Martin Luther King Church (Hamburg-Steilshoop)

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Central building
Bell tower and forecourt

The Evangelical Lutheran Martin Luther King Church in Hamburg-Steilshoop is located at Gründgensstraße 28 in the center of the large housing estate that characterizes the district . The claim that is occasionally read that the "Steilshooper congregation [is] the only one in Germany that has named itself after the American Baptist pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King " is at least misleading, since there are at least three other churches in Germany. which have the same name .

Construction and architecture

From the beginning, the church was planned as a community center , i.e. as a complex of rooms that could be used in different ways. The complex was put together from several structures, which are separated from one another by narrow courtyards and corridors. The unifying element is the uniform and very eye-catching facade design, which is dominated by bright blue glazed ceramic tiles and red window frames and banisters. The color of the facade tiles quickly gave the church the local nickname "Blue Tile".

It was built between 1972 and 1974 according to the plans of the Patschan, Werner, Winking architects ( Dieter Patschan , Asmus Werner and Bernhard Winking ). Compared to the high-rise buildings in the area, the low building does not stand out. The church hall, which is also decorated with wooden elements (called “Feiersaal” by the community), is barely visible from the street behind a conversion of apartments and community rooms. Its interior receives daylight only through clear ribbon windows under the ceiling. The decor remains restrained, it is dominated by white brickwork, a wooden ceiling and Scandinavian-style furniture and lamps. Viewed from the altar, the rows of seats rise slightly towards the rear of the room. As a result, the various uses desired by the client were preserved and at the same time a clear orientation towards the altar, pulpit, lectern and baptismal font was achieved.

The church was consecrated at Pentecost 1974, and the name given to Martin Luther King also took place five years later at Pentecost. The church tower with its idiosyncratic shape was added in 1988 to make the community center more recognizable as a church.

Furnishing

The candlesticks and the cross on the altar come from the father of the architect Asmus Werner, the goldsmith Alfons Werner (1906–1983).

Two bells hang in the tower. One bears the inscription “comfort, comfort my people” ( Isa 40,1  EU ) and the other “blessed are they who make peace” ( Mt 5,9  EU ).

organ

The organ, also inaugurated in 1974 and manufactured by Orgelbau Eberhard Friedrich Walcker, is kept simple overall. Your disposition is:

I. Manual C–
1. Pommer 8th'
2. Principal 4 ′
3. Mixture IV
II. Manual C–
4th Dumped 8th'
5. Reed flute 4 ′
6th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th Field flute 2 ′
Pedal C–
8th. Sub bass 16 ′
9. Coupling flute 8th'
10. Trumpet 8th'

local community

Right from the start, the congregation was exemplary in social and diaconal activities in the problematic new building area. Especially during the tenure of Pastor Hans-Jürgen Benedict (1981–91) it also became a center of the anti-nuclear and peace movement . One of the community's social and diaconal projects was the velvet and soap employment project (formerly a textile workshop).

Photographs and map

Coordinates: 53 ° 36 '35.9 "  N , 10 ° 3' 33.9"  E

Map: Hamburg
marker
Martin Luther King Church​
Magnify-clip.png
Hamburg

  • Red-blue color contrast of the facade

  • Patio. Left the church hall.

  • Access from the north

  • View of the redevelopment in the southwest

literature

  • Ralf Lange : Architecture in Hamburg . Junius Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88506-586-9 , p. 207 f .
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner , Hans Christian Knuth, Cornelius Nissle: Roofs of Hope, church building in Hamburg between 1950 and 1970 . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-7672-1245-5 , p. 184 f .
  • Sönke Ullrich, Asmus Werner, Inge Dehne: 40 years MLK . In: Evangelical Lutheran church newspaper for Bramfeld and Steilshoop . No. 52 , 2014, p. 4–10 ( online [PDF; accessed September 14, 2017]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example in an article in the Evangelische Zeitung on January 10, 2017. Accessed on September 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c Article 100 years of the church in Bramfeld and Steilshoop (part 4) on steilshooper.de . Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Entry in the organ database orgbase.nl . Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ Ulfrid Kleinert: Resist nonviolently: Brokdorf protocols against batons and stones. Reinbek: Rowohlt 1981, p. 113

Web links

Commons : Martin-Luther-King-Kirche (Hamburg-Steilshoop)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files