Schwerin Cathedral

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Dom from Pfaffenteich seen from
Schwerin Cathedral before 1845
Schwerin Cathedral, aerial view

The Schwerin Cathedral of St. Marien and St. Johannis is a bishop's church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany in Schwerin . It is one of the main works of brick Gothic . With the Marienkirche in Lübeck and the Nikolaikirche in Stralsund, it is one of the earliest buildings of this architecture. It differs from the comparable buildings of its time in particular in its transept. He influenced the construction of other churches through the original design of the ambulatory choir. It is the only real cathedral in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the only remaining medieval building in Schwerin.

Building history

Romanesque wall remains inside the cathedral
Gothic side entrance
neo-Gothic tower

The cathedral has a long history of construction. After Henry the Lion as part of the turning crusade subject to the land of the Obotrites and their rulers Niklot had defeated, he put the diocese on the Mecklenburg restore that was orphaned since the great turning uprising for a hundred years. He appointed Berno to be the first bishop . He moved the diocese in 1167 from the remote Mecklenburg to Schwerin, which was newly founded as a German city in 1160. There, on September 9, 1171, in the presence of the Count of Schwerin Gunzelin I , the Duke of Mecklenburg Pribislaw , the Bishops Evermod von Ratzeburg and Berno and Henry the Lion himself, an act of consecration took place on the Romanesque predecessor of today's cathedral. The apse of the Romanesque cathedral may have been completed and put into use in 1171 . The completed Romanesque cathedral was inaugurated on June 15, 1248 after at least 77 years of construction. This old cathedral, along with the Lübeck Cathedral and the Ratzeburg Cathedral , both of which were donated by Heinrich the Lion, was one of the most important works of brick Romanesque, and these three, together with the Brunswick Cathedral , are among the Löwendomen. After the old tower was torn down, nothing remained of the previous building but the south-facing portal on the south-western side of today's church. The dimensions of the Romanesque cathedral were significantly smaller than those of the new Gothic building. At about sixty meters, it was 40 meters shorter. Its tower, which towered over the old church, barely reached the height of the central nave of the new building.

The impetus for the new building came from the donation of a valuable relic. In 1222, Count Heinrich von Schwerin returned from a crusade with the relic of the Holy Blood , an alleged drop of Christ's blood enclosed in a jasper . Because of this relic, the church became the most important pilgrimage church in northeast Germany. The Romanesque basilica was soon no longer able to cope with the stream of pilgrims. In addition, the bishop was in competition with the building projects of the flourishing and prosperous Hanseatic cities in the area such as Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund and Greifswald. These factors: pilgrimage, pilgrimage donations and competition with the Hanseatic cities led to a completely new construction of the Schwerin Cathedral in 1270.

Toompea is the highest point in the old town. Since a parish church previously stood on it, the Romanesque cathedral had to be built a little down the slope. The construction of the new cathedral, however, could begin at the highest point. Construction began around 1270, and around 1272 the sources report that construction work was being carried out on the “new choir”, i. H. on the choir and chapel wreath. The new choir was completed in 1327, as were the east aisles of the transept and the so-called chapter house, which was built between the south transept and chapels and housed the sacristy and library. Now that a new choir was ready for service, the complete demolition of the previous church began. The exact construction history of the transept and nave is unknown. By the end of the 14th century, the transept and the nave were completed, except for the vaults. Stralsund builders completed the windows of the nave and its vaulting in 1416. This is the end of the 146-year-old medieval building history of the High Gothic basilica of Schwerin Cathedral. The current tower is a neo-Gothic extension from the years 1889 to 1893. This was donated by Arthur von Bernstorff in 1888 , the construction was carried out by the building officer Georg Daniel .

The building and its function

Layout

The current building of the Schwerin Cathedral is a three-aisled Gothic basilica in brick construction with a large three-aisled transept , ambulatory and chapel wreath . The mighty structure is 105 m long and has a vault height of 26.5 m, making it one of the largest brick Gothic church buildings in northern Germany. The neo-Gothic west tower is the tallest church tower in Eastern Germany at 117.5 m .

Exterior construction

Choir

The choir of the cathedral

A white cloverleaf frieze running under the gable zones and eaves visually connects the various parts of the building to one another. The choir in the east with its chapel wreath is based on the model of the Lübeck cathedral choir with the Marienkirche in Lübeck and the Nikolaikirche in Stralsund, one of the first parlor choirs of the brick Gothic. There is a 5/8 choir closure, that is, five sides of an octagon form the choir polygon. Accordingly, there are five choir chapels. The ambulatory choir led the crowds of pilgrims who entered through the aisle portal past the relics exhibited in the ambulatory chapels. Incidentally, the procession to the relic began on the so-called Jerusalemsberg, which was probably located on Lake Ostorfer . This was intended to imitate the path of Christ from Jerusalem to Golgotha. The roof of the choir chapels is an innovation of the Schwerin Cathedral. While the normal design would have been to give each chapel its own roof, the builder decided differently here. He drew pillars into the corners between the chapels, on which circumferential roof beams support a continuous monopitch roof for all chapels. This made the Schwerin Cathedral exemplary for later buildings in Doberan or Rostock . A flaw of this design is that the side windows of the chapels are wedged in and squeezed by the drawn-in pillars.

Transept

The Marienkirche Lübeck, as the mother church of the brick Gothic, has no transept , nor does the Nikolaikirche in Stralsund, which was probably built at the same time. In its resumption of this building, the Schwerin Cathedral was based on the traditional type of the high Gothic cathedral, but is therefore a special feature in the context of the early brick Gothic could enter. The high choir, which was entered via the cloister, was reserved for the bishop and the clergy only. The transept is about one and a half meters higher than the choir. The south side of the transept has become the main entrance to the cathedral. The façade is dominated on both sides by a four-part pointed arch window that extends almost to the portal. The coffee cornice runs around the portal. There are stair turrets at both corners of the facade, which are closed off by slender spiers. The stair turrets are encircled by pointed arches from the height of the gable, which are taken up again in the gable zone of the transept. The “main portal” of the cathedral is located under the window. The door and tympanum are more recent. To the left and right of the transept, on the southern side of the nave and choir (to the right of the sacristy), there are two portals, above which the coats of arms of the bishops from the von Bülow family can be seen. These coats of arms were originally brass shields, which are now replaced by copies for conservation reasons. Noteworthy is the eastern portal, the so-called priest's gate, which stands out from the other portals with its round bar walls and lime stucco capitals. Through voluntary building research it has been proven that up to 1703 a small roof turret existed on the crossing, also recognizable on old engravings , which was demolished because it was dilapidated.

Longhouse

The nave , as the youngest part of the medieval cathedral, falls away in some parts from the uniform design of the choir and transept. In the exterior, the buttresses are particularly noticeable. These have been drawn in here to secure the higher vault. Another difference in the nave is the windows. While the other parts of the cathedral have classic pointed arch windows, the so-called Stralsund windows stand out on the nave. Instead of a pointed arch, they end with a blunt triangle. The expansion of the nave was imposed on the people of Stralsund as a penance because they had burned three priests. A chronicle reports: "Dith hebben de Sundeschen mothen buwen, datt se de papenn vorbrantt haddenn".

The gate of paradise

This oldest part of the cathedral and thus the oldest building structure in Schwerin is located on the westernmost yoke of the nave and on the southern aisle of the tower. It belongs to the last construction period of the previous Romanesque building (before 1249) and still clearly shows the transition style from Romanesque to Gothic. It probably served as an entrance for the community, similar to the Ratzeburg cathedral. The name is, by the way, misleading: In church construction, a “paradise” is an attached vestibule through which one enters the church. It is not known whether such a paradise existed at the Romanesque cathedral.

Cloister

Cloister in 2019

The cloister in the north, although medieval, is essentially more recent than the cathedral itself. It was not used by monks but as a residential and administrative building for the canons , who were responsible for worship at the many altars and other liturgical duties. It is connected to the cathedral via two portals in the choir and has not been preserved in its original state due to multiple neo-Gothic renovations. The east wing with the chapter house for meetings and the dormitory, the dormitory, was built from 1392, around 1463 the north and west wings were completed; In 1484 an upper floor was added to all parts. After a fire in 1886, the upper floors and the roof design in particular were drastically changed. The eaves frieze and the vine leaf frieze running between the floors are neo-Gothic additions, as are the dormers in the roof and the stair tower on the courtyard side of the east wing. The really medieval building is best viewed in the basement and in the ribbed arched passage through the north wing. Incidentally, there is a cemetery in the courtyard between the parts of the cloister, as can be seen from some of the grave slabs.

The interior of the cathedral

The space

Interior view with a view of the altar

The choir and nave have the same number of bays , namely four. Both are vaulted with their side aisles, the nave is also adorned with a crown rib. The transept has a star vault in the crossing , otherwise a net vault . In the eastern side aisles of the transept, chapels have been moved from the first phase of construction of the cathedral, i.e. before the actual transept was built. In the north it is the Mariae-Himmelfahrt-Kapelle. The name of the chapel in the south is unknown, one suspects a simple Lady Chapel. They are the only built-in parts of the cathedral - unusual for a church from the Middle Ages, as even the side walls of the transepts were usually broken through to make space for insert chapels . This originality sets the cathedral apart from comparable buildings.

The capitals of all services are made of natural stone in the form of entwined vine branches. In some places the capitals of the services are varied: on the eastern pillars of the crossing there are portrayals in the capitals. The capitals in the two chapels of the transept are also enriched by portrayals in vine ornamentation. The ambulatory vaults follow the models of the cathedrals in Soissons and Quimper, that is, the chapels do not each have their own vault, but are vaulted together with the gallery.

The two-zone wall elevation, typical of the brick Gothic, dispenses with a triforium , so the arcades are followed directly by the upper aisle . Obergade windows are everywhere, due to the high roofs of the side aisles, rather short, but their drapery extends down to the frieze above the arcades, but is blinded up to there. However, this does not detract from the x-ray of the cathedral.

The painting

Keystone of the vaulted ceiling
Fresco in the Mariae-Himmelfahrt chapel

Today's painting of the cathedral corresponds to the late medieval colors of the church, which was restored in 1988 from various overpaintings. Only a few of the sparse murals in the cathedral have survived. Most important here are the painting of the Mariae-Himmelfahrt chapel in the north arm of the transept. Remnants of the wall painting and important pieces of the ceiling painting in the vaulted caps have been preserved here. Medallions with scenes from the Old Testament are painted on the ceiling in an older vine ornament. On the north wall of the chapel only the red chalk sketches from the painting can be seen. They are medallions with biblical scenes.

On the south wall of the transept, to the left of the window, there is a monumental representation of Christophorus , at whose feet you can even guess the remains of river and water plants. One of the losses due to repeated overpainting and new plastering is a monumental image of the Virgin Mary that was formerly attached to the west wall, of which one only knows that it was there, but not what it represented.

In the Heiligblutkapelle, the choir apex chapel, there was once rich painting. On both side walls of the east wall there were portraits of the benefactors of the chapel, which are now lost. On the outside of the eastern pillars of the choir there are well-preserved remains of figures of saints. The neo-Gothic painting from 1867 has been left in the chapel wreath for monument preservation considerations.

The best preserved mural is on the triumphal arch, that is, on the side of the belt arch facing the nave , which separates the crossing from the choir. Due to the difference in height between the choir and transept, an area for painting was created that is usually found in Romanesque church buildings, but not in Gothic basilicas, whose choir is usually as high as the nave. Here in the tip of the arch a head can be seen in a disk, which is carried by angels from the left and right. Opinions differ about who is portrayed. Some interpret it as the severed head of John the Baptist. The disc is then understood as the plate on which Salome's head was presented. Others reject this interpretation and believe that they see Christ with a halo.

Furnishing

Alms box in Schwerin Cathedral

Everything from the medieval liturgical furnishings to the altar and the baptismal font has been lost. The losses include: a walled choir screen and a rood screen, demolished in 1585, along with an associated clock and the triumphal cross, which can be imagined as similar to today's: “Above this clothing (the rood screen) hangs a large crucefix hanging from an iron chain , walked through the vault, and on both sides of the same 2 large pictures, with the Mother of God on the right and St. John on the left ”, as an inventory from the 17th century reports. The cathedral also housed countless altars in the late Middle Ages. An inventory from 1553 lists 42 side altars. Not a single one of them has survived. The medieval choir stalls have also been lost. The rich furnishings of the Holy Blood Chapel were destroyed as early as the time of the Reformation. Underneath were the precious altar with a golden image of Christ and an image of Mary as well as the gifts made from noble materials. Around 1550, Duke Johann Albrecht also burned the blood of Jesus. In addition to the Reformation and the decline of the liturgy, the renovation under Barca in 1815 was particularly devastating. While the cathedral furnishings were only slowly deteriorating before, they were thoroughly removed here. There was no longer any room for the "little things, disturbing ornaments from the papist era".

Altars

The Loste- altarpiece
Loste reredos: central sandstone relief with crucifixion

The Gothic winged altar in the first choir bay is the former main altar from the high choir, where it stood on the site of today's neo-Gothic altar. The inventory from 1553 reports from him in the high choir: “The altar table is bricked and on top of a wide stone is laid the Passion of Christ, next to it walnut and bright, made of stone. On it two wings (...), on which the apostles lifted, also under the carving and wings, next to it two other figures ground and gilded ". It is a foundation of the Schwerin bishop Konrad Loste , as can be read on the reconstructed inscription under the plaque: “Anno domini mccccxcv reverendus in Christo pater et Dominus D. Conradus Loste episcopus Sverinensis hanc tabulam de propriis suis donavit” that means: “Im In 1495 the venerable father and doctor Conrad Loste, Bishop of Schwerin, donated this tablet to Christ from his own fortune ”. In his will, Bishop Loste designated 1,000 Luebian marks for the holding of soul masses at this altar, near which in the high choir was the bishop's grave. Of the entire altar, only the retable with wings has survived; along with the other parts, the predella in particular has been lost. The combination of different materials, here stone and wood, is a specialty.

The middle picture was made of sandstone around 1420/30 and shows the carrying of the cross, crucifixion, Christ's descent into hell and the overwhelmed hell under the guardians of the grave. The representation begins on the left with St. George, the dragon slayer, who means the imminent victory of Christ. He is depicted in the city gate of Jerusalem, from which the carrying of the cross takes place to the right. At the base of the city gate there is an apple tree that indicates the fall of man. Small foxes cavort under him in a touching representation, which probably symbolize heretics. The next scene in the picture, separated by a hedge, is the crucifixion. On the left you can see the Mariengruppe, behind this Longinus with the lance. Noteworthy are the angels who catch the blood of Christ in goblets and thus refer to the Eucharist. At the foot of the cross a fox is dragging a goose into its den. Then, again separated by a hedge that now bears vines as a sign of the event of salvation, three intricate representations follow: Above right the guard at the sarcophagus, whose representation as a grave rotunda is highly unusual and reflects contemporary views of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; Hell can be seen underneath. The victory of Christ can only be seen indirectly in the shackled Satan. In the background you can see Christ delivering the righteous of the old covenant from hell.

The cathedral's patrons, Mary and John, can be seen to the left and right of the plaque. The wings of the altar show apostles and saints. Interesting in the left wing is the figure at the bottom far left. She represents St. Ansverus , who played a special role in the piety of the northeast.

Other altars
neo-Gothic crucifixion altar by Gaston Lenthe

The neo-Gothic crucifixion altar at the end of the high choir was designed by Hermann Willebrand and inaugurated on Christmas Day 1845 by the court preacher Friedrich Carl Ernst Walter . Gaston Lenthe painted the blackboard .

When the cathedral received an intermediate altar in 1936 , Count Nils Stenbock-Fermor painted an altarpiece for it. It shows Christ in the midst of a historical costume group of five, which includes priests, knights, peasants, councilors and the king as representatives of the estates . Christ turns with an outstretched hand to a figure standing outside the row on the left edge of the picture, who can be interpreted as a young laborer or farm worker. The picture, which was controversial then and still today, can be seen as the program picture of religious socialism . According to tradition, two of the figures are modeled after pastors and religious socialists who worked at the time: the knight shows the features of the Schwerin cathedral preacher Karl Kleinschmidt , the kneeling king that of pastor Aurel von Jüchen . The picture lost its function as an altarpiece again in 1938, but remained in various locations in the cathedral and is now hung in the northern ambulatory opposite the St. Thomas Chapel.

Triumphal cross

Triumphal cross with Maria and Johannes

The triumphal cross is from 1420. It does not belong to the original furnishings of the Schwerin Cathedral, but comes from the Wismar Marienkirche , the ship of which was blown up in 1960. The cross came into the cathedral after the restoration in 1990. The green makes the cross the tree of life and the vine. Red is the color of victory and joy. The two church patrons Maria and Johannes have also been restored as assistant figures since 2002 .

Gravesites

The most important pieces of medieval grave slabs are undoubtedly the two slabs attached to the left and right of the north transept wall for two von Bülow bishops each . Until 1846 they were in the high choir, where the bishops' graves were traditionally located. The first cast and then engraved plates belong to the Lower Rhine-Flemish art circle. The bishops are depicted in their official clothing as typical reclining figures. Despite the great similarity at first glance, there are interesting differences in the treatment of the figures. It is noticeable that on the older panel hung to the right of the window the bishops are still looking at the viewer with open eyes, with gestures of blessing, while the bishops are shown with closed eyes on the younger panel on the left. The two bishops shown on the younger plate, Gottfried and Friedrich von Bülow, are incidentally the presumed builders of the choir (Gottfried) and transept (Friedrich). Also to be noted on the older plate above the heads of the bishops are the same Bülow coats of arms that can be found above the two portals to the left and right of the south transept. The younger tombstone, compared to the other, is richer and more imaginative in the depiction of the saints and allegorical figures in the tracery canopies that frame the bishops. Also to be noted on this plate are the depictions of a banquet and the kidnapping of a woman by shaggy human figures (wild men) and the chasing knights at the feet of the reclining figure. The depiction of figures, which are to be addressed as depictions of the Wilder Mann topos , could be an indication of the remains of pagan structures in the diocese at the time of their creation. The bishop puts his foot on the wild men. This can be read as an indication that he resisted paganism during his lifetime.

In the Schwerin Cathedral there are also some epitaphs and sarcophagi of Mecklenburg dukes and their relatives. The most interesting graves are: tomb of Christoph von Mecklenburg with his wife Elisabeth of Sweden, sarcophagus of Paul Friedrich von Mecklenburg , sarcophagus of his wife Alexandrine . The tomb in the northern chapel around the high choir was commissioned by Christoph's wife Elisabeth and depicts the couple kneeling in front of a prayer desk; it was made in 1594–96 by the workshop of the Flemish sculptor Robert Coppens , supported by the Pomeranian painter Georg Strachen.

Baptismal font

Baptismal font in Schwerin Cathedral

The bronze fountain is a work of the late 14th century. Eight portrayals hold an octagonal cauldron, the sides of which are divided into two fields by canopies. The interpretation of the figures is uncertain. The inscription running around the canopies is compiled from Ezekiel and reads: “vidi aquam egredientem de templo a latere dextro. alleluja, alleluja omnes ad quos pervenit aqua ”, that means:“ I saw water coming from the right side of the temple. Rejoice, rejoice, all you to whom the water reaches! "

Bells

In the tower of the Schwerin Cathedral there are five bells in the tone sequence b ° -es′-f′-g′-as ′, of which - designed by Apolda's master bell founder Peter Schilling and his wife Margarete Schilling - the largest, weighing 4.8 tons , and two more were cast in Karlsruhe in March and April 1991 ; two bells date from 1363 and 1470. Many previous bells perished in wars or accidents, for example two bells cast by Lübeck council founder Johann Georg Wilhelm Landré in the Lübeck foundry house in 1811 and three bells in World War II.

organ

Organ by Friedrich Ladegast

The organ was built by Friedrich Ladegast from Weißenfels from 1868 and consecrated in 1871. It has mechanical slider drawers and a mechanical cone drawer for the large pedal voices. With the help of the barker machine , all manuals can be operated from the lowest keyboard. The pneumatic stop action (loop actuation), which was used for the first time in Germany , enabled an early form of the crescendo roller to be built in, which enables infinitely variable sound dynamics. In addition, the division of the registers into two groups (“forte” and “piano”) allows quick re-registration by pressing brass steps above the pedal. The four-manual work aims to be a synthesis of German baroque ( Gottfried Silbermann ) and French romantic ( Cavaille-Coll ) organ building art. This organ has 84 sounding registers , has 5200 pipes, making it the largest organ by Ladegast and the largest German organ before 1900.

Apart from small changes by Leopold Nitschmann in 1962, the Ladegast organ has been preserved in its original condition. The restoration by Alexander Schuke Potsdam organ building was completed in 1988. Church music director Jan Ernst has been organist and cathedral choirmaster since 1993 . The organ has the following disposition :

I. Manual C-f 3
1. Principal 16 ′
2. Drone (from c 0 ) 32 ′
3. Drone 16 ′
4th Principal 8th'
5. Double clad 8th'
6th Lull major 8th'
7th Gemshorn 8th'
8th. Viol 8th'
9. Cane fifth 5 13
10. octave 4 ′
11. Reed flute 4 ′
12th Pointed flute 4 ′
13th Third flute 3 15
14th Fifth 2 23
15th octave 2 ′
16. Cornett IV 4 ′
17th Cornett I-II 2 23
18th Mixture IV 2 23
19th Cymbel II-III 2 ′
20th Trombones 16 ′
21. Trumpet 8th'
II. Manual C – f 3
22nd Principal 16 ′
23 Quintadena 16 ′
24. Principal 8th'
25th Bordunal flute 8th'
26 Reed flute 8th'
27 Quintatön 8th'
28. Fugara 8th'
29 Piffaro 8th'
30th octave 4 ′
31. Flautino 4 ′
32. flute 4 ′
33. Quintatön 4 ′
34. Fifth 2 23
35. octave 2 ′
36. Cornett II 2 23
37. Program harm. III-IV 2 ′
38. Scharff IV
39 oboe 8th'
40. bassoon 16 ′
Tremulant
III. Manual C – f 3
41. Violin principal 8th'
42. Dumped 16 ′
42. Double flute 8th'
44. Flauto traverso 8th'
45. Salicional 8th'
46. Dumped 4 ′
47. Fugara 4 ′
48. Piffaro 4 ′
49. Nassat 2 23
50 Piccolo 2 ′
51. Program harm. II-IV 2 ′
52. Clarinet 8th'
Glockenspiel (cis 1 - cis 3 )
IV. Manual C – f 3
53. viola 16 ′
54. Lovely Gedackt 8th'
55. Soft flute 8th'
56. Viola d'amour 8th'
57. Unda maris 8th'
58. Flauto dolce 4 ′
59. Salicional 4 ′
60. Flautino 2 ′
violin 2 ′ v
Forest flute 2 ′ v
61. Harmonia aeth. III 2 ′
62. Aeoline 16 ′
Pedal C – f 1
63. Violon 32 ′
64. Pedestal 32 ′
65. Principal bass 16 ′
66. Octave bass 16 ′
67. Violon 16 ′
68. Sub-bass 16 ′
69. Salicet bass 16 ′
70. third 12 45
71. Nassat 10 23
72. Principal 8th'
73. Cello (weak) 8th'
74. Cello (strong) 8th'
75. Bass flute 8th'
76. Nassat 5 13
77. octave 4 ′
78. Flute bass 4 ′
79. Cornett IV 2 23
80. trombone 32 ′
81. trombone 16 ′
82. Dulcian 16 ′
83. Trumpet 8th'
84. Trumpet 4 ′
The console of the Ladegast organ
  • Coupling : II / I, III / I, IV / I, pneumat. Work I / III (Barker lever), I / P (C – es 1 ).
  • Game aids
    • Fixed combinations: I Manual. Department 1 (forte), I Man. Dept. 2 (piano), II Man. Dept. 1 (forte), II Man. Dept. 2 (piano), pedal forte.
    • Valves: valve for the strong bass, valve for the piano bass.
    • Combination steps: I Man. Combination, II Man. Comb., III Man. Comb., IV Man. Comb., Ped. Comb.
    • Other: Crescendo, Decrescendo, IV Man. Rocker valve to man. III and IV.
  • annotation
v = vacant

Celebrations and events

year celebration occurrence comment
1171 First consecration of the cathedral With the participation of the Count of Schwerin Gunzelin I , the Duke of Mecklenburg Pribislaw , the Bishops Evermod von Ratzeburg and Berno, as well as Duke Heinrichs the Lion Consecration act in the previous Romanesque building
1806 Napoleonic troops occupy Schwerin The cathedral is used as the stables of the French cavalry
1893 Completion of today's western cathedral tower The large landowner Arthur von Bernstorff donated the tower. With a height of 117.5 meters, it was the highest church tower in the former GDR
1971 800 year anniversary of consecration Celebration within the cathedral parish weekly organ concerts in the cathedral
1989 Service of the civil rights demonstration on October 23, 1989 Never again did the cathedral hold more people than on this day, who used it as a church shelter and gathering room. The walls were damp from the breath of the peaceful civil rights demonstrators who had come to the cathedral.
1992 Festival service on the occasion of the day of German unity Chancellor Helmut Kohl and several ministers take part in the service
1996 825th anniversary of consecration Celebrations within the cathedral parish Celebration for the 125th year of completion of the cathedral's Ladegast organ
2007 Festival service on the occasion of the day of German unity Federal President Horst Köhler and Chancellor Angela Merkel take part in the ecumenical service
2019 church service Divine service of the initiative group 30 years Schwerin Monday demonstration The former Federal President Joachim Gauck and many Schwerin civil rights from 1989 take part in the celebration
2021 850-year consecration anniversary The anniversary will be carried out with events in the pandemic year 2021

Personalities

Clergy

For the bishops before the Reformation see the list of the bishops of Schwerin . After the Reformation, from 1564 the superintendents of Schwerin were also first cathedral preachers . There were also two other cathedral preachers' posts, and a fourth from 1925.

The clergy working at the cathedral included:

From 1921 the cathedral was the preaching place of the leading clergy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg , who carried the official title of regional bishop . Those were:

In the course of the establishment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany , the Schwerin Cathedral (together with the Lübeck Cathedral ) was designated as the sermon site of the regional bishop of the Northern Church in the constitution . The first regional bishop was Gerhard Ulrich , followed in 2019 by Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt .

Church musician

See also

literature

Extensive literature on the cathedral can be found in the rooms of the state library , including:

Used literature

  • Horst Ende : Schwerin Cathedral. Large DKV art guide , Munich / Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-422-06519-9 .
  • Georg Dehio: Handbook of German art monuments - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Munich 2000.
  • Wilfried Koch: Architectural style. Munich 1994.
  • Adolf Friedrich Lorenz : The cathedral to Schwerin. Berlin 1981.
  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch: The cathedral to Schwerin. 1871 (online) .
  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch: History of the saints = blood = chapel in the cathedral to Schwerin. 1848.
  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch: About the construction periods of the Schwerin Cathedral. 1846.
  • Nadine Mai: The Loste reredos in Schwerin Cathedral, Schwerin 2009
  • Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume II: The district court districts of Wismar, Grevesmühlen, Rehna, Gadebusch and Schwerin. Schwerin 1898, reprint Schwerin 1992, ISBN 3-910179-06-1 , p. 536 ff.

Recommended and further reading

  • Ernst-Friedrich Roettig: The cathedral to Schwerin. 8., revised. Edition. Munich Berlin 2003, (DKV Art Guide No. 418) .
  • Dorotheus Graf Rothkirch: Witnesses of power and intercession - The grave slabs of Bishops Rudolf I and von Bülow in Schwerin Cathedral. In: KulturERBE ​​in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 3, 2007, pp. 25–38.
  • Gottfried Demmler: Schwerin Cathedral in its indisputable right to a tower worthy of its size and style: a public warning to the Reverend Oberkirchenrath in Schwerin. Schwerin 1883.
  • Heinrich Reifferscheid : Church building in Mecklenburg and New Western Pomerania at the time of German colonization. Greifswald 1910.
  • Gerd Baier: The painting of the Mariae-Himmelfahrtskapelle in Schwerin Cathedral. Schwerin 1924.
  • Nadine Mai: The Loste-Profitabel in Schwerin Cathedral. Form and function of a late medieval foundation. In: MJB, 2009, pp. 85-130.
  • Ursula Wolkewitz: The engraved brass grave plates of the 13th and 14th centuries in the area of ​​the North German Hanseatic League - their origin and their meaning: Reminding - Mahnen - Belehren , Kassel University Press, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Schwerin Cathedral  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Church leadership
  2. a b c Dehio 531
  3. Dehio 584
  4. a b end of 21
  5. Dehio 531
  6. The Greifswald Cathedral was built as a collegiate church and only later became the bishopric; the Güstrow cathedral was a collegiate church and not a bishopric.
  7. end of 12
  8. Official website of the cathedral parish of Schwerin : In 1171, an act of consecration took place at this site on September 9th. But already in 1154 a church for a Christian community was recorded in Schwerin. The apse of the Romanesque cathedral may have been completed and put into use in 1171. The Romanesque cathedral was consecrated in 1248. (accessed October 5, 2017).
  9. Schlie Bluthskapelle 147
  10. a b c Dehio 527
  11. a b Lorenz 8
  12. a b end of 25
  13. a b Lorenz 9
  14. Lisch Bluthskapelle 154
  15. end of 14
  16. Lisch Bluthskapelle 148
  17. ^ A transept with side aisles can only be found in Germany at Cologne Cathedral and at St. Mary's Church (Stralsund) .
  18. a b c Dehio 528
  19. Dehio 531; 584
  20. Lisch Bluthskapelle 166
  21. end of 22
  22. Cook 150
  23. a b c end of 23
  24. a b c d e f close (without pagination)
  25. a b end of 24
  26. a b c Dehio 529
  27. Schweriner Volkszeitung, December 8, 2007, p. 20
  28. Lisch Bluthskapelle
  29. Dehio 533
  30. Dehio 534
  31. end of 26
  32. Lisch Bluthskapelle 176
  33. end of 29
  34. Lisch Cathedral 150
  35. Lisch Cathedral 180
  36. end of 34
  37. a b Dehio 530
  38. Lisch Cathedral 177
  39. Lisch Cathedral 173
  40. Lisch Cathedral 165 ff.
  41. Lisch Cathedral 154 ff.
  42. Hempel G. (1837). Geographical-statistical-historical handbook of the Mecklenburg Land, published by E. Frege, p. 19
  43. ^ Idem 153
  44. May 3
  45. Lisch Cathedral 154
  46. end of 42
  47. May 7
  48. May 4
  49. Close
  50. a b May 8
  51. May 9
  52. a b May 10
  53. May 16
  54. ^ After Jürgen Hebert : The adventure of an altarpiece. Searching for traces in the Schwerin Cathedral. In: Studienhefte zur Mecklenburgischen Kirchengeschichte 4 (1994), pp. 5–12
  55. end of 48
  56. especially Schlie, but also at the end of 55ff.
  57. German construction newspaper. October 25, 1873, pp. 333 f.- Here the number of pipes is given as 5140, the indication of the registers differs somewhat from the ones given here.
  58. Hans Martin Balz : Divine Music. Organs in Germany (=  230th publication by the Society of Organ Friends ). Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 3-8062-2062-X , p. 72 .
  59. To the disposition on the website of the organ building company Schuke (seen on April 13, 2018)
  60. Schwerin Cathedral: 850 years of Schwerin Cathedral. 2011, accessed May 18, 2021 .
  61. ^ Gustav Willgeroth : The Mecklenburg-Schwerin Parishes since the Thirty Years' War. With notes on past pastors since the Reformation. Vol. 2. Wismar 1925, pp. 997-1009. 1053-1063 ( digitized version ); with complete lists of offices.
  62. The seat of the regional bishop is Schwerin. Sermon sites are the cathedral in Lübeck and the cathedral in Schwerin , Article 98 (5) of the constitution ( memento of the original of September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 27, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kirche-im-norden.de


Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 46.8 "  N , 11 ° 24 ′ 52.6"  E