St. Joseph (Cologne-Braunsfeld)
St. Joseph is a Catholic church belonging to the parish of St. Pankratius in the Braunsfeld district of Cologne , which was built between 1952 and 1954 according to plans by the architects Rudolf Schwarz and Joseph Bernard and consecrated in September 1954 . The church is under the patronage of Saint Joseph of Nazareth and has been a listed building since 1999.
Prehistory, previous building and new building
Braunsfeld was a settlement area that grew in the second half of the 19th century and was incorporated into the city of Cologne as a district in 1888. Parishly belonging to the municipality of Kriel - Lindenthal , it consisted of both workers' settlements from the brickworks located here and - with a city forest - newer bourgeois residential areas. The St. Josephs Church Building Association , founded in 1897, planned its own church in this quarter from 1904, which was implemented in 1906. The three-aisled basilica only offered space for around 100 parishioners from the parish, which was independent from 1915. From 1924 to 1937, the later Cardinal Josef Frings worked here as a pastor and arranged a. a. a new version of the interior based on designs by Peter Hecker . However, the church was destroyed by air raids during World War II in 1944.
After different locations had been used as an emergency church in the first post-war years, a competition with four participants was announced in October 1952, from which Rudolf Schwarz and Joseph Bernard emerged as the winners with one of their designs. Something was deviated from this design for the final construction, for example a completely new design for the bell tower had to be created. In April before the laying of the foundation stone on May 10, 1953, Cardinal Frings had suggested an extension to include a confessional and a baptistery, which was also implemented. Even after the topping-out ceremony, there was still rescheduling, this time the municipality decided to move the tower from the originally planned location to the current location in front of the entrance hall.
On September 19, 1954, Cardinal Frings consecrated the church. An organ was installed in 1956 as the last element of the initial equipment.
The municipality made a significant change to the interior in 1967/1968 - apparently without consulting the Schwarz office - by having Georg Meistermann install colored glass windows . In addition, the previously white ceiling was given a dark blue version. The very bright church interior with its simple white glass windows, which had been reserved in color until then, had been the subject of discussion since 1960; the pastor is quoted as saying “you come to church with sunglasses!”.
On July 2, 1999, St. Joseph was added to the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under the number 8410 . A comprehensive renovation of the church carried out in 2001 by Schwarz & Partner - with architect Maria Schwarz as the copyright holder of the original design - retained the 1968 version.
Building description
The church of St. Joseph stands free on three sides on a piece of land between three streets in Braunsfeld. Due to the plot of land, it faces south.
It is a rectangular concrete skeleton building with a sixfold, “jagged” gable roof, oriented transversely to the longitudinal direction, the gables of which are filled with hexagonal windows. These are held “in suspension” by a Y-shaped concrete support that tapers downwards on each side. Between the first and second southern ridge of the roof, an additional structure with another window “honeycomb” characterizes the interior altar area. At this point, instead of masonry, windows on both sides of the building fill the compartments between the concrete supports down to the floor. The brick masonry between the concrete skeleton is slightly set back and forms small brick crosses over all surfaces. The concrete supports are also deliberately emphasized on the windowless narrow sides of the building.
On the west side is a single-storey extension reminiscent of a cloister, which is grouped around an inner courtyard. It houses the sacristy, confessional and baptistery.
The 25 meter high bell tower stands as a separate campanile on the north-eastern side of the building; it is a functionally restricted “bell frame” made up of four concrete steles, which are centered together by five concrete discs. These also serve as suspensions or floors for the four bells.
Entrance portals are located diagonally both on the northeast side and southwest on the baptistery.
In the interior, a largely undivided, elongated church hall opens up, which runs straight towards the raised altar. Originally planned niches for the confessionals on the west side were implemented according to the design, as was the crypt, but later walled up due to lack of use (confessional chapel in the extension). Symmetrical steps to the right and left of the altar lead to the crypt , which was originally intended as a devotional chapel and now serves as a memorial for those who died in the World War. The choir pedestal on the back wall extends from wall to wall.
The original wall design was based on the spatial concept of a "tent of God" ( Rev 21 : 3 EU ). The plastered compartments between the concrete posts were light blue, the posts and the jagged ceiling ("tent sheets") were white. The bright windows had no visible framing as they merged directly into the ceiling or roof. Rudolf Schwarz also thought of “a blue sky with large white clouds lit by the sun”.
The current version is the opposite of the color impression: Meistermann's colored windows required a border, not only on the concrete beams but also towards the ceiling. That is why the load-bearing supports are now colored, while the compartments between them are light. The ceiling has a darker stripe at the edge. The visual impression is now such that the ceiling does not “rest” on the windows, but on the darker supports.
Furnishing
St. Joseph's furnishings consist of pieces from different eras: some elements still come from the old, destroyed church and have been converted, including the tabernacle doors that now lock the safe in the sacristy . Hans Hoffmann's baptismal font was created in 1935, and two sculptures of Saints Joseph and Don Bosco date from the 1940s.
Most of the pieces, however, come directly from the time the church was built and in part go back to the architects' designs. This includes the altar table and the font, made by Paul Nagel . Kurt Zimmermann created a stone statue of the Virgin Mary in 1954 . The tabernacle is the work of goldsmith Elisabeth Treskow ; After the liturgical reform, it was set aside from the center of the altar on a stele by Heribert Calleen . In 1974 he also created the new ambo with motifs of the hour of Christ's death according to Matthew ( Mt 27.51 EU ) - such as the "torn curtain " - as well as the Easter candlestick and in 1978 the new altar cross .
The Meistermann windows from 1967/1968 have been placed on the inside flush with the wall on the old windows. They show colored wave shapes against a white background, which pick up the movement of the roof and the window shapes.
The two-manual organ with 23 registers was built in 1956 by Romanus Seifert & Sohn ; Their prospectus with the - unusual - free-standing pipes fits very well with the architecture and was therefore not replaced during the 2001 renovation of the church, but also carefully restored.
The four-part chime from the bell foundry Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock consists of three bells cast for the new building in 1954 and an older bell from 1934. The impact sounds are a 1 -c 2 -d2-f . 2
literature
- Oliver Meys: Christ's Resurrection and St. Joseph in Cologne . Ed .: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Nr. 520 ). 1st edition Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86526-050-5 , p. 16-31 .
- Wolfgang Pehnt: Rudolf Schwarz 1897-1961: Architect of a different modernism . Catalog raisonné. G. Hatje, 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0642-9 , pp. 279 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Oliver Meys: Christ's Resurrection and St. Joseph in Cologne . Ed .: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Nr. 520 ). 1st edition Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86526-050-5 , p. 16-31 .
- ↑ a b c Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 112-113 .
- ↑ Search in the list of monuments. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Monika Schmelzer: Sankt Joseph . In: Manfred Becker-Huberti, Günter A. Menne (Ed.): Churches in Cologne. The churches of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cologne. Bachem, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1731-3 , p. 82-83 .
- ↑ St. Josef Cologne-Braunsfeld. In: baukunst-nrw.de. Chamber of Architects North Rhine-Westphalia, June 14, 2016, accessed on April 11, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Wolfgang Pehnt: Rudolf Schwarz 1897-1961: Architect of Another Modernism . Catalog raisonné. G. Hatje, 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0642-9 , pp. 279 .
- ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 263 ( archive.org [PDF]).
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 8.5 ″ N , 6 ° 53 ′ 53.3 ″ E