St. Martin (Memmingen-Steinheim)
The Evangelical Lutheran St. Martin's Church in the Steinheim district of Memmingen is a baroque hall church . It is the parish church in the dean's office in Memmingen . The place on which it stands is slightly raised and was probably already used as a prayer place in pre-Christian times. The church is east-facing , forms a strong urban accent and is also the center of the village. It was built in the margrave style, which is atypical in the Upper Swabian region .
history
The history of the church goes back to the ninth century. In 972 Steinheim was probably already a parish. At that time there was a small St. Martin's chapel at this point. It had a square choir and a larger square church interior. Later it was expanded again and again. However, the location must have been added later. The current building was consecrated in 1765. It has a mansard roof in the nave , the choir has a square floor plan and a Gothic saddle roof , which is typical of Upper Swabia . Before the church was rebuilt, the tower that was preserved was vaulted and was probably used as a sacristy. In 1777, a strong storm tore half of the church's tin roof off. In 1792 a new organ was purchased. At the beginning of the 19th century, the church's facilities were expanded through many donations from parishioners. The church received a new altar and four new windows. In 1888 the church tower was plastered and whitewashed, the dials of the clock and the sundial were renewed, and in 1911 six new church windows were installed. When the cemetery wall was rebuilt in 1949, the remains of the old chapel made of tufa stones came to light. Two new bells to commemorate the homeland and the dead were purchased in 1954. 1973-74 the church was renovated inside and outside and it received new seating. Since the space around the church in the cemetery had become too small, a new cemetery was created behind the rectory in the 1980s. In 2002 the foundations of the church were renovated and drained.
Building description
Exterior construction
The outer walls protrude from behind the tower. The Romanesque choir tower with a gable roof connects to the five-bay nave in the east. The walls are made of plastered brickwork . There is a large arched window in each yoke . A sign is attached to the west .
inner space
The interior consists of the nave. On the east wall is the pulpit, in front of it the altar and next to it the baptismal font. The sign is kept simple, without church decorations and contains a simple wooden staircase as a gallery .
Church decorations
Paintings
For a new baroque building, the church is decorated sparingly with simple, linear frescoes and stucco . A few oil paintings adorn the interior of the church.
Frescoes
There are frescoes above the pulpit and on the organ. Coats of arms are affixed to all corners of the church, including those of the city of Memmingen and the Unterhospitalstiftung , to which the village belonged until 1806. Above the pulpit are the letters YHWH , the word for God in Hebrew. Several angels cavort in a halo around this tetragram . Above the organ there is a fresco with David . In the northeast corner of the church ceiling is the imperial city coat of arms of Memmingen, in the opposite corner the double cross of the Unterhospitalstiftung. Further coats of arms of the church are those of the Privy Councilors Johann Jeremias von Heuss and Johannes von Schütz, that of the hospital carer Melchior Sigismund von Lupine and that of the hospital carer Johann Conrad Zangmeister. All frescoes are painted in rough structures.
Oil painting
Two oil paintings are on the north and south sides of the nave between the windows, two others on the organ gallery. The paintings were created by Franz Georg Hermann in 1764 . They are of a much higher quality than the frescoes. They were restored in 1883 and 1976/79 and show the birth of Christ, the crucifixion scene, the baptism of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, the Ascension of Christ, the Resurrection of Christ, Moses on Mount Sinai, the Last Supper, the Annunciation, Emmaus and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
Wooden fittings
In the church there is an altar cross made around 1765. The stalls made of simple softwood with curved cheeks were created at the same time. There are stable stalls under the gallery. The pulpit is attached to the central axis of the east wall. It consists of walnut with ebony inlays and is adorned with gold-plated rocailles . The polygonal pulpit has a curved lower part. The basket with a crank frame is structured by pilasters . The top of the sound cover has the shape of an onion dome with a trumpet angel as the crowning figure.
Piece
In 1764/65 the church was sparingly equipped with stucco. Some coats of arms were decorated with rocaille cartouches on the ceiling . There are putti above the pilasters, a rocaille ornament and angel heads on the straps . There is also a curved ceiling mirror in the church. The windows are decorated with rocailles and angel heads.
Baptismal font
The gray marble font was created in 1765. It is equipped with curved pillars and a shell basin. The flat wooden lid was made around 1883. He bears the carved figure of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.
Stone art
A slab made of Solnhofer stone tells of the laying of the foundation stone of the church in 1764 . A commemorative plaque from 1815 commemorates the fallen in the community in the Napoleonic Wars from 1805 to 1815.
The frescoes of the church
The baptismal font
The crucifixion scene above the tower entrance
organ
The organ was built in 1792 by Johann Georg Rabus from Memmingen. The prospectus with three convex towers and strong profiles, gilded tendrils and garland decoration stands on the second gallery. It has a Rückpositiv and 21 registers . In 1960 it was renewed by master organ builder Gerhard Schmid from Kaufbeuren and expanded in 1975. The disposition has sliding chests with a mechanical action and three normal couplings . Otherwise the organ from 1960 was structured as follows:
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Bells
St. Martin in Steinheim has two bells. One was probably cast by Hans Folmer II in 1540 in the Biberach foundry. It has a diameter of 106 and a height of 88 centimeters. The shoulder inscription is set in majuscule jewelry between cords and reads: HELF VNS GOT ALEN VS NOT ANNO dOMINI M CCCCC XXXX IAR. The brass knuckle has three bars. The crown bow has a rectangular cross-section with bevelled edges and is otherwise smooth, set in a curved shape. The second bell was cast by Wolf Dietrich Merck in Memmingen in 1596. It has a diameter of 89.5 and a height of 67 centimeters. The shoulder inscription reads AVS DEM FEIR BIN ICH GEFLOSEN WOLF D MERCK ZV MEMMINGEN HAT M COSEN./1596. The brass knuckle has three bars. A bearded head can be seen on the front of the crown bow.
literature
- Friedrich von Ammon, Walter Braun, Hermann Erhard and Johannes Hipp: Festschrift - 200 years of St. Martin's Church in Steinheim . Evangelical Luth. Parish office Steinheim b. Memmingen, Memmingen 1965.
- Peter Wischenbarth and Horst Müller: Memminger Geschichtsblätter Jahresheft 2008, pages 7 to 28 . Historical Association Memmingen eV, 2008, ISSN 0539-2896 .
- Tilmann Breuer: City and District of Memmingen . Ed .: Heinrich Kreisel and Adam Horn. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, p. 224, 225 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Tilman Breuer: City and District of Memmingen . Munich 1959.
- ^ Franz Dambeck and Günther Grundmann: German Bell Atlas . Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 1967, p. 365 + 366 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 0 ′ 54.5 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 43 ″ E