St. Joseph (Berlin-Siemensstadt)

St. Joseph
	Nave with bell tower
Start of building:	April 8, 1934
Inauguration:	November 17, 1935
Architect :	Hans Christoph Hertlein
Style elements :	Aftermath of the New Objectivity
Client:	Siemens
Floor space:	38 × 20 m
Tower height:	30 m
Location:	52 ° 32 '23 " N , 13 ° 16' 12.9" E Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '23 " N , 13 ° 16' 12.9" E
Address:	Natalissteig 2 ; Siemensstadt ; Berlin , Germany
Purpose:	catholic worship
Parish:	Catholic parish St. Joseph in Berlin-Spandau
Diocese :	Archdiocese of Berlin
Website:	www.sankt-joseph-siemensstadt.de

The Roman Catholic St. Joseph's Church is attached to the church hall and the two-storey rectory a building complex in Berlin's district of Siemensstadt of the district Spandau . It was completed in 1935 and is a listed building . It belongs to the Deanery Spandau in the Archdiocese of Berlin .

The church building is aligned in its longitudinal axis in a west-east direction on Goebelstraße, the single-storey community hall has its entrance at Natalissteig 2, and the rectory is at Quellweg 43. The hall church has a semicircular closed apse and a tower on a square floor plan .

history

The rapid development of the Siemensstadt district began when, on November 3, 1897, what was then Siemens & Halske AG bought an approx. 21 hectare area of Nonnenwiesen between the two cities of Charlottenburg and Spandau in order to build industrial buildings there. This made it necessary to improve the social infrastructure around the Nonnendamm. Since 1904, Siemens & Halske also participated in the first residential construction for the urgently needed workers in the newly built plants. A site belonging to the Jungfernheide was purchased by Siemens in 1919 for development with apartments. The Heimat settlement , in which the St. Joseph Church is located, was built in two construction phases by the housing companies "Heimat" and " GAGFAH " from 1930 to 1935.

With the influx of workers, who mainly came from the Rhineland, Westphalia, Silesia and Bavaria, the first Catholics also came to the newly built settlements. First the believers, who at that time still belonged to the parish of Spandau, had to celebrate the services in the church of St. Marien am Behnitz , from 1910 in Maria, Help of Christians . Due to the arduous way there, the desire arose to hold our own church services on site. In April 1915, the Siemensstadt church building association was founded to build an own house of worship. First the Sunday service was celebrated in the drawing room of the 11th elementary school in Spandau, later in the atrium of the Siemens administration building. After the First World War , a barrack was acquired and given a church-shaped design, adding a bell tower and an apse . The makeshift church was consecrated on November 2, 1918. The parish received its own pastor in 1923; it was promoted to a curate in 1923 and a parish in 1939.

In the course of planning the Heimat settlement, the construction of a solid brick church was also planned. The building site was a donation from the Siemens factory at the time. Due to the economic crisis of 1932–33, construction did not begin until 1934. The architect was Hans Hertlein , the construction manager of the Siemens group. The church was damaged in World War II , but it was still possible to celebrate Holy Mass during the war .

The parishes of Maria Regina Martyrum in Berlin-Charlottenburg-Nord and St. Stephanus in Berlin-Haselhorst were incorporated into the parish of St. Joseph in 1981 and 2008, respectively. Since March 5, 2018, the parish has formed the pastoral space “Spandau- Döberitz” (parish St. Marien, Brieselang ) with the parishes Maria, Hilfe der Christisten in Spandau , St. Konrad von Parzham in Falkensee and St. Johannes the Baptist Dallgow-Döberitz (parish St. Marien, Brieselang ) North / Falkensee ”to prepare a merger into a single parish .

Building description

Inside with a view of the altar

The church designed by Siemens construction manager Hans Hertlein corresponds to the architectural signature of many Siemens buildings. The simple, ornament-free rectangular building with a gable roof and semicircular choir closure shows functional, reduced structural forms in the style of moderate modernism . According to the art historian Christine Goetz , it gives the impression of a traditional village church.

The masonry construction, veneered with dark red brick and staggered with light joints in a cross connection , clearly sets itself apart from the brightly plastered living rows. The lines of the walls of the nave merge without indentation into the semicircle of the apse. The gable wall has a portico and a large rose window without tracery . Above the portal below the canopy there is a stone relief with biblical scenes about Saint Joseph , the namesake of the church.

Instead of a roof truss , a high reinforced concrete truss construction gives the church hall a Gothic look with a gable area that extends to the open roof ridge . Eight binders that on the floor begin with the curvature and the total width of the church hall ogival span, the nave divided into yokes , three half binder divide the outside semicircular apse inside in five star-shaped tapering segments of an octagon . There is masonry between the girders up to the eaves level . With this type of construction, the inclined legs of the trusses serve as the roof structure for the roof skin .

In contrast to concrete trusses, the horizontal girders of the gallery above the entrance on which the organ is located were formed from roughly planed double beams , reinforced by steel bands. The high gable roof ends on the main front as a gable and on the east side above the apse as a half- conical roof .

The cubic-square tower attached to the south wall has a flat, barely visible pyramid roof and cites contemporary industrial buildings. On each side of the bell storey, the tower has two segment-arched sound openings lying next to each other and in three rows one above the other . Beneath it, on the south side, it wears a dial above a spherical moon clock .

Furnishing

The baptistery

Anthony statue

According to the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , the interior was redesigned by Paul Brandenburg . The high altar , the pulpit and the communion bench have been removed. The doors of the communion bench are now part of the baptistery. Paul Brandenburg created a new people's altar as well as candlesticks and an ambo . Later they were supplemented by the sediles and the Easter candlestick . On May 1, 1974, the redesign was completed with a solemn high mass.

To the right of the entrance is the octagonal baptismal font in a raised and separated area. It is covered by a round copper lid with a cross in the crown by Herbert Zeitner , who also designed the tabernacle . Since 1957, to the left of the entrance, a cross has been placed on a pedestal to commemorate the fallen of the community.

In 1939, a rosary Madonna was attached to the ceiling of the apse at clear height , Mary with the child in a golden halo, surrounded by an oval frame. In an optical axis below, but at the back of the apse, is the simple crucifix , which was originally the center of a crucifixion group that stood on the altarpiece . The altarpiece, a representation of the Last Supper , is still in its old place today. It is located in one axis above the tabernacle protruding into the picture.

During the Second World War, countless windows with stained glass , which were made by the " United Workshops for Mosaic and Glass Painting ", were destroyed in bomb attacks, including the rose window by Josef Oberberger on the gable front and the ten tall rectangular windows that extend from the tower over the apse move to the rectory. Today's round window in the baptistery was made from the remains of destroyed windows.

Behind the crucifix is an abstract window by Paul Corazolla , two windows each on the left and right with scenes from the life of Christ come from the time the church was built. On the north side, three round windows designed by Egbert Lammers faced the inner courtyard between the rectory and the community hall. A small annex is added below them, in which the confessionals are housed.

The colored wooden statue of Saint Anthony with the baby Jesus on his left hand has been standing in a niche near the baptismal font since 1937 . A statue of the Virgin Mary has stood on a pedestal in the area of the former pulpit since 1960. The 14 Stations of the Cross and the altarpiece are by Hans Breinlinger .

Bells

A bronze bell and two chilled cast iron bells hang in the tower .

Caster	Pouring year	material	Chime	Weight (kg)	Diameter (cm)	Height (cm)	inscription
Franz Schilling	1964	bronze	H'	270	80	60	ST. JOSEPH. ROLE MODEL OF THE WORKER AND THE PATRON OF THE DYING, PLEASE FOR US.
Franz Weeren	around 1950	Chilled iron	f sharp ′	282	86	63
Franz Weeren	around 1950	Chilled iron	a ′	180	72	54

literature

Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings. Berlin 1997.
Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Band Berlin. Munich / Berlin 2006.
Christine Goetz and Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam. Berlin 2003.
Christine Goetz: Emphatically factual home. St. Joseph, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95976-101-7 , p. 104f.
Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Berlin 1987.
Bettina Held: The "Heimat" estate in Berlin-Siemensstadt and its churches. Berlin 2009.
Gerhard Streicher and Erika Drave: Berlin - city and church. Berlin 1980.

Web links

Commons : St. Joseph Church (Berlin-Siemensstadt) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Christine Goetz: Stressed factual home. St. Joseph, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Berlin 2018, p. 104.
↑ Christine Goetz: Emphasizes factual home. St. Joseph, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Berlin 2018, p. 104.

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[1] Christine Goetz: Stressed factual home. St. Joseph, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Berlin 2018, p. 104.

[2] Christine Goetz: Emphasizes factual home. St. Joseph, Berlin-Spandau. In: Christine Goetz, Constantin Beyer: City. Country. Churches. Sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Berlin. Berlin 2018, p. 104.