Luther Church (Frankfurt am Main)

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The Luther Church 2012
The Luther Church 1894

The Luther Church in Frankfurt am Main is the oldest Protestant church in the new building areas outside the historic city walls that were built in the 19th century . It is used by the Luther parish in Nordend , which belongs to the dean's office in Frankfurt and Offenbach in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau . The church, consecrated in 1893, was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in 1955, using the remaining historical remains.

history

In the early days after the Peace of Frankfurt in 1871, the city grew rapidly. The densely populated Nordend emerged on the former Bornheimer Heide . However, all of Frankfurt's churches were located within the ramparts , and the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt had no money to build churches in new building areas.

In the Luther year 1883, affected citizens founded an association to build an Evangelical Lutheran church in the northeast of Frankfurt a. M. collected money for the building of a church and the foundation of a community. The first parish priest was August Cordes in 1892 , who introduced new forms of diakonia and pastoral care for Frankfurt.

In 1892 the construction of the Luther Church began according to plans by the Frankfurt architects Ludwig Neher and Aage von Kauffmann . The executing company was the Holzmann company and the most important individual donor was the Bethmann banking family , who donated the organ and clock tower. The company Gustav Kuntzsch , Institute for Church Art, Wernigerode , supplied the altarpiece and the furnishings of the sacristy . The three - nave neo - Gothic church, designed according to the Eisenach regulation , was inaugurated on September 10, 1893. Inside it offered 600 seats, which in 1991 were increased by 300 through the installation of side galleries. In 1901 the congregation was accepted into the Frankfurt regional church.

During three air raids in 1943 and 1944 , the historic church building was gradually largely destroyed. Only the church tower of the old Luther Church remained damaged, as did the altar and a torso of the crucifix . In the last days of the war, shortly before the occupation of Frankfurt by US troops on March 27, 1945, strangers robbed the crucified from the ruins, put a pointed cap on him and built him between rubble stones and iron girders in a barricade .

After the end of the war, the vandalized crucifix and the rescued altar were initially placed next to the ruins in an emergency church , which was built from the material of former labor barracks and inaugurated on May 19, 1946.

The foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Luther Church was laid on April 4, 1954. The new building was carried out in the typical style of the 1950s according to plans by Ernst Görcke , including the damaged tower of the old church. On October 2, 1955, the church was consecrated again.

From 2002 to 2004, the Luther Church was expanded into a community center by the architect Reiner Ganz . A foyer and a community hall were created, the floor was renewed and equipped with mastic asphalt screed. Additions with glass facades were built on both sides of the church tower.

The church building is now a cultural monument due to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

building

Interior of the historic church that was destroyed in World War II
Floor plan of the historic church, which was destroyed in the Second World War

In terms of urban planning , the Luther Church dominates the east side of Martin-Luther-Platz in the Nordend district , on which seven streets lead.

In the middle of the facade rises the historic tower with its - compared to the pre-war state - significantly shortened roof. The main entrance is on the ground floor of the tower. During the expansion between 2002 and 2004, a multi-storey glass cube was added to the left and right of the tower, in which group rooms, an office and a kitchen are housed.

The interior of the church gives the impression of having a single nave , although the walls are surrounded by thin, free-standing supports. There is a continuous ribbon of windows directly under the flat roof. The nave has the classic shape and ends in a semicircular choir . This is where the massive altar area, designed in dark Lahn marble and raised by six steps, is located. On the west side of the nave is the gallery with the organ .

The furnishings include a larger than life crucifix by the sculptor Knud Knudsen from Bad Nauheim above the altar and numerous stained glass windows by Professor Georg Meistermann , including eight round windows with motifs that are intended to commemorate the Beatitudes .

On the north side of the church, separated from the chancel by a glass wall, is the memorial chapel for the victims of war and violence. Its 13 windows are also designed by Meistermann. In the church are the altar rescued from the previous church and the Christ torso, plus four candlesticks and the iron-hammered cross from the emergency church.

literature

  • Arthur Zickmann (arr.), Arnold Rakete (drawing): Our new Luther Church. Here is God's face. Evangelical Lutheran Luther Church, Frankfurt 1955.
  • Walter G. Beck: Sacred buildings in Frankfurt am Main. Verlag Rütten & Loening , Frankfurt 1956.
  • Werner Schäfke (Ed.): Georg Meistermann. Exhibition catalog. Wienand Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-87909-277-X .
  • Martin Löffelbein: 100 years of the Luther Church in Frankfurt am Main. Festschrift for the church jubilee from 10 September to 3 October 1993 . Frankfurt [1993].
  • Joachim Proescholdt, Jürgen Telschow: Frankfurt's Protestant Churches through the ages . Frankfurter Societätsverlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-942921-11-4 , pp. 104-110.
  • Karin Berkemann: Post-war churches in Frankfurt am Main. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Cultural monuments in Hesse ). Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen . Konrad Theiss Verlag , Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2812-0 , p. 182 f.

Web links

Commons : Lutherkirche, Frankfurt am Main  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Soproni Múzeum, Sopron ( Hungary ), inventory no, p. 2425 E 251 (Storno Könyvtár): Gustav Kuntzsch folder , not paged.
  2. ^ Karin Berkemann: Post-war churches in Frankfurt am Main. 2013, p. 182.
  3. ↑ Mt 5,1-12  LUT

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 25.6 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 52.9 ″  E