Maria Hilf (Frankfurt am Main)
Maria Hilf is a church and a Roman Catholic parish in Frankfurt am Main , in the Gallus district .
Church building
The church building is on the corner of Frankenallee and Rebstöcker Straße. The postal address of the community is Rebstöcker Straße 70, 60326 Frankfurt.
The construction
Previous buildings
On December 17, 1933, a parish church in the workers' district of Frankfurt-Gallus was consecrated to the " Mother of Perpetual Help ". Architect was Martin Weber . The first clergyman was parish vicar Franz Schaller, who had been a chaplain in the mother parish of Sankt Gallus since 1924 . On the night of September 13, 1944, the church was hit by aerial bombs during the air raids on Frankfurt am Main and burned down. The services then took place in an emergency room that turned out to be too small.
After the Second World War, the architect Udo von Schauroth submitted a plan for an expansion of the emergency room, which was also approved by the building authorities. Work began in 1946, most of which was done by community members in voluntary self-help. The plan provided for an expansion of the emergency church and was approved by the authorities. In reality, however, it was a new building. The money for this came together exclusively through donations and events in favor of the church building. Most of the building material was extracted from the rubble of destroyed houses. The construction was also supported by the Hessian Ministry for Reconstruction . The first service could be celebrated in the new church on Palm Sunday 1947. It was officially consecrated on May 15, 1947. But even this extended emergency church soon proved to be inadequate.
Today's building
The foundation stone for a new church was therefore laid on August 20, 1950. The architects Alois Giefer and Hermann Mäckler planned it and carried it out. This is how today's church building was created. It was consecrated on May 3, 1951 by the Bishop of the Limburg diocese , Wilhelm Kempf . This third church building is also characterized by the fact that the Maria Hilf community is not a rich community. So the bell of the church has remained without bells to this day.
In terms of urban planning , the building takes up the eaves heights of the surrounding residential development; the flat gable roof mediates between the surrounding buildings with gable roofs and flat roofs.
The main room has a single nave and is accompanied over part of its length in the south by a much lower aisle. Its east end is also the sacrament chapel . The altar area in the main nave is raised by a few steps, the high altar itself, placed under a canopy (ciborium), is raised another step. However, this arrangement has become inoperative since the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council . Between 1970 and 1980 the people's altar was moved to the center of the main nave of the church, the baptismal font from the rear of the aisle was moved to the altar and the pulpit was dismantled. In the original arrangement in the side aisle - viewed from the side entrance there - the baptismal font, confessional chapel and tabernacle in the area of the altar symbolized the sequence of the corresponding sacraments .
In November 1954, a jury convened by the Association of German Architects and the Hessian Minister of Finance recognized the building as an “exemplary building in the state of Hesse”. The jury included the following architects: Werner Hebebrand , Konrad Rühl , Sep Ruf and Ernst Zinsser . The building is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .
Furnishing
Choir wall
The painting of the mighty choir wall of the church was designed by Hans Leistikow , professor at the Städelschule : a pattern of triangles set against each other determines the appearance. The color gold indicates the presence of God in the room. The many triangles as a design principle can be read as a symbol of the Trinity , but also form a pattern of stars of David . Each triangle always forms a part of new and larger triangles, which should point to the infinity of God.
Choir window
The large choir window was also created by Hans Leistikow in 1955/56. The design principle of the window is writing. It shows the text of the Lauretan Litany . Hans Leistikow had previously designed windows for the Frankfurt Cathedral and had already chosen a graphic design for two side windows. He ties in with the Jewish ban on images , which wanted to make script, i.e. the written word , the basis of faith. But it is also the artistic attempt to design the window purely from graphical conditions without a picture.
Window of the weekday chapel
The window of the weekday chapel was designed in 1980 by Johannes Schreiter , also a professor at the Städelschule. With this, a second important artistic representative of glass painting in Germany created a window for Maria Hilf. The network of lead rods laid by Schreiter on a glass background that appears to be gold is traversed by a red color path. This pattern is intended to indicate that the congregation must weave its network ever closer. The golden background refers to God's horizon, in which the church takes place, the red stripe to the blood of Christ and to all suffering in the world, elements that have to be integrated into the formation of the church.
organ
The organ was inaugurated in 1979. It comes from the organ builder Hugo Mayer . Before that there was an organ from the Klais Organ Manufactory in Bonn . This was included in the new organ and expanded to 34 registers.
Cross above the high altar
The cross above the high altar was created in 1951 by Hans Mettel , also a professor at the Städelschule. A few years later he represented Germany at the first documenta . The bronze cross is stylistically reminiscent of Romanesque crosses. It shows the crucified Christ in the posture of a king, i.e. as the risen lord and ruler, the coming Christ . The cross is hung in the mighty canopy (ciborium).
Way of the Cross
The Way of the Cross in the church, consisting of 15 oil paintings, was created by the Frankfurt artist Herbert Heinisch . He was a parishioner. In addition to the conventional 14 stations of the cross, Heinisch painted another one, namely that of the empty grave. Heimisch painted the pictures with very brief picture content and few colors. The size and format of the pictures are quite different. The hanging of the pictures should also express the tension of the action, ups and downs. Originally the Way of the Cross hung on the portal side of the church. The image of the crucifixion was originally placed above the main portal.
Pictures of the Virgin Mary by Ruberval Monteiro da Silva
The three images of Mary by Father Ruberval Monteiro da Silva OSB , Brazil , were added to the interior of the church at the end of the 1990s. They are stylistically based on icon painting . The background of the pictures takes up the triangular pattern of the choir wall. It is an image of Mary, an Annunciation and the Nativity scene from Bethlehem .
local community
The Maria Hilf community was merged with the neighboring community of St. Gallus to form a “ pastoral space ”.
The parish also makes its premises available to Roman Catholic groups who do not belong directly to the parish and celebrate their services here. This includes
- different native speaking communities
- a base community
- the project: gay and catholic in the parish Maria Hilf - a Christian community by and for gays, lesbians and their friends
literature
- Walter G. Beck: Sacred buildings in Frankfurt am Main . Hamburg 1956.
- 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 Hesse . Wiesbaden 2013, p. 186 f.
- Almut Gehebe-Gernhardt: The reconstruction of the city of Frankfurt using the example of the architects Alois Giefer and Hermann Mäckler . 2 vol. Dissertation Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main [manuscript].
- Matthias Gerhart: Maria Hilf 1933–2008. 75 years of the Catholic parish . Frankfurt 2008.
- Heike Kaiser: Monument topography city of Frankfurt am Main (= materials for monument protection in Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 1: Architectural monuments supplements 2000 ). Frankfurt 2000.
- Catholic parish Maria Hilf, Frankfurt am Main (Ed.):
- Maria Hilf Church. Frankfurt am Main - Gallusviertel. Guide to the Church. Frankfurt undated [2001].
- Festschrift for the 60th anniversary 1933–1993 . Frankfurt 1993.
- Festschrift for the inauguration of the new parish hall . Frankfurt 1964.
- Church leaders . Frankfurt 1957.
- God drives geometry . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1953, pp. 30-37 ( Online - Dec. 23, 1953 ).
Web links
- Catholic parish Maria Hilf
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Kath. Maria-Hilf-Kirche In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Beck.
- ↑ Award for exemplary buildings in the state of Hesse on November 6, 1954 . In: The Hessian Minister of Finance (Hrsg.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1955 no. 4 , p. 70 , point 75 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 3.6 MB ]).
- ↑ Berkemann, p. 186; Kaiser, p. 18.
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 10 ″ N , 8 ° 37 ′ 37.5 ″ E