St. Laurentius (Achim)
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The St. Laurentius country church in Achim, Lower Saxony (Verden district) is the oldest and largest country church between the former bishops of Bremen and Verden (Aller) . The church named after Laurentius of Rome is the oldest building in the city and is used by the Evangelical Lutheran St. Laurentius parish of Achim .
history
The St. Laurentius Church was probably built on a former pagan cult site. In 1257, the Achim Church was first mentioned in a document by the Bremen Bishop Gerhard II . However, there is strong evidence that the Church is older. In the tower there is a difficult to decipher dedicatory inscription, which indicates the year of construction 1091.
With Johann Meier (* 1537 in Minden, † 1610 in Achim) the first Protestant clergyman comes to Achim. In 1559, at the request of the St. Laurentius parish, he took up his parish office, supported by the Catholic Verden canon Johann von Ahlden .
building
The original Romanesque stone building has been expanded and rebuilt over and over again. The original masonry made of split boulder stones can still be seen on the tower and in the south wall today. In the first half of the 14th century, new windows were pried open, and the almost square choir and the transept, the south wing of which is larger than the north wing, were built. Originally the church had a flat ceiling made of wood. In the late Gothic period , this was replaced by a ribbed vault.
A clock with a gold-plated dial has been on the north side of the tower since 1706. A sundial from 1603 is attached to the outer south facade of the Clüver Chapel.
Mandelsloh Chapel
The north wing of the church is named Mandelsloh Chapel after an important family in the area. The Danish Secret Conference Councilor Detlef Conrad von Reventlow and his wife Veronica Marg. Clementine, née von Klinkowström, rest in the marble sarcophagi installed there . The sarcophagi were originally housed in a grave vault under the Clüver Chapel. The tombstone of Hinrich Clüver († 1551) can be found on the west wall of the chapel.
Clüver and Lazarus Chapel
In the south transept (Clüver Chapel) and the apse-like annex to the east (Lazarus Chapel) there are old grave slabs that belong to the deceased of the Clüver and Mandelsloh families. The wall epitaph in the Lazarus Chapel, a memorial stone of the Clüver family, shows a crucifixion and a resurrection scene. The actual gravestone can be found on the right side of the chapel, on which there is, among other things, the coat of arms of the Clüver family, which became a template for the Achim city coat of arms in the 20th century.
In the Clüver Chapel, the sculpture of the patron saint of the Achim Church, Saint Laurentius , in a red and gold robe has been located in a wall niche since 1967 . It is a work from southern Germany from around 1700.
Equipment of the church
In the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the entire city of Achim burned down; the entire interior of the church was destroyed and burned. As a result, the outer walls had to be reinforced by supporting pillars so that services could be held again in the church.
The interior of the church has seen many changes over time. The last major renovation of the church took place in the 1960s, with the interior completely renovated and the galleries removed.
altar
The earlier altar was probably destroyed in the Thirty Years War. In 1671/72 Ortgies Melchior von der Lieth, Herr auf Mandelsenborstel, donated a new reredos whose whereabouts are unknown. The current altar dates from 1750. It was created by the Verden sculptor Arend Meyer and shows splendid gold and ivory-colored volutes. In the depiction of the cross, the legs of Jesus Christ are placed parallel, although this type of depiction had already become unusual at the time of the creation. The top of the altar is decorated with playing putti and a Christ with a victory flag. The altar was donated by Colonel Friedrich Florenz von Weddig, Herr auf Mandelsenborstel. A family grave at the tower was thus acquired. The crucifix on the altar was probably replaced in 1845 by a lead-glazed pane with a Christ medallion. In 1938 the old altarpiece (with crucifix) was reinstalled and the lead glass was placed in the sacristy.
pulpit
The baroque pulpit with pictures of the evangelists dates from 1637, after the interior of the St. Laurentius Church was destroyed in the Thirty Years War. It was donated in 1631 by Dirich Clüver, Gohgraf in Achim.
Baptismal font
The late Romanesque stone baptismal font from the 13th century is the oldest piece of interior decoration. Its ornamentation and shape resemble the baptismal font in Verden Cathedral . The story of creation is depicted on the bronze lid of the stone. The baptismal font served as a profane water basin in front of the sexton's house, was then given to the Oyter Church in 1861, and did not return to Achim until 1939. In 1955 the baptismal font was given a bronze lid depicting the story of creation and an enamel baptismal bowl.
organ
Achim "had a fine organ in the church", wrote the pastor of the parish at that time, Johann Helferich Willemer, in 1692. In 1576 there is a first reference to an organ in the Achim church. The account book records expenses for a calcant, an assistant who operated the bellows of the organ.
In 1597 Matthias Mahn from Buxtehude built a new organ into the church. It had 10 registers , cost 150 Lübische Marks and was shipped to Achim by sea - via the Elbe and Weser. The instrument was only available to the community for a short time. The organ - like the entire interior of the St. Laurentius Church - was a victim of the Thirty Years' War. Bullets were poured from the organ pipes . In the following years a used small organ from the Bremen organ builder Johannes Sieburg was used, which was installed in the nave and dismantled again in 1687 and sold to the merchant Habichhorst in Bremen.
In the late 17th century, the previous flat ceiling of the church was replaced by a vault. At the same time, money was collected for a new organ. There were large donations for a new building and so the organ builder Arp Schnitger in Neuenfelde near Hamburg was commissioned. Schnitger was already one of the most famous organ builders of his time and is now considered to be the finisher of the North German baroque organ. The parish decided on an organ with 24 stops. The pipes were designed in three round towers, two pointed towers and four flat fields. The organ cost 800 Reichstaler. In 1699 it was handed over to the community and was praised by the organists of the Bremen Cathedral, the Church of Our Lady and the Achimer cantor, Diedrich Meder. The organists noted that the organ was carefully built and of high quality, it sounded "that we have not found much of the same in this way".
In the second half of the 19th century the Schnitger organ suffered increasing wear and tear. The sound conceptions had also changed. In 1888 the church council decided to demolish the organ, an unfortunate decision from today's perspective. A new instrument was commissioned from Friedrich Becker & Sohn (Hanover). The instrument should cost 6100 marks. Achim was the first parish in the province of Hanover to receive an organ with a pneumatic tractor system. But the technology that was being introduced in organ building at that time proved to be prone to errors. As early as 1892, eleven organ stops were no longer working. The instrument also left a lot to be desired in terms of sound. There was a long-standing legal dispute between the church council and the organ builder, which only ended with a settlement before the Reichsgericht in Leipzig.
The church council had no choice but to commission another organ. The company Furtwängler and Hammer (Hanover) built an instrument in 1906/07 for 10,000 marks that looked similar to the Schnitger organ. But even this instrument did not meet the expectations either in terms of sound or technology.
In the 1960s the St. Laurentius Church was extensively renovated and a new slider chest organ was installed by the Hermann Hillebrand company from Altwarmbüchen, which was inaugurated on February 26, 1967. The Achimer organ is a two-manual organ with a pedal mechanism. It has 26 registers, divided into Hauptwerk, Breastwork and Pedal . The arrangement was designed by the church music director Alfred Hoppe from Verden. It is based on the famous predecessor instrument, the Arp Schnitger organ. 1983 by the organ by the company Rudolf von Beckerath (Hamburg), in 2017 by the company Jörg Bente (Suthfeld-Helsinghausen) comprehensively repaired.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P
Bells
Four bells hang in the tower, the two smaller ones date from the 14th century. The big bell from 1330 shattered twice and was cast in 1744 and 1840. This bell had to be given in for armaments purposes during the First World War. In 1925 the church received a new large bell, which was also melted down for armament purposes during World War II. In 1957 the parishes acquired two new, larger bells from the Otto bell foundry in Hemelingen. The larger of the two received the inscription: “In memory of our fallen soldiers in the two world wars 1914–1918 and 1939–45”. Furthermore, there is a Bible phrase from John 15:13 on the bell: “Nobody has greater love than that he gives up his life for his friends”. The smaller of the new bells received the inscription: “O country, country, country, hear the word of the Lord! Jer. 22.29 + I call the youth of our church + "
The two small bells sound on the notes b and f. The two Otto bells have the following diameters: 1333 mm and 998 mm; their beats are: es 'and as'.
There is a fifth bell (hour bell) on the eastern outside of the tower roof.
literature
- Evangelical-Lutheran St. Laurentius Church Community Achim (Ed.): The little church leader St. Laurentius Achim. ( pdf ), accessed December 17, 2014
- Church council of the Ev.-luth. St. Laurentius community Achim (ed.): Focus. Anniversary edition 750 years of St. Laurentius Achim. Achim 2007. ( pdf ), accessed on December 17, 2014
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on disposition on the website of the organ builder
- ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular p. 554 .
- ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular p. 509 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (PhD thesis at Radboud University Nijmegen).
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 0 ′ 41.8 ″ N , 9 ° 1 ′ 48.9 ″ E