Pankratius Chapel (Giessen)

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Front of the Pankratius Chapel from 1949 made of ashlar

The Pankratius Chapel is an emergency church in Gießen , which was built in 1949 according to plans by the church architect Otto Bartning . The hall church in wood truss construction with five- eighth lock has largely been preserved in its original state and is a Hessian cultural monument . The late Gothic tower of the Gießen town church , which was destroyed in 1944, belongs to the Pankratius parish and serves as a bell tower.

history

West view of the Pankratius Chapel, with the city church tower in the background
Rear view: choir made of rubble stones

In the 13th century, a "chapel" was built in Gießen, which was first mentioned in 1248 and was consecrated to St. Pancras and Mary . In 1334, a Gothic successor building was called the "parish church" for the first time and served from then on as the town church. After the demolition in 1809, a new building was built in the classicism style from 1810 to 1821 .

On November 1, 1892, what was until then the only Protestant township was divided into four independent parishes with their own pastors. The four evangelists served as namesake for the new congregations. The town church was assigned to the St. Matthew and St. Mark congregations, and the St. John's Church, built in 1893, was assigned to the St. Luke and St. John church.

After the last tower keeper left his apartment on the city church tower in 1910 , the tower and its construction work were transferred from the city of Gießen to the parish and became their property. During a bombing raid on Gießen on December 6, 1944 , the town church was completely destroyed. The city church tower burned out and lost its baroque helmet structure . The three-storey helmet was not reconstructed until 1979.

The rubble of the city church was used to build an emergency church for the Protestant St. Matthew and St. Mark congregations who had lost their place of worship. Today's Pankratius Chapel was not built on the old site, but around 80 meters west of the campanile . The search for a building site led to a dispute with the city building authority. A municipal building site at Wetzsteinstrasse 32, the former infant home, was not approved. So one avoided the parish garden of the Matthew parish. While the city building authority demanded that it be moved 10 meters behind the street, Bartning wanted at most 3 meters. Finally, 5 meters were approved. They were seen by many as a temporary measure until the old church would be rebuilt, as it was hoped. Bartning himself did not think of makeshift churches with the misleading term "emergency churches", but of solidly constructed buildings, which, however, "emerged from the hardship of the times." Site manager Hans Meyer from Gießen was the site manager.

The construction was sponsored by the World Council of Churches and was made possible by a donation of $ 10,000 from the Evangelical and Reformed Church of St. Louis . The financial help from abroad resulted in a total of 43 emergency churches throughout Germany. The organization in Germany took over from 1945 the Evangelical Relief Organization under the direction of Eugen Gerstenmaier . Bartning became the construction manager. Dean Karl Schmidt became aware of the project at the end of 1947. Since the first funds had been allocated, the second application was only approved at Easter 1948. Marlene Mertens geb. Stein, who emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, founded the foundation. According to the concept of Bartning and Gerstenmaier, the communities were provided with prefabricated parts according to the modular system, the financing of which was taken care of by the aid organization. The foundation and the infill with masonry, on the other hand, as in the other emergency churches, was done by the community's own contribution according to the motto "Help for self-help". The wooden construction, the doors and the windows were mass-produced and donated from abroad and delivered on site. The gallery and the church stalls were also part of the donation. The name "Pankratius" was intended to tie in with the history of the old town church. The first foundation work was carried out on November 1, 1948 by Faber & Schnepp. The basement ceiling was ready on January 3, 1949. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on April 14, 1949, galleries and warm air heating were installed at the beginning of May and the windows at the beginning of June. The shell was completed on July 9, 1949. The inauguration of the chapel followed on November 1, 1949 in the ruins of the old town church. The first service in the new church took place on December 2nd, 1949.

After families in particular moved away from the inner city area in the 1960s, the Giessen parishes Markus and Matthäus merged on January 1, 2004 to form the Evangelical Pankratius parish. At that time, the St. Matthew Congregation still comprised 1817 and the St. Mark Congregation 943 members. Of the 2760 members, which remained unchanged in 2019, a third live outside the city center. The Pankratius parish is particularly committed to the socio-political concerns of Georg Schlosser , the first pastor of the St. Matthew parish (1893–1915). The parish belongs to the Evangelical Dean's Office Gießen of the Propstei Oberhessen in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau .

Building description

View from the city church tower
Portal on the street front in the northeast

The Bartning emergency church in Giessen corresponds to "Type B". The simple, non- east facing hall church has a polygonal five-eighth end for the chancel in the southwest . It is 25 meters long, 11.50 meters wide, around 11 meters high and can accommodate around 500 visitors. The church architect Otto Bartning from Darmstadt, in cooperation with the Swiss Emil Staudacher, developed the concept of a load-bearing wooden truss on which the roof rested. The wooden structure in assembly construction is enclosed by masonry. The spaces in between are filled with non-load-bearing quarry stone masonry that is visible from the inside and, like the stones in the foundations, largely comes from the destroyed town church. By including stones from all previous churches, the continuity with the previous buildings should be expressed. The street facade in the northeast uses ashlar masonry made of local, unplastered sandstone in different colors and different sizes, the long sides and the choir have rubble stone masonry with yellow mortar.

The gable, towerless Pankratius Chapel with its steep gable roof is set back 4.70 meters from the row of houses of the neighboring parish houses of the St. Matthew and St. Mark's parish, creating a small forecourt. The symmetrical gable side is characterized by an axial, double-stepped portal with an arched arch and a rose window in the gable triangle. The visible side is visually broadened by two small gates attached to the side. The construction of a tower was not necessary, as the neighboring town church tower belongs to the community and serves as a bell tower. At the end of the northern long side, four small, straight lintel windows made of sandstone are let in, while on the south-east side there are two low, cuboid-shaped extensions. Apart from the quarry stone base, they are plastered in white. The southern extension serves as a sacristy . The interior is illuminated on both long sides and in the choir through a high-seated ribbon of windows below the eaves . The matt window glass is divided into small rectangles by bars.

Furnishing

Interior towards the organ gallery

The interior is dominated by the timber-framed structure, which is reminiscent of the pillars of a church nave. Four pairs of wooden truss pillars widen upwards and merge into the load-bearing beams of the gable ceiling, where they taper again. In the altar area, the star-shaped roof beams give the impression of a Gothic star vault. The north-east gallery rests on four square wooden posts and serves as the installation site for the organ. A recess is provided in the gallery parapet for the conductor. The entrance area below the gallery is not separated and serves to expand the church space. The simple wooden church stalls on wooden plinths come from the time it was built and leave a central aisle free. It is oriented towards the altar area in the southwest and offers space for almost 500 visitors.

The floor was re-covered with red bricks in the 1970s. The altar area is raised by three steps compared to the elongated nave and has a low, bricked up white altar parapet on the sides, which marks the sacred area. The central block altar on a stone base is covered by a thick, wooden cafeteria . A simple wooden cross is placed behind the altar. A flat brass bowl on a wrought iron frame forms the baptismal font. The polygonal, white pulpit on the south side is integrated into the parapet of the chancel. A simple rectangular door in the south enables the passage to the sacristy annex. The box lights on the binders are original and were later supplemented by pendant lights.

organ

Raschke organ from 1949

Joseph Raschke from Speyer completed the organ in 1949 behind a two-part free pipe prospect . The free-standing gaming table is set up in front of the left housing wing at right angles to the brochure . The wind chests are controlled by an electrical action . It has 16 sounding registers with 1139 sounding pipes out of a total of 1155 , which are distributed over two manuals and pedal .

I Manual C – a 3
Principal 8th'
Dumped 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Octave 4 ′
Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
recorder 2 ′
Mixture III-IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
II Manual C – a 3
flute 8th'
Quintatön 8th'
Gemshorn 4 ′
Octave 2 ′
Cimbel III 1'
Krummhorn 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Gedackt bass (from I) 8th'
Choral bass 4 ′
Silent trumpet 16 ′

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I: Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 315.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Construction book for the Protestant parishes of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt . (= Hassia sacra; 5 ). Self-published, Darmstadt 1931, pp. 215–220.
  • Karl Dienst : St. Pankratius as the keeper of continuity. In: Karl Dienst: Gießen - Upper Hesse - Hesse. Contributions to Protestant church history. Verlag der Hessische Kirchengeschichtliche Vereinigung, Darmstadt 2010, pp. 19–33.
  • Hermann Klehn: 40 years of the Pankratius Chapel. Matthew and Markus Congregation, Giessen 1989.
  • Dagmar Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. From the castle chapel to the Bartning church 1248–2009. Self-published, Giessen 2009.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. University town of Giessen. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Verlagsgesellschaft Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-528-06246-0 , p. 66.
  • Michael Przibilla: The old bell tower still holds up today. In: Gießener Anzeiger of November 24, 2001, p. 56.
  • Peter W. Sattler, Hermann Klehn: The city church tower. The landmark of Giessen. Geiger, Horb am Neckar 1992, ISBN 3-89264-759-3 .
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Giessen 1979, pp. 54–55.

Web links

Commons : Pankratiuskapelle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Pankratiuskapelle In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse , accessed on February 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ Casting. Historical local lexicon for Hesse (as of December 8, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on February 13, 2015 .
  3. ↑ giessen-evangelisch.de: Lukasgemeinde , accessed on April 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ Service: St. Pankratius as the keeper of continuity. 2010, pp. 31–32.
  5. ↑ Gießener Allgemeine from December 27, 2012: Chapel in the city church tower inaugurated 60 years ago .
  6. ↑ Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 20.
  7. ↑ Przibilla: The old bell tower holds its own until today. 2001, p. 56.
  8. ↑ Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 17.
  9. ↑ Sattler, Klehn: The city church tower. 1989, p. 39.
  10. ↑ Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 29.
  11. ↑ Service: St. Pankratius as the keeper of continuity. 2010, pp. 30-31.
  12. ↑ Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 23.
  13. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 55.
  14. ↑ Evangelische Sonntags-Zeitung . No. 22, 2004: Merger as an opportunity .
  15. ↑ a b Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 32.
  16. ^ Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. 2008, p. 315.
  17. ↑ Deanery Gießen: Evangelische Pankratiusgemeinde , accessed on April 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ Service: St. Pankratius as the keeper of continuity. 2010, pp. 20-21.
  19. ↑ a b Klein: The Pankratius Chapel in Giessen. 2009, p. 34.
  20. ↑ a b c Otto Bartning: Pankratiuskapelle Gießen , accessed on February 14, 2015.
  21. ↑ Sattler, Klehn: The city church tower. 1989, p. 40.
  22. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history 29.1 . Part 1 (A – L)). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 372-373 .
  23. ^ Organ of the Pankratius Chapel in Giessen , accessed on April 17, 2020.

Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 13.7 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 23.4"  E