Marktkirche Our Dear Women
The Market Church of Our Lady , also called Marienkirche , is the youngest of the medieval churches in the city of Halle (Saale) and is one of the most important late Gothic buildings in Central Germany . Its four towers, together with the Red Tower, form the landmark of the Saalestadt, the city of five towers . In 2004 the 450th anniversary of the church was celebrated.
history
The market church was built between 1529 and 1554 from the centuries-old predecessor churches of St. Gertruden and St. Marien. The Gertrudenkirche to the west dates from the 11th century and was the church of the salt workers in the valley of Halle, the area around today's Hallmarkt . The eastern Marienkirche from the 12th century was the parish church of the merchants and craftsmen of the mountain town, the higher streets around the market place.
History of origin
The sovereign of the city of Halle, Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg , Archbishop of Magdeburg and Elector of Mainz, needed a representative church in a central location for his residence city of Halle, which corresponded to his ideas. The cardinal and the Catholic faithful of the council also wanted to push back the increasing Reformation influences, since with the new building, under the sole continuation of the Marian patronage, far more splendid masses and services could be celebrated. On Whit Monday , May 17, 1529, at his suggestion, the archbishop's councilors, the city's magistrate and the church priests met at the market and, after extensive deliberation, decided to demolish the two parish churches except for the two pairs of towers. In the same place, the four towers were to be connected with a single nave . With the amalgamation of the two market parish churches, it was decided at the same time to close the two cemeteries surrounding the churches . As a new burial site was chosen the right outside City Martin Mountain and established the Stadtgottesacker . It can still be viewed today and is considered a masterpiece of the Renaissance .
Building history
From 1529 to 1530 the old naves were demolished. Only the so-called "Blue Towers" of St. Gertruden from around 1400 with pointed helmets, which were put on between 1507 and 1513, and on the east side the Hausmannstürme of St. Marien with late Romanesque basements and Renaissance essays from 1551 to 1554, have survived were connected by a bridge for the tower keeper . He had to warn the city of fire and danger by ringing the bells in the Hausmannsturm. You can visit his homemaker's parlor on certain occasions. Today, especially at Christmas time, small wind bands give concerts on the bridge for market visitors and tourists.
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The new church built between the pairs of towers is the last large hall construction of the Upper Saxon late Gothic and is one of the outstanding architectural achievements of that epoch in Central Germany. The council builder Caspar Krafft provided the draft . After his death in 1540, his successor Nickel Hoffmann took over the completion of the western half of the hall and the galleries . The construction period was divided into two sections, from 1530 to 1539 and with a short interruption from 1542 to 1554. The end of the construction period shows an inscription on the southern gallery: DVRCH GOTES HVLF HAB ICH NICKEL HOFMAN DISEN BAW IN 1554 VOLENDET . From the 1679 addition to a chronicle from 1554, it can be concluded that the inauguration service of the Marktkirche was held by the then Eisfelder and former Halle superintendent Justus Jonas . He is named in a dedication that quotes the corresponding text of the Torgau Palace Chapel from 1544.
The market church, which was started to ward off the spreading Reformation sentiment, was the place from whose pulpit Justus Jonas officially introduced the Reformation in Halle with his Good Friday sermon in 1541. Some of the services had to be celebrated in the open air, because at that time the construction work was only finished on the eastern nave. In the same year, Cardinal Albrecht also left the city for good after the estates agreed to take on his huge mountain of debt. In the Market Church also took place in 1546 Luther's lying in state during the funeral procession from Eisleben to Wittenberg . Luther himself preached three times in the market church in 1545 and 1546. To commemorate the Reformation and the great Reformer, there has been a small Luther Museum in the basement of the “Blue Towers” since May 2006. Among other things, you can see the death mask he made on February 19, 1546 and the prints of his hands.
In 1840 and 1841 the altar space was redesigned according to plans by August Stapel and Karl Friedrich Schinkel . For this, the history painter Julius Hübner created a new altar painting for the text of the Sermon on the Mount “Look at the lilies”.
The market church has not experienced any permanent changes in its external or internal form in its history. However , it was badly damaged in the bombing raid on Halle's city center shortly before the end of the war on March 31, 1945. A bomb struck between the northern Hausmannsturm and the longship and tore away the second pillar of the northern row, causing part of the vault to collapse. Master Ludolf damaged the bronze foot. The artillery bombardment on April 16, 1945 broke out the tracery window on the western front behind the main organ, and the hoods of the Hausmannstürme and the church roof were severely damaged. The restoration work lasted from January 1946 to the beginning of 1948. A necessary general renovation took place after 1967, when the entire interior and the equipment were badly damaged by a burst district heating pipe of the church heating. The subsequent renovation in the years 1968 to 1983 was one of the major monument preservation repairs and restorations in the GDR . The work was carried out under the direction of the Institute for Monument Preservation. It was decided to restore the appearance of the 16th century as far as possible. This is how the original convertible altar came to its old place, and Hübner's altarpiece was placed in front of the sacristy .
Marienbibliothek
The Marienbibliothek also belongs to the market church . It is considered one of the oldest and largest church libraries in Germany. The Marienbibliothek was founded by Sebastian Boetius , pastor of the Marktkirche, in 1552. Until the establishment of the University Library in Halle in 1694, it was the only public scientific library in the city.
Market parish
The Protestant parish of the Marktkirche, which was created through the merger of the Gertruden and Marien parishes, has also included the members of the Ulrich and Moritz parishes since the early 1970s and, since 2001, also those of the Georgen parish.
description
Compared to the other old town churches, the market church presents itself as an extremely elaborate space creation. Among the great late medieval church buildings in the Saxon area, it is the last that was started in the pre-Reformation period.
Nave and towers
The three-aisled , choirless Gothic church is around 88 meters long and 24 meters wide. In the west of the church are the so-called "Blue Towers" from the 14th and 15th centuries. The square tower shafts are made of simple quarry stone blocks and have octagonal brick attachments with high, pointed helmets that were put on between 1507 and 1513. In the east are the Hausmannstürme. The main part dates from around 1220 to 1230 and is of Romanesque origin. They are made of house stones. Above it are octagonal plastered attachments with Renaissance hoods , so-called Welsche hoods , from 1551. The sound of the bells of the Hausmannstürme signaled danger to the city, which a guard, the “Hausmann”, warned of by striking the bells.
The design for the wide hall space with a strikingly wide central nave comes from Council Builder Caspar Crafft. Narrow windows filled with geometric tracery open between the ten bays long and three naves of equal height . 10 pairs of slim octagonal pillars support a flat barrel-like net and star vault, the underlying ribs of which grow out of the pillars, some of which are initially guided freely through the air. A masterpiece of late Gothic stone carving is the successor of Craffts, nickel Hoffmann, created pendant vault in the center of the room. Two portals of the same shape on each of the long sides lead into the interior of the church. They are ogival and richly decorated with frameworks . Between the buttresses, which structure the exterior in close succession, there are small prayer rooms from the second half of the 17th century, which can be entered separately and which open up to the interior like a log.
The galleries from 1550 to 1554 , which were built into Halle after the introduction of the Reformation (1541) and strongly shaped the spatial appearance, are remarkable with regard to the history of early Protestant church construction. They already clearly show elements typical of the renaissance. In the western corners, large stone spiral stairs with cantilevered wooden spindles lead to the galleries. Another gallery floor was only added in 1698. The transformation of a late medieval cult area into a preaching church is also evident in the frieze of scriptures made up of quotations from the Bible, memorial inscriptions on Luther and the Halle reformer Justus Jonas. Up until then, the architectural functionalization of writing in church rooms had not occurred to this extent and completely without images.
The room with its uniform design and the absence of a separate choir room is considered to be one of the most perfect rooms of the German late Gothic.
Furnishing
The furnishings of the market church include high-ranking works, especially from the 15th and 16th centuries.
High altar
The Marktkirche houses a large wooden winged altar from 1529. Cardinal Albrecht commissioned it, Lucas Cranach the Elder designed it, and Simon Franck , his pupil, made it. It has four movable and two fixed wings. The completely opened altar shows the founder Cardinal Albrecht kneeling in prayer in front of Mary , the Mother of God with her child on a crescent moon . Right and left are the knight saints Mauritius and Alexander ; the first as a symbol of state power, the second as a symbol of church power. The half-open winged altar shows four saints from left to right: Maria Magdalena , Johannes (Evangelist) , Augustine of Hippo and Catherine of Alexandria . The completely closed winged altar shows from left to right: Ursula of Cologne , the Annunciation to Mary and Erasmus of Antioch . Closed or open, the predella below shows the so-called fourteen helpers in need , seven each to the left and right of Mary with her child.
Above the winged altar, the entire east wall was enriched by a large lunette painting by the Halle painter Heinrich Lichtenfels in 1593 , which cannot be fully seen today because of the Reichel organ in front of it. In a carved, colored frame, scenes from the Acts of the Apostles are shown in this painting (viewed from the nave, behind the organ in the center of the painting is the crucified Jesus).
In the foreground on the left there is a crucifix that was created by the metal designer Johann Peter Hinz .
Baptismal font
The bronze baptismal font that is set up in front of the altar probably comes from one of the previous churches. According to the inscription, it was cast by Ludolf von Braunschweig and his son Heinrich in Magdeburg in 1430. The round basin rests on four figures of saints. Reliefs of Christ, Mary and the apostles can be seen in arched tracery at its edge. A small crucifix with Mary and John is from around 1500 and probably also comes from one of the previous buildings.
pulpit
The magnificent pulpit of sandstone was 1541 factory uniform with one of the piers. It comes from the workshop of Nickel Hoffmann. The first restoration took place in 1666, the last in 1973. It is made in late Gothic forms, but shows typical details of the Renaissance. The wooden sound cover from 1596 is the work of the carver Heinrich Heidenreitter and the painter Heinrich Lichtenfelser. It represents an octagonal star in its basic shape, the second small one above is supported by eight pillars. At the very top is the transfiguration of Christ.
Others
One of the treasures of the church is the only partially preserved stalls made of oak and decorated with Renaissance carvings. It came from the workshop of Antonius Pauwaert in Ypres between 1561 and 1595 . Behind the altar in the east are the bridal pews from 1595, with heavily carved fittings and cartouches.
Other pieces, such as a bronze door knocker and a lion's head from around 1300, are in the church archives.
The black iron crucifix standing on one of the octagonal pillars to the left of the chancel to the left of the chancel forms a contrast to the above-mentioned items of equipment . It was created in 1976 by the Halberstadt artist Johann-Peter Hinz using a cross from the 19th century. It shows the suffering Christ who, despite the agony, has torn himself away from the cross and extends his right hand in reconciliation so that the cross bends down with himself.
Up until the 1930s there was a Luther in effigy in the sacristy , which probably came from the early 17th century. It is said that his waxy face and hands were formed from casts of the deceased reformer's face and hands.
Organs
Main organ
On the west gallery there has been an organ made by A. Schuke (then Potsdam ) since 1984 , which was built by Christoph Cuntzius behind the historical prospectus and restored and re-intoned in 2007 by W. Sauer Orgelbau . It now has 4170 pipes in 56 registers , distributed over three manuals and pedal . The disposition is as follows:
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Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: III / I, III / II, III / III
- Super octave coupling: II / I, II / II
- Playing aids : tongue holder, setter combination (4000 combinations) with USB memory stick, sequencer backwards / forwards
From 1746 to 1764 Wilhelm Friedemann Bach worked as an organist in the Marktkirche. It is also called the "Halle Bach". His father, Johann Sebastian Bach , was the first to play on the organ in the west gallery, which was inaugurated in 1716.
Reichel organ
On the east gallery opposite the large Schuke organ there is a positive by the organ builder Georg Reichel in the form of an altar organ . It was built between 1663 and 1664 for 200 thalers. The organ has six registers and is tuned to the cornettone , which means that the works played on it sound about a minor third higher than the score dictates.
When it was restored by the A. Schuke company in 1971–1972, the decision was made to tune it in the mid-tone , as was common at the time the organ was built.
The instrument has the following disposition:
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The young Georg Friedrich Händel learned to play the organ on the Reichel organ, which is one of the oldest in Central Germany . Handel was baptized in the Marktkirche on February 24, 1685, and later he took over an organist position in Hallesches Dom .
Bells
A four-part bell hangs across the “Blue Towers”. The smallest bell dates from around 1300 and was cast in the "sugar loaf shape" typical of the time. The big festival bell from 1420 is hung in the north tower. In 1674 Jacob Wenzel from Magdeburg cast Osanna from 1484, which had been stamped since 1657, a new, but smaller, festival bell with a diameter of around 185 centimeters; The Vespers bell was built in 1685 . All bells hang in historic wooden bell stalls.
In each of the two "Hausmannsturm" hangs a chime bell: the storm bell in the southern and the hour bell from the 13th century in the northern Hausmannsturm. However, both bells are out of order.
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Surname |
Founder, year of casting |
Diameter (mm) |
Weight (kg) |
Chime |
Inscription (from lat.) |
| Big festival bell | anonymous, June 23, 1423 | 1,780 | 3,888 | cis ′ | "O King of Honor, come in peace." |
| Small festival bell | Jacob Wenzel, 1674 | 1,740 | 3,001 | a | "I call to the highest church services, I mourn the important dead, I give the hours of night and day." |
| Vespers bell | Jacob Wenzel, 1685 | 1,130 | 870 | f ′ | “I call to the daily services of the week and mourn the dead. I ring for the adornment of God and the people. " |
| Supplication and prayer bell | anonymous, around 1300 | 480 | 96 | c ′ ′ ′ | “I, a voice, the voice of life. I call you, come and pray! " |
In 2004 - 450 years after the completion of the market church - the four bells of the "Blue Towers" rang again after a long period of silence after the belfry had been repaired. This made an old saying from Halle come true again:
- " Sankt Moritz has the most beautiful building,
- Ortisei has the most beautiful jewelry,
- But St. Mary's has the most beautiful bell. "
Bell scratch drawings
The bell, cast in 1420, has rare, art-historically significant carved bell drawings , which are honored in a work by the art historian Ingrid Schulze.
General
On the east side near the stair tower in the northeast corner there is a relief from the year 1583. It shows for the first time the old medieval legend of the "donkey that goes on roses". Later, this Halle city symbol was often picked up and reproduced as a theme, including at the donkey fountain .
The fact that the western pair of towers is slightly crooked has its cause in a tectonic disturbance, the so-called Hallescher Marktplatz Fault, which crosses the marketplace.
There are regular tower climbs of the almost 60 meter high Hausmannsturm. The whole city can be overlooked from the galleries of the towers at the tower house, which is 43 meters high, and from the bridge between the towers.
reception
- Towers over the city (Halle) , painting by Lyonel Feininger (1931)
See also
literature
- Franz Jäger (ed.): Church in the turn of the ages. The market church of our dear women in Halle in the late Middle Ages and the Reformation period. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2014, ISBN 978-3-95462-123-1 . (= Research on the history of the city of Halle, volume 20.)
- Reinhard Rüger: The market church of our dear women in Halle. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-422-02028-4 .
- Achim Todenhöfer: Stone praise to God. The medieval churches of the city of Halle. In: History of the City of Halle, Vol. 1, Halle in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2006, ISBN 978-3-89812-512-3 , pp. 207–226.
- Peggy Grötschel; Matthias Behne: The churches of the city of Halle. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2006, ISBN 3-89812-352-9 .
- Sabine Kramer; Karsten Eisenmenger (Ed.): The market church of our dear women in Halle. Stekovics, Halle 2004, ISBN 3-89923-071-X .
- Holger Brülls; Thomas Dietsch: Architectural Guide Halle on the Saale. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-496-01202-1 .
- Ute Bednarz; Folkhard Cremer; Hans-Joachim Krause: Dehio - manual of the German art monuments. Saxony-Anhalt II. Administrative districts Dessau and Halle. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-422-03065-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gottfried Olearius: Halygraphia aucta et continuata, description of the place and time of the city of Hall in Saxony, increased and expanded to the current 1679 year ... At the end is added as a useful appendix ERNESTI BROTUFFII, The famous old historiograph in the year Chronica of the SaltzBornen and edification of the city of Hall , written in 1554 and never printed before ; Hall in Sachsen 1679 - in the extension section p. 55 f - available as PDF in [1]
- ^ Renate Kroll: Halle (Saale). In: Götz Eckardt (ed.): Fates of German architectural monuments in the Second World War. Volume 2. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1978, p. 325.
- ↑ Uta Kornmeier: Luther in effigie, or: The “specter of Halle”. In: Stefan Laube, Karl-Heinz Fix (ed.): Luther staging and memory of the Reformation. Leipzig 2002, pp. 342-370 ( digitized version )
- ↑ Information on the main organ , seen March 5, 2012.
- ↑ Information on the historical choir organ. Retrieved November 24, 2019 .
- ^ Ingrid Schulze: Incised drawings by lay hands - drawings by medieval sculptors and painters? Figural bell scratch drawings from the late 13th century to around 1500 in central and northern Germany. Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-939404-95-8 .
- ↑ Ascent of the Hausmannstürme ( Memento from October 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The Hausmannstürme of the Marktkirche on the website of the city of Halle (Saale)
Web links
- The Marktkirche Our Dear Women in marktkirche-halle.de
- The renovation of the Hausmannstürme in www.aki-halle.de
- Hugo Steffen: The Marienkirche in Halle on the Saale. : Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1900, p. 55 (online at ANNO ).
Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 57.2 " N , 11 ° 58 ′ 5.1" E