Melanchthon Church (Berlin-Kreuzberg)
The Protestant Melanchthon Church in the parish of Berlin Stadtmitte , originally intended only as a parish hall, stands on Planufer 84 in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg in what is now the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district . It was built from 1954 to 1955 according to plans by Fritz Buck and expanded from 1973 to 1974 by Reinhold Barwich.
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history
The property on Schlächterwiesen am Urbanhafen, owned by the City of Berlin, was designated as a church or market square in historical plans. It lay in a line of sight that was used by Peter Joseph Lenné as an important urban planning element. It ran between the Südstern , where the garrison church was later built, and St. Michael's Church . On May 16, 1894, the congregation of the Holy Cross Church , the provincial synod and the Berlin magistrate agreed that a new church should be built there. The property remained in the possession of the city, the patron of the church building was Empress Auguste Viktoria . The project was supported by the Evangelical Church Building Association. The foundation stone was laid on May 30, 1904, and the inauguration took place in the presence of the Crown Prince on March 31, 1906. On September 15, 1906, the Melanchthon community was separated from the community of the Holy Cross Church and became independent. During the Second World War , incendiary bombs destroyed the church building in 1944 during Allied air raids . It was blown up on October 16, 1953 and then demolished because the city, which still owned the property, wanted to expand the Am Urban Clinic there. Many of the still usable components had already been removed and used in churches all over Berlin. The Bible edition , the baptismal font and the sacrament set donated by Empress Auguste Viktoria from the old church were also saved and were in use in the new church until autumn 2014. Since then, what is attributed to the rampant non-ferrous theft has disappeared .
The homeless parish used the former garrison church on Südstern together with other parishes for many years. The foundation stone was laid for the new building on July 3, 1954. The architect had first submitted a design for a building in the architectural style of historicism , but the municipality decided on a modern meeting house. The inauguration took place on March 20, 1955. On May 1, 2013, the congregation merged with those of St. Jacobi and St. Simeon to form the Evangelical Church Congregation in Kreuzberg-Mitte , which was ceremoniously sealed with a procession on May 20, 2013.
Building description
Old Melanchthon Church on Urban
The hall church in north German brick Gothic had a massive westwork , which was closed with two spiers and was 80 meters high. The plan of the church was in the shape of a Latin cross . The church stalls, including the two aisles and three galleries, offered a total of 1250 worshipers. A batting with a three-pass crowned the portal , the walls of which bordered the two entrance doors. The walls of the arched windows were slightly pointed. The polygonal choir was attached to the nave, which was 51 meters long . It was framed by a wreath of chapels . There were three bronze bells in the westwork. The interior of the church was artistically painted.
New Melanchthon Church on the banks of the Plan
Originally, the new building was only intended to serve as a community center because the community wanted to build a church on Graefestrasse in addition to a second community center in the 1960s . A church was no longer built due to the financial situation and the steadily decreasing number of parishioners. The building on the bank of the plan stands in the street front and is highlighted by a simple, cubic bell tower . Since 1955, a bell made of three bronze bells , made by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling , from whom the bells of the old church came , has been hanging in his bell room.
| Chime | Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( cm) |
Height (cm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d " | 230 | 68 | 59 | FAITH. |
| f " | 140 | 59 | 50 | HOPE. |
| G" | 90 | 52 | 45 | LOVE. |
The church hall on the first floor can be used flexibly with over 300 seats and has a stage . A tower-like extension from 1973 to 1974 based on plans by the architect Reinhold Barwich on the rear part of the property, which is connected to the existing building, contains additional rooms for the kindergarten and youth club .
literature
- Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephanie: Evangelical churches in Berlin. Berlin 1978.
- Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Berlin 1987.
- Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings. Berlin 1997.
- Parish council: 100 years of the Melanchthon parish . Berlin 2006.
- Marina Wesner: Kreuzberg and its places of worship: churches-mosques-synagogues-temples. Berlin 2007.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 41.4 " N , 13 ° 24 ′ 49.2" E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karin Schmidl: The brownies are gone. In: Berliner Zeitung , November 27, 2014, p. 23.