St. Marien (Berlin-Wilmersdorf)
St. Marien is a Catholic parish church in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf ( Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district ). The church, consecrated to the patronage of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , is an oval, domed central building in Romanesque shape and red clinker facing , built in 1913 and 1914 by Christoph Hehl (preliminary design) and Carl Kühn . The building is a listed building .
Church life
The church, whose foundation stone took place on April 20, 1913 is used by the Catholic community since October 11, 1914, that day she was benediziert , the consecration took place on 15 November 1925. 1917 became St. Mary the status of Kuratie , 1921 that of a parish . In 2009 the parish of St. Marien was merged with the parish of Heilig Kreuz to form the parish of Maria under the cross and became the parish church .
On June 9, 2019, the Whitsunday Mass from St. Marien was broadcast live on Deutschlandfunk.
Building description
On the outside, some natural stones made of Beucha granite porphyry are embedded between the red clinker bricks of the masonry building . The polygonal choir is grouped around the nave , in the west with two apses attached to the sides, the two short arms of the transept and the bell tower . Through the transept, the interior follows the plan of a cross. The church is a central building, but it has a basilica structure, as the elliptical central nave has aisles reduced to aisles on the left and right. The interior is illuminated by the arched windows of the side aisles and the cross-arm gable, as well as by the upper aisles . The relief of molded stones of the Immaculate is on the outside of the southern transverse arm gable, and that of the Crucified One on the northern .
In front of the 60 meter high bell tower on a square floor plan there is an extension with two step portals in a round arched niche. In the gable above there is a rose window . The bell tower rises in seven stepped floors to the pyramid roof , surrounded by annexes on the upper floors . In his belfry hangs a bell made of four bronze bells, which was made in 1957 by Rudolf Perner .
| Chime | Weight (kg) |
Diameter (cm) |
Height (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| b ' | 3170 | 179 | 144 |
| d ' | 1702 | 143 | 109 |
| f ' | 996 | 114 | 83 |
| G' | 696 | 106 | 82 |
The outer 16-sided structure of the central nave is covered with a tent roof. The structures of the side aisles with pent roofs nestle against it. The cross arms have gable roofs . The central nave is oval domed , the choir has a barrel vault . The side aisles are each behind arched arcades with five columns between the supports at the corners of the choir and the organ gallery. The interior is brightly plastered, only the supports and the cornice below the upper aisles are bricked.
Not much has survived from the construction-time equipment, most of which came from Wilhelm Haverkamp . The chancel was redesigned in 1990 by Paul Brandenburg .
The organ, originally built in 1925 by the Paderborn organ builder Anton Feith senior (1872–1929), now comprises three manuals with 52 stops plus two extensions and a celesta . With the exception of twelve pipes, all the sounding registers are located in two large general swellings in the church tower, which allows infinitely variable dynamic bandwidths. The Marien-Organ was built in Feith's workshop during the same period and with conceptual parallels to the much-praised large organ in Paderborn Cathedral, which was destroyed in the Second World War. The existing historical substance of the instrument in St. Marien is today the largest surviving organ from Feith senior ever: around 70% of the pipe material available today is originally from Feith senior, the remaining 30% are extensions or replaced stops by Arndt Stephan, Berlin (1979), as well as organ builder Karl Schuke, Berlin (general renovation with approaches of historical reconstruction in 2018/2019). In terms of sound aesthetics, the instrument thus moves in the area of German late Romanticism paired with slight influences from the organ movement. The organ is documented in detail on the municipality's website. Your disposition can be viewed here. Two CD recordings of the organ are available. The most prominent organist in the community from 1929 to 1933 was the composer and later church music professor Joseph Ahrens , who moved to St. Hedwig's Cathedral in 1934 and was appointed organist of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1931; some of his early organ compositions were composed during his years in St. Marien.
soup kitchen
Since November 1993, the Wilmersdorf dean's office has had a soup kitchen for the homeless and people with low incomes. The rooms for the soup kitchen are provided by the Church of St. Marien. The project is carried out by the Wilmersdorf deanery council with financial support from the district office . Full-time and voluntary employees from all six parishes of the dean's office take care of the distribution of food and hot drinks. There are also showers, a clothes closet and medical care. The food is delivered by a company. The soup kitchen is visited by around 50 to 70 people.
literature
- The new Catholic churches in Friedenau and Schöneberg . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung . Vol. 38 (1918), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-52246 , pp. 349–351 (part 1) and urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-52253 , p. 361 (part 2). Twelve illustrations, building description of St. Marien and St. Norbert in Berlin-Schöneberg, both designed by Carl Kühn.
- Bastian Müller: The parish church of St. Marien Berlin-Friedenau / Wilmersdorf. Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-940131-02-7
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Band Berlin. Munich / Berlin 2006.
- Christine Goetz and Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam. Berlin 2003.
- Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin: Berlin and its buildings. Part VI. Sacred buildings. Berlin 1997.
- Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. Berlin 1987.
- Karl-Heinz Metzger: Churches, mosques and synagogues in Wilmersdorf , Berlin 1986.
- Gerhard Streicher and Erika Drave: Berlin - city and church. Berlin 1980.
Web links
- CD recordings
- Website of the Catholic parish Maria unter dem Kreuz, Berlin (Friedenau-Wilmersdorf)
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Organ description including disposition on the parish website
- Organ photos on Die-Orgelseite.de
- Organ description on die-orgelseite.de
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 52 ° 28 ′ 13 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 10.9 ″ E