Martin Luther Memorial Church
The Martin Luther Memorial Church in the Mariendorf district of Berlin is a special monument and testimony to the times. It was built from 1933 to 1935 on the basis of long-standing plans. State and church symbolism mixed in the design of the interior. This can still be seen today. For this reason, the church has been referred to in the press as the “ Nazi Church” since around 2004, when it hit the headlines because of its poor construction . The community itself sees the remains of this design in the spirit of the times from 1933 as a memorial and memorial.
prehistory
In the late 19th century, the expansion of the metropolis of Berlin led to rapid growth in many suburbs . Mariendorf also experienced a significant increase in population. The village church of Mariendorf , a stone church from the 13th century, was long too small for the parish in 1885. This year, therefore, the expansion of the village church or the construction of a new church was discussed for the first time.
In 1908 the impetus to build a new church was given. Priority was given to the construction of a church in Südende , at that time still part of the Mariendorf parish . In 1918, before the end of the First World War , the community made the decision to build a new church and bought the property opposite the Mariendorf town hall. It should be a church in memory of the dead of war or a church for peace. Since 1924 a church building association has been collecting donations for a new building. In 1927 the parish hall was built (today the Jochen Klepper House, named after the theologian and writer Jochen Klepper and also a listed building) based on a design by Curt Steinberg , the head of the church building department in the consistory of the old Prussian church province of Brandenburg , which also included Berlin . Steinberg then submitted the draft for the church in 1929. The model has been in the hall of the parish hall since 1929. The construction was initially postponed due to lack of money.
architecture
Construction work began in September 1933. The construction of the church was started under the sign of job creation with unemployment still high. The foundation stone was laid on October 22, 1933. Steinberg stood behind the worldview of the new rulers and brought the elements of the time into the design of the interior. The Martin Luther Memorial Church was consecrated on December 22, 1935 .
Brick pillars support the nave , apse and tower. The roof is made of iron. The church tower was planned to be over 50 meters. Because of the proximity to Tempelhof Airport , this dimension was reduced to 49.20 meters, the otherwise mandatory warning lights could be omitted. A 6.60 meter high bell house accommodated four bronze bells. The facade is made of large-format terracotta panels that were placed on top of one another during construction and backfilled with masonry; a practice that has led to massive construction-related damage since the mid-1990s.
The slightly sloping, stepless floor in the nave is striking, giving the room a theatrical effect. This impression is also supported by the ceramic-clad belt arches on the barrel vault. A triumphal arch forms the transition from the nave to the chancel. This arch is covered with around 800 symbolic terracottas by Heinrich Mekelburger, which show 36 recurring motifs. The Christian motifs are systematically linked to state and National Socialist symbols: Immediately next to a swastika was the Christ monogram, the evangelist symbols and the crown of thorns. Furthermore, a halo was to be seen here as a National Socialist national emblem and the NSV emblem . This combination corresponded to the ideology of the Nazi-affiliated Association of German Christians as a synthesis of Christianity and National Socialism. The swastikas and symbols of the NSV were removed after the end of Nazi rule, but the corresponding imperial eagles remained in their places.
The vestibule is designed as a hall of honor for the fallen of the First World War. A candlestick with the large iron cross , which is entwined with oak leaves, hangs from the ceiling . In 1922, the General Secretary of the German War Graves Commission recommended such chandeliers as a "sensible honor" in churches. On the walls there are life-size portrait half-reliefs of the heads of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and the reformer Martin Luther . According to an entry in his diary, Jochen Kleppers dated 24./27. January 1936 a representation of Adolf Hitler ("in the anteroom Hitler's portrait bust"), confirmation also in part 3 of the chronicle of the parish. Between the wall and the ceiling is the first stanza of the song Einfestburg ist our God by Martin Luther, supplemented by the beginning of the song Our Exit Bless God by Hartmann Schenck .
The chancel is lit through nine lead-glazed windows with stations of the creed . They come from Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen in 1970, after the windows originally designed by Werner Göritz were destroyed during the war. The altar is carried by wooden figures, which, however, without holding the corresponding attributes, are also interpreted as the four evangelists . The woodwork on the pulpit and baptism testify to the zeitgeist. At the pulpit, a soldier, an SA man and a Hitler Youth join the other figures from the Sermon on the Mount . The wooden baptism also shows a uniformed SA man on one side. Also striking is the zeitgeist on the altar cross: there is no suffering or dying Christ hanging there, but a “German hero” with a defiantly stuck chin, who conquered or overcame or overcame death.
In order to critically examine the National Socialist design of the church interior , the parish council decided in 1989 to purchase the works of art Auschwitz and Oratio by the Polish artist Paweł Warchoł. A total of 14 collages form a sequence that begins at the camp gate and ends at an incinerator. They represent a loan to the stations of a crossroads .
organ
The organ , which was built in 1935 by the organ building company EF Walcker (Ludwigsburg) , also has a special history . Before being installed, it was temporarily used in Nuremberg for the 7th Nazi Party Congress in 1935, at which the Nuremberg Laws were promulgated. After the end of the party congress, the instrument was dismantled in October 1935 and brought to Berlin, where it was inaugurated in December 1935. After an interim change in the 1960s, the organ was returned to its historical state in 1984. The instrument has 50 registers (including seven transmissions ) on four manuals and pedal . The two swell works have been expanded to a range of up to a 4 for the super octave coupling . The actions are controlled electro-pneumatically .
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-
Couple
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: III / I, III / III
- Super octave coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, II / II, III / III, III / P
-
Playing aids:
- four free combinations , tutti, general coupling, register crescendo
- Holders for hand registers, rollers, tongues, sub-octave couplings, remote work, as well as single tongue holders
Wartime
The bells had to be sacrificed for armaments during the Second World War - seven years after their inauguration - in 1942 . The first bomb damage occurred in December 1943 . All the church windows were destroyed. The parish hall was partially destroyed. Two incendiary bombs penetrated the apse and the vault, but did only limited damage inside.
post war period
In 1945 the Martin Luther Memorial Church temporarily became a garrison church of the US Army . This enabled emergency glazing of the windows to be carried out in 1945. The consequences of the air war could not be completely eliminated until the early 1950s. In 1954, the tower had to be repaired. It was believed that copper cladding would protect the spire and the bell house, which had been open until then, from the effects of the weather.
The new apse windows were installed in 1970 based on a design by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen .
From 2004 the church was only used as an exception for large church services or other individual events, as the tower was dilapidated and considerable safety precautions were necessary for its use. The tower was repaired by the end of 2011 with funds from the federal government, the state of Berlin, the German Foundation for Monument Protection and the Protestant community of Berlin-Mariendorf. The commitment of the State of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany to preserving the church as a monument of national importance is therefore beyond question. In addition, the interest of numerous initiatives and associations that have dedicated themselves to the preservation of monuments and the culture of remembrance is increasing. Possibilities for a future usage profile of the church have been explored since 2008 as part of a multi-year trial phase.
With the intention of commemoration, warning and reconciliation, the parish has been a member of the Cross of Nails Fellowship since 1992 - active since 2003 .
Memorial plaque for the laying of the foundation stone
The symbol tiles of the triumphal arch with removed swastikas
The pulpit with the soldier
chapel
Entrance portal with a candlestick in the shape of an iron cross
literature
- Stefanie Endlich, Monica Geyler-von Bernus, Beate Rossié (eds.): Christian cross and swastika. Church building and sacred art under National Socialism. Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940938-12-1 .
Web links
- Martin Luther Memorial Church . Website of the Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Mariendorf
- Website "Martin Luther Memorial Church " of the Stattbau Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH in the environmental forum Auferstehungskirche, 2016.
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Bettina Vaupel: halo and steel helmet. The Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin-Mariendorf. In: Monumente -Online , magazine of the German Foundation for Monument Protection , August 2013, accessed on June 19, 2014
- Carsten Dippel: Martin Luther Memorial Church - Church with a hook . Deutschlandfunk broadcast “Day by Day”, May 23, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang See: Chronicle of the Martin Luther Memorial Church, Part 3 - About the design of the interior . Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Mariendorf, accessed on May 23, 2017.
- ↑ Jenny Bohse: Difficult legacy under the bell tower . In: the daily newspaper , March 21, 2008, accessed on September 13, 2012.
- ↑ More information on the organ at: Michael Gerhard Kaufmann: Organ and National Socialism. (PDF, 3.8 MB) Chapter "Walcker Organ Opus 2432 Bj. 1934/35 for the Martin Luther Church in Berlin-Mariendorf". Musikwissenschaftliche Verlags-Gesellschaft, Kleinblittersdorf, 1997, ISBN 978-3-920670-36-2 , pp. 244–246. Walckerorgel.org, archived from the original on February 11, 2012 ; accessed on May 23, 2017 .
- ↑ The place: history . Website "Martin Luther Memorial Church" of the Stattbau Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH in the environmental forum Auferstehungskirche, August 5, 2016, accessed on May 23, 2017.
- ^ O. Köppen: The community is a member of the Cross of Nails Community . Evangelical Church Community Berlin-Mariendorf, March 2003, accessed on May 23, 2017.
Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 41 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 44 ″ E