Blessing Church (Berlin-Reinickendorf)

Blessing Church Reinickendorf

The Reinickendorf Blessing Church on Auguste-Viktoria-Allee in the Reinickendorf district of Berlin was created by the Silesian architect H. Schatteburg as a simple neo-Gothic hall church and inaugurated on November 15, 1892. In the Second World War badly damaged, it was rebuilt on historical models. The church is a listed building .

history

The village church was enough late 19th century, with its 200 seats for a long time, especially after the rural community Reinickendorf since 1871 became no longer the church needs in the wake of the city of Berlin. The number of inhabitants grew to over 10,000 through new settlements by 1890. The financial circumstances of Reinickendorf did not allow the construction of another church. Therefore, a resident turned to Empress Auguste-Viktoria in a petition that she would remedy the church hardship in Reinickendorf. The pastor from Rosenthal, Reinickendorf, who was called upon to comment, was also provided with church supplies from there, and in his report on the church situation in Reinickendorf-West pointed out that due to the great distance to churches and the very poor roads to them, the alienation of the population of the Church, which is reflected in the neglect of baptisms and weddings. In his opinion, there was a great need to build a chapel for holding public services and performing church services in the western part of Reinickendorf. On August 11, 1890, the Royal Consistory in Berlin recommended the building of a church on the basis of this report.

The Reinickendorf village church had had its own vicar since 1890, who was appointed pastor in 1891. He was also responsible for the Blessing Church. The services took place in the village church from 9 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. and in the Blessed Church from 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. Due to a police regulation, trading had to be suspended during the service time, usually between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. This was not possible in Reinickendorf with one pastor for both churches. Due to the long break from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the dealers complain about a drop in sales, which is why the head of the Reinickendorf district demanded that the Church of Blessings have its own pastor. Initially, an auxiliary chaplain performed his duties in the Blessed Church, and from October 1, 1895, a second permanent pastorate was set up for Reinickendorf, based in Reinickendorf-West. Because Reinickendorf already had 11,000 inhabitants, the consistory decided that from January 1, 1901, Reinickendorf would become an independent parish with the village church as the main church and the blessing church as the second preaching site, each with a pastor. The Blessed Church parish has only been independent since April 1, 1954.

building

Nave of the Blessed Church

Interior of the Blessed Church

Since May 2, 1890, the church building association existed to promote church building in Berlin and its vicinity. Within a decade, around 50 new buildings were built, on the one hand to alleviate the church hardship and on the other hand to create sacred representative buildings where Berlin was poor. Although the church building association only partially financed the planned building projects, it participated in raising funds from wealthy citizens and also in the procurement of building sites. Reinickendorf was one of the first parishes to be supported by the church building association because of its church hardship. Its first success was the donation of the land for the construction of a church and a rectory by the reindeer Hechel from Reinickendorf. The community of Reinickendorf, the majority of which came from working-class families, was only able to collect 4,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 27,000 euros) for the building of the church ; another 113,000 marks (today: around 757,000 euros) were donated by the imperial family, the community of Rosenthal and a benefactor donated. The shell cost 110,000 marks, the interior furnishings cost 25,000 marks and could only be financed thanks to further donations. The foundation stone was laid on June 15, 1891, and the inauguration on November 15, 1892.

The architect H. Schatteburg created a neo-Gothic hall church with a simple wooden beam ceiling on the plan of a Latin cross . The walls and tower were designed extremely sparingly due to the limited resources and made of brick . The church differed from the representative buildings of the Resurrection Church or the New Nazareth Church that were built at the same time .

In 1939 the Blessing Church was rebuilt, the chancel was given three colored glass windows. The middle one represented a larger than life figure of Christ. The previous winged altar was converted into an altar table. The ornate pulpit was removed, and a plain one was placed close to the first row of pews . The church burned down completely on February 15, 1944. Reconstruction based on the historical model of the church began in 1953. The tower received three cast steel bells , which were made in 1956 by the Bochumer Verein .

Chime	Weight (kg)	Diameter ( cm)	Height (cm)	inscription
d '	1350	151	137	THE BELLS OF THE CHURCH OF BLESSING, WITH THE CHURCH DESTROYED ON February 15, 1944, BY THE SACRIFICE OF THE COMMUNITY RENEWED CHRISTMAS 1956.
f '	0780	126	116	YOU ARE CALLED TO INHERIT THE BLESSING.
G'	0520	111	103	I WANT TO BLESS YOU AND YOU SHOULD BE A BLESSING.

On November 10, 1957 the consecration of the rebuilt church took place. The new organ of the Berlin organ building workshop Karl Schuke was inaugurated on September 25, 1960. The three altar windows were given new colored glazing in 1962.

literature

Christine Goetz and Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam. Berlin 2003.

Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings. Berlin 1997.

Parish Councilor : I want to bless you. 100 years of the Blessing Church Reinickendorf West. Berlin 1992.

Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin. Berlin 1978.

Hans-Jürgen Rach: The villages in Berlin. Berlin 1990.

Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Berlin 1987.

Web links

Commons : Segenskirche (Berlin-Reinickendorf) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ An eyewitness reported:
“I would like to contribute something to the Blessed Church in Reinickendorf, especially to the rebuilding after the fire night, in which I saw the church burning myself. The burnt down church had a completely different entrance, namely a lot more steps, because I know that because we children always stood in front of it at weddings and admired the bridal couples coming down in amazement. We girls have always wished that we would come down there as brides. The interior of the church was also completely different, because this Protestant blessing church from Reinickendorf-West was the only Protestant church to have a high altar, and in order to get up one had to climb many steps. I know that from my own experience, because I was chosen by the school supervisor of the Protestant community to go down the stairs as an angel (long green robe with wings) for a church ceremony. Unfortunately, there is probably no one left who can confirm my information. I can only say one thing, namely that Pastor Falk was a person we children loved very much. My consecration, which I had so wished for in this church, could unfortunately no longer take place there, as it had become a victim of the terrible bombing war. We were then consecrated in the old small village church in Reinickendorf-Ost. A previous examination, which usually took place at a solemn hour before the consecration, was waived by our pastor on the grounds that we had to pass enough of the tests during this time. It is a shame that this church was rebuilt in a completely different way. "

52.570248 13.323449Coordinates: 52 ° 34 ′ 12.9 " N , 13 ° 19 ′ 24.4" E

[1] An eyewitness reported:
“I would like to contribute something to the Blessed Church in Reinickendorf, especially to the rebuilding after the fire night, in which I saw the church burning myself. The burnt down church had a completely different entrance, namely a lot more steps, because I know that because we children always stood in front of it at weddings and admired the bridal couples coming down in amazement. We girls have always wished that we would come down there as brides. The interior of the church was also completely different, because this Protestant blessing church from Reinickendorf-West was the only Protestant church to have a high altar, and in order to get up one had to climb many steps. I know that from my own experience, because I was chosen by the school supervisor of the Protestant community to go down the stairs as an angel (long green robe with wings) for a church ceremony. Unfortunately, there is probably no one left who can confirm my information. I can only say one thing, namely that Pastor Falk was a person we children loved very much. My consecration, which I had so wished for in this church, could unfortunately no longer take place there, as it had become a victim of the terrible bombing war. We were then consecrated in the old small village church in Reinickendorf-Ost. A previous examination, which usually took place at a solemn hour before the consecration, was waived by our pastor on the grounds that we had to pass enough of the tests during this time. It is a shame that this church was rebuilt in a completely different way. "