Nikolaikirche (Aue)
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The Evangelical Lutheran parish church of St. Nicolai in Aue is a neo-Gothic hall church in the Saxon Ore Mountains and the tallest building in the city of Aue-Bad Schlema .
history
Previous buildings
Aue, whose origins are closely related to the small monastery cell founded in 1173 , was first mentioned as a separate parish in 1286 and was cared for by its Augustinian canons until the Reformation . The first church building was on the former church square (today's Neumarkt). The appearance or certificates have not survived. In a visitation protocol from 1544, two silver and gilded communion chalices , two silver paten , three vestments and two pewter jugs are given as items of equipment. From 1625 to 1628 the parish replaced the church with a new building, which was also financially supported by the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I. The surrounding church yard was moved to Schwarzenberger Straße.
The new church was destroyed on August 9, 1633 by invading imperial soldiers along with large parts of the city. A makeshift reconstruction of the church took place by 1636, in 1639 a new pulpit , probably made by the Schneeberg sculptor Johann Heinrich Böhme , and in 1643 new bells cast in Zwickau were inaugurated. In 1648 the church received a new baptismal font made of sandstone as a gift from the Schöppel couple from Auerhammer . In the following year Auer citizens donated a new altar panel , which the Annaberg painter Georg Ohm had made. A first organ was installed around 1654. The previous buildings of today's Red Church , as it is also called because of its red bricks , were dedicated to St. Nicholas . He is considered to be the protector of merchants, boatmen and “all people threatened by water”.
Preparation and construction of today's church building
The more than 200 year old Nicolaikirche was dilapidated at the end of the 19th century and became too small for the rapidly growing population. The parish council decided to build a new building and started collecting donations in 1883. The provision of 300 marks by the Auer tanner master Johann Christian Becher marked the beginning. At the same time, a suitable building site had to be found. After lengthy negotiations, the parish reached an agreement with the city administration and the owner Pfefferküchler Fischer in 1889 on the current location. Two houses here had to be demolished and the rest of the old churchyard relocated. The rocky and partly sandy soil as well as old shafts and a tunnel from the old mine resulted in complicated preparatory work.
After a total of 27,500 marks had been raised in 1885, the demolition of the walls of the old Nicolaikirche began. The area was greened and planted with chestnuts . A stone ball that adorned the entrance of the demolished building was later placed on a stele and was given a place in Luther Park, the former churchyard behind the new building.
The Dresden architect Christian Gottfried Schramm (1857–1922), already in 1886 by the church council and the Auer mayor Dr. Finck contacted, received the contract for the construction of the new church after an architectural competition and a public exhibition of his model. The construction contracts went to a master builder from Chemnitz as well as a stonemason and a master builder from Aue. On July 27, 1891, the foundation stone was laid for the new church with a large participation of the population . The founding deed , an up-to-date address book from Aue, the floor plan of the new church, one edition each of the Auerthal newspaper and one of the Erzgebirgischer Volksfreundes , some coins and the festival program for the laying of the foundation stone were put into the box. The entire foundation was made of granite for structural reasons. The lifting ceremony (the topping-out ceremony ) took place on January 15, 1892 . On December 4, 1892, the three A flat major bells cast by GA Jauck in Leipzig were consecrated , which together weighed 5055 kg (10, 5 and 3 hundredweight). The bells of the old Nicolaikirche are said to have been given in payment. Two other sources (Die Festschrift 1993 and Dr. R. Steche) report that the bells of both Nicolai churches rang at the inauguration after the farewell service when the community moved to the new building. One of the bells, cast in 1643, is said to have been brought to the town hall tower after the old building was demolished. After the interior was completed, the Nicolaikirche was consecrated on September 3, 1893.
Renovations
In 1951, in connection with the production and installation of newly cast bells, the first extensive renovation was carried out under the direction of Johannes Höra . A large part of the wall paintings was painted over white. The dome of the main room, originally designed as a starry sky , was also painted white between the rib arches.
In 1978 a roof fire, which the fire brigade was able to control in good time, damaged the top of the church tower. The exchanged and burned emperor's handle is located in the entrance area of the church and solicits donations for the further maintenance of the church building. Between 1978 and 1983 the parish had a picturesque repair of the interior made.
Rectory
The half-timbered parish house from 1655, which belongs to the old Nicolaikirche , was only demolished when the Aue – Adorf railway line was built. Up the slope, above the church building, a new parsonage was built for the community in 1899/1900 according to the designs of the Leipzig architect Paul Lange . It has a larger community hall.
architecture
The red brick building on a granite plinth above an implied Greek cross has a choir closed on three sides , which is accompanied by corner choirs and emphasized by a roof turret. The bricks are burned particularly hard and are therefore extremely resistant to climatic and environmental influences. The walls , cornices and the tracery of the windows are made of sandstone .
Staircases flank the striking, 75-meter-high west tower , which has a square floor plan, triangular gables and a high, pointed, copper-clad hood . The ridge tower above the choir was given a copper roof in 1978. There is an open staircase at the main portal . The gable is decorated with larger-than-life limestone figures of the apostles Peter and Paul . The sandstone relief in the arched field depicts Christ, the good shepherd .
The windows are pointed arches in two different heights and designed differently with tracery. The tower facade above the flight of stairs is decorated with a rose window .
Peal
Two of the original three bronze bells were melted down for war purposes in 1942 . Because they could not be brought out of the tower in their entirety, they had to be smashed there, and the broken pieces were simply thrown into the street. During a restoration of the church between 1951 and 1955, the community received three new chilled iron bells that had been manufactured in the Schilling & Lattermann foundry in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz . The brass knuckles of the bells , however, were larger than the width of the sound openings - therefore, some stones had to be carefully broken out on both sides. The bells, matched to the remaining small bronze bell, were then brought into the tower by inclined elevator. The largest of the three bells cracked when the New Year's bell rang in 1964/65, was removed and placed on the tower floor. In 1967, a new bronze bell from the foundry of the Schilling brothers in Apolda was installed in its place. An electronic switchgear has been controlling the regular ringing since 1986.
Inscriptions on the bell bodies
- The cracked bell (1951): "O country, country, country, hear the word of the Lord"
- Large bronze bell (1967): "Glory to God in the highest", "Dona nobis Pacem"
- Middle bell (1951): "And peace on earth", "Grant and peace gracious Lord God in our times"
- Kleine Glocke (1892): "And a pleasure to people", "Those who are driven by the Spirit of God are God's children"
- Smallest or baptismal bell (1951): "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved"
Interior design
In the three side aisles of the three-bay hall with ribbed vaults , galleries are stretched between granite pillars , supported in the middle by narrower round columns. The granite pillars are lightly fluted and decorated with sandstone capitals. The central nave is 21 meters long and 11 meters wide. The baptistery in the north side choir has a flat wooden ceiling and is open to the choir and aisle through double pointed arches . The sacristy is in the south nave.
All church walls were initially painted with ornaments , after several restorations only one area behind the altar remains in the original. The chancel with the neighboring side choirs forms a 10-sided floor plan. He receives daylight through colored altar windows.
Furnishing
Altar, pulpit, baptismal font and candlestick
The church is uniformly designed in the neo-Gothic style. The altarpiece is attributed to Julius Schneider from Auerhammer . Carved figures show Abel , Melchizedek , Aaron and Isaak , musician angels and a crucifixion group crown the work. The three porcelain paintings in the middle section were donated by the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory , which thanked them for the long-term supply of kaolin from Aue. They show the blessing Christ and symbols of bread and wine .
The parapets of the wooden pulpit are decorated with carved evangelist figures. The baptismal font is made of sandstone. In the choir there has been a twelve-armed brass chandelier since 1925 , which was taken over from the previous church and is dated 1653. The wall sconces came into the church in 1951, the large chandeliers in the central nave in 1984.
Windows, benches, organ
The three large stained glass windows in the choir date from the construction period at the end of the 19th century. They depict the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in the middle, the adoration of the Infant Jesus by the three kings on the left and the Easter story in the right window. The other 14 windows of different sizes are decorated with ornaments and carpet patterns. All window pictures were made in the art glass workshop Schilling in Aue.
Most of the original pews have been preserved, but their arrangement has been changed over the years. They offer a total of 1150 seats.
The first organ with 37 sounding voices was built by the brothers Otto and Rudolf Jehmlich . It had a neo-Gothic organ front and thus matched the decor of the church. The same organ building company delivered a newer work in a modern case in 1961, which was consecrated on December 10, 1961 in the Sankt Nicolaikirche. 2680 organ pipes in 36 registers (9-11-7-9) are played on three manuals and with one pedal .
History of the community
In earlier centuries farmers, forest workers, craftsmen and miners first formed the parish. After the Reformation until the 19th century, the church was an extended arm of the state and supported the warlike intentions of the rulers. The immigration of industrial workers to Aue brought many new believers to the city from the 19th century onwards, and numerous church associations such as the youth and virgin associations , the community diaconia and a singing and trombone choir were founded. By 1900 there were 16,220 members of the St. Nicolai congregation. On the other hand, the workers soon turned away from Christian doctrine because believing in God could not help them in their miserable situation. During the time of National Socialism , the church associations were dissolved. Pastor Fritz Walter Leßmüller, who has been in office since 1917, became a member of the NSDAP , appointed himself superintendent in 1935 and ensured that church life was largely harmonized with the views of the state.
After the end of the Second World War , from 1946 Ferdinand Ringulf Siegmund took over the pastoral office. The new socialist social order separated church and state and the community lost further supporters and spheres of influence during the GDR era . In the turning point of 1989 , the Nicolaikirche served as a meeting place for those who think differently and was also the starting point for Monday demonstrations . In 1991 the Saxon regional church , to which the St. Nicolaigemeinde belonged, again became a member of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany .
The currently more than 2000 community members (as of autumn 2012) come from the catchment area of Aue with the branch communities Bockau and Lauter. - A trombone choir was newly founded in the 1990s.
literature
- Festschrift 1893–1993: 100 years of St. Nicolaikirche in Aue (available from the parish office)
- Memorial book to commemorate the celebration of the laying of the foundation stone of the new St. Nicolai Church in Aue on July 27, 1891 , Aue 1892 ( digitized version )
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments Saxony : II. Administrative districts Leipzig and Chemnitz. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1998, pp. 28–29.
- Flyer: Evangelical Lutheran Church Sankt Nicolai Aue (as of 2012)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 13
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 17
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 15
- ↑ Steche: Descriptive representation of the older art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Volume VIII . Kreishauptmannschaft Schwarzenberg, 1887. Listed in the Festschrift, p. 39
- ↑ a b Festschrift p. 18
- ↑ Festschrift, illustration on p. 32
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 19
- ↑ Festschrift, p. 16
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 21
- ↑ Festschrift, pp. 21/22
- ↑ a b Festschrift, p. 20
- ↑ Festschrift, p. 25
Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 7.24 " N , 12 ° 42 ′ 18.75" E