Markuskirche (Ottakring)

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St. Mark's Church
Portal of the Markuskirche
Interior of the Protestant St. Mark's Church
Organ of the Markuskirche

The Markuskirche is the church building of the Evangelical Parish AB Wien Ottakring, which belongs to the Vienna Superintendent of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria . It is located in the 16th Viennese district Ottakring in the Thaliastraße 156 and is the only Protestant church in the district.

history

The way to an independent parish

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Evangelical Parish of Vienna-Währing comprised the districts of Ottakring , Hernals , Währing and Döbling , in whose area 22,000 Evangelical Christians of the Augsburg Confession lived. The pastoral work was very difficult due to the large spatial expansion of the parish area and due to the fact that the congregation only had one place of worship, the Luther Church in Währing, many parishioners found their way to the church hardly more than once a year. As a result, life interested in the church was limited to a very small circle.

This led to the desire in Ottakring for a more intensive union of the local Protestants, which was reflected in the establishment of so-called table societies and Protestant associations. A short time after the First World War , the Gustav Adolf local association Ottakring-Neulerchenfeld was established , which held its meetings in a coffee house whose owner was himself a Protestant. The charitable activity of the association under the poor had a positive effect on the union of the evangelicals in Ottakring: The call for the establishment of an own preaching office or for the establishment of an independent parish was loud.

A first step on the way to creating one - there were 5,000 Lutherans living in Ottakring at the time - was the establishment of a youth group that moved into an abandoned carpenter's workshop at Paltaufgasse 24. This youth work also set certain impulses for the religious life of adults, but soon a move became necessary due to the unsuitability of the existing rooms - caused by damp walls and dull air.

The house at Haymerlegasse 31, which had previously housed a Catholic kindergarten, became the new center in the evangelical life of the district; there was also the opportunity for the first time to hold regular church services. The annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany in 1938, however, also meant a severe setback for the Protestant development work in Ottakring - attendance at church services suddenly decreased and the Dr. Martin Luther Volksheim was confiscated by the National Socialist rulers. On March 12, 1945, the Luther Church in Währing, which is still responsible for Ottakring, and the Lutherhof fell victim to a bomb attack.

Despite these circumstances, immediately after the Second World War, the missionary Johann Bechtloff began to resume pastoral work in Ottakring and to hold regular services in the prayer room at Haymerlegasse 31, which had survived the war unscathed, which soon enjoyed numerous visitors. This awakened the desire to set up a separate parish in the 16th district, which ultimately led to the decision on December 4, 1945 to establish a Protestant parish AB in Ottakring .

The way to your own church

In 1947, not only was a provisional parish council formed from which the presbytery was elected, but Leopold Gerhardinger was also elected as the first Protestant pastor of Ottakring. During this time there was a lively community life with the most varied of circles, it was also necessary to introduce two main services on Sundays in addition to the children's service. The 110-seat hall at Haymerlegasse 31 was much too small, so that worshipers often had to make do with a seat in the anteroom.

This made it clear that it was urgently necessary to build our own church - a building fund was set up that finally made it possible to acquire the property at Thaliastraße 156 on July 27, 1954 from Mathilde Binder, herself a member of the Ottakring parish . As the news of Pastor Gerhardinger's sudden death after an operation fell in the middle of the planning work for the church to be built on January 2, 1959, the pastor of the former mother parish of Währing, Senior Jakob Wolfer , was entrusted with the management of the parish in Ottakring until January 5th, 1964 Stefan Ph. Heib was introduced into his office as the new pastor of Ottakring.

After successful completion of the necessary preparations, construction work on the house at Thaliastraße 156 began on March 1, 1966 and the foundation stone for St. Mark's Church was laid on June 12, 1966. On November 30, 1967, the work on the house and church was finally completed, and St. Mark's Church was consecrated on February 4, 1968.

From 1968 to the present

After its completion, the Markuskirche and the associated parish rooms underwent several renovations. In the mid-1980s, for example, the church's ceiling was clad with wood; In the mid-2000s, not only was one room redesigned as a children's church service room, but a youth hut was also built in the community garden. In 2009 the community hall and the toilet facilities were renovated and the entrance area of ​​the community center was rebuilt and adapted step-free. In addition, the facade of the residential building at Thaliastrasse 156 was redesigned.

In 2011 - after the neighboring property had been given a new use - the church, which had been hidden by the residential building at Thaliastraße 156, became visible from a public area. In this context, the church received an entrance leading to this property in 2012. With these measures, the church was redesigned in such a way that a vestibule was built next to the entrance, which is located in the rear area of ​​the same, and the organ loft, which had been extremely small until then, was considerably enlarged. The church also received a new facade design, which is presented in different shades of yellow and white.

Architecture and equipment

The church was built between 1964 and 1968 according to plans by the architect Rudolf Angelides . It has neither a tower nor bells and connects to the rear of the residential building at Thaliastraße 156, with which it is directly connected. Its simple, hall-like interior, seating around 250 people, is characterized by a large wooden cross hanging over the altar .

In addition to the church, the parish community has other rooms available on the ground floor of the house at Thaliastraße 156, including the parish hall, the parish office, a children's church service room and a sacristy .

Since the church building does not currently have a bell tower, the St. Mark's Church has no bells. However, the community intends to build a bell carrier with a two-part bell ringing.

organ

Play board of the organ of the Markuskirche

Since the last installment of the loan required to build the church was due in 1981, people began thinking about the purchase of an organ as early as 1980. It was concluded that, despite the expected rather small number of stops, it must represent a special feature in the Viennese organ landscape and, apart from the organ music of the baroque masters from the German-speaking area, it should be particularly suitable for reproducing French baroque organ music. In addition, it was stated that the organ had to meet the requirements of worship as well as be able to be used for concerts. In the course of the tender, the Linz organ builder Bruno Riedl prevailed, who in 1985 built an instrument with 15 stops on two manuals and pedal .

In 2007, Wolfgang Karner carried out a general overhaul of the organ, which also included some modifications, such as lowering the pedal keyboard in order to achieve the intended standard dimension between the first manual and the same.

The organ of the Markuskirche with Dieterich Buxtehudes Toccata in F major BuxWV 156

Disposition:

I. Grand Orgue Cg 3
Montre 8th'
Flûte harmonique 8th'
Prestant 4 ′
Duplicate 2 ′
Fittings 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Chalumeau 8th'
II. Récit Cg 3
Bourdon 8th'
Flute 4 ′
Narcard [sic!] 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Quarte de narzard [sic!] 2 ′
Tièrce 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Cymbals 1'
Pedale Cf 1
Bourdon 16 ′
Flûte conique 8th'
Douçaine 16 ′
  • Normal coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Playing aids : tremulant (affecting the whole work)

Web links

Commons : Markuskirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Heib: Festschrift on the occasion of the inauguration of the St. Mark's Church of the Evangelical Parish AB Wien-Ottakring . Vienna 1968, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Heib, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Heib, p. 6f.
  4. ↑ Heib, p. 7f.
  5. ↑ Heib, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Heib, p. 8f.
  7. ↑ Heib, p. 10.
  8. ^ Dehio-Handbuch Wien. X. to XIX. and XXI. to XXIII. District . Edited by Federal Monuments Office. Anton Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7031-0693-X , p. 378.
  9. ↑ a b Martin Wadsack: The organs of the 16th district of Vienna. Vienna 2013, p. 24ff.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 49.4 "  N , 16 ° 18 ′ 26.5"  E