Maria, Help of Christians (Spandau)

Marien from the southwest

Maria, Hilfe der Christians is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Berlin district of Spandau . It is located at Flankenschanze 43 on the corner of Galenstrasse and was built between 1908 and 1910. With the parish patronage Maria, Hilfe der Christisten ( Latin : Auxilium Christianorum ), a medieval attribute of Mary was taken up, which is also one of the invocations of the Lauretan litany . The building is now a listed building .

history

Rectory and Church, 2011

To 1900

A Catholic parish already existed in Spandau in the Middle Ages. In 1239, the Ascanian margraves Johann I of Brandenburg and Otto III, the pious transferred the church patronage over St. Nikolai, the right to fill pastoral positions with a priest, to the Benedictine monastery of St. Marien , which they founded, immediately south of the city. As a result of the Reformation that reached Spandau in 1539, the parish church of St. Nikolaus became Protestant, the monastery went out with the death of the last nun at the end of the 16th century, and the buildings including the church were demolished in 1636.

Grave cross of the last Dominican, Father Joseph Groß, pastor from 1775 to 1825, on the east side of the church

The post-Reformation history of the parish began in the first half of the 18th century. Catholic workers from the Spandau rifle factory  - with family members about 200 people - who were recruited in the Belgian city ​​of Liège , demanded free religious practice in their new place of work. This was assured to them by royal Prussian decree of 1722, combined with a pastor's office. However , the king had refused the request to be able to brew his own beer . A first simple church building in framework construction originated in 1723 on the " gun plan " outside the city center, near the citadel . The first pastor was the Dominican Father Ludovicus Belo (Belau) from the convent in Wesel . Spandau was initially a mission station , a small pastoral care post in the diaspora , and was subordinate to the Apostolic Vicariate of the North . Until the dissolution of the monasteries as a result of secularization around 1810, the pastors were Dominicans, then diocesan priests. The last Dominican, Father Joseph Groß, remained as a diocesan priest in Spandau until his death in 1825; he was pastor here for a total of 50 years and was buried in the cemetery next to the church on the rifle plan. When the cemetery was overbuilt by industrial buildings in 1912, his iron grave cross was erected at the newly built parish church Maria, Hilfe der Christisten, where it can still be seen today on the eastern side wall. With the bull De salute animarum , Pope Pius VII undertook a reorganization of the dioceses and church provinces in Prussia in 1821 as part of the re-registration of the Catholic dioceses in Germany after the Congress of Vienna ; Spandau passed from the Apostolic Vicariate of the North to the Prince-Bishop's Delegation for Brandenburg and Pomerania of the Diocese of Breslau and became a parish; a church council had been in office since the 1820s .

After the garrison located in Spandau increased the number of Catholic soldiers arriving, a larger church, St. Marien am Behnitz, was built between the citadel and the old town in 1847/1848 . The community at that time comprised about 1000 people. The patronage of this Marien-Kirche is reminiscent of the Benedictine monastery. From the 1830s to 1874, the annual Spandau procession was a significant religious event. Numerous believers from Berlin and Charlottenburg also took part in the Eucharistic procession on the Sunday after Corpus Christi , so that it can be seen as the “most important celebration of diaspora Catholicism in the Prussian capital”. In 1875 it was no longer approved because of the Prussian Kulturkampf .

Church building and further development

Around 1900 around 9,000 Catholics lived in Spandau, the community had grown considerably, mainly as a result of the abandonment of the fortress and the subsequent industrialization, mainly due to immigration from the Catholic Prussian eastern provinces. The church on Behnitz, which with 350 seats was sufficient for 750 parishioners at the time of its construction, had now become too small. Therefore, a larger church was built - elsewhere, because considerations regarding the preservation of historical monuments and the boggy subsoil did not allow the demolition and a larger new building on the old square. In 1904 a church building association was set up to collect donations for church building. St. Marien am Behnitz was sold to the military in 1907 or 1910, which made additional funds available for a new building. A building plot of 10,634 m² was acquired from the Rachwitzsch heirs on the Askanierring at the corner of Moltkestrasse (today: Flankenschanze at the corner of Galenstrasse), at that time just outside the bastions .

View after completion, 1910

Exterior from the northwest, in front right the rectory

On October 4, 1908, work began on the church building site; it was closed in winter. Because of the poor building ground, the ground foundations had to be reinforced. Ceremonial laying of the foundation stone by the prince-bishop's delegate, Prelate Carl Kleineidam, was on the feast of Ascension Day , May 20, 1909, the topping-out ceremony on December 5, 1909. On October 30, 1910, the prince-bishop of Wroclaw , Georg Cardinal von Kopp , was able to visit his archbishopric Spandau belonged then to make the church consecration . The cost of the building including the property amounted to 650,000 marks .

In December 1925 the steeple was badly damaged by lightning. On October 6, 1944, the church was so badly destroyed in an air raid in which nine bombs fell on the church property that the British military government later ordered the demolition. However, this could be averted. The services were temporarily held again in St. Marien am Behnitz . In 1946 the church property was cleared of rubble by parishioners themselves, in 1948 reconstruction work began, which lasted until 1952; The topping-out ceremony was on October 10, 1950. The driving forces were Pastor Spiritual Counselor Willy Nawroth and Senior Building Officer Felix Lukanek. On May 22nd, 1952, after the altar consecration by Berlin Bishop Wilhelm Weskamm , the church was used again in its former overall form for services. However, the painting was not renewed, the walls are now smooth white. From 1968 there was a redesign of the furnishings as a result of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council ; During this time the congregation celebrated its services again for several years in the church of St. Marien am Behnitz.

With the increasing number of Catholics, further pastoral care offices were set up in the 1920s and, over time, spun off as independent parishes: in Siemensstadt (1919), Staaken , Döberitz and in 1928 in Hakenfelde . Since 1930 the parish belongs to the diocese of Berlin established in that year (since 1994 archbishopric).

On October 31, 2003, the parish of Maria, Aid of Christians for financial reasons on the part of the Archdiocese of Berlin, merged with the neighboring parish of St. Lambertus (Hakenfelde). This congregation was founded in 1928 as the St. Elisabeth Curate in the Elisabethheim and in 1975 it was separated from Maria, Hilfe der Christisten as an independent parish of St. Lambertus . The merged parish is called the Catholic Parish of Mary, Help of Christians . Since 2003, services have been held again in the church of St. Marien am Behnitz, which is now in private hands.

Since March 5, 2018, the parish has formed the pastoral area “Spandau-Nord /” with the parishes of St. Joseph in Siemensstadt , St. Konrad von Parzham in Falkensee and St. John the Baptist Dallgow-Döberitz (parish St. Marien, Brieselang ) Falkensee ”to prepare a merger into a single parish .

architecture

Longitudinal section (Christoph Hehl)

Floor plans (ground floor and at the height of the organ stage)

Interior with painting, 1935

The interior, 2011

The organ in the tower on the south side of the church

The architect Christoph Hehl , professor at the Technical University of Charlottenburg , created the design for the church . The specifications of the church council required that the altar and pulpit could be seen from as many seats as possible.

In neo-Romanesque brick construction - like the neighboring rectory - a domed central building was built over a cross-shaped floor plan in an approximate north-south orientation. Due to the layout of the building site, it was not possible to east the church. Overall, the structure is varied outside and inside.

The domed dome of the decagonal central building rests on four columns and six pillars with 20 upper windows. The dome has a diameter of 20.20 m with an inner height of 25 m and an outer height of 33 m. On the north side of the church there are three conical chapels or apses for the main altar and originally two side altars, on the other side an approximately 12 m long two- bay basilica vestibule with an organ gallery . The vestibule opens to the east to a rectangular prayer chapel and to the west to a semicircular baptistery. Two short transepts complete the cross shape. Breakthroughs from the transverse arms to the side cones and the vestibule create a passage for processions around the central building, since processions outside of churches were not permitted in the Prussian Empire at the time the church was built. The penetration of the central building and the cross ground plan and the attached three-icon complex represent a specialty of the architect Christoph Hehl, who was freely historicizing based on the formal vocabulary of medieval and ancient buildings that he knew well.

To the south of the building is a five-storey church tower on a square floor plan of 10 m × 10 m with a height of 52.5 m, which is crowned by a short octagonal helmet, the substructure of which is flanked by round corner turrets and decorative gables. On both sides of the tower there are extensions with the side entrances, whose pitched roofs end with the second floor of the tower. The facade is structured by white plastered surfaces as panels, by gable rosettes and shaped stones in the style of Brandenburg brick buildings. The church and tower were built as brick masonry from back stones in the monastery format and faced with hand-made bricks .

The domed vault of the central main building under a steel tent roof was originally bricked. When it was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the war, it was constructed from ten 10 m long ribs, which, like the upper pressure ring, were manufactured as reinforced concrete elements on the spot inside the church. At the foot of the ribs there is a reinforced concrete band as a ring anchor, which removes the arching and directs the loads vertically into the masonry. The process of manufacturing the dome ribs was first used in Berlin. Inside, vaulted ribs, modeled on narrow pillars made of bricks, are brought down at the angles of the decagon to the capitals of the pillars and pillars of the church interior.

The four pillars in the central building and the six pillars in the vestibule are faced with red bricks, the pillars merge into the wall masonry and are smoothly plastered.

Furnishing

The interior is largely destroyed by the effects of the war. It followed the concept of the builder Hehl. The colored wall design by the painter Theodor Nüttgens took place from March to October 1921. The painting was in blue and yellow, in the altar apse in bright red. The lamb of God was depicted in the chancel and the earthly life of Mary from the under the upper windows in the central building Birth of Mary until she was taken into heaven . The individual scenes are set in a historical representation in a Brandenburg environment. A banner ran underneath, the German text was the beginning of the Magnificat : “Praise my soul to the Lord and my spirit rejoice in God my Savior. For he has seen the humility of his maid. For from now on all generations will call me blessed. ” Luke 1,46-48  EU . The dome with the windows was painted as heaven, music-making angels framed the representation of the Assumption and Coronation of Mary , saints are aligned with the scene. The planned representation of a Way of the Cross in the transept and in the nave had to be omitted due to inflation .

After the reconstruction, the interior was initially provisional. From 1968 the redesign took place according to the requirements of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council by the Berlin architect Georg Schönfeld. The new block-like altar made of Anröchter dolomite was brought forward to the central building; it was designed by Paul Brandenburg and consecrated on May 17, 1969. The ambo and priest's seat were added at the same time in a corresponding design and complemented by a seven-armed bronze candlestick. The bronze crucifixion group in the central apse is a new cast of the figures by Josef Limburg that were destroyed in the war and that belonged to the former high altar. Since the molds still existed, they could be re-cast and incorporated into the design. The left side apse accommodated a new tabernacle with gold-plated copper cladding, designed by Georg Schlüter, whose shape is based on the shape of the dome of the church. The old baptismal font from 1910 with the dedication to the Spandau Foundation in 1910 was installed in the right side apse . Behind the tabernacle and baptismal font, two abstract “meditation images” fill the otherwise monochrome white walls. These pictures come from the artist Gerhard Köhler (* September 5, 1923; † January 23, 1974) and are executed in Secco painting. The picture behind the tabernacle is titled Cherubim , the one on the back wall of the baptismal font Passing through the Red Sea Exodus 14.21-31  EU .

From 2000 to 2006 abstract colored glass windows by Johannes Beeck from Nettetal were used; the windows in the side walls have red ornaments, those in the dome blue. 51 of these windows were financed by the Association of Friends of St. Marien Church e. V. from donations, twelve more were donated privately. Two electroplating of Saints Maria and Saint Joseph from the early days of the church, created in 1910 by the sculptor Heinrich Pohlmann , which survived the war destruction, have been restored and are now in the church.

organ

The first organ from 1910 was built by the organ building company Anton Feith in Paderborn . After the destruction in 1959, a new organ was built by the same organ builder. It has 30  registers on three manuals and pedal , electro-pneumatic cone chests and a crescendo cylinder .

Bells

Today two bronze bells hang in the tower. Originally the ringing consisted of four bells, tuned to the notes b, des, es, f ( preface motif ). The bells were cast by bell master Otto from Hemelingen in 1910 and were rung for the first time at Christmas on December 25, 1910. During the First World War, the community had to surrender the three larger bells, which were melted down in February 1918. They were replaced by three new bells after the war in 1927, again cast by the Otto company in the same mood and almost equally heavy. They were rung for the first time on June 13, 1927. During the Second World War, they had to be delivered again in 1942 and were melted down. Only one of the original bells, the smallest consecrated to St. Charles Borromeo , returned to Spandau. In 1960 a second bell from the Rudolf Perner foundry in Passau was purchased.

Parish of Mary, Help of Christians

Today the parish belongs to the Deanery Spandau of the Archdiocese of Berlin and forms the pastoral area Spandau-Nord / Falkensee with the parishes of St. Joseph (Berlin-Siemensstadt) and St. Konrad von Parzham (Falkensee) , the merger into a single parish is for 2022 intended.

The community center St. Lambertus in Hakenfelde belongs to the community . The private church of St. Marien am Behnitz is also located in the municipality , where services also take place. The parish is responsible for a four-group day - care center next to the parish church and the St. Elisabeth retirement home in the Hakenfelde forest settlement . In the rectory on Galenstrasse, the St. Marien soup kitchen serves lunch to 50–80 people in need three days a week . The Catholic School Bernhard Lichtenberg on the Hohenzollernring has been sponsored by the Archdiocese of Berlin since 1967 and continues the tradition of a Catholic school in Spandau, which was founded in 1848 and closed by the National Socialists in 1938.

literature

• Friedrich Förster: 250 years of the Catholic Church in Spandau. Berlin 1973.
• Christine Goetz : Confident handling of building history. Maria, Help of Christians, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95976-101-7 , p. 58 f.
• Gunther Jahn: sacred buildings. St. Mary's Church. In: ders .: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 181-185.
• Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christisten (Ed.): Festschrift 100 Jahre Maria, Hilfe der Christen Berlin-Spandau 1910–2010 , Oranienburg (WMK-Druck) undated [2010], therein contributions by Martin Recker. (History), Felix Lukanek (destruction and reconstruction) and Christine Goetz (architecture and art); responsible: Rev. Matthias Mücke; Concept and editing: Lilo Heusler.
• Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic parish in Spandau. A contribution to the 50th anniversary celebration of the parish church of St. Maria on November 13, 1898. Commissions-Verlag der Germania, Berlin undated [1898] (112 pp.)
• Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic parish of Sankt Marien zu Spandau. Verlag von August Malinowski, Spandau o. J. [1924] (238 pages)
• Gertrud Kohstall: Guide through the parish church St. Marien Berlin-Spandau. Anniversary publication 1910/35. o. O., o. J. [1935] (written by Gertrud Kohstall on behalf of the parish office; 16 p.)
• Gebhard Streicher, Erika Drave: Berlin city and church. More Verlag, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-87554-189-8 , p. 240 f.

Web links

Commons : Maria, Hilfe der Christen (Berlin-Spandau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the parish of Mary, Help of Christians
• Entry in the Berlin State Monument List

Individual evidence

1. ↑ King Friedrich Wilhelm I, September 2, 1722, quoted in: Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic Parish of Spandau. Spandau 1924, p. 28f.
2. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, pp. 142-145.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Francis Kohstall: history of the Catholic parish Spandau. Spandau 1924, p. 46.
4. ^ Gebhard Streicher, Erika Drave: Berlin city and church. More-Verlag, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-87554-189-8 , p. 240.
5. ^ Lena Krull: Processions in Prussia. Catholic life in Berlin, Breslau, Essen and Münster in the 19th century. Würzburg 2013, p. 303.
6. ↑ Monika Saskowski: Anno Domini 1909… in: Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christen, Berlin-Spandau (ed.): Parish letter December 2009 / January 2010. P. 10.
7. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 181.
8. ^ Rainer Fliegner: Spandau. History and stories. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-122-6 , p. 44 (lightning strike, topping-out ceremony).
9. ↑ Martin Recker: The history of the community of St. Marien and its places of worship. In: Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christisten (Ed.): Festschrift 100 years Maria, Hilfe der Christisten Berlin-Spandau 1910–2010 . Oranienburg (WMK-Druck) o. J. [2010], pp. 11–14, here p. 13.
10. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 143.
11. ↑ According to the grave cross on the east side of the church Joseph Groß , on a certificate in the tower knob of the church on Behnitz from June 21, 1848 Franz Groß (printed by: Helmut Kißner, Cordia Schlegelmilch: The Church of St. Marien am Behnitz in Spandau. A forgotten work August Sollers, Berlin 2004, p. 318); Dominicans and, after secularization, diocesan priests; Franz and Joseph are presumably baptismal names or religious names .
12. ↑ Wohlau , Lower Silesia ?; Welau at Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic Parish of Spandau. Spandau 1924, p. 46.
13. ↑ After Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic Parish of Spandau. Spandau 1924, p. 61, Pastor Teuber officiated as early as 1841.
14. ^ Source from Rev. Teuber to Ginella: Franz Kohstall: History of the Catholic Parish of Spandau. Spandau 1924, pp. 69-73.
15. ^ ^{A b} Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1971, p. 181 ff.
16. ^ ^{A b} Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, p. 182 f.
17. ↑ Christine Goetz: Sovereign handling of building history. Maria, Help of Christians, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95976-101-7 , p. 58 f.
18. ↑ Church towers in the “Spandau” district, “Spandau” district (accessed: November 7, 2012).
19. ↑ Felix Lukanek: destruction and rebuilding of the Marienkirche. In: Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christisten (Ed.): Festschrift 100 years Maria, Hilfe der Christisten Berlin-Spandau 1910–2010 . Oranienburg (WMK-Druck) o. J. [2010], p. 21 f.
20. ↑ Christine Goetz : Art and Church. In: Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christisten (Ed.): Festschrift 100 Jahre Maria, Hilfe der Christen Berlin-Spandau 1910–2010 , Oranienburg (WMK-Druck) undated [2010], pp. 15–19, here: p. 19.
21. ^ Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7861-1443-9 , p. 143 f.
22. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, especially pages 517, 527 .
23. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, in particular pp. 482, 489 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
24. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, p. 185.
25. ↑ Martin Recker: The history of the community of St. Marien and its places of worship. In: Kath. Kirchengemeinde Maria, Hilfe der Christisten (Ed.): Festschrift 100 years Maria, Hilfe der Christisten Berlin-Spandau 1910–2010 . Oranienburg (WMK-Druck) o. J. [2010], pp. 11–14, here p. 13.
26. ^ Gunther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. City and district of Spandau. Berlin 1971, p. 185 (exchanged information on the weights of bells 1–3 corrected).
27. ^ Text like Wille, p. 143; Attempt to correct: IN HON (orem) SancTi CAROLI [PUF? (Abbreviation name?) QUE? UXOR BARBARA - Anno 1910 +] BORROMAEI DEDICAVERUNT / + ST. CAROLUS BORRomaeus ET IN DEI AMORE NOS REDDAT FL (EV) ENTES. NOS CONTINUA PrOTECTIONE CUSTODES - In 1910 [NN and wife Barbara] donated (this bell) in honor of St. Carl Borromeo . / Saint Carl Borromeo grant us weeping in the love of God's guardian with everlasting protection.
28. ↑ st-marien-spandau.de: Pastoral Space - Committees and Personnel , accessed on April 23, 2020.

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '25.3 "  N , 13 ° 11' 54.4"  E