St. Ludwig (Ludwigshafen am Rhein)
The St. Ludwig Church is the oldest Roman Catholic church building in the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein .
history
The parish of St. Ludwig was established by royal decree of August 17, 1857, after regular Catholic services had been held in rented rooms since 1852 and then in the simultaneous church (later the synagogue ) built in 1854 . The initiator for the construction of the Ludwigskirche was the director of the Palatinate Railways , Albert von Jäger (1814–1887), who also acted as chairman of the administrative board of the new parish.
On June 5, 1858, the Speyer bishop Nikolaus von Weis , in the presence of King Ludwig I of Bavaria , laid the foundation stone for the construction of the church on the building site at the corner of Bismarckplatz and Wredestrasse . It was a neo - Romanesque three-aisled basilica with atrium and transsept according to plans by the architect and building director Heinrich Hübsch in Baden . The model was the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence . The Ludwigshafen master builder Joseph Hoffmann took over the construction . On August 28, 1862, the consecration took place, again by Bishop von Weis, in the presence of King Ludwig I and his daughter Princess Hildegard . Since the king had donated large sums to the building of the church, the patronage of St. Ludwig was chosen out of gratitude . The two towers flanking the choir were not completed until 1883. The main aisles and the two aisles were separated by 6 mighty columns each made of Untersberg marble , a gift from King Ludwig I. The interior was frescoed, the pictures came from Alois Süßmayr (1825–1885), a student of Johann von Schraudolph , the ornament painting from Joseph Schwarzmann .
During the Second World War , the Ludwigskirche was hit by an aerial mine on January 5, 1945 ; The facade and nave were destroyed. City pastor Prelate Martin Walzer had the ruins secured, an emergency church built and the artistically valuable church rebuilt. The construction work lasted from 1949 to 1954; on August 22, 1954, the new consecration by Bishop Isidor Markus Emanuel could take place. For the state of Rhineland-Palatinate , Minister of State Dr. Hanns Haberer took part in the consecration of the church, Ministerialdirigent Fritz Baer for the Free State of Bavaria . The side of the choir with the towers has largely been preserved in its original form, the rest has been renewed on the old plan in a simplified form. The two towers now form one of the landmarks of Ludwigshafen.
During a renovation, the interior was redesigned in 1976/77 by Walter Klumpp (architect) and Emil Wachter (artistic design). The altar had already been moved to the crossing in 1954, at the intersection of the nave and transept. Now a new celebration altar has been erected and the room in the apse has been separated for weekday masses and special services. The glass windows and concrete reliefs in the choir room have been among the essential pieces of equipment since then.
Only the baptismal font and a large crescent Madonna still come from the old Ludwigskirche. The latter survived the bombing unscathed and was part of a Marian altar donated in 1864 by the royal postal administrator, Baron Otto von Stengel . The broken baptismal font could be put back together.
Bells
The two 55 m high towers carry a six-part chime with the beat tone sequence des'-f'-as'-b'-des ″ -as ″. All the bells hang in historical iron bell chairs, the two large bells are in the south tower, the other bells in the north tower.
The small historical Andreas Hamm bell from 1854 is usually not part of the full bells and otherwise rings as a soloist at baptisms.
gallery
St. Ludwig, around 1880
St. Ludwig (2017)
Choir side with towers
Choir
Ludwigskirche, interior shot, around 1915
Modern interior
Mary figure
Mary figure, close-up
Varia
The south portal of the church (transept), recognizable in old pictures but no longer existing today, was donated in 1860 by the Jewish Ludwigshafen (later Mannheim) cigar manufacturer Lazarus Morgenthau (1815–1897). A bronze plaque on Luther's Church reminds of this , for which he also gave a bell. He is the grandfather of Henry Morgenthau , who at the end of World War II developed the Morgenthau Plan , named after him , according to which Germany was to be broken up and converted into purely agricultural countries.
literature
- History of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein , City Administration Ludwigshafen, 1903, p. 635 a. 636
- Consecration of St. Ludwigskirche Ludwighafen and St. Ludwig Ludwigshafen received the consecration , in: Der Pilger , Born 1954, p. 682 u. 702
- Heike Arend: San Lorenzo in Florence the architect's model: The Ludwigskirche consecrated 125 years ago today , in: Die Rheinpfalz , local part Ludwigshafen, No. 198, from August 28, 1987
- Frank S. Klinnert: St. Ludwig 125 years old: The Bavarian king also traveled to the consecration of the first church , in: Mannheimer Morgen from August 20, 1987
- Ludwigskirche Ludwigshafen / Rhein , ed. from the parish of St. Ludwig, Ludwigshafen 1997
Web links
- Full bells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyFWxXOxgg8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jakob Knauber : Albert von Jäger, director of the Palatinate Railways (1814–1887) . Publishing house of the Catholic parish offices, Ludwigshafen, 1925.
- ^ Invitation to the consecration of the Ludwig Church, 1862 ; (Digital scan)
- ↑ entry Süßmayr the portal Bavarikon
- ^ Hartwig Beseler, Niels Gutschow, Frauke Kretschmer: War fates of German architecture , Volume 2. P. 949, Verlag K. Wachholtz, 1988; (Detail scan)
Coordinates: 49 ° 28 '48.5 " N , 8 ° 26" 54.7 " E