St. Judas Thaddäus (Berlin)
| Judas Thaddäus Church (Berlin-Tempelhof) | |
|---|---|
_Kirchenschiff_und_Turm.jpg) Tower and nave |
|
| Start of building: | 5th June 1958 |
| Inauguration: | September 12, 1959 |
| Architect : | Reinhard Hofbauer |
| Style elements : | Late expressionism |
| Client: | St. Judas Thaddäus Catholic Parish |
| Tower height: |
40 m |
| Location: | 52 ° 28 '48.3 " N , 13 ° 22' 33.2" E |
| Address: | Bäumerplan / Loewenhardtdamm Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin , Germany |
| Purpose: | catholic worship |
| Local community: | Catholic parish Herz Jesu und St. Jude Thaddäus |
| Diocese : | Archdiocese of Berlin |
| Website: | www.kirche-herz-jesu-tempelhof.de |
The St. Judas-Thaddäus-Kirche in the Berlin district of Tempelhof in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district is a hall church made of reinforced concrete over a pear-shaped floor plan with curved roof lines. It has a low porch on the east side and a slender triangular church tower to the north . The listed church is classified as threatened.
history
The Catholic community Tempelhof was founded in 1878 with the support of Empress Augusta . In 1898 the parish built its parish church Herz-Jesu in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse. Until 1910, the area on which the Catholic parish of St. Judas Thaddäus later emerged belonged as a section of the Tempelhofer Feld to the Prussian Ministry of War . Even before the First World War , the Tempelhof rural community acquired part of this area for the urban development of the Neu-Tempelhof location, which did not begin until 1922. After the First World War, a community group of around 3,000 Catholics formed in the new residential area. At that time there was no hospital in the Tempelhof district. The plan for the construction of the St. Joseph Hospital goes back to the initiative of the provincial superior at the time of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Elisabeth , a religious order of the Catholic Church.
The first service in the new district took place in the Christ the King's Chapel of the St. Joseph Hospital, which was inaugurated in 1928.
With the expansion of the residential area after 1945, the number of Catholics grew again. The chaplain looked after the Catholics in Neu-Tempelhof until 1946. Then a priest was called to be the local chaplain to rebuild the community after World War II and stay until 1972. On November 1, 1951, the sub-community was appointed an independent curate for pastoral care , although it was still without its own premises. The Neu-Tempelhof congregation was to be a guest in the chapel for five years. After that, the church should be ready on a piece of land donated for this purpose, but the building project could not be carried out in the agreed period. On July 1, 1958, shortly after the foundation stone was laid for the new church, the curate, which by then had grown to almost 3,000 believers, was raised to an independent parish .
In connection with the necessary austerity measures by the Berlin Archdiocese, the parish was abolished by decree of July 1, 2004. There was a renewed union with the mother parish Herz-Jesu. In view of the economic situation of the church, the maintenance of two churches can hardly be afforded by one congregation today, but the “pink concrete church” enjoys a high level of acceptance among the faithful.
The most influential cleric in the Church of St. Jude Thaddäus is generally regarded as the charismatic Franciscan Father Martin Domogalla OFM , who preached there until the 1980s and, among other things, brought Mother Teresa to the Tempelhof Church for prayer. The Cardinals Alfred Bengsch , Joachim Meisner and Georg Sterzinsky regularly visited the most important Judas Thaddäus Church in Germany.
Building description
The building is characterized by the curved shapes common in church construction in the 1950s. The building is cast from brick chippings concrete and other materials typical of the time were used. The outer walls of the tower and nave are unplastered and show the structure of the formwork .
tower
The approximately 40 meter high bell tower on a triangular floor plan lies in the longitudinal axis of the nave. The concrete shaft points forward with one edge that is continued in a three-dimensional concrete cross, which is decorated with ribbons of glass mosaic. There are three bells hanging in the tower.
| Bell jar | material | Chime | Casting year | Caster | Weight (kg) |
Diameter (cm) |
Height (cm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big bell | bronze | d ' | 1962 | Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock | 1893 | 144 | 118 | PIUS X. |
| Medium bell | bronze | f ' | 1962 | Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock | 1096 | 118 | 98 | ST. MARIA GORETTA: |
| Little bell | bronze | G' | 1962 | Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock | 730 | 105 | 87 | ST. JUDAS THADDÄUS. |
The concrete sculpture of the holy apostle Jude Thaddäus , the namesake of the church, which Gerhart Schreiter created in 1959 , stands on a plinth in the northern corner of the tower hall. The parabolic canopies of the entrance arches, covered with patina-colored copper, arch on two sides of the tower and can be closed by bars. On the third side of the open tower hall, lined with mosaic, is the entrance to the vestibule, with glass prisms embedded in the walls and ceiling.
Baptistery
The low, windowless baptistery is entered from the porch. It hugs him like a kidney as a link to the church interior. The floor is made of terrazzo with embedded marble pebbles, the walls are covered with mosaic . The central baptismal font made of gray marble, which also functions as a holy water font, stands under a skylight . The baptistery opens to the church with three double glazed doors.
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Nave
The floor plan of the axially symmetrical church space, which widens towards the altar, initially describes a parabola. In this area, the roof that covers the church area rises flat. Where the width of the church space gradually decreases to merge into the curve of the apse in the south, the roof swings down again. At the apex of the parabola is the middle of three doors between the baptistery and the church. Passages on both sides of the nave lead to the confessionals , which are located in the annexes. The annex on the east side of the nave houses the sacristy , above is the room for the gallery for the organ .
In the interior there is a suspended coffered ceiling , the fields of which run through round webs. The chancel is indirectly lit by three laterally fanned window strips between the nave and the choir , which is raised by six steps , and also by a round skylight.
The wall surfaces are structured by two types of windows in a higher and flatter trapezoidal shape . They continued from the parabolic curvature of the entrance side in a checkerboard pattern on the long sides almost to the chancel. Colored triangular and trapezoidal disks of different sizes are divided between vertical and inclined lead bridges.
crypt
The church has a basement in which there is a parish hall with ancillary rooms. The crypt , to which two side stairs lead down, is located under the chancel . Johannes Schreiter created a colored, triangular concrete-glass window that is set into the wall of the apse behind the altar. The marble altar stands above the foundation stone and contains the relics of Saint Jude Thaddäus, Saint Bernadette of Lourdes and Saint Maria Goretti . The crypt serves as a chapel on weekdays.
Furnishing
The church interior and choir were simply furnished when it was completed. A gem cross adorned the free altar wall, it now hangs on the north wall of the nave. The architect designed all the principal pieces cast from bronze , the seven-armed candlestick , the simple tabernacle on the altar, the lectern and the Easter candlestick .
In 1962 a mahogany Madonna was erected by Ludwig Gabriel Schrieber . The fourteen stations of the cross were initially only indicated by Roman numerals . They were only replaced by small bronze reliefs in 1964 . The rest of the furnishings in the chancel were created by Werner Gailis between 1966 and 1970. On the windowless altar wall there are figures made of hard molded plaster representing the "accession of the divine Lamb" to the throne. Under the altar made of dark gray Jura marble and the tabernacle studded with precious stones, a black reliquary in a silver capsule conceals relics of the apostle Judas Thaddäus.
organ
The organ gallery was originally completely closed by wooden slats. The original Sauer organ , which had seven registers and organ pipes made of zinc sheet, was replaced in 1983 by an organ from Gebrüder Hillebrand Orgelbau with a circumference of 26 registers. From this point on, the Sauer organ was located in the Church of St. Johannes Capistan (Berlin-Tempelhof).
literature
- Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings. Berlin 1997.
- Bastian Müller: Catholic parish church of St. Judas Thaddäus. Berlin 2006.
- Gerhard Streicher and Erika Drave: Berlin - city and church. Berlin 1980.
- Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Berlin 1987.
