavation work began in the winter of 1900/1901, despite the fact that the final building permit was not yet available. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on April 29, 1901 . In 1903 the church was built. On February 18, 1903, the anniversary of Martin Luther's death (in 1546), it was consecrated as the New Evangelical Church . As the only Protestant church in Bonn, it was not damaged in the Second World War . During the air raid on October 18, 1944, only a few windows were broken. It has been called the Luther Church since 1949 . In 1953 the interior was redesigned. In 2004 the interior was redesigned and renovated again.

Today the church is known in the region as a place for musical events. Classical or liturgical concerts , operas, jazz and chanson services or even cabarets (such as the performance of Tod im Rheinland with Rainer Pause and Martin Stankowski ) are staged regularly . One of the church's cantors was Heinrich Boell . The church also serves as an exhibition space for art at times.

Major events (selection)

The central location of the church in what was then the federal capital of Bonn led to its frequent use at major celebrations. In 1949 the service for the constituent session of the first German Bundestag was celebrated in the Luther Church . The opening of the second German Bundestag on October 6, 1953 was also commemorated here as part of a service. In 1952 the funeral service for Elly Heuss-Knapp , in 1979 for Felix von Eckardt and in 1981 for Ulrich Scheuner was held here. In 2017 the church was the place of the funeral service for Horst Ehmke .

View shortly after completion, around 1905

Architecture and equipment

Today's Luther Church follows the architectural requirements of the Wiesbaden program . The church design should primarily serve the creation of a lively congregation involved in the worship service with a focus on the sermon and not above all follow a given formal language and liturgical actions. The Luther Church is therefore also classified as a preaching church . The church can accommodate around 800 people.

The single-nave hall structure has a retracted rectangular choir and on the long sides over two meters deep soffits . On the arcade arches of these offsides stand the upper storeys , in which the windows are located. The slender tower stands west of the facade, is 50 meters high and holds three bells. He wears a curved hood without a lantern .

The building is designed in historicist forms, predominant styles from the German Renaissance . The architecture of the tower is based on the palace construction of the High Renaissance . The striking decorative facade has an elaborately designed and multi- curved gable and a large five-part, staggered window above the portal. The first verse from Martin Luther's favorite psalm 46 stands on the architrave supported by two pillars in the representative portal: “ A strong castle is our God ”. Flower and rose ornaments can be found on the facade.

inner space

The interior design is characterized by the discontinuation of the separation of nave and choir, which was still customary in the 18th century. The barrel-vaulted interior was redesigned in 1953: the motif ornamentation of the vaults in Art Nouveau style that had existed up to that point was replaced by green-blue and white paint, which gives the church a more sober appearance.

The benches are curved and aligned with the altar. There are textile wall hangings in the side niches. The sanctuary is raised by two steps. The altar in front of the choir and the baptismal font next to it show romanized forms. Four roses (the Luther rose is a symbol of the Evangelical Lutheran churches) and other plants decorate the basin. Flower and rose ornaments can also be found on the pillars and the historic wooden benches. The modern organ front stands, raised again, behind the chancel in the chancel.

Works of art (selection)

The church management has been working with artists since the 1990s and making the building and the churchyard available for the presentation of works of art. Some of these works remain in the Church permanently. In the nave, for example, there are two artistic lettering on the upper transverse walls - DUBISTFRAGE and DUBISTANWORT. They were made by Babak Saed in 2004. In 1996, a gold-leaf bench was installed by Heide Pawelzik as part of the installation Temporary , which has also become part of the church furnishings. Two panels of Isebel by Julitta Franke have been in the entrance part of the church since 1998. They address the biblical Jezebel . In 2007, the artist Petra Siering created the sculpture installation Above - Below , of which an iron plate next to the portal outside the church has been preserved.

In 2013 Benedikt Birckenbach temporarily set up an octagonal, five meter high funnel in front of the church. Art installations by Paul Schwer were also only temporarily hung in the church in 2017 . It was made of heat-deformed PET plastic sheets .

window

The church is equipped with concrete glass windows . In addition to two smaller, square pairs of windows in the entrance area, the church has eight three-part windows in the nave and two two-part windows in the choir. The front shows a five-part window at the height of the gallery. The windows were designed by Hermann Gottfried and date from 1965. With the exception of the four smaller windows in the entrance area, all windows are designed as compositions without motifs and with muted colors; only the front facade window develops color vitality. The small entrance windows depict twice a cross as well as the dove of the Holy Spirit and a star flower.

organ

The first organ in the church was a Walcker instrument ; it was installed in 1902. In 1968 the Cologne organ building company Willi Peter installed a new building. Parts of the old organ were used, including some registers. The new slider chest instrument with electric action has 2815 organ pipes with 42 stops on three manuals and pedal . The arrangement of the organ in the center of view of the church behind the altar is unusual. The outline of the organ is reminiscent of the shape of an angel. Organ specialist Walter Supper , who also designed the front of the instrument, advised on the new building .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Lutherkirche (Bonn)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 48, number A 372
  2. a b c Landmarks of our region: Selected Protestant churches in Bonn and the surrounding area. Protestant magazine - Evangelical insights, March 2006, issue 32, Evangelical Church District Bonn (ed.), P. 8.
  3. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , year 19, W. Ernst & Sohn, 1899, p. 560.
  4. ^ Andreas Denk , Ingeborg Flagge : Architekturführer Bonn. Dietrich Reimer Verlag , 1997, ISBN 978-3-49601-1-507 , p. 39.
  5. a b c Klaus Müller-Wolf: Luther Church also survived air raid , February 14, 2003, Kölnische Rundschau
  6. ^ Sermon of the television pastor , October 28, 2004, Kölnische Rundschau
  7. Elly Heuss-Knapp in memory: 25.I.1881 [to] 19.VII.1952. Laetare-Verlag, 1952, p. 7.
  8. Walter Henkels: The quiet servants of their masters: Government spokesman from Adenauer to Kohl. Econ Verlag , 1985, ISBN 978-3-43014-3-158 , p. 83.
  9. ^ Public administration: Journal for Administrative Law and Administrative Policy , Volume 34, W. Kohlhammer , 1981, p. 293.
  10. Alexander Grantl: Funeral service in the Luther Church: Bonn says goodbye to Horst Ehmke , March 18, 2017, Bonner General-Anzeiger
  11. a b Barbara Becker-Jákli : Fear God, honor the king: Protestant life in Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine 1850–1918. In: Series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History. Association for Rhenish Church History, Rheinland-Verlag, 1988, ISBN 978-3-79270-9-986 , p. 70.
  12. “Don't make a picture!” Art and Church: Günther Uecker on the question: Who depends on whom? Protestant magazine - Evangelical insights , September 2007, issue 30, Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Bonn (publisher), p. 1
  13. Jürgen Röhrig: Troisdorf sculptor yellow light, subdued noise , July 22, 2013, Kölner Stadtanzeiger
  14. Stefan Knopp: Lutherkirche in der Südstadt: Crisis in the Church , July 29, 2017, Bonner General-Anzeiger
  15. Bonn-Poppelsdorf, Evang. Luther Church at: Website of the 20th Century Glass Painting Research Center
  16. a b Bonn-Poppelsdorf, Luther Church, North Rhine-Westphalia , at Orgelsite.nl


Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 23.2 "  N , 7 ° 5 ′ 45.4"  E