St. Mary's Church (Tripkau)

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St. Marien Church in Tripkau
View from the southeast of the half-timbered church

The Evangelical-Lutheran St. Marien Church (also St. Mariä zu Tripkau ) is a half-timbered church in Tripkau in the Neuhaus district in the Lower Saxony district of Lüneburg . The church is controversial for its modern and unusual interior.

location

St. Mary's Church, located in the center of Tripkau on Bundesstraße 195 on a small hill, is surrounded by a circular lawn with scattered trees and bushes. A war memorial is located in the south-western area of ​​the area . The associated cemetery is a few hundred meters to the east. The church is accessed from the small garden road via a tree-lined path.

history

The first church building in Tripkau, also a half-timbered church, was built in 1618.

After a hundred years, the building was in a poor structural condition and was replaced in 1757 by the Oberland master builder Otto Heinrich von Bonn with a simple half-timbered church without a tower. This building, which forms the basis of today's church, also had to be repaired after a hundred years due to damage.

The current external shape of the church was created in 1864. According to plans by Conrad Wilhelm Hase , the church received a roof turret and a polygonal choir extension with a sacristy .

From 1996 to 1998 the church was completely renovated. In 1998 the interior was redesigned by the painter and university professor Ludwig Ehrler . Ehrler was commissioned by the pastor and friend from his student days, Bernhard Ullrich. The unusual design made the church interesting for tourists, making it one of the most visited churches in the region.

In addition to the St. Marien Church in Tripkau, the St. Marien Church in Kaarßen and the Church in Wehningen belong to the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Tripkau in the Lüneburg parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Hanover .

architecture

Exterior construction

The present building is in half-timbered style of red brick built hall church . The mighty roof turret impresses above all with its beam structure and is reminiscent of a defensive tower. The western front of the roof ridge is equipped with a church clock from 1869. The roof of the nave , the choir and the sacristy is covered with red roof tiles.

inner space

The interior does not contain any pillars. There is a gallery directly above the entrance . The organ stands in the middle of the north wall of the church. To the right of the altar in the choir is the gallery and a baptismal font. The floor is made of bricks. The church has no fixed benches, only light, easily movable chairs. The interior is almost completely traversed by recurring cross motifs. The organ, the pulpit and the baptismal font were left in their original state.

layout

Ludwig Ehrler fills the whole church down to the last corner with a logically sober pattern of crosses. They are painted on all the walls, the ceiling, the galleries and the doors, in front of the windows they float as flat bodies made of sheet iron and in the floor they lie light gray in the middle of red bricks. But Ehrler doesn't just add up a multitude of characters in this space. The geometric arrangement of the crosses meets the existing architecture of the church. Your skeleton - the framework - remains white. It thus intervenes in the stream of crosses and fragments it. This creates a mysterious concealment and vibration, a multifaceted, living spatial structure.

The ornament does not create silence, because all apparent chaos urges the search for the underlying order, all disorientation asks about the "where from" and "where to" and everything fragmentary drives the exploration of meaning and wholeness. This urge, questioning and driving does not only arise in the Church in Tripkau - this search is a basic process of the whole Church of Christ and of every individual believer. To believe means to live in the Exodus, means to leave the old familiar. It is not without reason that Ehrler writes in his explanations of the design draft: “This sacred space is not a cozy room.” Being on the move is not a Sunday stroll. If the church is a journey under the cross, then this overflowing Tripkau cross flood shows how joyful and powerful this movement can be. With the broken cross grid, Ehrler transforms light and reflections, logic and statics, color and form into intoxication and floating, creating a prayer room full of irritation and festivity.

Relationship between design and theology

  • The floor and ceiling crosses are congruent. Heaven and earth correspond in this place. It indicates that man can understand himself as a creature, that God knows his beginning and his end. “You surround me on all sides and hold your hand over me.” Psalm 139: 5
  • The crosses run obliquely in all directions. It is as if the structure of the crosses sweep unbound, powerfully through the room and across it. The freedom that is in the cross pattern points to something universal like the Holy Spirit. The dynamics in the pattern and the omnipresence of the grid indicate that God's spirit and power is there for everyone and will be transferred to everyone. “You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you”. Acts 1: 8
  • The framework is left white and covers the cross structure. The structure of the church stands out in front of or in the all-embracing cross pattern. This creates an image of this place in the universal. The general objective (the cross structure) breaks into the subjective (the framework) - in other words: the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Christ, the love of God, which is found all over the world, meet a specific local congregation in this place . The design makes it clear that the two do not exist separately from each other.
A second becomes clear: the white bars are man-made. They carry the building. They stand for human rules and deeds, for good and bad. The cross structure is what embraces and goes beyond everything human. Everything human is moved into a horizon of gold and enables a new perception of people. “Now I know piece by piece, but then I will know how I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
A third shows the superimposition that puts logic and statics, color and form into intoxication and floating: Neither the pattern in the church in Tripkau, nor the shape of Christ's church, nor the being of God is revealed once and for all. It has to interpret itself again and again in the field of history. This historical dimension becomes clear in God's self-interpretation in the Book of Exodus. The text passage can be translated both in the present tense as "I am who I am" and in the future tense as "I will be who I will be".
  • The cross on the altar is the starting point and center of the pattern. The structure has its origin in the cross on the altar. So everything becomes a net that the fisherman of men Jesus casts and to which anyone who threatens to lose their bearings in the chaos can cling. There is a place and peace for everyone.
  • The crosses in the three choir windows are made of transparent golden-yellow glass and surrounded by a milky background. These crosses are the only ones through which a view of the surroundings is possible. The real world is gilded. They thus refer to the future life. It becomes bright and bright and can still only be seen through the cross. Death and suffering are not canceled - but they appear in the light of the resurrection. The new and the old apply at the same time, are not canceled, but transformed - as already stated in Psalm 139:12: "Darkness is like light"!

  • View towards the exit and gallery

  • Basic orientations of the crosses

  • Brick floor with white crosses

  • Pulpit without cross design

Furnishing

Organ of the St. Marien Church

organ

The church organ is listed as a memorial organ by the Hanover regional church office and came to St. Mary's Church in 1816 after it was bought second-hand in Hamburg. The organ was manufactured as early as the 18th century. In 1978 the organ was restored.

Peal

The larger of the two ring bells was melted down in both world wars and replaced by a chilled cast iron bell in 1958. The smaller bell outlived the Second World War . It was cast by JJ Radler & Sons , has a diameter of 60.1 centimeters and weighs 109 kilograms. The strike note is the "-7. According to various statements, it was cast in either 1924 or 1928.

In 2010, two new bronze bells from the Eifel bell foundry were added. The larger of the two bells has a diameter of 92.1 centimeters, weighs 470 kilograms and has the striking note b'-9. The smaller bell, on the other hand, weighs 182 kilograms, has a diameter of 66.3 centimeters and has the strike tone es "-8.

The first clock bell made of non-ferrous metal was withdrawn in 1942 and replaced by a new bell in 1982.

criticism

The unusual design of the interior was the subject of more frequent discussions. The recurring cross forms are criticized as restless or even disfigurement. It is also noted that too few areas are provided without crosses. However, the interior is also well received and is described as an impressive design.

Web links

Commons : St. Marien Church (Tripkau)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 11 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 11 ° 6 ′ 37.2 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carolin George, Berit Neß: Church leaders for the Hanseatic city and the district of Lüneburg . Ed .: Lüneburg Tourist Office. Lüneburg 2009, p. 66 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ev.-luth. Parish Tripkau (Ed.): St. Marien Church Tripkau . Maronde's art publisher and agency, Lauenburg 2015.
  3. ↑ Carolin George, Berit Neß: God's houses: From the tower made of field stones to the glass altar . Ed .: Ev.-luth. Church district Lüneburg. Evangelical Lutheran Church District Lüneburg, Lüneburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-054672-3 , p. 129 .
  4. ↑ a b Thorsten Meier: House of God disfigured? It is a cross with crosses | svz.de. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper . August 4, 2014, accessed June 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Stefan Branahl: What's that supposed to mean? In: KirchenZeitung . November 7, 2018, accessed June 2, 2020 .
  6. ^ Neuhaus-Tripkau. In: Evangelical Lutheran Church District Lüneburg. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Ev.-luth. Parish Tripkau (ed.): St. Marien Church Tripkau, Lauenburg 2015.
  8. ↑ Cf. Christoph Tannert: So much chaos in a church? in: Kathrin Grahl u. a .: A room dress for St. Mariä in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, pp. 13 and 14.
  9. ↑ Ludwig Ehrler: Explanations of the draft, manuscript, September 17, 1998.
  10. ↑ Cf. Christoph Tannert: So much chaos in a church? in: Kathrin Grahl u. a .: A room dress for St. Mariä in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, p. 14 and 15 / Ludwig Ehrler in conversation with Josef Walch, in: Ludwig Ehrler - Verschiebungen, catalog, Halle, 1996, p. 36.
  11. ^ Bernhard Ullrich, Marco Rumler: The order to Ludwig Ehrler, in: Kathrin Grahl u. a .: A room dress for St. Mariä in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, p. 53.
  12. ↑ See Ludwig Ehrler: Explanations of the draft, manuscript, September 17, 1998.
  13. ↑ See Ludwig Ehrler: Explanations of the draft, manuscript, September 17, 1998.
  14. ↑ See Bernhard Ullrich, Marco Rumler: The order to Ludwig Ehrler, in: Kathrin Grahl u. a .: A room dress for St. Mariä in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, p. 53.
  15. ↑ Cf. Christoph Tannert: So much chaos in a church? in: Kathrin Grahl u. a .: A room dress for St. Mariä in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, p. 14.
  16. ↑ 2 Book of Moses, Exodus 3:14.
  17. ↑ Elberfeld Bible 1985.
  18. ^ Luther translation from 1984.
  19. ↑ Bernhard Ullrich, Marco Rumler: The order to Ludwig Ehrler, in: Kathrin Grahl et al: A room dress for St. Mariä in T - Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, p. 53.
  20. ↑ Bernhard Ullrich, Marco Rumler: The order to Ludwig Ehrler, in: Kathrin Grahl et al: A room dress for St. Mary in Tripkau, Halle an der Saale 2004, cf. p. 53 / p. 50.
  21. ↑ See Jesus' death gives us new life, in: EKD (Ed.): For us died, Gütersloh, 2015, p. 180.
  22. ↑ Tripkau Parish Council (Ed.): The church of Tripkau is worth a trip .
  23. ↑ a b c Tripkau (LG) - ev.-luth. St. Mariä - single and full bells. In: YouTube.com. December 1, 2019, accessed June 20, 2020 .