St. Mariae Jakobi Church

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The St. Mariae-Jakobi-Kirche, also known as the Old Town Church, is an Evangelical Lutheran church in the center of Salzgitter-Bad . It is the oldest church in this district of the city of Salzgitter that is still in use today .

history

Church of St. Mariae-Jakobi in Salzgitter-Bad, view from the north

The first written mention of the church can be found in a letter from Bishop Berthold II of Hildesheim dated October 28, 1488. In this, the bishop of the church confirms the foundation of two altars by the family of Cord von Schwicheldt - “Our Dear Women” (before Altar erected) and "Sancte Jakobi" (in the northern part of the church). The two altars were to be attached to the previous churches “St. Marien zum Solt to Gytere "(located on Bohlweg / Marienplatz) and" St. Jakobus zu Vöppstedt ”( Vöppstedter Church ), from which the name St. Mariae-Jakobi is derived.

The church building is probably even older, because Georg Tappe, who was the first superintendent of the church from 1569 , reported on the construction of the church that it was completed in 1480. The tower of the church, which, as a defensive tower, formed part of the protection of the rampart wall to the east, could be even older . Tappe's statement is underlined by several documents from 1482, in which the “newly built Church of Our Dear Women” and the like. a. two farms and one and a half hooves of land in lattice were inherited or sold.

Because of the dilapidation of the church, the superintendent Philipp Saltzmann sent a petition to Duke Julius (1568–1589) of Braunschweig in 1590 . There is some information about this in the account books of the following year. B. Maintenance measures were carried out on the roof and walls and the interior was supplemented by several benches. The interior was repainted in 1667, between 1671 and 1674 the roof and the slate hangings of the tower were renewed and in 1679 a new altar was donated to the church. In 1707 the ceiling of the church and the roof structure had to be renewed. The roof structure was built a little lower and thus received its current height, the old roof boundary can still be seen on the east side of the tower.

Chancel of the Church of St. Mariae-Jakobi
Glass window "Der Auferstandene" by Adi Holzer

Since 1817, there have been an increasing number of complaints about the desolate condition of the building in the church files, but work to repair the damage did not begin until 1830. In addition to the renovation, extensive changes were made to make the interior of the church brighter. This included replacing the previous narrow loopholes in the north wall with large windows, enlarging the windows in the south wall and the window on the east wall of the choir, and redesigning the two entrances to the south wall.

In 1873 the church received a legacy from the estate of the late Mrs. Minna Jacobi. These funds were used, on the one hand, to improve the protection of the church from moisture. On the other hand, a small sacristy was added to the east wall , but this was torn down again during later renovations to make space for an additional entrance.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the church was chosen to be rebuilt in line with a changed understanding of worship. The aim was to underline the unity of the liturgical places by combining them at a central point. During the renovation, which lasted from 1963 to 1967, the old furnishings were removed, the galleries dismantled and the altar , pulpit , lectern and baptismal font set up in front of the center of the north wall. The sculptor Siegfried Zimmermann created a new bronze crucifix, a lectern and the pulpit relief. Opposite this area, a bench block was set up parallel to the south wall, two bench blocks at right angles to it in the western part and another slightly raised in the former eastern choir. When the fortified tower, which until then belonged to the town of Salzgitter, came into the possession of the church, a new entrance to the church was created on the north side of the tower and the outside facilities on the north side were redesigned.

In connection with the plans for the 500th anniversary celebration, which took place in 1988, it was decided to reverse the changes made 20 years earlier and to return to a traditional institution of the Church. The altar was placed again in the eastern choir and the bench blocks were placed facing east. A wall was put up behind the altar for the bronze crucifix . Only the pulpit remained in its place on the north wall because it was closer to the benches.

In 2000 Adi Holzer designed the stained glass window The Risen above the altar in the apse of the church. The Per Hebsgaard studio in Copenhagen was responsible for the execution.

Bells

The smallest and oldest bell is the St. Barbara's storm bell . The year of completion is not known exactly, it probably comes from the early days of the church. The bell is about 1 m high and bears the following inscription: “M + CCCC + LXXXI + sevit. hostis. innocentes. perimens. atrocite. s (an) c (t) a - (bar) bara + ananisapta + dei miserere + mei " . (Latin: 1481. The enemy rages, cruelly killing innocents. Saint Barbara, ananisapta of God, have mercy on me!). According to Zobel , ananisapta either stands for the designation of the Messiah in the Talmud as Anana Scheba or it is a notaricon , which is resolved as follows: " Antidoton Nazareni Aufardt Necem Intoxationes Sanctificet Alimenta Pocula Trinitas Alma " (translation: The antidote of the Nazarenes take away death of poisoning. May food and drink saints the divine trinity).

The middle bell - the "resurrection bell" - was consecrated on January 1st, 1965. This bell weighs 25 quintals and has a largest diameter of 1290 mm. The inscription on the bell reads “ CHRIST speaks: I live, and you should live too! + John 4:19 ".

The largest of the bells is known to have been cast in its current shape in 1752, but the age of the original bell can no longer be determined. This bell has a weight of 55 quintals and a largest diameter of 1630 mm. The bell bears the coat of arms of the old salt town (head with two salt hooks) and the words "THIS BELL HAS BEEN CASTED AT THE CITIZENSHIP 1752" . The pastors Siegismund Julius Sander (senior pastor, 1739–1780) and Johann Heinrich Feyerabend (secondary pastor 1747–1757) are also registered on it. The bell bears the inscription “ I CALL EVERYONE TO HEAR THE GOSPEL TO HIS SALVATION, THIS IS THE TEACHING OF YOUR SHEPHERDS / MY PLEASANT THONE COMPLAINS OF THE DEATH. AND I LOOK FOR HELP IN THE EVENT OF EMERGENCY ".

organ

Organ of the Church of St. Mariae-Jakobi

A first reference to an organ of the St. Mariae Jakobi Church can be found in a visitation protocol from 1576, in which a Johanes Sporelius is reported who was "there organist, schoolmaster and sacrificial man". The next report is from 1591, after which the organ builder Hans Thomas from Braunschweig built and delivered a new organ that year. It is also known that a new organ was inaugurated on the 3rd Advent 1686, details of this were not given. The next organ was from 1831 and it was reported that it was a new building with 32 registers . In 1913 the Furtwängler and Hammer company supplied a pneumatic organ. The current organ was built in 1968 by the Schmidt and Thiemann company from Hanover, the disposition of this organ was designed by the organ expert Karl-Heinrich Büchsel together with the provost cantor Karl Aust. The organ has three works with 25 registers, each work contains principal parts, reed registers and solo parts.

Church inventory

The oldest piece is an 18.5 cm high communion chalice , which was probably made around 1400. The cup has only a small capacity and the shell ( Kuppa ) of the cup is carried out in funnel shape. The small volume and the narrow drinking opening can be explained by the fact that in the church at that time only the priest was allowed to drink the wine of the Lord's Supper . The second chalice is from 1697. Like the first one, it is made of gold-plated silver, has a wide, tulip-shaped bowl and is 26.5 cm high. This chalice and the corresponding paten (plate for storing bread at the Lord's Supper) were made in the workshop of the Braunschweig master Johann Wagner.

There is also a silver wafer box , 5.5 cm high and 10.5 cm in diameter, which was donated to the church in 1712. The founder was Johann Conrad Bielstein, who at that time was the chief salt administrator of the salt mine and thus a senior administrative officer of the place. The old stock also includes two bronze altar candlesticks from around 1600 and a brass chandelier from the late 18th century.

The baptismal font and a baptismal jug are from 1865. Both probably come from the workshop of August Martin, who was born in Salzgitter in 1838 and who is mentioned here in 1866 as a “master coppersmith”.

History of the parish

At the end of the 8th century, the missionary work of the Sachsenland began under Charlemagne , in whose area the old Salzgitter was also located. The starting point for the spread of Christian doctrine was the monastery in Fulda , founded in 744 . After Ludwig the Pious founded the Prince Diocese of Hildesheim in 815 , Salzgitter belonged to his sphere of influence. The center of one of the total of 41 archdeaconates of the prince-bishopric was in the neighboring lattice , the church there was the mother church for the churches of Hohenrode , Kniestedt , Vepstedt and Salzgitter .

The rise of the salt town of Salzgitter began towards the end of the 15th century and the town became an important supplier of salt in the Harz foreland. The then Duke Heinrich the Younger took this growing importance into account and had the seat of the archdeaconate moved from grid to Salzgitter. The exact time is not known, but when the then pastor Gerhard Krüger had to take up residence in Salzgitter on the instructions of Duke Heinrich the Younger around 1530, this change was already complete.

After the victory of the Schmalkald troops and the expulsion of Duke Henry the Younger, the Reformation was first introduced in the country in 1542 . When the duke was able to return in 1547 after the victory of Charles V over the Schmalkaldic troops, he ordered a return to the Catholic faith. It was only his son Duke Julius (1568–1589) who finally introduced the Reformation in 1568. Following the example of 1542, the principality was again divided into five general superintendentes (Wolfenbüttel, Helmstedt, Gandersheim, Alfeld and Bockenem). These church districts were further subdivided into special superintendentures. The administrative and judicial districts of Liebenburg (where Salzgitter was located) and Lutter am Barenberge belonged to the special superintendent of Salzgitter / Salzliebenhalle, which in turn was in the area of ​​the general superintendent of Gandersheim.

The establishment of the city of Watenstedt-Salzgitter (since 1951 city of Salzgitter ) on April 1, 1942 also had an impact on the city's parishes. With a resolution of October 1, 1942, the superintendent of Salzgitter was dissolved and the churches of Salzgitter, which previously belonged to the Hanoverian regional church , became part of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church in Braunschweig . The Provost Office Salzgitter was founded in 1949 (since 1964 Provost Office Salzgitter-Bad ), to which the St. Mariae Jakobi Church still belongs today.

literature

  • Church council of the Evangelical Lutheran parish of St. Mariae-Jakobi Salzgitter-Bad (Ed.): 500 years of St. Mariae-Jakobi Salzgitter-Bad . Günter Cordes printing works, Salzgitter 1988.
  • Church buildings in Salzgitter . In: Department for Public Relations of the City of Salzgitter (Ed.): Salzgitter Forum . tape 12 , 1986.
  • Archive of the city of Salzgitter and the village community grid (ed.): Grid - twelve centuries of history . 1996, p. 134-143 .
  • Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Salzgitter - Past and Present of a German City - 1942-1992 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35573-0 , p. 589-604 .
  • Franz Zobel : The home book of the district of Goslar . Verlag der Goslarschen Zeitung Karl Krause, Goslar 1928, p. 1-18 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 14, 47
  2. ^ Franz Zobel, Goslar district , p. 15
  3. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 36–48
  4. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , p. 42
  5. ^ Franz Zobel, District of Goslar , p. 2
  6. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 210–212
  7. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 134–135
  8. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 111, 118, 138
  9. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , p. 124ff
  10. ↑ Benz, Salzgitter 1942-1992 , p. 591
  11. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , p. 50
  12. ↑ 500 years of St. Mariae Jakobi Church , pp. 50–51
  13. ↑ Chronicle Grid , pp. 134–135
  14. ↑ Chronicle Grid , pp. 134–135
  15. ↑ Benz, Salzgitter 1942-1992 , pp. 594-595

Web links

Commons : St. Mariae-Jakobi-Kirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 51.4 "  N , 10 ° 22 ′ 21.8"  E