Easter Church (Frankfurt am Main)
The Osterkirche is a church in the Sachsenhausen district of Frankfurt . It is used by the Protestant Maria Magdalena Congregation, which belongs to the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN). The Maria Magdalena congregation was created in 1998 through the merger of the Easter congregation and the neighboring Lukas congregation .
The church on Mörfelder Landstrasse was built in 1958/59 according to a design by the architect Rudolf Schanty (Schlempp und Schanty architects) and inaugurated on November 15, 1959. Between July 1, 2007 and April 8, 2012, the church was closed for the planned renovation. The conversion to a community center began in winter 2010 and, apart from rework, was completed with the completion notice on Holy Saturday 2012. After the Easter morning celebration and the confirmation, regular services were held again in the Easter church from June 3, 2012. It is characterized by a tower that is densely covered with ivy up to the top.
Building history
The rectangular nave is oriented to the southeast. The gable walls are clad on the outside with anthracite-colored quarry stone (tuff), the altar wall also on the inside. The longitudinal walls are separated from the gable walls by vertical ribbon windows. The south-eastern, sloping longitudinal wall is also detached from the pent roof of the church by a horizontal band of windows. Perforated windows with colored glazing are distributed freely over the entire wall surface of the inclined wall. Opposite the large altar area, which is raised three steps, is a gallery for the organ and choir. The entrance to the Easter Church was originally located on the north corner of the north-western longitudinal wall. On this side there was also the parish hall with group rooms, parish office, as well as sacristy, sanitary and ancillary rooms of the church. If necessary (large church festivals), the hall of the parish hall could be opened to the church, thus expanding the area for additional worshipers.
Over the decades, the Easter parish lost many parishioners as a result of demographic change and leaving the church, the building stock was in dire need of renovation and in terms of area had become much too large for the congregation, which had shrunk in number. The Evangelical Regional Association therefore recommended the merger with the neighboring Lukas congregation and the demolition of the church, parish hall and daycare center. In 1998 the two parishes merged to form the Protestant Maria Magdalena parish. The demolition of the beautiful church, which is so typical of the architecture of the 1950s, could only be prevented through sustained resistance from committed parishioners and the church council. Most of the property, however, was taken over by a project developer who had a residential complex with a supermarket and savings bank built there. With the exception of the pure nave and the church tower, all properties of the parish on the property were demolished. The day-care center was rebuilt by the investor as a replacement building in the basement of the residential area and rented to the parish.
Description of the renovation, internal expansion and redesign
The Easter church should continue to be used primarily for worship purposes. The ancillary rooms necessary for the use of church services, such as the sacristy, small chair storage, toilets, tea kitchen and group room, which had been omitted due to the demolition measures, had to be rebuilt within the church. The entire building technology (it was also mainly in the demolition area) had to be replaced. The architectural office Gottstein + Blumenstein Architekten BDA, Darmstadt, was commissioned with the conception and planning of the renovation. In the absence of sufficient funding, the renovation was limited to a minimum: the organ gallery remained unchanged in size. The previous access staircase to the gallery on the back wall of the church was replaced by a new, single-flight staircase at the front of the gallery, which made it possible to fully equip the free space under the gallery with fixtures. In addition to making it usable and repairing structural defects, the church should also be better adapted to today's requirements. The group room can e.g. B. for children's services, choir rehearsals, devotions or small church services in winter (when heating the church is very expensive). Drinks are stored and dishes are washed in the tea kitchen; important, because after church services people still sit together for a common "church coffee" and a suitable room is also required for preparation for the Lord's Supper, where individual cups are often served. The existing altar area, which is three steps higher, was extended to the entire width of the church as part of the construction work. Instead of the long, often empty pews, flexible seating enables traditional church services (row seating) as well as smaller and free forms of worship.
Instead of the former warm air heating of the church, which led to strong drafts and high fluctuations in humidity, the church is now heated with radiators integrated in benches on the longitudinal walls. The electrical distribution and wiring, the electroacoustic system and the lighting were completely renewed, while the copper pendant lights from the 1950s were retained and fitted with new technology, and wall lights and stage spotlights were also installed. All rooms (with the exception of the gallery) were made barrier-free thanks to the renovation work. The difference in height to Mörfelder Landstrasse is overcome by an approx. 5% ramp, at the end of which the new entrance to the church in the form of an entrance porch with a vestibule was created as a replacement for the former main entrance, which was lost due to the demolition of the previous extension. At the north-east corner of the building, a small church square was created in connection with the outdoor area of the adjoining day-care center of the parish. In this way, the open spaces of the church and day care center can also be used jointly at parties.
On Easter morning, April 8, 2012, the first service was celebrated in the new Easter church with the Easter morning celebration.
organ
The organ was built in 1967 by the organ builder Heinrich Voigt (Frankfurt-Höchst). The slider chests -instrument has 26 registers on two manuals and pedal . The playing and stop actions are electro-mechanical. The instrument is based on organs from the time of JS Bach scheduled .
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Individual evidence
- ↑ More information on the organ ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 27 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 23 ″ E