Rosary Basilica (Berlin-Steglitz)

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Rosary Basilica in
Berlin-Steglitz

The Rosary Basilica , also known as the Maria Rosenkranzkönigin Church , is located in the Berlin district of Steglitz at Kieler Strasse 11 with the main facade facing the street; it is a Catholic parish church. The church was built in 1899/1900 according to plans by Christoph Hehl as a representative place of worship for the Steglitz Catholics and consecrated on November 11, 1900 by the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, Georg Cardinal Kopp . The full patronage is Virgin Mary , Queen of St. Rosary . Since the building survived the Second World War undamaged, the lavish architecture and furnishings are original.

history

Choice of name, history and construction

St. Mary of St. Rosenkranz was the 14th post-Reformation Catholic Church in what was later to become Greater Berlin .

In Steglitz, Holy Mass had been celebrated regularly in a dance hall since 1882 . In 1885 the first chapel, the rectory and the Catholic school were built. The parish became a curate in 1891 and a parish in 1894 .

The construction of the church was largely carried out by the first pastor, Josef Deitmer , who had rendered outstanding services to the financing and the purchase of the property. Deitmer was the prince-bishop's delegate in 1920 and in 1923 became the first auxiliary bishop at the St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin .

Formation of branch churches

Even before the First World War , three daughter parishes with their own church buildings were spun off from the Rosary Congregation, such as the Holy Family in Lichterfelde in 1904 , which the first chaplain of the Rosary Congregation Maximilian Beyer headed as curate from 1899 and finally as pastor from 1906.

In 1934 the parish of Sankt Bernhard in Dahlem was spun off, which was merged again in 2010. On the eve of the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , Colonel i. G. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , engine of the military resistance against Hitler, opened the Rosary Basilica.

After 1945

After the Second World War, the number of parishioners increased due to the influx of displaced people. Further parishes followed.

The Rosary Church served as an interim cathedral until the destroyed Hedwig's Cathedral was rebuilt . On October 20, 1950 she was by Pope Pius XII. with the apostolic letter Bellicosiore tempore isto raised to the minor basilica .

In the decades that followed, there was a profound change in the structure of living and the population. Since October 1, 2010, the Rosary Basilica has been the parish church of the new parish Maria Rosenkranzkönigin , which also includes the former parish Dahlem with Saint Bernhard as a subsidiary church and has around 8000 parishioners.

architecture

Christoph Hehl chose reddish brick as a building material and neo-Romanesque shapes for the Rosary Church . In doing so, he created an original combination of two basic types of classical church building. According to the architect, the street front of the church is in the style of Brandenburg village churches.

The 30-meter-wide, 40-meter-high tower facade in the middle, which is divided into five floors, resembles the western building of historical North German basilicas , such as that of the Havelberg Cathedral , behind which a three-aisled nave is attached. It is designed as a representative three-portal bar with a tower-like middle section and exposed bricks in the monastery format. Lower round stair towers and slightly receding flanks adjoin on both sides. The central building and the flanks carry transverse gable roofs . The facade is richly structured with arched windows, blind arcades , pilaster strips and decorative friezes. Special accents are set by rhythmically recurring white plastered surfaces. Three arched portals lead to the entrance halls and the central building. The organ loft rise above the portal side and the bell chamber on the upper floor.

In contrast, the actual church space is designed like a Byzantine central building . The ground plan is a Greek cross , the short arms of which have barrel vaults . A round apse closes the arm of the altar . At the same time, choir-like chapels with apses are added to the cross arms, giving the cross arms the character of side aisles. In the middle, a pendent dome with a clear diameter of 14 meters rises as the dominant structural element . Its 16 arched windows are the main sources of light in the entire room.

Furnishing

Interior

overview

360 ° view of the church interior Show
as a spherical panorama

The interior of the Rosary Basilica impresses with its diversity, its stylistic cohesion and its richly relational image program . The depictions of the wall paintings and the altar retable revolve around Mary and the fifteen mysteries of the rosary . They were specified by the architect in detail. Numerous equipment details are borrowed from Italian models.

In 1966 an organ with 3 manuals , a pedal and 42 stops was built by the Stockmann brothers . In the same year, six crystal chandeliers replaced the original Barbarossa chandelier .

Statues and reliefs

The high altar bears a metal retable by Wilhelm Haverkamp with Eucharistic motifs in relief above the sandstone canteen . The Marien altar in the left and the Joseph altar in the right side chapel are works by Ferdinand Langenberg . The thematic design of the corresponding portals corresponds to the outside of the three altars. In the Marienkapelle there is also a statue of the crowned Mother of God with the child in a brick niche with a gold background. The pulpit, richly decorated with ornamental carvings, biblical words, evangelistic representations and centrally decorated with the scene of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, comes from Anton Mormann . He also created the decorations on the confessionals. On the left dome pillar is a votive painting in wood relief work, the presentation of the Rosary to St.. Dominic depicted. The four-pillar sandstone baptismal font in the entrance hall has a bronze lid with symbols of the Evangelists and the rivers of Paradise.

Murals

The large-scale painting of the rosary basilica in tempera technique is essentially the work of Friedrich Stummel . After the interruption caused by the First World War and Stummel's death, it was completed by his students Theodor Nüttgens (from 1921) and Karl Wenzel (1930). The predominant colors of the painting are red and blue.

In the vault of the apse above the high altar, the presentation of the rosary by Our Lady to St. Dominic is represented, in the vault in front of it the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and in front of it on the triumphal arch supported on two pillars the twelve apostles at the Pentecost miracle - a composition that makes Mary appear as mother of the church and at the same time takes up the middle mystery of the Glorious Rosary . In the organ arch opposite the resurrection and ascension of Christ can be seen and in the dome, flanked by acclaiming angels, the assumption of Mary into heaven and her coronation by Christ.

The depictions on the right arm of the cross are dedicated to the joyful rosary : in the center of the arch under the vault the birth of Christ , above on the vault as medallions the other four secrets.

The left arm of the cross shows the secrets of the Sorrowful Rosary : in the center the crucifixion of Christ, above the other four passion scenes as medallions.

These three themes are accompanied by numerous secondary scenes and images of saints, Latin inscriptions and floral ornaments.

literature

  • Victor H. Elbern : Rosary Basilica Berlin-Steglitz , Berlin 1988
  • Tobias Kniebe : Operation Valkyrie. The drama of July 20th. Rowohlt Publishing House . Berlin 2009. pp. 161-163.
  • Annelen Hölzner-Bautsch: Rosenkranz Congregation , page 14 ff., In: 100 Years of Mater Dolorosa Church - History of the Catholic Congregation in Berlin-Lankwitz - 1912 to 2012. Editor: Catholic Parish Mater Dolorosa, self-published, Berlin (2012)

Web links

Commons : Rosary Basilica  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments. Berlin , Dweutscher Kunstverlag, 2006, ISBN 3-422-03111-1 , p. 447 f.
  2. Besides St. Hedwig (completed in 1773) there were St. Marien am Behnitz (1848), St. Sebastian (1860), St. Michael (1863), St. Ludgerus (1868; until 1928 St. Matthias ), Herz Jesu Charlottenburg ( 1877), St. Mauritius (1892), St. Johannes (1894), St. Matthias (1895), St. Ludwig (1897), Herz Jesu Prenzlauer Berg (1898), St. Josef Weißensee (1899) and St. Josef Köpenick (1899) preceded this.
  3. Annelen Hölzner-Bautsch: 100 years of Mater Dolorosa Church. History of the Catholic parish in Berlin-Lankwitz 1912 to 2012. Catholic parish Mater Dolorosa, Berlin 2012, p. 14.
  4. [1]
  5. ^ Pius XII .: Litt. Apost. Bellicosiore tempore isto , in: AAS 44 (1952), n. 4, p. 215s.
  6. Information on the organ
  7. 100 years of Mater Dolorosa Church - history of the Catholic community in Berlin-Lankwitz - 1912 to 2012

Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 32 "  N , 13 ° 19 ′ 26.9"  E