Martin Luther Church (Ulm)

The Martin Luther Church in Ulm was built between 1926 and 1928 in Ulm's Weststadt (Zinglerstraße 66) as a successor to the Martinskirche (Martinsstraße), which had become too small. The architect was Prof. Theodor Veil , who as a member of the Deutscher Werkbund, originally and creatively realized contemporary style features for this sacred building . The church is located on the Jakobsweg , the historic pilgrimage route that leads from Ulm over the Kuhberg towards Lake Constance .

Transverse main tower of the Martin Luther Church

architecture

The Martin Luther Church (Ulm) seen from the southeast in the evening light.

The exterior of the church consists of dark double-fired bricks, which are grouted with light-colored mortar. The joints were inserted so that they are flush at the top and protrude approx. 2 mm at the bottom. This results in a dirt-repellent function and a good plastic effect in the light. By emphasizing the vertical joints above the windows, an interesting "herringbone pattern" is created in many places. The lintels have been extremely traced, the window parapets have been lengthened significantly downwards, all clear signs of expressionist construction. Inside, Veil mainly used horizontally attached softwood boards that were left untreated and thus give the church a warm character. The house of worship is therefore ascribed a typical expressionist architectural style: a sloping main tower, a star-shaped chimney, today without function, colored windows in strong basic colors ( Art Deco ) and explosive motifs complement this impression.

In addition to these "disturbing", expressionistic features, the room is also very calm and elegant thanks to the consistently implemented mirror symmetry: the east and west galleries correspond, the pulpit side and baptismal font are symmetrical, the large, architectural organ front above the central altar is symmetrical. A crucifix by Martin Scheible made of spruce wood above the altar centers the room. A golden cross in the shape of a three-dimensional astrolabe , encircled by planets, adorns the main tower.

Namesake

Martin Luther, the namesake of the church

The church is named after the reformer Martin Luther , who was once delighted that Ulm joined the Reformation in a democratic voting process in 1531 ; later - under the Ulm reformer Martin Frecht - the free imperial city of Ulm even joined the Lutheran form of the Reformation. In memory of Luther, the sculptor Martin Scheible cast a larger than life “Luther figure” out of concrete and placed it above the main entrance of the Martin Luther Church. At the same time, Luther's doctoral hat carries the main tower in an original way.

function

The Martin Luther Church today belongs to the Evangelical General Church Community in Ulm and is the center of the Martin Luther Congregation, which was founded in 2001 through the merger of the Paul Gerhardt Church Congregation (the Paul Gerhardt Church has since been canceled) with the Martin Luther Church Congregation first came into being under the name Martin-Luther-Kirchengemeinde and in 2003 received the name Reformationskirchengemeinde. Since the first Advent 2013 - by voting of the parishioners - the parish is again called Martin Luther Parish. The church is the official seat of the district cantor for the Evangelical Church District Ulm .

With its wide west gallery (for singers and instrumentalists), the church is known as a "music and concert church". The acoustics of the room are excellent thanks to the use of natural wood. 1,000 seats make large concerts with a transparent sound result possible in this room. The versatile organ from Walcker was completely overhauled from 2008 to 2010. The church is the site of renowned concert series and regular cultural offers:

• Württemberg regional trombone day , since 2006 also a forum for young wind players
• Concerts with the Hassler Consort under the direction of Franz Raml
• Wiblinger Bachtage with Albrecht Schmid, Ulrich Gröner and Hubertus von Stackelberg
• Ulm Bach cantatas , e.g. B. with Friedrich Fröschle , Albrecht Haupt , Philip Hartmann, Johann Konnerth , Thomas Gropper , Gillian Crichton , Girard Rhoden u. a.
• Organ concerts, e.g. B. with Joseph Kelemen , Elke Voelker u. a.
• Jazz concerts , gospel concerts and gospel festivals, e.g. B. with Siyou Isabelle Ngnoubamdjum , Sarah Kaiser , Dieter Kraus u. a.
• folk music evenings, e.g. B. "Alpine Christmas" with room music and Alpine folk music , "Swabian Church" with the Swabian Alb Association
• Christian pop concerts , e.g. B. Hans-Jürgen Horseshoe and evenings with songwriters, z. B. Clemens Bittlinger , Attila Kalman , Christoph Zehendner u. a.
• Song recitals z. B. with Rita Kapfhammer u. a.
• Cabaret with Uli Keuler u. a.

organ

original state

In April 1928, shortly before the church was inaugurated, the Ludwigsburg organ building company Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Co. completed a large instrument (main unit, 2 upper units, pedal). The action was built with electropneumatic pocket drawers. The instrument contained 38  registers and had no prospectus . This meant that the architect Theodor Veil planned the complete cladding of all pipes with wood and had it carried out. All works were therefore hidden behind wooden blinds. Albert Schweitzer once refused to play the organ with the pointed remark that he did not want to play organs "without a face".

present

In 1962 the upper western wooden cladding was removed and, at the same time, six prospect pipe fields with nine prospect pipes each were installed. This measure helped to create a more intensive sound image of the instrument, which is committed to both the southern German organ romanticism and the organ movement . In the meantime, thanks to the additional drawer and transmissions, a total of 44 registers have been playable since 1981 . The large organ prospect has a very strong impact on the overall impression inside the church. Because the church is not in the east, the congregation sits in services and concerts with a view of the organ.

From 2008 to 2010 the organ building company Gerhard and Markus Lenter carried out a general refurbishment of the entire instrument, which at the same time was largely reduced to its tonal shape from 1928. The old cabling was replaced by the most modern control technology ( fiber optic light guide ) and it is now possible to record control commands in MIDI format. Today the instrument has the following disposition :

Bells

history

At the inauguration in May 1928, the church received four bells that were hung in the eastern main tower. During the Second World War, the larger three of these had to be removed and delivered for armaments and war production. They were melted down. Only the smallest bell (baptismal bell) was preserved.

Seidenberg Reformation Bell

In 1957, the ringing of the Martin Luther Church received a bell from the tower of the Evangelical Church of Seidenberg in Lower Silesia, which was no longer melted down during the war . Due to a tear, the Martin Luther parish in Ulm gave away its Seidenberg bell in 1993. The bell, which was successfully welded and decorated with baroque decorations, has been hanging in the bell museum of the Evangelical Church of Württemberg in Herrenberg since November 2004 . This special, fully functional museum piece with a diameter of 134 cm and a weight of 1,268 kilograms was cast in 1783 and was called the Reformation Bell . It is a typical baroque bell with a very light rib (thin-walled) and sounds rather overtone .

Current inventory

A new bell was purchased: the clay-deep justice bell . The current ringing with the bells ringing since 2003 can be described as follows:

1. Justice bell :

Strike dis ¹ +3 (16th note), diameter 133.8 cm, weight 1,420 kg, Fa. Bachert (Heilbronn), inscription: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, because they should be satisfied" (Mt 5, 6; from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ). This bell is artistically designed by Wolfhart Hähnel and reminds with a portrait (bell ornament) of the black American pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

2. Our Father Bell , also called the prayer bell :

Strike sound f sharp ¹ +1, diameter 109.5 cm, weight 788 kg, from Kurz (Stuttgart), inscription: The Lord is close to everyone who calls him! (from Psalm 145: 18a).

3. Peace Bell :

Percussive gis ¹ ± 0, diameter 97.5 cm, kg weight 558, Fa short, inscription (Martin Luther prayer verse). Da Pacem Domine (so-called peace Please , see evangelisches gesangbuch 1996, No. 421; template. Antiphon from the 9th century Da pacem, Domine ).

4. Baptism bell :

Strike h ¹ +1, diameter 81.1 cm, weight 327 kg, Kurz company, inscription: Let the children come to me! (Mt 19:14; Mk 10:13 and Lk 18:16).

The disposition of the bells matches the chorale Herr Gott, dich we praise ( Evangelical Hymn Book , No. 191, the Te Deum in the version of Martin Luther).

According Läuteordnung the church bell all at the beginning of the main services ring together while the Lord's Prayer rings the Lord's Prayer bell , wherein Taufhandlungen the baptismal bell each alone.

Further expansion of the Martin Luther Church

Between 1940 and 1945 the cellar of the Martin Luther Church was expanded and served as an air raid shelter with gas locks , the cellar has largely been preserved in its original state. After the war, the ev. Relief organization was housed here. In 1968 a modern parish hall was added to the Martin Luther Church with a generous space program (meeting, youth and office rooms) of 900 m ² for parish work. This community house was demolished in 2014. In 2015, a new parish hall with 440 m ^{2 of} floor space was built instead .

Further church history

Second World War

From 1942 behind the organ prospectus of the church - in the hidden organ chamber - the leaflets of the White Rose from the hands of the siblings Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl were sorted and made ready for dispatch by Franz J. Müller , Susanne and Hans Hirzel . This conspiratorial act by members of the pastor's family and their circle of friends was discovered and fueled the hatred of the Nazi regime , which led to the quick arrests of members of the pastor's family and their friends and helpers. The documentary “The Resistance - Witnesses of the White Rose” (2008, director: Katrin Seybold ) deals with this period and its background at the Martin Luther Church. The Martin Luther Church has housed a small memorial to the White Rose student group since 2010.

New beginning after 1945

This church survived the heavy bombing that hit Ulm's old town in 1944 relatively unscathed. After the Second World War , the sister of the resistance fighters Hans and Sophie Scholl (The White Rose ), Inge Aicher-Scholl , was able to quickly open the Ulm Adult Education Center (“vh ulm”) in the spacious rooms of the Martin Luther Church. She saw in it an act of a new beginning and a socio-political reorientation. Otl Aicher designed and designed the posters for the public lectures in this context.

Guest speakers with groundbreaking lectures gave the generation after the war the opportunity to come to terms with past horrors. These included Joseph Bernhart and Romano Guardini . From 1949 until his retirement in 1958, Henning Fahrenheim , a theologian engaged in the Confessing Church , was the parish priest of the 1st parish.

literature

• Theodor Veil: The Protestant Weststadtkirche zu Ulm aD, in: Festschrift for the inauguration of the Martin Luther Church, Ulm 1928
• Hans Günter Müller u. a .: 50 years of the Martin Luther Church in Ulm. Chronicle - Reports - Pictures, Ulm 1978
• Hubert Krins: The Martin Luther Church in Ulm. Lecture on the 60th anniversary of the inauguration on May 8, 1988, Ulm 1988
• Alexander Wetzig and Max Stemshorn: Architectural Guide Ulm / Neu-Ulm , Ulm 2003, ISBN 3-8030-0631-7
• Faces of an Organ - Festschrift for the re-inauguration of the Walcker organ in January 2010, 32 pages, ed. from the Reformation Church Community Ulm, Ulm 2010

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the overview on the municipality's homepage
2. ↑ http://www.swp.de/ulm/lokales/ulm_neu_ulm/abrissarbeiten_-wie-die-luther-kirche-von-hinten-aussieh-9561776.html
3. ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/neu-ulm/Gemeindehaus-gefaehrdet-Gotteshaus-id27739477.html
4. ↑ http://www.swp.de/ulm/lokales/ulm_neu_ulm/einweihung_-martin-luther-gemeinde-freut-sich-ueber-neubau-11883530.html

Web links

Commons : Martin Luther Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Martin Luther parish Ulm
• Walcker organ of the Martin Luther Church Ulm , at www.ulmer-orgeln.de
• Homepage of the Friends of the Organ and Church Music at the Martin Luther Church Ulm eV

Coordinates: 48 ° 23 ′ 33.4 "  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 47.5"  E