Schneller altar

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The Schneller Altar was an altar in the chapel of the " Syrian Orphanage " in West Jerusalem . Its establishment was decided in 1911 in Cologne; In 2009 the previously lost altar was found and re-erected in the Church of the Assumption on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem .

history

On June 12, 1910, the building and chapel of the Syrian Orphanage in Jerusalem were ravaged by fire. With the help of numerous donations, including from the German imperial couple, the institution church was re-inaugurated on November 12, 1911. The central object was the Jerusalem limestone altar donated by Oriental communities in Alexandria , Beirut , Cairo , Haifa and Jaffa . Attached to it was a colorful mosaic inlay, the assembly of which was personally supervised by the Berlin architect Otto March .

In 1939 the Syrian Orphanage was closed by the British Mandate authorities . The grounds and buildings were initially used by the British and, from 1948, the Israeli army as a military camp ("Schneller Camp"). Almost all of the interior furnishings were removed and installed in the Christ Church at the Theodor Schneller School in Amman in the early 1960s . According to Israeli law, the altar was not allowed to be taken out of the country as an " antique ". It was encased in a wooden crate and forgotten.

The building was due to be sold to an investor in 2009, and the altar was found during an inspection. It was re-erected in the Wilhelmine Church of the Assumption on the Mount of Olives , part of the Auguste Victoria Foundation . However, its mosaic decorations had largely disappeared or damaged. At the beginning of 2011, Udo W. Hombach from Cologne was able to win over the mosaic designer Helmut Mencke from Schulzendorf near Berlin to restore the mosaics on the altar. He accompanied him in the planning for it; they recorded the damage and drafted a procedure. In addition, Hombach researched the history of the altar and its mosaic decorations. This led to the discovery that the fortunes of the Syrian orphanage and the “Schneller schools” that still exist today in Lebanon and Jordan were directed from Cologne for 80 years .

literature

  • Jakob Eisler et al .: Germans in the Holy Land. The German contribution to cultural change in Palestine . State Church Archive Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-00-015528-4 .
  • Jakob Eisler / Arno G. Krauß: Bibliography (and biographies) of the Schneller family. The Syrian Orphanage in Jerusalem . Stuttgart 2006.
  • Roland Löffler: Protestants in Palestine . Offizin Scheufele, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-923107-36-0 .
  • Hermann Ehmer: The Syrian Orphanage and the "Dynasty" of the SCHNELLERs . In: Jakob Eisler (ed.): Germans in Palestine and their share in the modernization of the country (= Herbert Nehr / Dieter Vieweger [ed.]: Abhandlungden des Deutschen Palestine-Verein . Volume 36 ). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05826-1 , p. 58-70 .
  • Gil Gordon: Between rubble and bird droppings. Dismantling and preservation of the altar from the Syrian orphanage . In: Jerusalem. Community letter foundation journal . Jerusalem September 2010.
  • Arno G. Krauss: Historical Schneller Altar put back into service after 70 years. Marble altar from the Syrian Orphanage now stands on the Mount of Olives . In: Schneller magazine . November 2010.
  • Udo W. Hombach: One hundred years of mosaics on the Schneller Altar in Jerusalem . In: Yearbook for Evangelical Church History of the Rhineland . Düsseldorf July 2012, p. 297-305 .
  • Udo W. Hombach: Between Cologne, Berlin and Jerusalem - the mosaic decorations on the Schneller altar; Background in the Rhineland . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege, issue 2 . Cologne June 2015, p. 123-132 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Schneller - magazine for Christian life in the Middle East . 4/2010. P. 22.