Matthäuskirche (Hagen)

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Tower of St. Matthew's Church

The Matthäuskirche in Hagen is a sacred building from 1965. It is the church of the Evangelical-Lutheran Matthäuskirchengemeinde, which was founded in 1961 in a new building area in the city of Hagen.

Architects

The design of the church comes from the architectural community Hübotter - Ledeboer - Busch from Hanover, which also realized Protestant church buildings in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe (Trinity Church) and on Helgoland (St. Nicolai).

Building history

In 1961, the presbytery of the Matthäusgemeinde launched an architectural competition to build the Matthäuskirche. In October 1962, the architectural community emerged from this competition as the first prize winner. In February 1963 it was decided to implement this design. The first groundbreaking for the church and community center took place on September 21, 1963 by the superintendent of the Hagen church district, Kurt Rehling, and the founding pastor of the Matthäusgemeinde, Pastor Johannes C. Schimmel. The construction was completed in 1965. On May 27, 1965 (Ascension Day ) the church was consecrated by the President of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia , Ernst Wilm .

architecture

Structure

The church and community center are rectangular buildings at right angles to each other. They form a monastic unit. They are connected to the tower by a cloister , forming an almost square complex.

View from the tower to the church (left) and the parish hall (right)

The external dimensions of the entire complex are 40.5 m parallel to Lützowstrasse and 49 m along Lortzingstrasse. The inner courtyard has a size of about 19 m × 19 m.

Cloister and courtyard

The cloister forms an inner courtyard that opens onto the street as the entrance to the community center. From this entrance on the tower a closed corridor leads to the church and a covered path to the parish hall. Together with the corridor on the church wall and the hall of the parish hall, both paths form the cloister-like corridor around a square inner courtyard. This atrium, in which a Jona fountain by the Hagen artist and architect Bernhard van der Minde has been located since 1990 , already creates a zone of calm outside.

Nave

Due to the hillside location of the community center, the actual church space is 2.5 m lower than the inner courtyard. A wide, flat staircase leads to the nave, which is accompanied on the left by small concrete glass windows in the brick wall. The glass windows were designed by the artist Rudi Vombeck.

Concrete glass window in the church, approx. 50 × 50 cm, by Rudi Vombek

The deeper you go, the more important they become as the light from the atrium decreases, in order to then shine like gems in the nave. You enter the church under the organ and choir gallery in the southwest with a view through the central aisle to the altar in the northeast. The nave itself is a long, directed and largely unadorned space. The central aisle does not cut through the room in the middle, but rather offset to the right, so that the room does not appear boring despite its clear rectangular shape. The benches in the left nave are a little longer and to the left of the altar there is still space for a choral schola , which can sit at right angles to the altar.

The high walls are made of brick. The flat wooden roof is supported by six reinforced concrete beams, the heads of which protrude over the lateral outer walls. The four outermost beam heads bear the symbols of the four evangelists , of which Matthew's is opposite the tower, next to the entrance. The remaining beam heads were decorated with symbols of the four elements . The light falls into the room from both sides between the beams. In the altar room, which is completely closed at the sides and back, the brightness is increased somewhat by a roof light.

The church interior, including the rear gallery, is 37.4 m long, 12.5 m wide and measures 9.5 m up to the wooden beam ceiling.

Nave

Liturgical components

The sandstone baptismal font is a little to the left, before the steps to the chancel. Also to the side, but to the right, is the sandstone pulpit . The altar is raised by three steps and consists of two large sandstone blocks. It is adorned with a bronze antependium and six bronze candlesticks. The chancel is characterized by the cross with the image of the risen Christ , which is the eye-catcher of the nave on the back wall of the chancel. All liturgical elements are based on designs by the Hanoverian sculptor Siegfried Zimmermann .

organ

View of the organ gallery

An organ from the company Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt from 1972 stands on the gallery . The organ has two works , a main work and a breastwork with "louvre swell", and a pedal with a total of 24 sounding stops . Three paddocks connect the works and the pedal . The organ prospectus was designed by the architect Peter Grote. Because of the asymmetrical arrangement of the central aisle, it was placed at right angles in the left corner of the gallery.

tower

The 50 m high pointed tower measures 8 m × 8 m in plan. It is deliberately designed as an urban counterpoint to the massive tower of the neighboring St. Elisabeth Church . The spire was built from wood in a largely nailed construction and is clad with copper plates. There is a trombone choir balcony at a height of 28 m. A tower clock with four dials and an hour strike is installed under the gallery.

Bells

Six bells were cast by the Rincker foundry in Sinn / Dillkreis for the St. Matthew Church, bearing the following names: Dominica - Misericordias Domini - Jubilate - Rogate - Cantata - Exaudi. The ringing sounds in the tone sequence g sharp'-b'-c sharp '' - dis '' - e '' - f sharp ''.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Evang.-luth. Matthäusgemeinde: Festschrift for the dedication of the Matthäuskirche Hagen, 1965.
  2. ↑ Rehkopp, Dr.Alfons and Heinrich Riemenschneider (ed.): Ars sacra. Christian art and sacred architecture in the Hagen area , Hagen 1988, p. 119 ff.
  3. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran. Matthäusgemeinde (ed.): The impulse - community letter No. 9/1971.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the first 30 years of its existence (1961–1991) there was a high church orientation with a rich Lutheran liturgy under Pastor Johannes C. Schimmel (1927–1991) in the Matthew parish . This is also made clear by the existing knee benches and the cloister described above.

Web links

Commons : Matthäuskirche Hagen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 2 "  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 37"  E