St. Ansgarii (Bremen)

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New church and parish hall on Hollerallee

St. Ansgarii is a Protestant church in the Schwachhausen district of Bremen . Historically, it was the starting point of the Reformation in Bremen. Its medieval church in Bremen's old town , with its 98-meter-high tower, was the highest point and a landmark of the city for centuries. It was badly damaged in the air raids on Bremen during World War II and the ruins were torn down in the 1950s. At the same time, the church that exists today was built on Hollerallee in Schwachhausen.

history

founding

The old St. Ansgarii Church around 1839
Color photography in the late 1930s

The name and tradition of St. Ansgarii (St. Anscharii) go back to around 850, when Bishop Ansgar was Archbishop of Bremen and established a foundation for twelve needy clergy here. Archbishop Hartwig II now set up a collegiate monastery with twelve canons , with the task of building a basilica in honor of St. Ansgar on the "land in the west" that was once donated to provide for the needy. In addition to three areas in Hollerland, the monastery now included the churches in Horn , (Wasser-) Horst and Stuhr . Probably not least at the instigation of the Ansgari chapter, Pope Gregory IX. On July 31, 1227, Archbishop Gerhard II was given instructions to divide up the parish of the Marktkirche St. Veit, today Our Dear Women . The parishes of St. Ansgarii and St. Martini were separated from this with the redistribution of 1229 .

reformation

A sermon by the Dutch Augustinian monk Heinrich von Zütphen , a colleague and friend of Martin Luther , on November 9th, is the starting point for the Reformation in this city, and thus of theological and historical importance for the St. Ansgarii community and for the history of Bremen 1522 in a chapel of St. Ansgarii Church. Von Zütphen's sermon found sympathetic ears not only among the general public but also among members of the Bremen council . The clergy against whom he had railed protested to the archbishop in Verden , whereupon the latter, with the help of his relatives from Braunschweig and the Danish king, threatened the city council with war. The persuasiveness of Zütphens, however, was so great that there were "Reformed" preachers in all four city parishes as early as 1525; only the cathedral chapter only later accepted the new teaching. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Ansgarii community was a stronghold of the Reformed faith ( Christoph Pezel , Urban Pierius ).

Bremen church dispute

In July 1840 the first church dispute took place in the St. Ansgarii Church . The Elberfeld reformed pietistic theologian and revival preacher Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher gave two guest sermons on the subjects of Judgment Day on the heresy and the sermon of the curse . Opponent was the theologically rationalist pastor Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Paniel , who preached at St. Ansgarii from 1839 to 1856. He delivered three sermons in response to Krummacher. The dispute met with a wide response in northern Germany, u. a. the young Friedrich Engels reported several times . 22 pastors from Bremen also wrote a confession of pastors from Bremen in which they on the one hand admitted to the pietistic-conservative line, but on the other hand criticized Krummacher's overbearing tone. Only three pastors from Bremen represented the rationalist line.

Ansgarii Parish School

The school was housed at the collegiate monastery in Ansgariikirchhof No. 8, where the school teacher lived, who was also the church sexton. The number of pupils was about 170 in 1848. A new building was built in 1856 at Ansgariikirchhof No. 14 as an extension on the north side of the church. In 1863 5 to 6 teachers taught 332 students in six classrooms. The school last had 210 students in 6 classes, was taken over by the state in 1895 and then dissolved. The building, in which the organist and sexton later lived, was destroyed on September 1, 1944.

Probably the most famous teacher at St. Ansgarii was the typist and arithmetic master Peter Koster . His arithmetic book Die Bremer-Münze , written in 1664 (around 120 years after Adam Ries' arithmetic books appeared ), was in use in several editions for around 150 to 180 years. His Bremen Chronicle of the 17th Century is also described as an outstanding intellectual achievement .

Building history

Epitaph of Detmar Kenckel († 1584), mayor

Position of the historic church building: 53 ° 4 ′ 42.4 ″  N , 8 ° 48 ′ 13.1 ″  E

Most authors assume that construction of the church began in 1229, the year of the parish division is also mentioned as 1224. It was initially built as a basilica and, with one exception in Bremen, initially had a semicircular choir with ambulatory . It was consecrated in 1243. However, the choir collapsed as early as 1244. The new choir was given a rectangular floor plan and no access, as in the other large churches in Bremen. The tower on the west side was not completed until the 14th century. Towards the end of the same century, the nave was converted into a hall church. The almost square floor plans of the four old parish churches, each consisting of three square bays, the long choir with a straight end wall, the transverse roofs over the western three bays and numerous details in the design of the interior indicate Westphalian influence ( Westphalian square ). The nave was already a brick building as a basilica and then as a hall church. The south side of the nave and choir was blocked by multi-storey houses. The tower, also made of bricks, was faced with porta sandstone .

With the conversion to the hall church, the walls were painted and the decoration with epitaphs increased. The figural grave lid of Arnd von Gröpelingen , who was slain in 1304 and is now in the Focke Museum , was significant . Canons and vicars read masses at the 27 altars.

The historic St. Ansgarii Chapel was built between 1403 and 1422 on the south side of the choir .

At the end of the 16th century there was the "snake" St. Maria on the tower, a long barrel cannon from which a salute was fired. The tower cracked when it was fired in 1580, and a shot was fired again in 1601 when a prince was visiting. After a fire in 1590, the tower was given a Welsche dome and, at 97 meters, was the highest in Bremen.

During an air raid in World War II on December 20, 1943, an explosive bomb hit the foundations of the church tower at an angle. Crack formation and increasingly uncontrollable static problems were the result. Finally, on September 1, 1944, the tower collapsed, shattering the entire western front and also severely affecting parts of the central nave. In the air raid on October 6, 1944, the remaining roofs and vaults in particular perished. At the end of the war there were still three outer walls, almost all of the gables, as well as the pillars and the arches inside. In addition, the Zütphen chapel and the old school house north of the choir were preserved in their surrounding walls. With the tallest tower in the city, Bremen lost a landmark of its silhouette.

The community found a new piece of land on Hollerallee / corner of Schwachhauser Heerstraße. In 1957, the Bremen development community made the proposal to renovate the ruins and make it the central administrative headquarters of the Bremen Evangelical Church (BEK). However, this proposal was not taken up by the BEK. The ruins were removed in 1959 against resistance from parts of the population and made way for the new Hertie department store .

The name Ansgarikirchhof and the Ansgar column by Kurt-Wolf von Borries on the square are reminiscent of the church building on Obernstrasse . The Gauss point, a plate on the southeast corner of the square, indicates the location of the spire that Carl Friedrich Gauß , Johann Hieronymus Schroeter , Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers and Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel used as a trigonometric survey point .

The Verein Anschari eV - Association for the Historic Cityscape of Bremen is committed to the reconstruction of the Ansgarii Church by demolishing the Bremen Carees .

  • Floor plan of the old Ansgari church

  • Longitudinal and cross-section of the nave

  • Design by Axel Spellenberg ( Anschari eV - Association for the Historical Cityscape of Bremen ) for the reconstruction of the historical church

  • Ansgarikirche (purple), superposition of Murtfeldt -Plans of 1796 with today Openstreetmap -Plan

  • The Gaussian point

The new Ansgariikirche

View from the organ gallery
Altar with bronze panels (each 5 × 2 m)

Position of the new Ansgarikirche: 53 ° 4 ′ 54 ″  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 54 ″  E

In 1948, an emergency church was built on the new property in Hollerallee from a barrack that the church council had purchased after the end of the war. The property was initially leased, but could then be bought. When the emergency church became too small for the rapidly growing community, the pastors Claus Liske and Dr. Christel Matthias Schröder on a more generous solution. It was decided to build a new church at this point on the assumption that hardly any parishioners would live privately in the destroyed city center due to rising land prices and high construction costs.

After the foundation stone was laid in 1955, the inauguration of the new church was celebrated on March 17, 1957. The church and parish hall were built according to the plans and under the supervision of the architect Fritz Brandt . It should take up the basilica type of the old building again and create adequate space for the rescued pieces of equipment from the destroyed church. A large community center was also part of his building contract. The church and community center have been a listed building since 1995.

organ

Organ brochure from 1611/1736

The organ from 1611 was destroyed when the old St. Ansgarii church collapsed. Builder was from the Netherlands originating organ builder Marten de Mare , the 1595, the Bremen citizenship had acquired and already in 1603, the organ of the Martini Church provided.

The organ front with the ornamental and figurative carvings, the middle part of which dates from 1611 and the colors of the original version, was saved from destruction and has therefore been preserved . In 1736, Reiner Caspary added two pedal towers to the organ, the ornamental decorations of which are less varied. On the Rückpositiv are the figures of two heralds with fanfares and King David with the harp .

The installation of the approximately 14 meter high prospect in the new church was problematic. Created for a location with a tapering vault, it takes up an enormous room height under the flat ceiling. As a solution, the main structure was installed lower than intended and a small dome was created for the central pipe tower. The tonal disadvantages of this stopgap solution were compensated for in a major organ renovation in 1994.

The organ work was built in 1958 by the organ building company Alfred Führer ( Wilhelmshaven ) in the historic organ prospectus. The instrument has 61 registers (4427 pipes) on four manuals and a pedal with mechanical slider drawers and double register (with 128 composer combinations). In 1961, 1966 and 1975/76 minor adjustments were made to the original disposition . In 1994, as part of a general overhaul, adjustments to the disposition and re-intonation were carried out. All of this work was carried out by the builder's workshop. The disposition:

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
1. Praestant 8th'
2. Dumped 8th'
3. Quintatön 8th'
4th Praestant 4 ′
5. Reed flute 4 ′
6th Principal 2 ′
7th Forest flute 2 ′
8th. Glöckleinton 1'
9. Tertian II 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
10. Scharff IV 1'
11. Dulcian 16 ′
12. Krummhorn 8th'
13. Schalmey 8th'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
14th Praestant 16 ′
15th Praestant 8th'
16. Gemshorn 8th'
17th Reed flute 8th'
18th Principal 4 ′
19th Hollow flute 4 ′
20th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
21st Principal 2 ′
22nd Cornet v 8th'
23. Mixture VIII 2 ′
24. Third cymbal III 1 ⁄ 6 ′
25th Trumpet 16 ′
26th Trumpet 8th'
III Swell C – g 3
27. Pommer 16 ′
28. Ital. Principal 8th'
29 Dulz flute 8th'
30th Gemshorn beat 8th'
31. Principal 4 ′
32. Flute douce 2 ′
33. Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
34. Mixture V 2 ′
35. bassoon 16 ′
36. Trumpet 8th'
37. oboe 8th'
38. Clairon 4 ′
IV Crown positive C – g 3
39. Dumped 8th'
40. recorder 4 ′
41. Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
42. Principal 2 ′
43. Night horn 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
44. Scharff IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
45. Vox humana 8th'
Tremulant
Zimbelstern
Pedals C – f 1
46. Praestant 16 ′
47. Sub bass 16 ′
48. Subtle bass 16 ′
49. Fifth 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
50. Principal 8th'
51. Dumped 8th'
52. Choral bass 4 ′
53. Gemshorn 4 ′
54. Night horn 2 ′
55. Mixture III 2 ′
56. Mixture V 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
57. trombone 32 ′
58. trombone 16 ′
59. Bombard 8th'
60. High trumpet 4 ′
61. Cornett 2 ′

Remarks

  1. ↑ to 1994: Geigend shelf 4 '
  2. ↑ to 1994: Cornet III 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
  3. ↑ added in 1966
  4. ↑ to 1961: Trumpet 4 '
  5. ↑ to 1994: Zimbel III 1 ⁄ 3 ′
  6. ↑ Wind reduction from 47.
  7. ↑ to 1994: Rauschquint II 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ +1 ′, description in the workshop's disposition sheet: " Jauchzend Pfeife "
  8. ↑ to 1994: Rauschwerk IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
  9. ↑ to 1994: Mixtur VII 4 ′
  10. ↑ Name until 1994: Trumpet 16 ′

Bells

The bell foundry Otto from Hemelingen had already cast a clock bell for the old St. Ansgarii Church in 1933 (tone: e '', diameter: 610 mm). Today the St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen has a total of six bells in addition to an old bell by Ghert Klinghe. The main bell has the strike tone sequence a ° - c '- d' - f '- g'. The large a ° bell was cast in 1960, the others in 1957, all at the Otto bell foundry in Bremen-Hemelingen. The bells have the following diameters: 1832 mm, 1563 mm, 1392 mm, 1171, 1043 mm and weigh approx. 4,000 kg, 2,484 kg, 1,771 kg, 1,045 kg and 694 kg. Another, smaller bell with the strike note a 'comes from the previous building and was cast by Ghert Klinghe in 1456 .

Bell times at weekly church services: Sunday 9.50 a.m., Saturday 5.45 p.m.

In 2010, static problems with the bell suspension in the tower became known, which led to the fact that, according to the client, the ringing operation had to remain restricted: Currently, the largest bell has been shut down due to damage to the suspension, as well as the smallest bell, because it vibrates too much during ringing go out. In 2013 the entire bell system was renovated and the previously open sound openings were closed. The sound of the bell has gained a lot as a result. For technical reasons, the old Klinghe bell can only be rung as a soloist.

pulpit

Pulpit from 1592

The pulpit was possibly created in 1592 in the workshop of the Bremen "Snitger" ( carver ) Hermen Wulff, who was first mentioned in Bremen in 1583 and often appeared in the account books of the town hall and St. Martini in the following decades . During the Second World War it was relocated and survived the destruction of the bombs, except for the sound cover. After the war it was restored and the colored version removed.

sidewindow

On the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of Ansgar's death in 1965, the church in the north aisle received windows with scenes from the life of St. Ansgar, created by the Munich artist Helmut Ammann . In the old St. Ansgarii Church there were already frescoes with scenes from the life of the "Apostle of the North".

local community

In its mission statement, which the convention decided on June 11, 2006, the congregation traces its self-image back to the word of God in the Bible and in the gospel and the reformer Heinrich von Zütphen , who in his sermons to St. Ansgarii gave impetus to liberation and Change has given.

Church services with baptisms are held on Sundays at 10 a.m., and at other times on public holidays. Play and work groups are offered for all age groups.

The choir has a choir with 120 members and a trombone choir. The non-profit association Bremische Musikpflege St. Ansgarii e. V. was founded in 1987 to promote church music work. He provides financial and non-material support for public concerts and helps with the procurement of work equipment.

Church leadership

The affairs of the congregation are taken care of by the convention - a kind of full assembly of the congregation - the church council, the builders , the pastors and the diakonia . The church council is the central body of the congregation. He controls the essential organizational and content-related things of church life and consists of five male and five female parishioners, the builders, the two pastors, two deacons appointed by the Diakonie and the representatives of the congregation in the Kirchentag . In coordination with the pastors, the builders are responsible for the management and administration of the congregation, while the managing builder carries out the day-to-day administration and accounts of the congregation.

Well-known preachers at St. Ansgarii

literature

  • Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
  • Siegried Fliedner: On the building history of the parish churches St. Martini and St. Ansgarii in Bremen . In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 44, pp. 306-317, Schünemann Verlag, Bremen 1955.
  • Uwe Pape : The organ of the St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen. In: Organ building essays . Pape, Wolfenbüttel 1963, ISBN 3-921140-02-1 .
  • Uwe Pape and Winfried Topp: organs and organ builders in Bremen. Pape Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-921140-52-8 , pp. 291-296
  • Gerhard Reinhold: Otto Glocken - Family and company history of the bell foundry dynasty Otto. Essen 2019. ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 .
  • Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Diss. Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 2919. DNB access signature L-2019-333968.
  • Sabine Presuhn: Dead is those who are forgotten. Remembrance of the dead at St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen as reflected in the necrology from the 15th century , Hanover 2001.
  • Musik und Kirche , issue 1/1964, p. 48: Presentation of the organ in the magazine.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bremen Cathedral is impressive, but within January 30th, 2018 (YouTube)
  2. ↑ Bremen document book, vol. I:
  3. ↑ Sixteenth century AD. Archived from the original on August 29, 2010 ; Retrieved November 1, 2010 .
  4. ↑ www.opus.ub.uni-erlangen.de - Rechenbuch.pdf (7.1.1.1.2)
  5. ^ Seventeenth century AD. A journey through the history of Bremen ( Memento from January 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Buchenau, Franz: The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - A local lore. 4th edition, 1934., p. 305, with further information on the dimensioning of the tower height in footnote 1 on this page.
  7. ^ Peters, Fritz: Twelve Years of Bremen 1933–1945. A chronicle. Bremen 1951, p. 254
  8. ^ Bremer Zeitung September 2, 1944
  9. ^ Online photo documentation from the Bremen State Archives on the damage caused by air raids on Bremen 1940–1945
  10. ^ Peters, Fritz: Twelve Years of Bremen 1933–1945. A chronicle. Bremen 1951, p. 266
  11. ↑ Fliedner, Siegfried: The old St. Ansgarii church in Bremen. Bremen 1957, p. 59
  12. ↑ Image index of art and architecture https://www.bildindex.de/document/obj20221182?part=0&medium=fm931514
  13. ^ The Reconstruction, Volume 11, Volume 2, Bremen October 1957, pp. 16, 17 and 20.
  14. ^ Association wants to rebuild the Ansgarii Church , Weser-Kurier , August 30, 2016. Bremer Nachrichten, article by Frank Hethey from September 6, 2019: Reconstruction as a goal. Anshari Association founded .
  15. ^ Monument database of the LfD
  16. ^ Fritz Piersig: The organs of the Bremen city churches in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch 35, 1935, pp. 397-400.
  17. ↑ Information about the organ at www.orgbase.nl , accessed on May 24, 2020
  18. ↑ Information on the organ in St. Ansgarii, Bremen . www.ansgarii.de. Accessed May 14, 2018.
  19. ^ Disposition sheet with photo, published by Alfred Führer Orgelbau, Wilhelmshaven, 1958
  20. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588 , here in particular pp. 48, 85, 229, 376-377, 433, 538, 554, 557, 579, 580 .
  21. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556 , here in particular pp. 68, 104, 216, 334–335, 409, 540, 543 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
  22. ↑ Ringing on Youtube .
  23. ↑ Winfried Schwarz: Largest bell of St. Ansgarii Church shut down. weser-kurier.de, October 18, 2010, accessed on June 26, 2011 .
  24. ↑ St. Ansgarii parish - mission statement. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2009 ; Retrieved November 1, 2010 . 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.kirche-bremen.de
  25. ^ Cuno:  Pezel, Christoph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, pp. 575-577.

See also

Web links

Commons : St. Ansgarii  - collection of images, videos and audio files