Marienkirche (Prenzlau)

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Marienkirche
Merian cityscape from 1652

The Marienkirche in Prenzlau is the main Protestant parish church in the city and is one of the brick Gothic churches in northern Germany that is rich in architectural decoration . The building is a listed building.

history

Church ruins after 1950
Façade in the east, 2009
Mitteltorturm and Marienkirche

Previous construction

The previous building was built from 1235 to 1250 as a three-aisled field stone hall church with a two-bay nave, a slightly wider transept and a straight choir. After the middle of the 13th century, the still preserved two-tower west building was presented to this building.

High Gothic new building

From 1289 to 1340 the new church was built as a three-aisled Gothic hall church in the brick Gothic style, including the western part of the previous building made of field stone masonry. The spacious church with seven bays is 56 meters long, 26 meters wide and 22 meters high; the roof ridge is 43 meters high today. It was built in two sections, the border of which runs at the stair towers. It has a relatively flat, apsidal east end for each ship.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the additions of the Christoph chapel with a display gable and the two-aisled, three-bay Margaret chapel with a polygonal end on the south side were added. The ribbed vault of the Margaret Chapel was preserved. A two-storey vestibule adjoins it to the west. On the north side there was a vestibule crowned by a tracery gable in the style of Hinrich Brunsberg .

Facade

The splendid eastern façade is considered to be "unique" in brick Gothic because of its sophisticated construction; The individual forms are based on the model of the facade plan F of Cologne Cathedral . The flat gable stands over the east end of the three naves. The apses are therefore only slightly formed with two polygon sides in the side aisles and three in the central nave. What is unique is that the windows on the inside, oriented towards the polygonal apses, were fitted into the flat facade on the outside, so that inclined window reveals result.

At 22 meters, the gable is as high as the vertical choir wall. The six buttresses end in delicate pinnacles . A window-like design with rods and tracery made of red and black glazed stones, with summarizing eyelashes and with tracery friezes complements the image of the facade.

side walls

The outer side walls are structured by the four-part tracery windows and the multi-stepped buttresses . Rising over the eaves is a transparent wreath of openwork eyelashes above a tracery frieze and between piers. A panel frieze with vegetal motifs runs along the four west bays of the south side.

Vestibule and portals

The northern porch from the beginning of the 15th century has a three-part Wimperg gable in the Brunsberg style. The large five-way stepped west portal has grooves and round bars in the steps. Above this there is a round window in the direction of the central nave. A richly designed portal is on the north side, another on the south side.

Towers

View from the tower

The lower floors of the west building made of field stone are structured with corner pilaster strips and flat panels. In the 14th century, the towers of the original west building were raised by three storeys made of brick, the middle section received two brick storeys. The end of the north tower with a height of 68 meters is formed by a saddle roof in an east-west direction between two Renaissance gables. 234 steps lead to the tower room .

The end of the south tower with a height of 64 meters has existed since 1776. It too has had a gable roof since 1972, like the north tower, but without the 4 meter high base. Two clocks were installed on the upper floor.

The upper storeys of the towers are more richly structured with ogival panels from the 14th century and have high ogival sound openings with simple tracery in the bell floors . Despite the inclusion of the older parts of the wall from the previous building and the fragmentary tower ends, the west building shows a decidedly monumental effect, which is comparable to the high and late Gothic parish churches in Wismar and Stralsund .

Interior

In the spacious, strict interior, the ribbed vault with intermediate arches was supported by the twelve richly designed, cross-shaped pillars; the four pillar templates at the front have powerful three-quarter round services (templates). The side walls have circumferential base zones with two ogival panels per yoke. There is a walkway above. The slender tracery windows are mostly in four parts. The window tracery was changed during the restoration; the tracery of the three east windows on the south side could be considered original. The finely profiled, highly Gothic interior of the church occupies a certain exceptional position within the brick Gothic due to these very properties.

In front of the high altar was the tombstone of Adelheid von der Asseburg († 1588), wife of Leonhard von Kotze , her portrait could be seen in the right aisle. From 1581 to 1918, on the basis of a legacy, the bell rang every day at the hour of her death at around two o'clock in the afternoon, until her foundation fell into disuse due to inflation; so her memory stayed alive in the church.

The round window in the west, based on a design by Johannes Schreiter from 1995, combines the cross motif with colors and abstract shapes that are supposed to remind of suffering, destruction, war and reconstruction.

Between the Reformation and the modern age

The later court and cathedral preacher in Berlin, Johannes Fleck (1559-1628), worked from 1596 to 1601 as an inspector (superintendent) at the Marienkirche in Prenzlau.

During the Thirty Years' War the body of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf was kept in the north tower of St. Mary's Church as part of the transfer to Sweden from December 20-22, 1632.

In the years 1844/46 a comprehensive redesign of the interior of the church in the neo-Gothic style took place by Eduard Knoblauch . Between 1878 and 1887 the exterior of the church was restored.

reconstruction

When Prenzlaus was liberated at the end of World War II by the Red Army on 27./28. April 1945 burned the church with the huge roof truss of the nave and the vault collapsed; the surrounding walls and pillar arcades were preserved. In 1947 the gables of the north tower end that had been preserved collapsed. In 1949/50 the east gable was secured against collapse. Reconstruction began in 1970, in 1972 the assembly of the roof structure, in 1973/74 the roofing of the gable roof with copper plates as well as the repair of the staircase in the towers and the roofing of the Margaret's chapel. From 1972 to 1988 the tower facades were repaired, the interior of the south chapels and the east gable and east south facade were restored. The north tower was completed in 1982, the roof of the south tower in 1984, the roofing and vaulting of the north porch in 1988 and the facade renovation in 1990/91. In 1990 a ceremony took place for what had been achieved. The modern rose window with the theme of destruction and reconstruction was realized by the glass artist Johannes Schreiter and handed over in 1995. In 1997 the altar was put up again.

Donations have been collected since 2013 for the reconstruction of the vaults and the gallery. In 2014, additional funds of 3.24 million euros were made available in the budget of the Minister of State for Culture . Since August 2015 the tenders and preparations for the reconstruction of the vaults have been made. The reconstruction of the vaults was planned from June 2018 to the end of 2020. After initial delays, construction work went according to plan. In April 2019 three of the seven bays had already been completed, in August 2019 five. The reconstruction of the vaults was completed as planned in 2020. The last keystone of the vault was set on January 14, 2020. On May 17, 2020, a service took place on the occasion of the completion of the vaults in the neighboring St. Jakobi Church. After the work on the gallery and the organ has been completed, the restored interior of the Marienkirche will be used again for church services in autumn 2021.

Equipment and organ

High altar

The interior of the church 1877 (by Eduard Gärtner)

The late Gothic high altar was created around 1512 by the master of the Prenzlau high altar in Lübeck . It survived the destruction of the church because it had been walled in and was erected in the Prenzlau monastery church until 1991 . After a theft this year, a large number of the stolen figures could be brought back, but some figures have been lost to this day. Then the figures and reliefs were restored, exposing the original version and arranged in a reconstructing structure.

A crescent Madonna is depicted in the shrine , originally surrounded by four angels, only two of which have survived. To the side of this are four smaller saints arranged in two rows. In the wings, the apostles are depicted in two rows, only nine of which have survived. In the predella there is a wide, living relief of the Adoration of the Magi. The once very rich sprinkling shows the representations of Christ with the flag of victory, George and Mauritius and a crowning Madonna in a halo.

organ

The first organ was installed in 1567/68 . In 1743 a new organ with 2 manuals and around 20 stops by Johann Michael Röder followed . In 1847, after the church had been redesigned, the new organ with 2 manuals and 33 registers was inaugurated by Carl August Buchholz from Berlin. It was destroyed in 1945 and has not yet been replaced. After the vaults have been restored by 2020, the installation of a historic William Hill & Son organ from 1904 to 2021 is also planned, which is to be transported here as a gift from the former West Parish Church Kilbarchan in Scotland .

In 1867 Ernst Flügel became an organist and high school singing teacher in Prenzlau and until 1879 he also worked as a pianist and organist at the Marienkirche.

Surroundings

Luther monument

The Mitteltorturm and the Marienkirche on Marktberg together form the most famous cityscape of Prenzlaus. Until it was destroyed in 1945, a row of mostly two-story houses stood in front of the east elevation of the church, which provided the standard for the Marienkirche and thus increased the monumentality of the east gable.

In front of the church on the south-west side is Luther's monument , which was created in 1903 by Ernst Rietschel based on the model of the original in Worms .

Parish

The Marienkirche is the main Protestant parish church of the parish with the subsidiary churches St. Nicolai, St. Jacobi and St. Sabini and twelve other parishes. She is a member of the Prenzlau parish with its twelve parishes. The church district is headed by a superintendent and the district church council.

The Förderverein Marienkirche Prenzlau is dedicated to preserving the church .

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 , pp. 879-884.
  • Joachim Fait: The first Marienkirche in Prenzlau - an excavation and reconstruction report. In: Scientific journal of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Univ. Greifswald. 9.1959 / 60, Ges.- und Sprachwiss. Row 4/5, pp. 420-421.
  • Master of the Prenzlauer high altar . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 37 : Master with emergency names and monogramists . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1950, p. 277 .
  • Reinhard Liess : On the historical morphology of the high choir gable facade of St. Marien in Prenzlau. In: Low German contributions to art history. 27, 1988, pp. 9-62.
  • Reinhard Liess: Art-historical notes on the choir gable facade of the Prenzlauer Marienkirche. In: Art in the Baltic Sea Region. Medieval architecture and its reception. Scientific contributions from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald. 1990, pp. 21-35.

Web links

Commons : Marienkirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Georg Dehio: Handbook of German art monuments. Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 , p. 879.
  2. ^ Illustration of the tombstone of Adelheid von der Asseburg
  3. ↑ Udo von Alvensleben (art historian) , visits before the sinking, noble seats between Altmark and Masuria. Compiled from diary entries and edited by Harald von Koenigswald, Frankfurt / M.-Berlin 1968, p. 241.
  4. ↑ When Prenzlau sank in the flames. Nordkurier, April 27, 2015, accessed on February 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Götz Eckardt (ed.): Fates of German architectural monuments in the Second World War. Volume 1. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1980, p. 128.
  6. ↑ Press release of the Federal Government of July 31, 2014. Accessed on January 22, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Reconstruction after 70 years. Märkische Onlinezeitung, August 18, 2015, accessed on January 2, 2018 .
  8. ^ Prenzlaus Marienkirche gets back vaults. Nordkurier Online, May 31, 2018, accessed October 2, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Century building based on a medieval model. MON, January 21, 2019, accessed on January 22, 2019 .
  10. ↑ 120,000 bricks arch to form the new church roof. RBB24.de, accessed on February 13, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Restoration of the vaults of the Marienkirche in Prenzlau. Architekturzeitung, April 10, 2019, accessed on May 21, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Final spurt at St. Marien-Gewölbe in Prenzlau. Nordkurier, August 12, 2019, accessed November 10, 2019 .
  13. ↑ The art-historical vault of the Marienkirche in Prenzlau was rebuilt. Press service of ekbo.de, May 15, 2020, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Contribution of the RBB on the theft of the figures. (PDF) Retrieved March 5, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Information about the organ on the pages of the church music in Prenzlau. Retrieved February 22, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Picture before the destruction on bildindex.de. Retrieved January 2, 2018 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 18 ′ 48.8 "  N , 13 ° 51 ′ 23.7"  E