St. Clara (Berlin)
| St. Clara | |
|---|---|
.JPG) Gable with tower |
|
| Start of building: | March 10, 1895 |
| Inauguration: | June 24, 1897 |
| Architect : | August Menken |
| Style elements : | Historicism , neo-Gothic |
| Client: | Parish of St. Clara |
| Tower height: |
57 m |
| Location: | 52 ° 28 '40.9 " N , 13 ° 26' 9.9" E |
| Address: | Briesestrasse 11 Berlin-Neukölln Berlin , Germany |
| Purpose: | catholic worship |
| Parish: | Catholic Parish of St. Clara |
| Diocese : | Archdiocese of Berlin |
| Website: | www.sankt-clara.de |
The Catholic St. Clara Church in the Berlin district of Neukölln in the Neukölln district , a hall church in a closed corner building , is a listed building .
history
In 1837 there were 20 Catholic families in Rixdorf . For church services you had to go to Hedwig's Church , initially the only Catholic church in old Berlin and the surrounding area, and later also to St. Michael’s Church . Since this was very difficult, the "first room chapel" was built in an apartment in a rear building in today's Karl-Marx-Straße, in order to hold word services.
This chapel was soon no longer sufficient, so in 1848 a larger room in the adjoining house was rented as a second chapel. In 1860 the rent for this room was increased to 30 thalers , which the community could no longer afford. Fortunately, the congregation was offered an apartment in a house for church services and later also for school lessons. Thus the community received its "third room chapel". In 1876, at the urging of the school authorities, the people of Rixdorf had to look for a larger room. In an empty carpenter's workshop, lessons and services were held until 1881.
In 1880 the property in today's Briesestrasse 15 was acquired for 9,000 marks . In the same year, on November 12, 1880, the foundation stone was laid for a chapel with 150 seats, and the consecration took place on September 18, 1881. Once a month a clergyman came from St. Michael and celebrated Holy Mass , on the remaining Sundays there were word services. Due to the constant increase in the Catholic population, a larger church was soon required, the construction costs of which, excluding interior fittings, amounted to 125,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 891,000 euros). Construction began in March 1895.
While the surrounding walls of the new church were erected around it, the chapel initially remained and was still used. It was not until the end of 1895 that this arrangement was no longer appropriate that the chapel was cleared and demolished. The church services of the community took place in the cemetery chapel on Hermannstrasse until the St. Clara Church was completed .
On June 11th, 1873 the parish of St. Clara was spun off from St. Michael, on January 13th, 1894 St. Clara became an independent parish . Around 1900 the parish was bursting at the seams, only the completion of the St. Eduard Church created relief. Due to the financial situation in the Archdiocese of Berlin, St. Eduard lost its parish status, which it had had since December 1, 1924, and merged with St. Clara on May 1, 2004.
Building description
The hall church is a masonry structure that is faced with red bricks. The facade is structured by cornices and two buttresses . The gable is not designed to the full width because it cuts into the church tower . There are also buttresses on the outer wall of the nave , between which, in each yoke section, there are two pointed arched windows with a rose window above . The original windows designed by Fritz Schaefler were destroyed in the Second World War. A mosaic above the portal indicates that St. Clara Church was also consecrated as a Rosary Church.
The nave offers space for around 1200 people, of which around 300 can sit. The two-aisled symmetrical hall has a ribbed vault that rests on four slender columns in the central aisle and on consoles on the walls. The chancel with a cockle-shaped apse is bordered on the sides by two chapel rooms . There is a side entrance on the wall of the nave facing the courtyard. The confessionals were set into wall niches in order to have more space for the worshipers in the narrow side aisles. Behind the portal is the anteroom, separated from the nave by two arcades , with glass doors since March 1980. To the right of the church vestibule is the Marienkapelle with a lockable grid to the nave, to the left the baptistery open to the nave. The gallery for the organ rises above the anteroom and the two chapels .
tower
layout
The church occupies the corner plot in such a way that the tower as part of the gable wall marks the corner point. An octagonal helmet grows out over the double openings in the form of segmental arches for the bell chamber, surrounded by four small side turrets at the base. A cross with a weathercock rises seven meters above the top of the tower .
Bells
On July 1, 1917, the bronze church bells were confiscated for armament purposes. New bronze bells were consecrated on December 3, 1924. Two had to be surrendered again in World War II. On June 30, 1954 the consecration of the two donated new bells took place.
| Caster | Pouring year | material | Chime | Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( cm) |
Height (cm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell foundry, Ulrich brothers | 1924 | bronze | a ' | 490 | 93 | 78 | ST. CLARA, ORA PRO NOBIS! |
| Bochum Association | 1954 | Cast steel | e ' | 940 | 135 | 120 | REGINA PACIS + ORA PRO NOBIS |
| Bochum Association | 1954 | Cast steel | G' | 730 | 110 | 94 | ST. JOSEF + ORA PRO NOBIS |
Furnishing
The missing church stalls were purchased in 1901. At the end of 1929 the church began to be redesigned. The shell-shaped apse was created, the high altar , which still came from the old chapel, was removed and a new one installed. The side altars were pulled forward and the central columns replaced by narrower ones than the previous ones. A sacristy was also added. After the remodeling of the church was completed, the consecration of the church took place on April 22, 1930 by the first bishop of Berlin, Christian Schreiber .
At the end of 1936, three wood-carved statues of Saints Jude Thaddäus , Antonius and Conrad von Parzham were donated. They were placed on consoles that were attached to the arcade arches below the organ gallery. In 1940 the high altar was changed. In 1941 new church stalls were purchased. In the middle of the baptistery consecrated on December 8, 1940 baptismal font of marble placed the cuppa is made of brass . A crucifixion group by Albin Moroder has found its place on the wall behind the baptismal font , including a three-seater wooden bench from St. Hedwig's Cathedral. In the Marienkapelle there is an altar made of gray granite in which a bronze tabernacle adorned with a rock crystal is set. Above it is an icon with a portrait of Mary .
In accordance with the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , the sanctuary was redesigned in 1968. The altar disappeared on the wall of the apse with all accessories and the communion bench , so that the altar and parish areas are no longer so strongly separated from each other. Paul Brandenburg created a cafeteria , the priest's seat behind it and the small sideboard on the epistle side made of reddish tuff , as well as the altar and the monstrance . The altar has the form of the Old Testament sacrificial table, in the front a shrine is inlaid bronze in which relics of St. Clare are.
Paul Brandenburg created a bronze ambo in 1981 . Since the columns in the central aisle obstruct the unobstructed view of the chancel, the ambo was placed in front of the first column (counted from the chancel) in the nave. Furthermore, a new stand for the Eternal Light was purchased. Today there is a statue of Our Lady by a wood sculptor from Val Gardena on the sideboard. Two tripod bronze candlesticks and the crucifix hanging over the altar mark the sanctuary. The two meter high stele , also made of red tuff, in the shape of a burning thorn bush , into which a bronze tabernacle adorned with two large rock crystals is set, was placed in the left side niche.
On the walls are reliefs with the Stations of the Cross , also two round of Paul Corazolla created tapestries on which one are stations of faith in the life of St. Clare presented, on the other hand, the biblical life stations of the Mother of God.
organ
In 1901 an organ was purchased, built by the Sauer company . In 1922 the company G. F. Steinmeyer & Co. rebuilt the organ, again in 1930. On December 17, 1939 a new organ was inaugurated, which was made by Anton Feith from Paderborn. Today's organ comes from the workshop of the Späth company and was consecrated on September 26, 1981. It comprises 44 sounding registers , distributed over three manuals and a pedal and is made almost entirely of wood.
literature
- Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin (ed.): Sacral buildings. (= Berlin and its buildings , part VI.) Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-433-01016-1 .
- Catholic Parish Office St. Clara (Ed.): Jubilee Festschrift St. Clara Neukölln. Berlin 1987.
- Gerhard Streicher, Erika Drave: Berlin. City and church. Berlin 1980.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ A strange church building . In: Volks-Zeitung , November 28, 1895, Abendblatt, p. 3.