St. Wolfgang Church (Schneeberg)

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View of the church from Gleesberg from

The St. Wolfgang Church in Schneeberg is one of the largest hall churches of the late Gothic in the Saxon area. It was built at the beginning of the 16th century on parts of a smaller previous building and is considered an early type of Reformation church building . Because of its dominant location on the summit of the Schneeberg, which in past centuries had been cut through for ore mining from pits and tunnels, it is also known as the miner's cathedral. The parish of St. Wolfgang in Schneeberg owns the summer church described here and the hospital church, the Trinitatiskirche on Fürstenplatz as a winter church . The Evangelical Lutheran parish of Schneeberg is connected to the St. Georg & St. Martin parish of Griesbach .

Building history

The decision to build a new church

The St. Wolfgang Church was built at the instigation of the Elector Frederick the Wise , who came from the Ernestian branch of the Wettins . It was intended to surpass St. Anne's Church in Annaberg, Albertina , with a monumental building . The plans for the new church were drawn up by Hans Meltwitz (also Hans von Torgau ) and Fabian Lobwasser (who was later responsible for the construction of the new town hall of Schneeberg, among other things ). The small stone church on the mountain, which was only consecrated in 1478, had to be demolished at the beginning of the 16th century.

Tower access: The door knocker comes from the first stone church.

The citizens, especially the owners of the mines, financed the elaborate construction of the new church by paying a groschen to the parish for every Kux they found (a mine share ) since around 1480 . The new building began in 1516, when Catholicism was still widespread in all German lands , and papal customs were not abolished until 1524. The new faith was implemented in the Electorate of Saxony by a visitation commission to reorganize the entire life according to the theses of Martin Luther . The changed church doctrine also had an impact on the new city church under construction and its simplified design. In 1540 the sacred building was consecrated as a Protestant .

The miner's cathedral between 1540 and 1944

In addition to the regular church services, child baptisms, weddings and funeral masses, the church, consecrated in the name of St. Wolfgang , from then on also served for large celebrations such as a thanksgiving service in 1609 on the occasion of the freedom of religion decided on for Bohemian immigrants or a supplication service in 1654 when a total solar eclipse was predicted.

During the conquest of the Thirty Years' War under Wallenstein , the troops of General Heinrich von Holk († 1633) also looted the inventory of St. Wolfgang's Church. In particular, the pictures of the altar erected in 1539 were stolen from the workshop of the artist family Cranach and brought to Bohemia. After the occupation ended, the city council tried to bring the paintings back, which was achieved in 1649 and celebrated again.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the church received a rich baroque interior. In the 1670s the tower was increased to 72 meters. In the great city fire of 1719, the sacred building was badly damaged and later it burned frequently. In the following decades the building was repeatedly repaired and partially renewed.

Massive destruction in April 1945

Saved and restored font from the 16th century

At noon on April 19, 1945, two US American low-level bombers initially fired at the entire city of Schneeberg and the residents on the street, mostly with incendiary ammunition . The roof of the St. Wolfgang Church and its tower were also hit. Because after the earlier fires everything wooden in the church had been painted with fire retardants, the first nests of fire did not appear in the church until two hours after the attack. The residents made desperate attempts to extinguish the fire. But there was no extinguishing water available because the water pressure was insufficient for the extinguishing technology. In this way, at least valuable items such as numerous volumes in the church library, the panels from the altar that had already been removed, the baptismal font and other items of equipment were saved from destruction. The original Jahn organ with its 3,018 pipes, the stalls and the small bell, however, fell victim to the flames. Once the fire had eaten its way through the entablature, the sandstone columns and vaults were also affected, as they were made of material with embedded coal residues (Planitz sandstone) that burned out in the process. Toxic fumes were also produced. After many hours, most of the vaults collapsed and, after six weeks, the galleries too. The church was just a ruin with a meter-high pile of rubble inside and out.

Reconstruction in small steps

The men and women who were still able to work in Schneeberg, even some former prisoners of war, began to clear the rubble in the summer of 1945 . The first peace concert could take place in the open church building during Advent in 1946.

The church fathers, the city administration and many volunteers joined together to form a St. Wolfgang Circle of Friends, helped or donated for the reconstruction. They all ensured that from 1952 a gradual reconstruction could be carried out. If it was at all feasible, historical components or building materials were used - but new and, above all, more stable materials were often used. A special achievement of the preservation of monuments is the historically accurate restoration of the pillars and the vaults, which were omitted in numerous other war-destroyed buildings in Germany or only took place in a simplified or modified form.

Completion of the basic renovation and reconstruction as well as further use

After the fall of the Wall , efforts to secure and maintain the monument came to a temporary end with the consecration of the altar in 1996. All other work on the design, the renovation of the renovations and new buildings carried out in the 1970s or the renovation (for example the church lighting) can be carried out independently of each other in the long term.

The church is once again fully used by the parish, and its organ is also often used for larger concerts. - The church can be visited free of charge every day during the day. Guided tours and climbing the tower are possible by appointment.

Integration of St. Wolfgang's Church with the city's school system

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, it was customary for children to be taught by church schools and pastors. The church's own school was built very early on, very close to the large church, the Latin school that opened shortly after the city was granted city rights. The headmasters and teachers received their wages partly from the church pledges, partly from the city purse, they were also mostly active both in the teaching institution and in the church.

The building at Schulgasse 7 at the foot of the church has been preserved over the centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century it was called the Schneeberg Citizens' School and has been called the Schneeberg Evangelical Primary School since the 1990s.

architecture

The church is a three-aisled hall church with a length of 61 and a width of 28 meters with six yokes in quarry stone with structures made of sandstone. Inside, a uniform, circumferential gallery is built on segmental arches . The polygonal end of the choir is flattened more than usual in the Gothic. The altar area is not separated from the main nave and thus represents the early form of the Lutheran preaching church. According to the location on the mountain, the church is not strictly oriented in an east-west direction, but slightly turned to the north, so that the altar apse is the north-eastern end of the building. On the gable roof sits above the altar area, a roof turret. A side extension protrudes from the structure only on the northwest side.

The church tower is attached on the southwest side of the building asymmetrically to the building axis of the church as a separate structure. It has a square floor plan and is made of field stones and bricks. The tower is completed by a baroque, slate-covered dome with a lantern, which was built by August Siegert in the years 1751–1753 after a fire in 1719.

In art-historical literature, the Wolfgang Church in Schneeberg is counted among a group of late Gothic hall churches, including the Freiberg Cathedral , St. Mary's Church in Pirna, St. Anne's Church in Annaberg and other buildings in Bohemia and Saxony. Like these buildings, it has grooved octagonal pillars and richly shaped ribbed vaults over buttresses that are partially drawn inwards, but points beyond the related buildings through a pronounced precision in the floor plan and the greater unification of all parts of the room.

Entrances, facades and church windows

Coat of arms above the entrance portal

The main entrance to the church is on the northwest side of the nave in Kirchgasse, it is protected by a small porch. A historical coat of arms relief adorns the center of its arch. The side entrances also have a round arch shape with sparse facade decorations and are relatively small.

Compact buttresses with a rather early Gothic look ensure the stability of the church walls. Almost the only facade decorations are the multi-story narrow arched windows with tracery as well as the ledges and surface markings around the three sound holes on the tower of the building. The original stained glass windows consisted of colored lead-framed glass mosaics, all of which shattered in April 1945. Now they are made from window glass.

tower

General

Steeple

In the southwest of the imposing church building is the 72 meter high church tower . It has a tower keeper's apartment , a bell cage with three bronze bells and a surrounding observation floor above. The Türmerstube was a complete apartment for a family who were responsible for the regular ringing of the bells and the control of city fires. It was inhabited until 1945.

Bells

The bells are cast from bronze and of the highest quality. The big bell was cast by Michael Weinhold in Dresden in 1721 , and at 5450 kg it is one of the 10 heaviest bells in Saxony still in existence. During the Second World War , the two largest bells were dismantled and should be melted down for war purposes . Their high quality, however, meant that they were taken to the Hamburg bell cemetery instead of a cannon foundry. They were found there after the war and brought back undamaged to the tower of St. Wolfgang's Church. The smallest bell, also called Bergglöckl, was completely destroyed in the fire in April 1945. As part of the extensive restoration of the church from the end of the 1990s, a newly cast third bell was installed.

Tower ascent

The viewing gallery on the tower has been accessible to visitors via more than 200 steps for a fee since 2009. It advertises with a magnificent panoramic view of the city. In the Türmerstube, the church building association has designed an information room in which exposed fragments of the building or the earlier fittings such as a hand-forged gate lock, a historic gas chandelier or a section of a wrought-iron railing are presented. Selling small souvenirs and snacks is used to raise funds for further maintenance work on the roof, the interior lighting, etc.

Tower bubbles

The tower blowing has established itself as a long-standing tradition on the tower of St. Wolfgang's Church. It is a trombone choir in traditional mining clothing that blows time-honored miner's songs on Advent Sundays and thus forms part of the Glückauf Evenings. In the years after 1990, the tower blowing was retained, but now represents a part of the new Christmas customs such as illuminating or pushing the town pyramid.

Furnishing

Interior view towards the altar

altar

The altar of St. Wolfgang's Church is an important Saxon work of art. In 1531/32 the Saxon elector Johann the Constant commissioned the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder to manufacture it. In 1539 the altar was handed over to the parish and placed in the church. The church cash register of the time shows that the congregation paid for the altar with 357 guilders and three groschen, i.e. it was not given as a gift. Josef Heller describes the altar as “one of the most comprehensive major works in excellent execution” . - Over the centuries he has faced numerous adversities. It was robbed by imperial troops in 1633 during the Thirty Years' War and brought to Prague, but recovered 16 years later. In the course of the baroque redesign in 1705 it was “changed in a tasteless way” , namely dismantled into parts and placed in the church outside the altar. The altar parts survived the town fire of 1719 unscathed. After the bombing of Schneeberg on April 19, 1945, many volunteers saved him from the church, which was already burning. Until 1969 some of the paintings were hung in the Trinity Church. After an elaborate and lengthy restoration, the double-opening winged altar can be viewed today in the form Cranach intended.

Front view of the altar
Rear view of the altar

The total of twelve wings can be folded in two stages, so there are the working day views and the holiday views, which can be described as follows. (A wing does not correspond to a whole picture.)

Exterior portraits weekday page:

  • Justification of man through Christ
  • The fall of man
  • Jesus' capture in the garden of Gethsemane

Interior representations working day page:

  • Annunciation of the Christmas message
  • the crucifixion
  • the Noah's Ark

Exterior portraits of the festival side:

Interior portraits on the feast day side:

The congregation financed the creation of copies of two depictions of the altar - Jesus' capture and the resurrection - which were given on permanent loan to the Pentecostal parish in Berlin-Friedrichshain in 1999 .

The predella shows the Lord's Supper on the front - i.e. the side facing the main room of the church. The image shows a self-portrait of the artist and portraits of some of the donors. The painting on the reverse was completely destroyed in 1945 and could not be restored. For this purpose, a plaque with a short chronicle was attached to the altar.

Organs

Jahn organ from 1849
Jehmlich organ from 1998
Harp-playing angel from the destroyed organ front, in the Schloßbergmuseum , Chemnitz art collections

After several previous instruments, the church received a 50-part organ from the workshop of Johannes Jahn from Dresden in 1849 , which melted and burned out in April 1945.

The planning for the construction of a new organ on the west gallery began in 1987. On October 4th, 1998 the new instrument, built by the company Jehmlich Orgelbau (Dresden), was inaugurated. Then the Hungarian Bach Prize winner István Ella gave a first concert on the new church musical instrument. The production costs of almost one million euros came from three larger donations, 40 percent of which came from the parish and a specially founded association for the reconstruction and maintenance of the organ, 37 percent from the Saxon regional church and 23 percent from funding from the Free State of Saxony.

The slider chest instrument has 56 stops on three manuals and a pedal. The disposition makes it possible to display a wide range of organ literature; the upper work is laid out with strings and tongue registers for the performance of romantic organ literature. It is one of the most modern organs in Saxony. The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
1. Praestant 8th'
2. Wooden dacked 8th'
3. Quintatön 8th'
4th octave 4 ′
5. Reed flute 4 ′
6th octave 2 ′
7th Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
8th. Sif flute 1'
9. Sesquialtera II 00 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
10. Mixture IV
11. Cromorne 8th'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
12. Principal 16 ′
13. octave 08th'
14th Reed flute 08th'
15th Flûte harmonique 08th'
16. Viol 08th'
17th octave 04 ′
18th Hollow flute 04 ′
19th Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
20th octave 02 ′
21st Cornet V (from g 0 ) 08th'
22nd Large Mixture V
23. Small mix IV
24. Trumpet 16 ′
25th Trumpet 08th'
III Swell C – g 3
26th Drone 16 ′
27. Violin principal 08th'
28. Double flute 08th'
29 Salicional 08th'
30th Vox coelestis 08th'
31. octave 04 ′
32. Dumped 04 ′
33. Fugara 04 ′
34. Nasat 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
35. Flute 02 ′
36. third 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′
37. Seventh 01 1 ⁄ 7  ′
38. Plein jeu V-VI
39. Bombard 16 ′
40. Trompette harmonique 08th'
41. oboe 08th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
42. Principal 32 ′
43. Octave bass 16 ′
44. Sub bass 16 ′
45. Subtle bass 16 ′
46. Octave bass 08th'
47. Drone 08th'
48. violoncello 08th'
49. Octave bass 04 ′
50. Night horn 02 ′
51. Backset VI00
52. trombone 32 ′
53. trombone 16 ′
54. Dulcian 16 ′
55. Trumpet 08th'
56. Clarine 04 ′
Tremulant

Pulpit and font

Interior with pulpit, baptismal font and organ

Instead of the wooden pulpit destroyed in the war, a concrete pulpit was re-formed, which appears to float despite its mass.

The baptismal font was housed in the neighborhood on the day of the air raid and thus escaped destruction. It has been restored and repositioned in the nave.

Bog oak figures

Aisles

These parts of the building have been used as places for small exhibitions since the building was completely restored. An exhibition shows the centuries-old history of the church in impressive pictures, including photos of the destruction suffered at the end of the Second World War . The hardship of rebuilding can also be experienced here.

In the north-east area there has been an exhibition since 2005 by the wood sculptor Hans Brockhage , who created touching sculptures from the wood of oak trunks recovered from moors and bronze. These were made on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the destruction of St. Wolfgang's Church and were entitled The Long Shadows of War . You can see a small selection of the figures.

St. Wolfgang

In the north-western aisle, visitors look at life-size carved apostle figures, all of which are considered mining patrons - Saint Wolfgang, the prophet Daniel , Saint Anna , Saint Barbara , and Saint Christopher . The Schneeberg citizen Werner Unger had these five figures made by the wood sculptor Bernd Sparmann and made them available to the parish on permanent loan.

Attractions in the area around the church

church Square

The free space on the plateau southeast of the church is the church square. For centuries it was used for processions or to park wagons. It is surrounded by several historic two- to three-storey residential and commercial buildings that have now been refurbished and renovated.

The stability of the entire hilltop area of ​​the Schneeberg (around 30 hectares) is threatened by previous mining activities. An engineering company from Chemnitz therefore carried out on-site analyzes in 2005/06 in order to derive proposed solutions “for the permanent elimination or reduction of the risk from old bismuth buildings”. Funding from the Saxon state government and the European Union was and is available for the investigations and the subsequent security measures. The necessary work is carried out by a consortium at Kirchplatz Schneeberg , established by several craftsmen's businesses , which creates preliminary and exploratory steps and builds dry stone walls from natural stone to intercept the caves. To relieve radon in the pits, a weather vent has been developed since 2007, which ensures regulated ventilation.

Kirchgasse

As a connection between the town hall and the market, the Kirchgasse leads up to the church. Along this street there are residential houses, among other things, the rectory, a day-care center, the Erzgebirge Folk Art Center , the cemetery administration and an unrenovated building made of field stones that belonged to the brother of the composer Robert Schumann , Carl. A weathered wooden plaque reminds of Robert Schumann's repeated visit to this house between 1826 and 1847.

literature

  • Jenny Lagaude: The Cranach Altar at St. Wolfgang in Schneeberg. A pictorial program between the late Middle Ages and the Reformation. Leipzig; Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-933816-43-6 .
  • Uwe Gerig (Ed.): Schneeberg. Ruth Gerig Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-928275-38-0 ; The church “St. Wolfgang ” , pages 26-31.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Flyer from the St. Wolfgang Schneeberg e. V. View over Schneeberg from the tower of the miners' cathedral ; As of April 2011
  2. ↑ a b Gerig: Schneeberg ; P. 27
  3. ↑ a b c Gerig: Schneeberg , p. 30
  4. ^ Gerig: Schneeberg ; P. 24 (picture)
  5. ↑ Homepage of the Protestant schools in Schneeberg with addresses and learning opportunities , accessed on May 11, 2011
  6. ^ Friedrich Möbius and Helga Möbius: Ecclesia ornata. Ornament on medieval church building . 1st edition. Union Verlag, Berlin 1974.
  7. ^ Rainer Thümmel : Bell casting in Saxony. (No longer available online.) In: Museumskurier, issue 17. Sächsisches Industriemuseum , August 2006, archived from the original on September 10, 2012 ; accessed on September 21, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saechsisches-industriemuseum.de
  8. ↑ youtube.com, Schneeberg - D - SN - ERZ - Lutheran Church of St. Wolfgang: full bell
  9. ^ Manfred Blechschmidt, Klaus Walther: Berglandmosaik. A book from the Erzgebirge. Greifenverlag zu Rudolstadt, 1st edition 1969, p. 197
  10. ↑ Event overview in the Advent season: lights and tower bubbles , accessed on April 7, 2016
  11. ↑ a b c d e Josef Heller: Lucas Cranach's life and work , 2nd edition, Lotzbeck-Verlag, Nuremberg 1854, p. 97 digitized version , accessed on February 24, 2015
  12. ↑ From the explanation board on the altar
  13. ↑ St. Trinitatiskirche - Hospital Church ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2011 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. St. Wolfgang homepage, accessed on April 6, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.st-wolfgang-schneeberg.de
  14. ↑ Altar details according to the presentation of the website of the congregation ( memento of the original from August 30, 2014 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. , accessed May 12, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.st-wolfgang-schneeberg.de
  15. ↑ Information from the exhibition in the church on one's own history; As of April 2011
  16. ↑ In detail on the new Jehmlich organ
  17. ^ Info sheet at the exhibition, April 2011
  18. ↑ Engineering analysis of the geomechanical and radiological conditions in the area of ​​the St. Wolfgang Church in Schneeberg (PDF document; 147 kB) on the website of the Chemnitz-based company C&E Consulting und Engineering GmbH, accessed on April 7, 2016.
  19. ↑ Bergsicherung Sachsen in Schneeberg: Mine exploration and safekeeping at the church square at St. Wolfgang's Church in Schneeberg , accessed on April 22, 2017.

Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 38 ″  N , 12 ° 38 ′ 39 ″  E