Martinskirche (Kassel)

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Martinskirche

The Martinskirche (also St. Martin) in Kassel is a Protestant parish church and the preaching place of the bishop of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck . The Gothic church was started before 1364 and consecrated in 1462. From 1524, with the conversion to the Protestant faith of Landgrave Philip , the church was Protestant. The Hessian landgraves were buried here from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century.

After the Second World War , it was rebuilt in a partially modified form. It is a three-aisled hall church of six bays with a two-tower west building. The angular (polygonal) choir closings are Gothic. They are named after the number of segment parts, here you will find a 5/8 end . From 1960 until his death in 1993, the important organist Klaus Martin Ziegler was cantor at the Martinskirche.

history

Martinskirche on a city map by Matthäus Merian , 1646
Kassel - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655; Martinskirche in the center of the picture
Martinskirche in 1820
painting by Ludwig Grimm
Chancel of the Martinskirche in Kassel (2017)

In 1330, with the construction of the new “Freiheit” district, another church in the city area became necessary. 1343 issued Mainz Bishop those a drain , the participating financially in the construction of a new church. At this time, the construction of the choir (initially used as a parish church) can be assumed. Church patrons were St. Virgin Mary , St. Martin and St. Elisabeth . The St. Martin's patronage and perhaps also the relics of the saint had evidently received the church from the church in Kirchditmold , which was mentioned around 1000 . In order to create another spiritual center in the landgrave's residence town, a canon monastery was planned for the new parish church , which also competed with the Premonstratensian monastery Ahnaberg . The monastery was established in 1366/67 and confirmed by Pope Urban V when a further construction phase was consecrated and the choir could be handed over to the canons. Numerous canons of the monastery also took on duties at court in the period up to the Reformation . After Landgrave Ludwig I was able to bring a piece of the Holy Cross to Kassel in 1437, the Martinskirche also appears in the sources as the “Stift zum Heiligen Kreuz” (Stift zum Heiligen Kreuz).

The construction work progressed slowly, and after two more construction phases, some of the vaults in the main nave collapsed in 1440. The final consecration could only take place in 1462. By 1487, the south tower was the only tower that was built up to the first passage; It was not until 1564/65 that it received its distinctive octagonal structure, with a Welsche hood at the end . The cloister , in which the city's Latin school was housed from 1539 to 1776 , was demolished in 1776/77 due to the threat of collapse.

During the Westphalian era, King Jérôme tried to move the cathedral chapter from Paderborn to Kassel and to turn the Martinskirche into a cathedral . These plans are said to have been forbidden to him by his brother Napoléon Bonaparte .

Historicist transformation

At the end of the 19th century, the architect Hugo Schneider (builder of the Luther Church) began to redesign and complete the unfinished structure. The north tower was built from 1889 to 1892 and the renaissance structure of the south tower was replaced by a neo-Gothic structure.

Destruction and rebuilding

In 1943, Martinskirche was badly damaged by British aerial bombs , and the nave vaults and pillars collapsed. Due to the heat during the night of the bombing , the original sandstone church wall was so jagged that it had to be smoothed with shotcrete and a slatted frame in front of it.

During the reconstruction from 1954 to 1958, the architect Heinrich Otto Vogel from Trier decided to reconstruct the nave, but to choose a modern design language for the towers. The epitaph of Philip the Magnanimous , made of alabaster and marble, was moved in 1955 to the center of the nave. On June 1, 1958, the Martinskirche was consecrated again after the reconstruction.

In 1964 a three-manual organ with 57 registers and well over 5000 pipes was installed.

A light installation by the artist Christina Kubisch has been in the church since 1997 .

2010–2012, the artist Madeleine Dietz redesigned the altar, pulpit, baptism and ambo for the church.

The church is used for other purposes as well as for worship. Accompanying exhibitions of contemporary art were shown three times for the respective Documenta : 1997 for Documenta X the exhibition Staging and Visualization. Aesthetic and religious experience today , 2002 for documenta XI the exhibition The Free View and 2007 for documenta XII the exhibition Vision + Audition. On the relationship between image, word and sound .

Building

Since the reconstruction, the church interior has shown itself to be a simple, light hall that appears modern despite the Gothic quotes. It consists of two areas that can be separated from each other by a flexible glass wall. The choir and the first main nave yoke were used as the actual parish church until 1995; this part of the church has a separate entrance, the historical vault was restored here.

Princely tombs

The epitaph Landgrave Philip inside the church

The Martinskirche served as a burial place as early as the Middle Ages . There are graves of various canons in the choir and some important Kassel citizens in the nave.

Under Landgrave Philipp , the Reformation found its way into Hesse in 1526 . Until 1570 the previous burial place of the sovereigns, the Elisabeth Church in Marburg , was still owned by the Teutonic Order and therefore Catholic. For this reason, a first princely crypt was dug under the choir of the Martinskirche. The first burial can be traced back to 1535, after a son of Philip died in childhood. Until 1637 all Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel and their family members were buried in this crypt .

The epitaph of Landgrave Philipp, which was formerly placed above the first crypt in the choir, is of particular importance . The epitaph is almost twelve meters high and made of marble and alabaster . After Philip's death, it was commissioned by his son Wilhelm IV and made under the direction of the court sculptors Elias Godefroy and Adam Liquir Beaumont from 1567 to 1572. In addition to various biblical scenes, Philip and his first wife are also shown. During the reconstruction, the monument, which was slightly damaged and robbed in the post-war period, was moved from the choir to the nave. In 2004 it was cleaned and partially replaced.

The last burial of the first royal crypt can be traced back to 1693. Around 35 members of the Princely House found their final resting place here. After the death of Wilhelm V , a second royal crypt was built under the former chapter house. Wilhelm V was buried here almost three years after his death in 1640. The second royal crypt was used until 1782. All later sovereigns are buried in different places. While the first princely crypt was only opened for burials, the second princely crypt had a more representative character.

After the coffins of the second crypt were partially buried in the Second World War, many parts also fell victim to metal thieves . The municipality itself caused the greatest damage, however, by having the crypt cleared with an excavator in 1953. From the 38 coffins of the second crypt, six of the most important coffins are only preserved in fragments, the bones largely lost. The first crypt survived the war slightly damaged and was walled up inaccessible. The second crypt can be viewed by arrangement.

Organs

Old organ (until 2013)

Between 1610 and 1612, Hans Scherer the Younger created an organ with 33  stops on three manuals and a pedal . A major renovation by Johann Friedrich Sterzing and Johann Nikolaus Becker was approved by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1732 .

After various changes to the disposition , Friedrich Ladegast built a new work with 38 voices behind the Scherer Prospect in 1896 , which was destroyed in 1943.

The organ building workshop Werner Bosch (Kassel) built a new organ in 1964, which was equipped with an electronic composer system in 1991 . Helmut Bornefeld designed the disposition and the scales . The instrument had 57 sounding registers on three manuals and a pedal.

In 2010 it was decided to build a new organ. The Bosch Bornefeld organ was moved to Sankt Elisabeth in 2015 . The new organ system consists of two independent instruments: the main organ on the west wall and a small mobile module in the church. The organ system has 86 registers (5675 pipes).

Main organ

Main organ on the west gallery (2017)

Between 2014 and 2017, the organ building company Rieger Orgelbau (Austria) built the new main organ, which was inaugurated on June 4th (Pentecost Sunday) 2017. The instrument has 77 stops on four manual works and a pedal.

The organ extends over the entire width of the west gallery. The front side is 19 meters wide. A single row of pipes in the sense of a free pipe prospect is visible in the front. The row of pipes consists of several registers; their pipes are arranged irregularly, so that the impression arises that the row of pipes sways restlessly up and down. In the lower area of ​​the organ front, in front of the pipe labia, hangs a curtain made of long synthetic hair, which is moved by the air flowing out of the pipes and by fans. This modern organ prospectus including the visualization of the orchestra was designed by the Norwegian-German artist Yngve Holen and the architect Ivar Heggheim.

The pedals are divided into large and small pedals; the registers of the small pedal are in a swell box . The register of the positive can also be swelled. A special feature of the instrument are the four registers of the fourth manual, which are built out of four tones. d. H. have 24 tones per octave. The keyboard of the 4th manual has been adapted accordingly: the additional (quarter) tones are incorporated into the keyboard using smaller keys.

I main work C – c 4
01. Principal 16 ′
02. Principal 08th'
03. Viol 08th'
04th Dumped 08th'
05. Solo flute 08th'
06th Octave 04 ′
07th Alto 04 ′
08th. Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
09. Super octave 0 02 ′
10. Mixture V 02 ′
11. Cornet v 08th'
12. Trumpet 16 ′
13. Trumpet 08th'
14th horn 08th'
Tremulant
II Positive (swellable) C – c 4
15th Quintatön 16 ′
16. Praestant 08th'
17th Gemshorn 08th'
18th Quintad 08th'
19th Principal 04 ′
20th Wooden flute 04 ′
21st Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
22nd Octave 02 ′
23. third 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′
24. Minor fifth 00 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
25th Oktavlein 01'
26th Mixture III 02 ⁄ 3 ′
27. Dulcian 16 ′
28. Krummhorn 08th'
29 Hopper shelf 08th'
Tremulant
III Swell No. 1 C – c 4
30th Drone 16 ′
31. Drone 08th'
32. Flûte harmonique 0 08th'
33. Viola da gamba 08th'
34. Voix céleste 08th'
35. Fifth 05 1 ⁄ 3  ′
36. Flûte octaviante 04 ′
37. third 03 1 ⁄ 5  ′
38. Seventh 02 2 ⁄ 7  ′
39. None 01 7 ⁄ 9  ′
40. Octavine 02 ′
41. Mixture IV-III 04 ′
42. Seven Quarters III 01'
43. bassoon 16 ′
44. oboe 08th'
45. Trumpet 08th'
46. Trumpet 04 ′
Tremulant
IV Swell No. 2 C – c 4
47. Salicet 16 ′
48. Wooden flute 08th'
49. Salicional 08th'
50. Violin principal 08th'
51. Fugara 04 ′
52. Pointed flute 04 ′
53. Flautino 02 ′
54. Zimbel III 01 ⁄ 2 ′
55. harmonica 32 ′
56. harmonica 16 ′
57. harmonica 08th'
58. Clarinet 08th'
59. Vox humana 08th'
Tremulant
Tubular bells
Steel sound I
Steel sound II
Pedals C – g 1
Large pedal
60. Principal bass 00 16 ′
61. Violon bass 16 ′
62. Octavbass 08th'
63. Fifth 05 1 ⁄ 3  ′
64. Choral bass 04 ′
65. trombone 32 ′
66. trombone 16 ′
67. Trumpet 08th'
68. Clarine 04 ′
Small pedal (swellable)
69. Sub bass 32 ′
70. Sub bass 16 ′
71. Great fifth 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
72. Flute bass 08th'
73. Major third 06 2 ⁄ 5  ′
74. Major seventh 04 4 ⁄ 7  ′
75. Flute bass 04 ′
76. Major none 03 5 ⁄ 9  ′
77. Basson 16 ′
  • Coupling: II / I, III / I, IV / I, III / II, IV / II, IV / III, I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P
  • Remarks:
  1. ↑ a b c d quarter tones.

Mobile module

The mobile choir instrument was completed in 2019. It has nine registers and two effect registers on two manual works; the pedal is attached, has no register of its own. The choral instrument can also be played from the main organ using an electric action .

I Manuals C – c 4
78. Principal 8th'
79. Dumped 8th'
80. flute 4 ′
81. flute 2 ′
82. accordion 8th'
Tremulant
Wind harp
II Manuals C – c 4
83. Principal 8th'
84. Dumped 8th'
85. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
86. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Tremulant
harp
  • Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Remarks:
  1. ↑ a b c d Overblowing.

Choir organ

In the choir there is also a swallow's nest organ made by Hammer in 1957. The instrument has ten stops on electric cone chests that can be played from a free-standing console.

I main work C – f 3
1. Wooden dacked 8th'
2. Principal 4 '
3. Reed flute 4 '
4th Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  '
5. Forest flute 2 '
6th Sif flute 1'
7th Mixture V
Tremulant
Pedals C – f 1
08th. Gedacktpommer 16 '
09. Far-drawn 08th'
10. Pointed flute 04 '

Bells

Old Osanna bell

The Martinskirche has a seven-part bronze bell that was cast in 1961 by the Rincker bell foundry in Sinn (Hesse) ; It sounds in the tone sequence g ° - b ° ​​- d ′ - es ′ - f ′ - g ′ - b ′. On normal Sundays, different combinations based on bell 2 sound, on festive days like Christmas or Easter the full bell sounds. The hours have been struck on the Our Father Bell since 2003. Until then, the clock chiming in the south tower from 1511, which comes from the Old Town Hall, rang. The big Osanna bell sounds as a soloist on Good Friday at 3 p.m. and on October 22nd at around 8:37 p.m. to commemorate the bombing night in Kassel. It was turned on by the Kassel chronicler Hans Germandi until his death in 2014 . When the church was destroyed in October 1943, the old Osanna bell was also destroyed. This stood next to the church for a long time and was moved inside as part of the restoration of the building.

No.
  		Surname
  		Benefactor
  		Weight
(kg, approx.) 		Chime
  		tower
1 Christ Bell (Osanna) Henschel works 5,300 g 0 South tower
2 Our Father Bell several large companies in Kassel 3,100 b 0
3 Evening bell some parishioners 1,850 d 1 North tower
4th Midday bell Landeskreditkasse Kassel 1,550 it 1
5 Baptismal bell Electricity AG Central Germany (EAM) 1,100 f 1
6th Morning bell Kropf Brewery 850 g 1
7th Communion bell Baron Waitz von Eschen 600 b 1
8th former clock strike bell [comes from the old town hall, cast in 1511 by Hans Kortrog, Homberg (Efze) ] b 1 South tower

literature

  • Alois Holtmeyer: The architectural and cultural monuments in the district of Cassel-Stadt . Verlag Elwert, Marburg 1923 (The architectural and art monuments in the Kassel administrative district; Vol. 6).
  • Peter Horst: The Martinskirche in Kassel ( large architectural monuments , issue 212). 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1977.
  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: Martin von Tours in Hessen. A Christian saint with a diverse tradition. In: Hessian homeland. 2017 , issue 1, pp. 21–26.
  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: Martin von Tours in Hessen. Traditions, examples and profanations since the Middle Ages (with a catalog) . In: Yearbook of the Hessian Church History Association . Volume 68, 2017, pp. 266-282.
  • Franz T. Piderit: History of the capital and residence city of Kassel . Historical edition Carl, Vellmar 2004, ISBN 3-9807814-3-7 (reprint of the Kassel 1882 edition).
  • Christian Presche: The princely tombs in the Kassel Martinskirche . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies (ZHG) , Vol. 107 (2002), ISSN  0342-3107 .

Web links

Commons : Martinskirche Kassel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Götz J. Pfeiffer: Martin von Tours in Hessen. Traditions, examples and profanations since the Middle Ages (with a catalog) . In: Yearbook of the Hessian Church History Association . tape 68 , 2017, p. 266-282 .
  2. ^ Christoph Wolff , Markus Zepf: The organs of JS Bach. A manual . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-374-02407-6 , p. 57 f .
  3. ↑ More information on the Bosch Bornefeld organ , accessed on February 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ Yngve Holen / New Organ St. Martin - Music to St. Martin. Retrieved September 10, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Information on the new organ and its disposition , accessed on February 23, 2017.
  6. ^ Choir organ of the Martinskirche Kassel , accessed on February 2, 2019.
  7. ^ Kassel, Martinskirche, plenum on YouTube .
  8. ↑ HNA: A contemporary witness reports: The Osanna bell that fell during the war is now in the Martinskirche , accessed on November 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ Information about the bells
  10. ↑ Sound recording of the Osanna bell on YouTube .


Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 2 ″  N , 9 ° 30 ′ 4 ″  E