Nicolai Church (Dortmund)

St. Nikolai in the Kreuzviertel

The St. Nicolai Church , often also called Nicolaikirche for short , is a church built in 1929 in the Dortmund district of Innenstadt-West . A church of the same name existed on Wißstrasse until 1812 and was one of the four main churches in medieval Dortmund.

First Church (1193-1812)

The first St. Nicolai Church in Dortmund was located on Wißstrasse near the Wißstrasse gate. Today the area of ​​the former churchyard belongs to the city ​​garden . The church was the smallest of Dortmund's four main churches. It was built between 1193 and 1198 as a hall church with a west tower. Unreliable chronicles point to a previous building, a wooden chapel dating from around 1056. St. Nicolai was the first church donated by the citizens of Dortmund, especially by the long-distance traders. St. Nicholas patronage can be found in almost all German, Baltic and Russian port and Hanseatic cities. Because St. Nicholas is the patron saint of seafarers and merchants. In contrast, the churches of St. Reinoldi and St. Marien were founded by the Roman-German kings.

Between 1235 and 1250, as part of its elevation to the parish church, it was expanded to a three-aisled, three-bay hall church ; the tower raised. The nave was enlarged to the south using the existing aisle church, so that the tower no longer stood in the middle of the building. The Gothic choir was built between 1436 and 1460 in place of a one-bay, straight choir end. At the same time, a sacristy was built in the south-east of the church and the Berswordt Chapel in the north-east next to the vestibule.

The church held an estimated 330 people and had one main and five side altars. The main altar was donated in 1717 in the Baroque style by the Lübeck merchant Fischer. Its predecessor, the St. Anne's altar with its gilded wood carvings, became one of the side altars. The choir stalls were donated by Mayor Beye in 1503. The richly decorated pulpit was donated in 1652 by Johann Bröckelmann. The acquisition of a new organ is also documented for 1690. The bell in the tower consisted of four bells. The heaviest bell weighed 1,190 pounds.

In the 18th century, the Nicolaikirche was visibly neglected. A thorough renovation would have been necessary at the beginning of the 19th century. Influential circles of the citizenry around the Prefect of the Ruhr Department Freiherr von Romberg were not prepared to raise the necessary money. Rather, the number of churches was thought to be too high for a city with just over 4,000 inhabitants. In 1817, after the demolition of the Nicolaikirche, Councilor Feldmann publicly stated that two Protestant churches in Dortmund were sufficient.

On November 12, 1810, the Minister of the Interior of the Grand Duchy of Berg approved the union of the Nicolai and Petri parishes and the demolition of the Nicolai Church. The unification of the communities took place in the same year. The church itself was auctioned off for demolition in 1812 and then demolished. In addition to representations on the city views of Baegert (1480), Hogenberg (1570), Mulher (1610) and Berger (1804), only two true-to-scale floor plans of the church from 1788 have survived. Heinrich Scholle reconstructed the external appearance on this basis. A memorial stone today reminds of the church at the former location. The polygonal end of the choir is highlighted in color in the paving.

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  Dortmund around 1610. The old Nicolaikirche is in the lower center of the picture directly above the wall.

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  Location of the old St. Nicolai Church in the city garden. Reconstruction based on Heinrich Scholle.

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  Floor plan from 1788

Today's Church (from 1929)

Nicolaikirche and Signal-Iduna Park

The new construction of the St. Nicolai Church took place in 1929 southwest of the city center in today's Kreuzviertel by the Dortmund architects Karl Pinno and Peter Grund . After completion, the church was consecrated on October 12, 1930.

The Nicolaikirche is an early example of a “factual” Protestant sacred building in the New Building style made of steel , glass and concrete . This modern architecture for a church building caused heated discussions at the time. It was not only about the angular shape, but also about the use of unplastered, rough concrete, as it was otherwise only known in industrial buildings. This simplicity was also praised in part as an appropriate expression of the poverty problems of the time. Despite the sober external shape, the interior is expressive thanks to the huge glass surfaces made possible by the concrete construction. The original stained glass windows, destroyed in World War II, were made by Elisabeth Coester . After twenty years of emergency glazing, they were replaced in 1963 by colorful windows by the glass artist Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen . The dominant shades of blue bathe the interior in an unusual light.

The church was severely damaged in the Second World War , but was soon repaired again. An eight-meter-high cross (also known as the "Southern Cross") made of blue fluorescent tubes has adorned the church tower since 1951 . It had to be dismantled in 2002 due to structural defects and was later reassembled after repair work. The tower bears a single bell that is tuned to the sound of Ges'. Due to its open suspension in the tower, the bell can be heard almost in the entire city center.

On July 1, 2007, the formerly independent St. Nicolai parish merged with the parishes of St. Petri and Martin to form the Evangelical parish of St. Petri-Nicolai. The background to the merger is the decreasing number of parishioners and the associated decrease in financial resources. According to its own information, the new large congregation has three pastors and around 8,200 members in March 2018.

The church is registered as an architectural monument in the list of monuments of the city of Dortmund .

Organs

Together with the new church, a pneumatic organ made by the Paul Faust company (Schwelm) with 27 registers (three transmissions), three manuals and pedal was installed in 1930 , which, in keeping with the romantic soundscape, was actually considered out of date at the time it was built because the organ movement at the beginning of the 20th century brought the focus back to the instruments of the 18th century in organ building. A later expansion by 9 registers was already planned for this organ, but this did not come about over the years. The organ of the company EF Walcker , newly built in 1960, was also installed with the option of later additions, initially with only 18 of today's 35 registers, the swell mechanism was completely without pipes. It is a slider-drawer instrument with mechanical play and electrical register action .

Disposition of the Walcker organ (Op. 4009) from 1960:

I Hauptwerk C – g 3 Pommer 16 ′ Principal 08th' Pointed flute 08th' octave 04 ′ Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Field flute 02 ′ Mixture IV-V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Sharp cymbal III 0 Trumpet 08th' 0 (b)

II breastwork C – g 3 Covered 08th' Capstan flute 04 ′ Principal 02 ′ Sif flute 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Zimbel III Krummhorn 08th' 0 (b) Tremulant

III Swell C – g 3 Reed flute 08th' Salizional 08th' Principal 04 ′ Wooden flute 04 ′ Sesquialtera II Schwiegel 02 ′ Gemshorn 01' Scharff IV Dulcian 16 ′ Trumpet harmonique 0 08th' Rohrschalmei 04 ′ Tremulant

Pedal C – f 1 Principal bass 0 16 ′ 0 (a) Sub bass 16 ′ Octave bass 08th' Gemshorn 08th' 0 (b) Pipe pommer 04 ′ Night horn 02 ′ Mixture V bassoon 16 ′ 0 (b) Trumpet 08th' 0 (b)

• (a) Installation in 1966
• (b) Installation 1975/76
• The pipes of the swellwork were only installed in 1980.
• Pairing :
  • Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P (III / II is electrical)
• Playing aids :
  • two free combinations , Tutti, Organo Pleno, tongues off, individual storage for the tongues

literature

• Paul Girkon: The new church of the Petri-Nikolai congregation. In: Wasmuthsmonthshefte für Baukunst und Städtebau , 14th year 1930, issue 11 ( urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-8637 ), pp. 489–496. (17 illustrations, with a preliminary remark by Werner Hegemann )
• Heinrich Scholle: The old St. Nicolaikirche on Wißstrasse in Dortmund (1193-1812) . In: Historical Association for Dortmund and the County of Mark (Hrsg.): Contributions to the history of Dortmund and the County of Mark . Volume 74/75. Historical Association Dortmund, Dortmund 1983, p. 249
• Oliver Volmerich: A built gospel. In: Ruhr-Nachrichten of July 27, 2007, local section Dortmund (article on the Open Monument Day 2007)

Web links

Commons : Nicolaikirche (Dortmund)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Petri-Nikolai-Community Dortmund
• Walcker Opus 4009
• Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~26~12667

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Heinrich Scholle: The old St. Nicolaikirche on Wißstrasse in Dortmund (1193-1812) . In: Historical Association for Dortmund and the County of Mark (Hrsg.): Contributions to the history of Dortmund and the County of Mark . tape 74/75 . Historical Association Dortmund, Dortmund 1983, p. 249 .
2. ↑ Norbert Reimann: The becoming of the city . In: Stadtarchiv Dortmund (Hrsg.): History of the city of Dortmund . Harenberg Verlag, Dortmund 1994, ISBN 3-611-00397-2 , p. 56 f .
3. ^ Heinrich Scholle: Dortmund in 1610 . In: Gustav Luntowski and Norbert Reimann (eds.): Monographs on the history of Dortmund and the county of Mark . tape 9 . Verlag des Historisches Verein Dortmund, Dortmund 1987, p. 108 .
4. ↑ No. A 0417. List of monuments of the city of Dortmund. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: dortmund.de - Das Dortmunder Stadtportal. Monument Authority of the City of Dortmund, April 14, 2014, archived from the original on September 15, 2014 ; accessed on June 18, 2014 (size: 180 kB). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 5 ″  N , 7 ° 27 ′ 10 ″  E