St. Clemens (Hanover)

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St. Clemens Basilica in Hanover

The Church of St. Clemens is the main Roman Catholic church in Hanover and the center of the regional dean's office. Since September 1, 2010, the basilica has belonged to the parish of St. Heinrich in the Hanover deanery of the Hildesheim diocese .

St. Clemens was the first Catholic church in Hanover after the Reformation . The foundation stone was laid in the Calenberger Neustadt on July 6, 1712, the consecration on November 4, 1718. During the Second World War , the church was destroyed by bombs in the night from October 8 to 9, 1943 in the heaviest of the air raids on Hanover hit by bombs again on March 25, 1945. After the end of the war, the church was rebuilt and equipped with the dome designed by its architect, the Italian Tommaso Giusti , according to the original plans . It is the only church in northern Germany with a purely Italian character.

history

St. Clemens (bottom left) as a Catholic church in Calenberger Neustadt ( city ​​map from 1822 )
St. Clemens von Norden on the moat of the former city ​​fortifications of Hanover , still without a dome and bell towers,
wood engraving by George Wilmot Bonner , circa 1830s
Around 1900: View from Bäckerstraße over the courtyard of the Provost Church, on the left the St. Ursula Girls' School ; Postcard No. 210 , collotype
The Clement Church around 1875;
Photography, unknown author
The dome of the basilica, visible from afar at night

During the Reformation, there were repeated unrest between Old Believers and Lutherans in Hanover. When they escalated in 1533, on September 14th of the same year the mayors and almost all councilors fled to the neighboring Catholic Hildesheim . Catholic life in Hanover died out, especially since in 1588 the city council also withdrew the right to live in the old town for Catholics.

When Duke Johann Friedrich ascended the ducal throne in Hanover in 1665 , the situation changed; for Johann Friedrich had converted to the Catholic faith four years earlier during a visit to Assisi . Court servants, mainly French and Italians, formed the small Catholic community and celebrated Christmas 1665 under the direction of Valerio Maccioni - his epitaph is in the crypt of the basilica - the first Catholic worship service after the Reformation . Johann Friedrich died on December 28, 1679, his younger brother Ernst August took over the government. It is true that he converted the right of public religious practice for the Catholics into a private right and had the castle church closed for the Catholic worship that had been celebrated there until then. Nevertheless, he promised free religious practice and allowed the building of a Catholic church.

In the meantime - outside of the city ​​fortifications of Hanover , "in front of the Aegidientore" - the Catholic St. John's Cemetery was laid out on part of the local "Patergarten" from 1669 . It is said to have been consecrated four years later in 1673 and named after its ducal donor .

Wool knitting installation on the dome, 2014

The Italian priest, composer and diplomat Agostino Steffani, on the other hand, pushed the church building, which has been postponed again and again . Steffani had entered the service of Ernst August in 1688 as court conductor. 1707 he received the episcopal ordination in Bamberg and in April 1709 the vicariate of Upper and Lower Saxony was transferred to him.

Steffani entrusted his compatriot Tommaso Giusti with the planning and construction management of the new church. Giusti designed a Venetian domed building with two flanking towers. In the end, the dome and towers had to be dispensed with due to lack of finance. The wooden model from the time of the church, with its heavy volutes accompanying the dome, shows the model of Santa Maria della Salute by Baldassare Longhena much more clearly than the current state of construction , the construction of which Tommaso Giusti's father led as site manager. The namesake of the first post-Reformation church in Hanover was named after the then ruling Pope, Saint Clemens Romanus . Background: Pope Clement XI. had made a special effort to build the church and raised money to finance it. In 1894 the church was opened by Pope Leo XIII. raised to the provost church.

After the destruction caused by the air raids on Hanover in World War II, the church was rebuilt from 1947 to 1957 according to plans by the architect Otto Fiederling ; the construction costs amounted to just under 1.7 million marks. Only now have the originally planned dome and the squat bell towers been added in modern forms. Preparatory work began in 1946 and the topping-out ceremony was held on November 23, 1949. On November 24, 1957 St. Clemens was consecrated by the then Apostolic Nuncio Aloysius Muench . On March 12, 1998, Pope John Paul II elevated the church to a minor basilica with the Apostolic Letter Inter sacras .

From 1967 to 1986 Hildesheim auxiliary bishop Heinrich Pachowiak was episcopal vicar at the provost church of St. Clemens in Hanover. He was followed by the Hildesheim cathedral capitular Joop Bergsma as provost and regional dean for the Catholic Church in the Hanover region , who handed over his office to cathedral capitular Klaus Funke in 1996 . Funke's successor in 2008 was Cathedral Chapter Martin Tenge. On September 1, 2019, he was succeeded by Cathedral Chapter Christian Wirz . At the same time he remains an official of the Diocese of Hildesheim.

Church interior

The interior fittings correspond to the simplicity ideal of the 1950s. Several larger-than-life figures of the apostles from this period are remarkable. The bronze portals were designed by Heinrich Gerhard Bücker .

Below the upper church is the crypt , which originally served as a burial place for deserving parishioners. The architect of the church, Tommaso Giusti, is also buried there. Today, small-scale services are celebrated in the crypt.

Organs

First organ from 1718

Altar and organ of the basilica

The first organ from St. Clemens came from the Hanoverian organ builder Christian Vater and was completed on September 17, 1718. The organ had the following disposition :

I main work
1. Principal 8th'
2. Qunitatoen 16 ′
3. Reed flute 8th'
4th Octave 4 ′
5. Gemshorn 4 ′
6th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th Octave 2 ′
8th. Sif flute (a fifth) 1 1 ⁄ 2  ′
9. Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
10. Vox humana 8th'
II breastwork
11. Dumped 8th'
12. flute 4 ′
13. Pointed flute 2 ′
14th Sesquialter II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
pedal
15th Principal 8th'
16. Sub bass 16 ′
17th Octave 4 ′
18th Night horn 2 ′
19th trombone 16 ′
20th Trumpet 8th'

Today's organ

The organ was built in 1973 by the organ building company Johannes Klais in Bonn. The instrument has 32 stops on two manuals and a pedal . The Spieltrakturen are mechanically, the Registertrakturen electrically.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Pommer 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Reed flute 8th'
4th Octave 4 ′
5. recorder 4 ′
6th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th Super octave 2 ′
8th. Cornett V (from f sharp 0 ) 8th'
9. Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
10. Trumpet 8th'
11. Vox humana 8th'
12. Clarion 4 ′
II Swell C – g 3
13. Wooden dacked 8th'
14th Gamba 8th'
15th Beat (from c) 8th'
16. Principal 4 ′
17th Capstan whistle 4 ′
18th Forest flute 2 ′
19th Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
20th Sesquialter II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
21st Scharff IV
22nd Wooden dulcian 16 ′
23. Hautbois 8th'
Pedal C – d 1
24. Principal 16 ′
25th Sub bass 16 ′
26th Covered bass 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
27. Octave 8th'
28. Coupling flute 8th'
29 Octave 4 ′
30th Mixture IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
31. trombone 16 ′
32. Head trumpet 8th'
  • Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Playing aids : two free combinations, one free pedal combination, setting system

Bells

In the first half of the 20th century, the Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen / Bremen delivered five bronze bells with a total weight of 11 tons in 1907, 1923/4 and between 1930 and 1932, including a b 0 bell weighing 4 tons. All of these bells fell victim to the war-related bell confiscation and were melted down.

Today, the north tower carries a four-part bells in the Schlagtonfolge dis 1 -fis 1 -GIS 1 -ais 1 . The two larger bells come from the former German eastern areas. These are loan bells that the German state has made available to the municipality. The other two were cast by the bell foundry Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock (Gescher).

Epitaph for Agostino Steffani in Frankfurt Cathedral , with mention and illustration of the St. Clement Basilica in Hanover

Others

The tomb and epitaph of the builder of the St. Clement Basilica, Bishop Agostino Steffani , are located in the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew in Frankfurt am Main . The catholics of Hanover donated the marble epitaph out of gratitude for the building of St. Clemens. The church in its original form (without the dome) is shown on it.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Basilica Sankt Clemens (Hannover)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Hermann Seeland: The churches in Hanover that were destroyed in World War II. In: Our diocese past and present . Hanover 1952, p. 97.
  2. ↑ apart from the much smaller St. Mark's Church in Equord
  3. ^ Arnold Nöldeke : St. Johannis Cemetery . In: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Hannover Vol. 1, H. 2, Teil 1, Self-published by the Provinzialverwaltung Hannover, Theodor Schulzes Buchhandlung, Hannover 1932 (Neudruck Verlag Wenner, Osnabrück 1979, ISBN 3-87898-151-1 ), p. 257
  4. ^ According to Nöldeke in: Johann Heinrich Redecker : Historical Collectanea from the Royal and Electoral Residence City of Hanover ... started on July 8, 1723 ; 2 volumes with a register volume, p. 683
  5. ↑ Basilica is now getting its knitted hat in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from October 8, 2014
  6. ↑ Pictures of the church before 1945
  7. ↑ Hans Reuther : The model of the St. Clemens Propsteikirche in Hanover. In: Low German contributions to art history , Vol. 10 (1971), pp. 202–230.
  8. ↑ Rüdiger Wala: The Italian on a leash. In: KirchenZeitung . Edition 48/2017 of December 3, 2017, p. 9.
  9. ↑ Helmut Knocke Fiederling, Adam Otto. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 116 and others; online through google books
  10. ^ Hermann Seeland: The churches in Hanover that were destroyed in World War II. In: Our diocese in the past and present, p. 98. Hanover 1952.
  11. ↑ kath-kirche-hannover.de , September 1, 2019
  12. ↑ kath-kirche-hannover.de , April 24, 2019
  13. ^ Johann Josef Böker : The former baroque organ of St. Clemens Church in Hanover. In: The Diocese of Hildesheim. Yearbook of the Association for Local Studies in the Diocese of Hildesheim. Volume 55. Bernward Verlag 1987, ISSN 0341-9975, pp. 129-135.
  14. ↑ More information about the organ of St. Clemens
  15. ^ 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. 516, 524, 534 .
  16. ↑ 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 487, 493, 494 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 '23 "  N , 9 ° 43' 36"  E