St. Nicolai Church (Grünhain)
| St. Nicolai Grünhain | |
|---|---|
 Church building from the southeast |
|
| Construction year: | 1808 |
| Inauguration: | 25./26. October 1812 |
| Architect : | Johann Traugott Lohse |
| Client: | ev. parish Grünhain |
| Dimensions: | 33 × 19 × 35 (including weather vane) m |
| Space: | 800 people |
| Location: | 50 ° 34 '43.2 " N , 12 ° 48' 26.6" E |
| Address: | Grünhain, Markt 1 Grünhain-Beierfeld Saxony , Germany |
| Purpose: | Evangelical Lutheran church service |
| Website: | kg.kirche-gruenhain.de |
The Evangelical Lutheran St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain is a classicist hall church and was built between 1808 and 1812 as a typical Saxon sermon church based on designs by the architect Johann Traugott Lohse . The church had a few previous buildings, the first of which was built around the year 1200. The Protestant St. Nicolai Church is dedicated to St. Nikolaus von Myra , the patron saint of travelers and traders, is consecrated.
Building history
First houses of worship
Around the year 1200, Ritter Heidenreich, a feudal man of Meinher II, Burgrave of Meißen, ordered the construction of a first church building at this important point on the Salt Road from the Ore Mountains to Bohemia . After the fief was returned, the Cistercian monastery Grünhain was built, the buildings of which were gradually ready for occupancy from September 20, 1235. Pope Innocent IV is said to have dedicated the church to the order in 1244. During this time there were two churches in Grünhain.
In 1530, after the Reformation , the Saxon sovereign appointed an administrator ( sequester ) for the monastery complex, which was subsequently dissolved and the town church became Protestant . The monastery church remained unused and eventually became a ruin. St. Nicolai burned down in 1536, but was rebuilt by 1546. Another fire broke out in February 1553. Again the community rebuilt its church until 1559, in which - according to unconfirmed traditions - windows, pews, bells and the organ of the monastery church should have been built.
In the Thirty Years' War , on November 8, 1632, imperial troops stormed the town of Grünhain, which then lay desolate for almost 20 years .
In the years 1651–1657, the town church was rebuilt for the third time in connection with the arrival of new residents, and in 1659 the church tower was also finished. The first organ was destroyed, by 1674 Matthias Tretzscher from Kulmbach had manufactured and installed a new musical instrument.
Another disaster happened on July 22nd, 1802, when a lightning strike severely damaged large parts of the church. The repair took a year and cost the community 1,400 thalers . A big fire in the city on the night of November 5th to 6th, 1807 finally left nothing of the church, neither inventory nor documents could be saved. Numerous other buildings in the village also fell to rubble.
New building at the beginning of the 19th century
Now the church ruins had to be removed and a new building planned. The church building was built according to plans and under the direction of Johann Traugott Lohse from Pleißa . The foundation stone was ceremonially laid on June 19, 1809, and on October 25 and 26, 1812 the new St. Nicolai Church, built in a neoclassical style , was inaugurated.
- Organs
For the new church, the congregation ordered the organ builder Johann Gottlob Trampeli from Adorf / Vogtl. also a new organ. Due to the sudden death of the master, this was completed by his apprentice Christian Gottlob Steinmüller , who was about to take his journeyman's examination. The instrument with two manuals and 25 registers fulfilled all the wishes of the Nicolai community, whereupon the Grünhainer Steinmüller were able to move to set up his organ building workshop in town. Steinmüller finally built another 25 organs here, most of which have been preserved in the 21st century - for example in Arnoldsgrün , Großrückerswalde , Pausa , Raschau , Schwarzbach , Thierfeld and Wolkenstein . Almost exactly after 100 years, A. Schuster & Sohn rebuilt the organ and expanded its playing area. In 1934 another intervention took place. After the Second World War it was found that the repeated interventions lost part of the historical substance of the instrument and its playability was only possible to a limited extent. In 1977 the parish planned the installation of a new organ in the GDR period , which could not be realized due to a lack of capacity and material problems. The situation ultimately led to the Steinmüller organ having to be completely shut down in 1994.
However, the political change with the end of the church repression enabled a complete renovation and restoration of the entire church and its inventory from 1997. The historical pipes still in existence from seven registers of the organ were dismantled and restored, others were sold or recycled. When a new instrument was made by the organ builder Ekkehart Groß from Waditz , the restored parts were also used, as was the restored original organ prospectus . The organ was consecrated on May 12, 2014.
Effects of the two world wars in the 20th century
First and Second World War passed the church without a trace, only a few bells were partially sacrificed on the " Altar of the Fatherland " for the manufacture of war equipment. In 1917, two bells out of three had to be removed from the chimes of 1812 and delivered to be melted down. They were replaced by two new bells in 1921. Also in 1942 two bells had to be delivered for armament purposes.
→ see section bells
After the Second World War, new bells were procured again. Due to the lack of non-ferrous metal , the large bell had to be made from cast steel . Scrap from the local armaments industry was used as material . The casting took place in the Mörgenröthe iron foundry . The bell foundry Schilling & Lattermann in Apolda produced two more bronze bells . Since 1949 the church has had a four-bell ring. The cast steel bell was finally replaced by a bronze bell in 1997, the financing of which was made possible by the partner municipality from De Lier in the Netherlands .
In the years 1997 to 2008 the interior and exterior of the church could be restored. The facades and interior walls were given new plaster and fresh colors to match their original appearance.
architecture
Main church room
The church can be entered from two sides, from the northwest - from the market through the tower and into a side aisle - and from the southeast. Above the portal on the southeast side there is a triangular gable, in the field of which there is the slogan “Immenso sed proximo” (“[God] the immeasurable and yet very next”) with gilded capital letters. The ship is about 33 meters long and 19 meters wide. The church has a gable roof, which was re-covered in 2011.
tower
The tower, which is rectangular in the area of the foundation, about eight by seven meters in size, rises 35 meters and is covered with slate. It was placed symmetrically on the south-western narrow side of the nave. The upper part of the tower is octagonal, at its top is the tower ball , above it a weather pointer and a weather cock, all freshly gilded after the renovation. In 1585 the previous building received its first tower clock .
- Bells
As can already be seen from the building history, several bells have been installed in the Grünhain church . A bell with a mass of around three hundredweight from a previous building from 1559 found its place in the new building (1651–1659), but it melted in the town fire of 1807. In a protocol it says: “... and the small bell 3 weighed up to 3½ quintals ... and must still come from Catholic times. ”The Kirchner or bell ringer could not read the inscription on their cast body. The church, which was rededicated in the middle of the 17th century, had three bells at that time, two of which were made in the Johann Hendel bell foundry from Zwickau . On January 3, 1704, one of these bells burst. The community had the two bells cast in the piece foundry by Michael Weinhold in 1704 and rededicated them on August 28th. All three bells were ultimately a victim of the town fire of 1807, in which town houses, the school and numerous utility buildings were also destroyed.
A fire insurance fund paid 700 thalers for the destroyed bells, and the recovered bell material was used to cast three new bells. The congregation had commissioned JNG La-Mar (a syringe builder for the manufacture of rare machine parts made of brass and copper) to create the new three-part bell for the entire church building .
| Bell jar | Chime | Casting year | Bell foundry | Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( cm) |
Height (cm) |
Inscription, remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bell (2) | f ′ | 1921 | Schilling, Apolda | 736 | 117 | “In heaven I float, to heaven I lift the human heart. I consecrate life, I lend sounds to joy and pain. During the day I wake up, in the evening I wave for a gentle rest. I greet the baby, I bring love to the altar. For help I ring the bell, for prayer I invite the Christian choir. I lament for the dead, I carry prayers up to God. ” In January 1942, master builder Jahn had to return this bell to Aue as a metal donation during the Second World War , and it was smashed during dismantling. |
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| Big Bell (1) | a ′ | 1810 | La-Mar | 500 | 93 | 87 | "Poured by JNG La Mar in Dresden Soli Deo Gloria Anno 1810" "Sub auspiciis Frideciri Augusti potentisimi regis Saxoniae etc. Sume venerando Caroli Gottlieb Bretschneidero, phoro dioeceseos Annabergensis, et excellentisimo Christiano Gottlob Kempio, grav praefecto inspector Schlunisshainiensi et s , Abel Ernesto Ludovico from Aderkas, praetore, varolo Christophoro Beniamin Hofmanno “ The inscription quoted here can be found on the market side of the bell, on the school side there is the following additional inscription:“ Ecclesia coetus qui est Grunhainae seruatori suo Iesu Christo pie addicti ipso sortunante recens exstructa “(The church of the community in Grünhain is consecrated to its piously invoked Savior Jesus Christ and was rebuilt with his happy support.) Since 1921 it has been the middle bell (2). |
| Medium Bell (1) | cis ′ | 1810 | La-Mar | 225 | 72 | 69 | "Poured by JNG La Mar in Dresden in the year 1810" "Keep your feet when you go to God's house and come and hear." This and the little bell were to be remelted into war equipment during World War I , which is why it was on July 9th In 1917 and taken to Schwarzenberg. |
| Little Bell (1) | a ′ ′ | 1810 | La-Mar | 105 | 56 | 56 | “My sound from this height calls you to the house of the Lord. Spread his praise there, he will gladly listen to you. ” 1917 Dismantling and melting down |
| Little Bell (2) | c ′ ′ | 1921 | Schilling, Apolda | 207 | 75 | 56 | "Oh land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord". This bell was delivered again in 1942 and melted down. |
As early as 1919, the St. Nicolai community tried to get two new bells, for which negotiations were held with the Schilling foundry in Apolda on the one hand and donations were collected on the other. The necessary money was available in 1921 and so on October 2nd, 1921 the Schilling company delivered a new large bell (which is why the previous one became the middle one) and a new small bell, both cast from bronze. The two new bells had high-ranking bell sponsors and were donated by Grünhain citizens.
After the Second World War, the parish again conducted negotiations with the Schilling foundry in Apolda and was finally able to agree on the casting of a new three-part bell despite massive material problems and unsecured funding. The tower, which is no longer very stable, and the belfry were renovated. As a new big bell, a cast steel bell was created from material donations and steel scrap , the other two bells were made of bronze in the classic way. The big bell from 1949 (strike tone g ′) with a weight of 914 kg was finally fetched from the tower in 1997 and permanently erected as a memorial against the war for the 1997 Kirchweih festival on a processed natural stone in front of the church. It was replaced by a new bronze bell.
Since 1997 these four bells have been in the tower of the church:
| Bell jar | Chime | Casting year | Bell foundry | Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( cm) |
Height (cm) |
Inscription, remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bell (4) | f ′ | 1997 | Bachert foundry , Heilbronn | 950 | 119 | 120 | "Glory to God in the highest." |
| Medium Bell (2) | a ′ | 1810 | La Mar, Dresden | 500 | 93 | 87 | see above |
| Little Bell (2) | c ′ ′ | 1949 | Schilling, Apolda | 254 | 75 | 74 | see above |
| Baptismal bell | e ′ ′ | 1949 | Schilling, Apolda | 107 | 57 | 56 | "Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget what he has done you good." |
Furnishing
Sanctuary
The pulpit altar with two round columns as a boundary dates from 1812 and was made according to a design by Lohse. The small altarpiece shows a depiction of the Last Supper by the portrait painter Friedrich Traugott Georgi (1783–1838) from Leipzig. On both sides of the pulpit, the only colored windows of the church are built in, they are semicircular and decorated with symmetrical ornaments. A strong architrave rests above the pillars, above which there is a large halo (halo) as a symbol for the eye of God, which rests on the visitors of the church. In the halo there is a Hebrew inscription with the name of God, Yahweh .
A portrait and a plaque from 1897 in the altar area are reminiscent of the baroque composer and Thomas Cantor Johann Hermann Schein , who was born in Grünhain. The original portrait of an unknown master is in the Leipzig University Library.
Windows, ceiling, columns, galleries
The glass of the church window is not colored, so that the inside of the church, also in view of the white, light blue and two shades of gray paint, is quite light in daylight. The ceiling of the nave is flat and plastered and is bordered by a circumferential painted medium gray frieze made of geometric patterns.
Square, marbled wooden columns support the two-story galleries. These lead around the entire interior, including behind the semicircular altar area. There the galleries are designed as glazed prayer rooms .
The organ loft in the west of the church shows a slight curve into the church interior.
A small memorial room has been added below it, in which wooden nameplates commemorate those who died in the community during the two world wars.
The balustrade fields of the galleries with a medium gray background show a simple gold-plated wreath motif as decoration.
Baptism, ambo, chandelier, stalls
The baptismal font and the ambo stand in front of the altar and are classical in shape. The baptismal font, made like a large goblet, and its lid are made of marble and decorated with gold stripes.
Three chandeliers made of Bohemian glass hang in chains from the ceiling; they are part of the original furnishings from 1812.
Three rows of white-painted pews on the ground floor and additional seats in the galleries offer space for 800 visitors.
Clay tile portrait in the anteroom
In the anteroom of the church there is a “Sunday celebration picture”, made from 77 glazed colored clay tiles by the art potter John Schneider from Marburg in 1914. It shows a young family with a toddler playing with a sheep. At the lower edge of the picture, a verse calls for doing nothing on Sunday: “On Sunday let the work of the week rest, and let God's word teach you in faith that there is no blissful business, no more sacred activity than to honor the Lord God in prayer . "
The Grünhainer Paul Auerswald sen. bought the painting and donated it to his parish in 1917. The master potter himself put the picture on the wall in the church building in Grünhain and the pastor “consecrated” it on Reformation Day in 1917. The painting survived relatively unnoticed for the next eight decades. In 1998, the church-historical association had the approximately two-meter-high work restored in the Müller workshop in Plauen and provided with a declaration.
organ
Christian Gottlob Steinmüller's organ dates from 1812, but was rebuilt several times and was ultimately no longer playable from 1994. Only a new building, combined with a restoration between 2012 and 2014, brought the instrument to sound again, original parts from Steinmüller could be reused. The reconstruction carried out by the organ builder Ekkehart Groß in 2014 is reminiscent of Steinmüller .
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- Coupling : I / P
The new organ of 2014 has 26 registers and its disposition is based heavily on that of Steinmüller. Some voices have been exchanged.
Parish and pastor
The first evangelical pastor listed in the church registers was Stephan Bäuerlein. In the second half of the 16th century the father of the later Thomas Cantor Johann Hermann Schein was a pastor in the St. Nicolai parish.
Here is a chronological overview of the pastors in the parish:
| Name first Name | Term of office | Life dates | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little peasant, Stephan | 1530-1534 | 1488-1565 | beginning Reformation; Until then, the church had no pastor of its own, but the services were celebrated by the monks |
| Imgraben, Andreas | 1534-1540 | ? - around 1555 | |
| Barthel, Valentin | 1540/1541 | 1486-1541 | |
| Felder, Friedrich | 1541-1544 | around 1500–1562 | |
| Winkler, Johannes | 1542-1577 | after 1500 – around 1577 | |
| Günther, Sebastian | 1577-1578 | 1544-1579 | |
| Schaller, Wolfgang | 1579-1584 | 1536-1595 | |
| Sham, Hieronymus | 1584-1594 | 1533-1594 | |
| Fischer, Bartholomew | 1594-1634 | 1569-1643 | |
| Frenzel, Wolfgang | 1634-1643 | 1600-1643 | |
| Bergicht, Georg | 1643-1686 | 1607-1687 | After the Thirty Years War , Georg Bergicht took care of the reconstruction of the church after twenty years of vacancy and destruction. |
| Breitfeld, Christian | 1686-1690 | 1651-1690 | |
| Zeis, Christian Valerius | 1690/1691 | 1661-1726 | Substitute |
| Fugmann, Johann Caspar | 1691-1696 | 1656-1697 | |
| Judge, Christian | 1696-1705 | 1665-1705 | |
| Schneider, Georg Friedrich | 1706-1712 | 1674-1755 | |
| Sieber, Johann Kaspar | 1712-1727 | 1677-1746 | |
| Hering, Johann Gottfried | 1727-1764 | 1689-1764 | |
| Anger, Johann Gottlieb | 1764-1808 | 1735-1807 | |
| from Adercas, Abel Ernst Ludwig | 1808-1832 | 1764-1834 | |
| Neubert, Franz Eduard | 1830-1832 | 1796-1866 | Substitute |
| Judge, Ernst Albert | 1832-1845 | 1802-1852 | |
| Ullmann, Johann Gottlieb | 1845-1868 | 1803-1880 | |
| Göcker, Friedrich Albert | 1868-1885 | 1837-1885 | |
| Seidel, Ernst Albin | 1885-1900 | 1853-1900 | |
| Klöckner, Fr. Albert Adolf | 1900 | 1868-1953 | Vicar , substitute |
| Walther, Gustav | 1901-1914 | 1869-1936 | |
| Count, Curt | 1915 (January to March) | 1890-1956 | Parish Vicar, Substitute |
| Friedrich, Moritz Josef Karl | 1915-1927 | 1888-1965 | |
| Hering, Carl Friedrich | 1927-1931 | 1897-1990 | In 1931 Hering went to the USA to work for a missionary organization . |
| Wolff, Hans Conrad Albert | 1931-1949 | 1899-1992 | |
| von Lippe, Bernhard Gottfried | 1950-1953 | 1888-1973 | |
| Hampel, Helmut | 1953-1961 | * 1929 | Vicar in 1953, ordained in 1954 |
| Judge, Emil Gustav Johannes | 1961-1970 | 1934-2004 | |
| Schramm, Gotthard | 1970-1996 | 1934-2010 | |
| Tischendorf, Wolfgang | 1997-2001 | * 1954 | |
| Georgi, Christoph | 2003-2015 | * 1951 | Vacancy representation until 6/2016: Pastor Friedemann Müller from Beierfeld |
| Summer, Tobias | since 7/2016 | * 1984 |
The St. Nicolai parish has had a church partnership with a Dutch parish in De Lier since 1984 . With the St. Nicholas Church in Ebermannstadt there is another partner community.
literature
- Rolf Böttcher : 800 years of St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain. Grünhain-Beierfeld 2012 DNB 1023141140
- Rolf Böttcher: Interior restoration of the St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain - the pulpit altar by Traugott Lohse. Erzgebirge Homeland Papers , 2008/4, ISSN 0232-6078 .
- Rolf Böttcher: The St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain is being renovated and restored. A church building by Johann Traugott Lohse. Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter, 2002/1, ISSN 0232-6078 .
- Rolf Böttcher: New construction of the St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain after the city fire of 1807 ; Saxon. State Library
- Rolf Böttcher: St. Nicolai Church Grünhain, organ consecration on May 18, 2014 ; Saxon. State Library
Web links
References and comments
- ^ The St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain; Information board in the anteroom; As of May 2015.
- ↑ a b c Information board posted inside the church; 2015.
- ↑ Homepage of the organ building company eh. Schuster , accessed on June 26, 2016.
- ^ Ulrich Dähnert: Historical organs in Saxony , Leipzig 1983, p. 147f.
- ↑ Rolf Böttcher: The organ in the St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain , in: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter 36 (2014), Heft 5, S. 13f. ISSN 0232-6078
- ^ Homepage of the master organ builder Ekkehard Groß from Waditz , accessed on March 22, 2016.
- ↑ Information board on the cast steel bell in the open space in front of the church and additional information from Rolf Böttcher.
- ↑ The building dimensions were roughly determined with the tool from Google Earth .
- ↑ Rolf Böttcher: The bells of the St. Nicolai Church in Grünhain. - Supplements, Sept. 2008.
- ↑ a b Rolf Böttcher: The bells of the St. Nicolaikirche zu Grünhain , Ed. Kirchenhistorischer Förderkreis, 1997.
- ↑ Saxony 1897 . On tu-freiberg.de with mention of the company La-Mar from Dresden ( memento of the original from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ German translation: “Under the rule of the mighty King August of Saxony, etc., under the Reverend Mr. Ephorus Carl Gottlieb Bretschneider from Annaberg and the honored Mr. Christian Gottlob Kempe from Grünhain and Schlettau, the two strict lords of the church inspection, under the boom of the Holy Scriptures Abel Ernst Ludwig Adercas and under the judge Carl Christoph Benjamin Hofmann "
- ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments, Saxony II, administrative districts Leipzig and Chemnitz , edited by Barbara Becker, Wiebke Fastenrath, Heinrich Magirius et al., Munich 1998, p. 375
- ↑ Information board next to the clay tile picture in the church anteroom; May 2015.
- ^ Company history art pottery Schneider in Marburg ; accessed on February 11, 2016.
- ↑ Website Restaurator Müller, Plauen , accessed on February 11, 2016. Only a few selected ones can be found under “References”, the picture from the Nicolaikirche Grünhain is not mentioned.
- ↑ Details on the organ: from an exchange of letters between user: 44Pinguine and the church archivist Rolf Böttcher; February 2016.
- ↑ Rolf Böttcher: The pastors at the town church of St. Nicolai zu Grünhain since 1530. Church historical patrons of the architectural monument St. Nicolai Kirche zu Grünhain eV, 2010 edition.
- ↑ Further information on the pastors according to several parish letters Meine Kirche (2013 to 2016).
- ↑ Information from the January / February 2016 community letter.
