St. Johann (Osnabrück)

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St. Johann

St johann.jpg

Denomination : Roman Catholic
Patronage : John the Baptist
Address: Johannis Freiheit 12, 49074 Osnabrück

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 14 ″  N , 8 ° 3 ′ 6.1 ″  E St. Johann (also: Johanniskirche ) is a former collegiate church in Osnabrück . It is considered to be one of the earliest large Gothic hall churches in Germany. John the Baptist is the patron saint of the Church. It comprises a three-aisled nave , a recently closed choir , an east transept and a two-tower west bar building. This is a characteristic of the original function as a collegiate church. In the case of the cross-shaped building with a monumental west facade, architectural suggestions from Westphalia and Lower Saxony as well as the Rhineland were taken up and applied independently. Although this building is of crucial importance for the beginning of the Gothic era in Germany, it remained without any significant successor.

The Johanniskirche is located on the busy Johannisstrasse in Osnabrück . It is the center of the old new town and protrudes far beyond its houses. In addition to the Osnabrück Cathedral , St. Marien and St. Katharinen , St. Johann is the fourth medieval church in downtown Osnabrück. There is a chapel in front of the church . It strengthens the demarcation of the sacred area from the modern shopping street.

Building history

Bishop Dietmar von Osnabrück (1003-1023) founded the collegiate monastery consecrated to St. John and on July 13, 1011 laid the foundation stone for the first St. John's Church. A new town developed around the monastery and its Latin school, which was administered separately from the old town until 1306 . The horseshoe-shaped apsidial choir from the founding period was found within the current crossing of the Johanniskirche through excavations . Apparently this first choir did not have enough space, which is why it was expanded around 1100 with a square choir bay and an apsidal choir closure.

On March 25, 1256, Bishop Bruno , Count von Isenburg (1251–1258) laid the foundation stone for the comprehensive new construction of the second collegiate and parish church , marking the start of construction on today's church. This happened around the same time as the final expansion of the choir at Osnabrück Cathedral . It is believed that the new building began in the 13th century on the east and west side out of consideration for the previous building, which was initially left standing. As with the previous churches, the somewhat protruding dry sand dune close to the ancient trade route again served as the subsurface for the new foundations . After the foundation work, the east building, i.e. the choir and transept, was probably raised first. The old church, which had become too small, was initially enclosed on three sides and later completely replaced. Based on the various stonemason's marks found , it is assumed that several masters and many builders were involved in the new construction. On August 18, 1292 the keystone was set and the church was solemnly consecrated. The construction work, however, was not finished at the time of the consecration and dragged on until the beginning of the 14th century.

Building description

Johanniskirche, 2013

Structure / floor plan

The Johanniskirche is a three-aisled, three-bay hall church with an east transept, a just closed choir and a two-tower west-bar building with a cross-shaped floor plan. The sacristy is located between the choir and the southern transept arm , and between the choir and the northern transept arm, abbey buildings are built at right angles. In the north, the cloister with the Kreuzkapelle adjoins as a prayer room. The structure is geost .

Exterior construction

The east building and the nave were built from rubble stones , the west building from stone blocks. The originally very rich tracery was damaged during the Second World War and then renewed with simpler forms of brick Gothic.

As is the case with the west building and the choir of the cathedral, the buttresses on the choir and the transepts of the St. John's Church are reduced to corner reinforcements. The walls of the square choir are divided by three narrow, pointed arched windows with a single beveled reveal. They form a pyramidal window group. The east walls of the transept are broken through by two windows. The windows on the north and south sides of the transept are related to the similar windows in the hall, which were the first high, four-part Gothic windows in Osnabrück.

Apart from its twelve-part tracery rose and the corner reinforcements, the huge, ashlar, west building is not structured. Its lower western front has been heavily restored. The rose window was created before the Second World War based on a design by Dominikus Böhm . The originally portal-free west building is an example of the constant orientation towards building elements from Lower Saxony and Westphalia. Two three-story towers grow out of the mighty substructure. The lower floors are connected by a west bar. Its windows have the same tracery forms as the windows of the lower tower floors, with which they are at the same height. The north-west tower has a simple pyramid roof . The southwest tower is adorned with a simple baroque hood with a lantern that survived the fires of World War II. The expansion of the upper tower floors continued into the 14th century. The transverse gable roofs and pointed gables of the nave were also added at that time.

inner space

View of the choir with the triumphal cross, the pulpit and the high altar from 1512 (artist: Master of the high altar of the Osnabrück Johanniskirche).

The interior of the church is characterized by height and width. The naves of the same height in the church hall and high, wide tracery windows in the aisles result in a light interior. While the east and west buildings are designed as walls, the hall is trend-setting for the middle of the 13th century. It combines Cistercian rigor and classical beauty. Although the cross-shaped floor plan and various building elements show Romanesque echoes, the entire spatial impression can be classified in the early Gothic . The foundations of the choirs of the previous churches are under the crossing , the central yoke of the transept. Four steps lead down from the choir to the crossing. The eight-part vault is accentuated here by ornamented keystones , and the pear ribs are provided with decorative discs. It is the largest vaulted area in the church. The crossing is followed by a cross arm in the north and south, as well as the Gothic nave, which is formed from three times three vaulted fields. The width of the yokes, which are almost square in the east, drops from east to west. In the west building, the central nave and the side aisles find their extension and closure.

Interior view of the organ in the west.

The three naves of the nave have the classic width ratio of 1: 2: 1. Thin pillars separate the nave from the aisles. The apex of the ribbed vaults are about 18 m high and made of rubble stone. The even, wide and unprofiled, ogival belt and shield arches are not stepped. They are only supplemented by thin, transverse round bars at the construction seams between the crossing, ship and west building. In view of the time of origin in the 13th century, the square pillars with thin corner services are very slim and the transition to the vaulted zone is only slightly emphasized. Only a close fighter separates the pillar, belt and shield arch. It is also the cover plate for the capitals with buds and foliage. While the capitals in the eastern part only show very sparse stem, bud and leaf shapes, in the nave they show rich, naturalistic foliage. The capital ornamentation is reminiscent of the Elisabeth Church in Marburg . The pillar shapes of St. Johannis can be compared with those of St. Ludgeri in Münster and the churches in Braunschweig .

sacristy

The sacristy is located between the choir and the south arm of the transept . Inside it is laid out in a square. A central bundle pillar and corresponding wall templates carry the four cross-vaulted fields. The sacristy is covered with a tent roof. Four three-part windows bring daylight into the room. The cast bronze door pull shows a lion's head on a quatrefoil made of vine leaves. He holds the pull ring in his mouth and is dated to the beginning of the 14th century.

Cloister

The three-winged cloister runs along the north side of the church. The time of construction can be dated to the beginning of the 14th century due to the Gothic tracery and the consoles . The cloister has thirty yokes one behind the other. In the individual yokes it has open, three-part arcades , of which the middle one rises slightly (similar to the window shape of the Dominican Church in Osnabrück ). It is adorned with a cross vault made of rubble stones and its outer walls are made of ashlars. Two chapels from the 14th century are attached. The cloister can be entered directly from the street. One access is on the Johannisstrasse side, the second opens to the Johannis Freiheit. From inside the church there is direct access to the east part of the cloister either through a portal in the north transept, or through one in the north aisle of the west building. This portal leads into the anteroom of the cloister.

Devotional chapel

The Osnabrück patrician family von Bar donated the prayer chapel at the beginning of the 14th century. It is also called the Kreuzkapelle. The masonry of the chapel consists of ashlars and rubble stones. The otherwise unadorned exterior gains color movement. On the south and west sides there is a two-part tracery window with a five-pass . The entrance is adorned with a simple pointed arch portal. The two high cross vaults are made of brick. The belt and diagonal ribs are double fluted for decoration. The keystones are decorated with coats of arms on which bears can be seen. They are reminiscent of the von Bar family. In the chapel there is a modern altar designed by Walter Mellmann. The tabernacle is above him . On the south wall there is a half of a former double Madonna in a halo from the beginning of the 15th century. The second half is in the St. Ansgar Church in Osnabrück-Nahne .

Chapter house

On the north side of the choir and the east side of the cloister are the two wings of the chapter house . Due to numerous modifications, the dating is controversial.

Furnishing

High altar of the Johanniskirche

High altar

The high altar of the Johanniskirche is one of the important works of the Münster sculptor Evert van Roden . The wooden shrine of the large Passion Altar of the St. John's Church from 1512 is back in its original place in the choir of the former collegiate church. In the middle of the 19th century it was on the east side of the northern tower hall. A sermon, given in 1856 for the 600th anniversary of the church, indicates that it is a high altar. This assumption is reinforced by the size of the altar and several images of the church patron on it. The still preserved central shrine is 2.70 m high and 3.77 m wide, so the original total width can be estimated at 7.54 m.

The preserved altar shrine is a central part of a convertible altar carved from oak . Hinges on both sides of the shrine indicate that it must have originally been a winged altar , but the wings have been missing for an indefinite period of time. The carved figures were probably originally colored, but are now unmounted. The reliefs created from strong oak planks have a great plastic effect.

The figure-rich Calvary can be seen in the middle field and further passion scenes are depicted in the side fields: on the left side Christ before Pontius Pilate and the carrying of the cross, on the right resurrection and ascension. In the predella there are fifteen niches with a Deesis group and figures of the apostles . The upper, rectangular fields of the shrine are said to have originally been intended for the installation of two reliquary shrines from the 15th century, which have been preserved in the sacristy of the church. However, the niches now contain reliefs and figures of different origins, such as the beheading of John around 1525 on the left and St. Ursula from the workshop of van Roden on the right . The latter work is probably a figure made by the main master himself, which was created around 1515. The Ursula in the Suermondt Museum in Aachen can be compared with this .

Although the high altar of the St. John's Church in Osnabrück is based on the external appearance of Westphalian altars with its box shape and its predella decorated with statuettes, it is one of the particularly noteworthy altars in Westphalia and northwest Germany due to its expansion and its outstanding artistic quality. Its clear tripartite division with an elevated center, its triple gate motif and its proportions also show its closeness to 15th century Brussels altar types and to the painting of Rogier van der Weyden . Individual motifs such as the chapel shrine and the use of tracery strips are even indications of direct dependencies. Van Roden's reference to Flemish models in the construction of the altar and in some cases in the figure style is striking. In addition, the reference to the local tradition is evident in the predella with its figure niches. Comparative examples are the passion altar and the rood screen figures in the former monastery church in Marienfeld in the Gütersloh district and the crucifixion group at the small church in Osnabrück.

Medieval sandstone sculptures

On the walls of the choir and on the rectangular crossing pillars there are a total of sixteen life-size sandstone figures of Salvator , Mary, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and the twelve apostles . They are considered outstanding in the field of medieval sculpture in Osnabrück. The differences in the design suggest several different artists.

The two figures of St. John, which are on the inside of the eastern crossing pillars, date from around 1400 and are the earliest of the figures. The figures of the apostles are further developed and are partly related to the choir figures of the Marienkirche , which date from around the same time. The latest figures were created around 1440. Salvator and Maria each adorn the west side of the two eastern crossing pillars. Ten of the apostle figures are placed in the walls of the choir. The two larger than life figures of the princes of the apostles Paul and Peter are on the inside of the two western pillars and come from the high altar of the Jesuit church. They were made in 1630 by Jeremias Geisselbrunn from Cologne. All apostle figures have an emotive expression in form and face, while the bodies seem rather blocky.

On the south wall of the south arm of the transept there are four smaller sandstone figures. The two middle ones are about one meter high, the outer ones are slightly smaller. These are figures of St. Catherine , Pope Cornelius , Bishop Detmar and St. Jerome.

Sacrament House

The richly decorated sandstone sacrament house is not completely preserved, the top attachment is missing. It was created around the middle of the 15th century. On the front there are two pilasters on the right and left , each of which ends with a magnificent canopy. Below that, Mary can be seen on the right and the Archangel Gabriel on the left . They represent the Annunciation scene. This is also the motif of the gilded tabernacle door, which is located in the middle. In addition, depictions from the life of John the Baptist, the twelve apostles and the four church teachers Augustine, Ambrosius, Gregory and Hieronymus can be recognized.

Portals

The portals of the church date from the 13th century. Only the western north portal is original. The bridal portal on the south side was originally decorated with a clover leaf arch.

Choir stalls

There are two double-row choir stalls in the church choir . The stalls on the south side of the choir have four seats, the north side eight. Due to their decorative design, they can be dated to the beginning of the 14th century. The cheeks of the chairs in particular are iconographically varied.

The so-called three seat, the stalls carved from oak planks, was built around 1380. This choir stalls are richly decorated with Gothic tracery, figures and foliage. In its sloping roof, as in the main altar, the Deesis is shown in abbreviated form in a frieze . On the back wall of the seat, the tracery shows the scourge, cross, nails, rod and crown of thorns, as well as other motifs from the story of suffering. As with the two-row choir stalls, the side panels are particularly decorated. On the left cheek you can see Moses in front of the burning bush, on the right the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham.

Epitaphs

Several epitaphs are present in the church . They were all created in Westphalian or Osnabrück sculpture workshops. On the west wall of the north transept arm is the sandstone epitaph for the dean Mellinghaus, a relief of the Last Judgment from around 1560 in a classic Renaissance frame by Johann Brabender . To the left of the organ, the sandstone epitaph for Konrad von der Borgh from 1586 is set into the east wall of the north transept arm above a lintel. A mount of olives scene and the donor are shown. The third sandstone epitaph is located in the south arm of the transept. It is a relief of the Entombment of Christ for the Dean Eberhart A. Mallincroth. The Osnabrück sculptor Adam Stenelt made it in 1606. On the east wall of the south transept arm there is a relief with the large-figure scene " ecce homo ", which was created around 1640. It is reminiscent of the epitaph of the cathedral dean von Letmathe by the sculptor Gerhard Gröninger in the cathedral in Münster .

In the cloister there are two crucifixion reliefs from the workshop of the master from Osnabrück, created around 1520/25, as well as two further, but damaged epitaphs. The sandstone epitaph for Caspar Monnick, who died in 1597, is set into the north wall of the cloister. It shows the founder kneeling under the cross and the scene of the resurrection in the background. The epitaph of the von Stael family is located above the entrance to today's confessional chapel. The main relief also shows the scene of the resurrection. Further scenes from the life of Jesus are shown in the background. The children and grandchildren of the couple, who died in 1951, can be seen under the main relief.

organ

The main organ of St. Johann is located in the organ gallery in the westwork, below the large rose window. The instrument was built in 1978 by the Kreienbrink (Georgsmarienhütte) organ building company, reusing pipe material (17 stops in total ) from the historic predecessor organs from the 18th century. In 1998 the instrument was rebuilt by Orgelbau Kreienbrink and placed in a new case on the west gallery. The organ has 48 sounding stops. The sound tracts are mechanical, the register actions are electrical.

Pedals C – f 1
1. Principal bass 16 ′
2. Sub bass 16 ′
3. Quintbass 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
4th Octave bass 8th'
5. Dacked bass 8th'
6th Choral bass 4 ′
7th Night horn 2 ′
8th. Mixture V 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
9. Bombarde (C – H) 32 ′
10. trombone 16 ′
11. Trumpet 8th'
12. shawm 4 ′
I Rückpositiv C – g 3
13. Reed flute 8th'
14th Quintad 8th'
15th Principal 4 ′
16. Flute douce 4 ′
17th octave 2 ′
18th Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
19th Oktavlein 1'
20th Sesquialter II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
21st Scharff IV-V 1'
22nd Dulcian 16 ′
23. Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
25th Quintadena 16 ′
26th Principal 8th'
27. Open flute 8th'
28. Dumped 8th'
29 octave 4 ′
30th Gemshorn 4 ′
31. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
32. octave 2 ′
33. Sesquialter III
34. Mixture V 2 ′
35. Zimbel III 1 ⁄ 2 ′
36. Trumpet 16 ′
37. Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
III Swell C – g 3
39. Gemshorn 8th'
40. Gamba 8th'
41. Voix céleste II 8th'
42. Principal 4 ′
43. Transverse flute 4 ′
44. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
45. Forest flute 2 ′
46. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
47. Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
48. Basson 16 ′
49. Trumpet harm. 8th'
50. oboe 8th'
Tremulant

Church treasure

The important treasure of the Johanniskirche from the 11th-19th centuries Century consists of a chapter cross from 1150, two silver-plated seated figures (a bishop from the 13th century and a Madonna from the 14th century) and numerous chalices from the 14th-18th centuries. Century. The altarpieces from the 18th century mainly come from Augsburg and Osnabrück.

Bells

A seven-part chime with bells from different centuries hangs in the towers of the Johanniskirche :

  • I. Ton h °, cast by Jean Baptist Dubois in 1855/56
  • II. Tone c sharp ', cast by Joseph Michelin in 1646
  • III. Ton e ', cast in 1953 by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock in Gescher
  • IV. Tone g sharp ', made in 1366 by an unknown founder
  • V. Ton ais', made in 1591 by an unknown caster
  • VI. Tone c sharp ", cast in 1751 by Andreas Lindner
  • VII. Clay ice ", made in 1300 by an unknown caster

literature

  • Georg Dehio, Gerd white: Handbook of the German art monuments. Bremen, Lower Saxony . 2. rework. strong adult Edition, Munich 1992.
  • Reinhard Karrenbrock: Evert van Roden. The master of the high altar of the Osnabrück Johanniskirche. A contribution to the Westphalian sculpture of the late Gothic . Wenner, Osnabrück 1992; from the series: Osnabrück historical sources and research . Published by the Association for History and Regional Studies of Osnabrück, Vol. 31. ISBN 3-87898-332-8 .
  • Hermann Poppe: The building history of the Johanniskirche in Osnabrück. A contribution to research into medieval architecture in the Lower Saxony-Westphalian region . Obermeyer, Osnabrück 1936.
  • Roswitha Poppe, Lothar Klimek : Osnabrück . Deutsche Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 1972; Pp. 33-37; from the series: Deutsche Lande, Deutsche Kunst. ISBN 3-422-00085-2 .
  • Roswitha Poppe: The medieval churches of Osnabrück . In: Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments , Vol. 43, Mainz 1979, pp. 44–98. Published by the Roman-Germanic Central Museum.
  • Hermann Poppe-Marquard: Sankt Johann in Osnabrück with its art treasures . Osnabrück 1983. Published by the Catholic parish of St. Johann.
  • Hermann Poppe-Marquard: Osnabrück Church Chronicle. Building history and works of art of all Osnabrück churches of the major denominations . Meinders & Elstermann, Osnabrück approx. 1990. ISBN 3-88926-890-0 .

Web links

Commons : St. Johann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johanniskirche
  2. ^ Hermann Poppe-Marquard: Osnabrück . 2nd, expanded edition, Verlag Antonius Fromm, Osnabrück 1958, p. 11.
  3. ↑ In detail on the history of the St. Johann organ