St. John's Church (Hitzacker)

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St. John's Church in Hitzacker
Rear view

The Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church is a church in Hitzacker in the Lüchow-Dannenberg parish of the Hanover regional church .

location

The church is located on the edge of the city island of Hitzacker, directly on the Jeetzel , which divides shortly before it flows into the Elbe and flows around the half-timbered town.

history

When Hitzacker was first mentioned in a document in 1258, the church was probably around 100 years old. Like many mission churches in northern Germany, it was named after John the Baptist . The first baptisms probably took place in the Jeetzel. In 1668 large parts of the city as well as the roof, tower and interior of the church fell victim to a devastating fire. Ten years passed before the church was rebuilt. During the Napoleonic Wars , French troops used it as a fortress. In September 1813 the battle did not take place here, but 17 km away in the Göhrde .

Architecture and equipment

Interior view of the St. Johannis Church
Pulpit altar

The original Romanesque brick architecture is barely recognizable. The dominant pulpit altar was built in its present form in 1824. Against the "Catholic mysticism" understood at that time, with the belief in the (almost magical) effect of the sacraments, the Protestant pulpit altar emphasizes the unity of word and sacrament: below the altar as the sacrament table and above it the pulpit, from which the word of the Sermon goes out.

The old pews have given way to chairs that allow flexible seating arrangements because the St. John's Church is a popular place for concerts (e.g. Hitzacker Music Week and Hitzacker Summer Music Days ).

window

In the otherwise rather simple church, the colored lead glass windows from the years 1917 to 1928 are a completely preserved picture cycle in a uniform style.

Pastor Gustav Grünewald (from 1896 to 1936 in Hitzacker) laid down the image program: The two altar windows on the east side, after the Isenheim altar by Matthias Grünewald , show the crucifixion and John the Baptist, the namesake of the church. From the side of the altar, individual figures from the Old Testament can be seen on the north side and scenic representations of Jesus' encounters with other people on the south side. Each picture is intended as a sermon on a biblical topic. That is why a word from the Bible and the passage from the Bible in small letters are attached to the picture.

The church windows are made from templates, usually paintings, which are quoted in the picture corner of each window. Three pictures are based on originals from the early 16th century (Grünewald, Michelangelo , Raffael ), all others are from the 19th or early 20th century. The better-known artists here include Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Fritz von Uhde .

Although the templates come from different epochs, they are uniformly reworked in the Nazarene style and adapted to the requirements of glass windows. The windows were made in the Ferdinand Müller glass painting workshop in Quedlinburg.

The picture windows were financed by members of the urban and rural communities who lived on both sides of the Elbe. Their names are indicated under the windows. Despite the war and post-war problems, the image program was completed with great financial sacrifices by the donors.

organ

The oldest known organ in St. John's Church was rebuilt shortly after the Thirty Years War in 1650 by an organ builder from Salzwedel using earlier organ parts. Already in 1668 this organ was completely destroyed in the great fire. In 1719 the boatmen and raftsmen from Hitzacker donated a new organ.

After the occupation by the French, a new organ was installed in 1817 by JW Gencke and JH Wohlien from Hamburg. In 1907 this organ was exchanged for a Furtwängler and Hammer organ due to old age .

In 1965 this organ had to be replaced again. This time the organ building workshop Karl Schuke from Berlin built a two-manual neo-baroque organ.

Organ of the St. John's Church
I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
octave 4 ′
Pointed flute 4 ′
Trumpet 8th'
octave 2 ′
Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Mixture IV-V
Dulcian 16 ′
II Rückpositiv C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Night horn 4 ′
Forest flute 2 ′
Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 5  ′
Sesquialtera II
Sharp III-IV
Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Cymbelstern
Pedal Cf 1
Sub-bass 16 ′
octave 8th'
octave 4 ′
Night horn 2 ′
Back set IV
trombone 16 ′
shawm 4 ′

Tower clock

The mechanical tower clock with an hour strike dates from around 1900 and has largely been preserved in its original form. It has to be wound regularly by hand. At 12:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., in addition to the hour, the prayer bell rings with nine strikes for the nine petitions of the Our Father . The weathered dials were renewed in 2010.

Surroundings of the church

Memorial plaque on Varenius' birthplace, the parish hall of St. John's Church

Despite its compact tower, the St. John's Church dominates the development of the church square with the former Protestant kindergarten, the rectory from 1962 (on the site of the former sexton's house), several town houses and two former rectories from 1684 (birthplace of Bernhard Varenius today the parish hall) and 1780 (today church office). In 1999 the kindergarten moved to the nearby office barn.

The chapel communities Lenzen and Bredenbock belong to the parish .

The St. Johannis Church is open daily as a cycle path church on the Elbe Cycle Path .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EJZ: "Church Hitzacker: the history of their windows" , from April 12, 2019, accessed on November 29, 2019.
  2. ↑ Hitzacker parish letter November 1929

literature

  • Ernst-Günther Behn: The Hannoversche Wendland - churches and chapels. Köhring Verlag, Lüchow 2011, ISBN 978-3-926322-50-0 .
  • Doris Schmidtke: The churches in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district. in: Klaus Poggendorf (Hrsg.): The Hannoversche Wendland. Lüchow-Dannenberg district (self-published), 3rd edition, Lüchow 1985, pp. 183-189.
  • Wilhelm Keetz (1870–1909): Church chronicle Hitzacker.
  • Gustav Grunewald (Pastor): From the Sankt Johanneskirche zu Hitzacker.
  • Frank Laska: Ferdinand Müller's glass painting establishment in Quedlinburg from its foundation to 1914. Quedlinburg 2009.
  • Dr. Margret Schuchard: The church windows in the St. Johannis Church Hitzacker , Hitzacker 2019.

Web links

Commons : St. Johannis Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 9 '6.49 "  N , 11 ° 2' 56.58"  O