St. Johannis (Lueneburg)

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St. Johannis in Lüneburg
Central nave and altar
Main altar
The organ
Gothic Mary chandelier
Clock and bells on the church tower

The Evangelical Lutheran main church St. Johannis is the oldest church in the city of Lüneburg . It is located on the Am Sande square in the city center and is an important building of the North German brick Gothic .

Exterior construction

The five-aisled Gothic hall church was built between 1289 and 1470. The first documentary mention of the previous building dates back to 1174. Most of the church building was completed in 1372, the tower completed in 1384 with a height of 110 meters. After a few more extensions, the construction of the church can be regarded as completed in 1470.

The slightly leaning tower, which with a current height of 108.7 meters is one of the highest church towers in Lower Saxony, is striking . The tower of St. Johannis (completed in 1408), which was rebuilt after a fire caused by lightning in 1406, looks crooked from all sides: the roof structure is deformed in the shape of a corkscrew in the upper area. The top of the tower is 220 cm from the perpendicular . Legend has it that the builder, after noticing the mistake, threw himself out of one of the upper windows of the church tower, but was caught so happily by a passing hay wagon that he stayed alive.

Choir with Elisabeth and Ursula chapel

The choir with the carved altar is flanked by the Ursula and Elisabeth chapels.

The carved altar is a masterpiece from the 15th century. Around the crucifixion of Christ in the center, seven scenes from the Passion and Easter stories are grouped to the left and right. Two groups of ten apostles (above) and 16 female figures (below) frame the cycle. The paintings on the outside of the wing of the altar (legends of Saints George, Johannes, Ursula, Cäcilie) are important examples of late medieval painting in Northern Germany. They come from the Hamburg painter Hinrik Funhof (1482).

In 1969 , Charles Crodel erected a memorial in the east windows of the Elisabeth Chapel with his glass paintings to Heinrich Radbrock († 1536), the last Catholic abbot of the Cistercian monastery Scharnebeck and since 1533 superintendent in Lüneburg. With the south-facing windows with 36 small narrative lenses based on motifs from the 148th and 150th Psalms, this is complemented by glazing that encompasses the entire room.

Organs

There are two large organs in St. Johannis .

The historic organ was completed by Hendrik Niehoff and Jasper Johansen in 1553 and expanded in 1652 and 1715. From 1698 to 1733 Georg Böhm , the most famous St. Johannis cantor , to whom the young Johann Sebastian Bach is said to have listened here, worked from 1698 to 1733 . One of Böhm's successors was Johann Christoph Schmügel .

Another organ was consecrated in St. Johannis on May 23, 2010. Their sound is geared towards French romanticism. This choir organ was built by Orgelbau Kuhn .

More works of art

The Gothic Mary chandelier is a splendid North German work from the late 15th century, which depicts Mary under a gilded canopy with the child in a halo. For a thorough interior renovation, "dispensable beauties from Catholic times" were sold in 1856 as part of an "iconoclasm" and similarly in 1909. The interior of the church and the historic organ were extensively renovated in 2007.

Bells

St. Johannis has a historically as well as sonically valuable ringing of eight bells . The main chime consists of six bells. Its sonically most beautiful is the apostle's bell, cast by Ghert Klinghe in Bremen in 1436 . The largest bell is New Guard Bell , which weighs 6,965 kg. The two bells form the secondary bell .

The old guard bell with six tons was pulled in and melted down for armament purposes during the First World War . In 2013 it was decided to cast three new bells to relieve the older ones. In addition, the test bell that had cracked and the small clamp had to be repaired. A successor to the watch bell melted down in World War I was also to be cast. In autumn 2013 the baptismal bell (fis ') and the praying bell (d') were poured. The large guard bell (a °) was cast in early 2014. These three new bells were cast by the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe. On May 18, 2014 the five bells arrived in Lüneburg; They were inaugurated on June 22, 2014, followed by a cantata service in the church.

When comparing the bells of the three main parishes, St. Johannis has the heaviest, St. Nicolai the lowest pitch (on a 0 ) and St. Michaelis the most extensive ring (10 bells).

No.
 		 Surname
 		 Casting year
 		 Foundry, casting location
 		 Diameter
(mm)		 Weight
(kg, approx.)		 Nominal
( HT - 1 / 16 )
1 Watch bell 2014 Bachert bell foundry , Karlsruhe 2089 6965

a 0 -4

2 Apostle bell 1436 Ghert Klinghe , Bremen 1955 4860 h 0 -8
3 Sunday bell 1718 Johann Christoph Ziegener, Lueneburg 1604 2704 cis 1 -3
4th Prayer bell 2013 Bachert bell foundry, Karlsruhe 1543 2700

d 1 -1

5 Test bell 1607 Paul Voss, Lueneburg 1354 1723 e 1 -2
6th Baptismal bell 2013 Bachert bell foundry, Karlsruhe 1223 1411

f sharp 1 -2

7th Big clamp 1436 Ghert Klinghe, Bremen 875 464 d 2 -10
8th Small clamp 1519 Hinrik van Kampen , Lübeck 762 313 e 2 -10
I. Hour bell 1516 Hinrik van Kampen, Lübeck 1480 1860 cis 1 -5
II Quarter-hour bell 1600 Andreas Heineken, Lueneburg 823 360 c 2 -4

Personalities

Well-known personalities who worked at St. Johannis were the predecessor of Georg Böhm , the organist Christian Flor , who held the office from 1676 to 1697, the superintendent Johann Wilhelm Petersen , who was deposed from office in 1692, and from 1714 to 1725 the superintendent Johann Christopher Jauch . Also Augustinus van Ghetelen worked during the Reformation as a controversial theologian at St. John's.

The librarian and archivist Johann Heinrich Büttner was buried in St. Johannis.

Tourist importance

View from the “Am Sande” square to the west facade with the tower

Like the churches of St. Nicolai and St. Michaelis , St. Johannis is also of great tourist interest. All three churches are important buildings of the brick Gothic and form stations on the European route of the brick Gothic . As reliably open churches , they are open to visitors during the day, except during church services.

literature

  • Thomas Kaphammel, Ulrich Heitfeldt: The Funhof tables from the Lüneburg Ev. Johanniskirche. In: Hans-Herbert Möller (Ed.): Restoration of cultural monuments. Examples from the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony (= reports on preservation of monuments , supplement 2). Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation . Niemeyer, Hameln 1989, ISBN 3-87585-152-8 , p. 279ff.
  • Elmar Peter: Lüneburg - history of a 1000 year old city 956−1956. Ed .: Museum Association for the Principality of Lüneburg; Author: Elmar Peter. Advice u. scientific Accompaniment: Eckhard Michael. Pressure: v. Stern'sche Druckerei, 2nd edition, Lüneburg 1999, ISBN 3-922616-15-1 .
  • Martin Voigt: St. Johanniskirche Lüneburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich.
  • Martin Voigt: The St. John's Church in Lüneburg. The treasure trove of medieval churches. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2013.

Web links

Commons : St. Johannis (Lüneburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b St. Johannis parish in Lüneburg - building history. As of October 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ An ancestor u. a. by Heinrich Radbruch (1841–1922) and Gustav Radbruch (1878–1949).
  3. ^ Martin Voigt: The St. Johanniskirche in Lüneburg. The treasure trove of medieval churches. Munich 2013, pp. 170–175.
  4. ↑ http://glockenmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/L%C3%BCneburg_GdM.pdf
  5. ^ Büttner, Johann Heinrich (April 30, 1746). In the personal and correspondence database of the Leibniz Edition on leibniz.uni-goettingen.de

Coordinates: 53 ° 14 ′ 52 "  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 46.4"  E