St. Martini (Halberstadt)
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St. Martini is a Gothic style church in the center of Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt , which was destroyed in April 1945 and then rebuilt.
History and architecture
Building history
The church was probably founded in the 10th century and was first mentioned in a document in 1186. The Martinikirche, together with the Liebfrauenkirche and the cathedral, shape the cityscape of Halberstadt. The building is a five-bay Gothic hall church, which is adjoined to the east by a transept and a basilical choir with five-eighth end with two side choirs that just close. The west building is a slightly structured crossbar that merges upward into two square tower free storeys with an intervening bell house, which are pierced with increasingly rich tracery windows. The octagonal spiers of different heights are connected by a covered bridge. The choir is associated with indulgences in 1267, 1274 and 1285. The west construction was probably started before 1311, the date the church was placed under the Johannis monastery; the hall longhouse was probably built after a change of plan in the second quarter of the 14th century. The building looks antiquated due to the somewhat depressed proportions, the consistently used groin vaults and the inclusion of the older crossing pillars from the 12th century. A two-storey, two-bay porch with a portal is built on the north side. The sacristy from the 16th century with round-arched pairs of windows adjoins the northern side choir.
In the 19th century, the southern transept front was partially changed, with the portal being added. The individual shapes of the interior were probably also partially revised.
Destruction and rebuilding
The city of Halberstadt was 82 percent destroyed by bombing at the end of the Second World War . The three landmarks of Halberstadt - cathedral , St. Martini and Liebfrauenkirche - were spared from total destruction despite severe damage. But the degree of destruction of the Martini Church was also estimated at 80% ( Walter Bolze ).
Fire bombs fell on the Martinikirche on April 8, 1945. A high-explosive bomb hit the lower part of the south tower and tore away the northeast corner of the tower cornice. The tower domes burned like giant torches, collapsed and ignited the church roof and the surrounding houses. The three remaining bells fell from their mounts. The largest and most beautiful, the fire bell from 1511, slowly sank down onto the rubble, causing only minor damage. One of the two flight observers on the tower was killed and the other seriously wounded. The surrounding walls and the vaults of the church were preserved.
From 1945 to 1954, thanks to the efforts of the Halberstadt architect Walter Bolze, St. Martini and the Church of Our Lady were restored. The main focus was on the restoration of the towers and the roof that characterize the cityscape.
Turning time
In the autumn of 1989, St. Martini was also used as a meeting room for the “ New Forum ”. Today the parish is committed to a non-violent Halberstadt.
A simple memorial was erected on the west side of the church to commemorate the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 in Halberstadt, which began with prayers for peace in the Martini Church .
Further renovation work began at the beginning of the 21st century, as the building fabric had suffered mainly from the effects of the weather (air pollution, acid rain ). The citizens of Halberstadt collected 100,000 euros for this. In cooperation with the German Foundation for Monument Protection , St. Martini was repaired.
Unequal towers
The west building with the two towers of different heights is traditionally the property of the city of Halberstadt and its landmarks. The mighty twin towers were built at the beginning of the 14th century and served as a fire watch tower .
Why the towers differ in size is unknown. There are the following three theories:
- The towers were deliberately built to different heights so that the guard in the higher tower could see in all directions. The guard needed a look in all directions, as there were so-called alarm fire towers in suburbs such as Sargstedt . If the guard saw smoke from one direction, he could alert the city. The alarm towers were up to 20 kilometers from Halberstadt, which also explains why such a high vantage point like St. Martini was needed.
- St. Martini was not built by the church, but by money from wealthy citizens. During the construction, however, the donors ran out of money and in order to save costs it was decided not to expand the second tower.
- In the Middle Ages , St. Martini is said to have burned, and a tower was destroyed. However, since the city did not have sufficient financial resources, the destroyed tower was only sparsely rebuilt.
Furnishing
Altar, pulpit and baptism
Main piece of equipment is a significant baroque altar possibly from Thiele Zimmermann from the year 1696. During the construction phase 1880-1881 was spent this in a side aisle and through a neogothic been replaced high altar in the workshop of wood carver Gustav Kuntzsch , Wernigerode been made was.
In the course of the reconstruction between 1945 and 1954, the baroque altar was returned to its old location. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the neo-Gothic altar.
The baroque altar almost completely fills the end of the choir. It consists of a three-storey structure with swinging side parts and coiled columns with vine leaves. The Last Supper is depicted in the basement, with passage portals to the side. In the middle floor there is a free-standing sculptural crucifixion group, next to it you can see John the Baptist and Moses as well as putti with the Arma Christi in niches . On the top floor there is a free-standing group of the Entombment of Christ, accompanied by Ecce homo , next to Saint Martin of Tours with the beggar and Martin Luther with the swan as well as the evangelists Matthew and John. At the top is the risen Christ, accompanied by Mark and Luke.
The valuable pulpit was created in 1595 and partially redesigned in 1690 (corner pillars, ornaments, pulpit door). The basket is carried by a figure of Samson . On the basket are reliefs depicting the creation of the world, the Fall and the Redeemer, the sacrifice of Isaac and King David, the Transfiguration of Christ, a crucifix with the founder (Bartelt Hane) and the resurrection. Depictions of the end of the world and the Last Judgment follow on the stair parapet. The frames are designed with finely worked late Renaissance ornaments. The sound cover is crowned with a figure of the risen Christ.
The bronze baptismal font is an artistically valuable work from the end of the 13th century. The baptismal font is carried by four men who symbolize the rivers of Paradise . On the wall there are nine flat relief depictions of the childhood and youth of Christ from the Annunciation to Mary to the baptism by John. The color scheme was renewed in the 19th century.
A carved triumphal cross probably from 1443 shows Christ with natural hair as head and beard hair.
Tombs and portraits
Numerous tombs and epitaphs from the 16th to 18th centuries complement the furnishings. The epitaph for Christoffel von Lepzczik († 1550) on the north-western crossing pillar, which shows the armored deceased in front of the crucified Christ, is particularly noteworthy. An epitaph for a married couple Blume († 1573 and 1581) in the south transept is provided with finely worked reliefs. Also in the southern transept is the grave slab for the first Protestant preacher to St. Martini, Justus Otho von Eimbeck († 1574) with a full-length representation of the deceased in an aedicular frame . The tombs for the preachers Daniel Sachse († 1605) and Lambert Ehrentraut († 1606) are similar in design. Numerous pastor portraits with depictions of the deceased as full figures or busts are preserved in the side aisles or on the organ gallery, of which the picture for Heinrich Rixner from 1698 in particularly rich framing above the south main portal is to be emphasized. Mayor epitaphs with a pair of portraits and marriage coats of arms are also preserved in the organ gallery, the one for Johann Beyr († 1704) and his wife Katharina Elisabeth Froweins being particularly noteworthy.
organ
In St. Martini there is the prospectus of the so-called Gröninger organ , one of the masterpieces of early baroque organ building. This organ was built between 1592 and 1596 by the organ builder David Beck . The client was Duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , who, as administrator of Halberstadt Abbey , had the instrument built for the palace chapel in his residential palace in Gröningen , around the same time as the Gröninger barrel . The monumental work with 59 registers was examined and inaugurated in 1596 in an organ rehearsal by the 53 most renowned organists of the time. Michael Praetorius described the organ and its disposition in his Syntagma musicum . In the course of the dissolution of the Gröningen Palace, Frederick the Great gave the organ to St. Martini, where the instrument was installed in 1770. It replaced an organ there that had been built by the organ builder David Beck (also) around 1590, and which was now sold to Derenburg ; The prospectus has been preserved to this day - the organ work was romantically changed by Friedrich Ladegast in 1888 .
About sixty years later, around 1830, the original pipes from the Gröninger organ were removed. Only the historical prospectus was largely preserved, with the exception of the case and prospectus of the Rückpositiv , which was brought to the Harsleben church . The organ builder Johann Friedrich Schulze installed a new organ in the style of the time in the preserved prospectus . This organ was replaced in 1921 by an organ that was built between 1886 and 1899 by the organ builder Ernst Röver and which was available as a rental instrument in the Barmer town hall until 1921 .
The organ was dismantled and relocated during the Second World War and thus saved from being destroyed in the bombing of April 8, 1945.
For some years now, a support association has been campaigning for the return of the Rückpositiv and the reconstruction of the Groeninger organ. Ernst Röver's organ was dismantled in 2012 and is currently being put back in a new organ case in St. Stephani in Calbe.
Bells
After the two world wars, three remained of the ringing with six bells , which has been in competition with that of the cathedral since the Middle Ages; they are the bell of fire , the bell of the apostles and the bell of poor sinners . While the poor sinner bell had cracked, the two big bells remained intact. After the towers had been rebuilt, they were made ringable by hanging them in a steel bell cage on cranked steel yokes; the small bell was welded and only used as a clock chime. Due to the technically unfavorable suspension, the apostle's bell got a long horizontal crack, while the crown handle of the fire bell broke and smaller cracks appeared in the crown plate; the bell had to be stopped. As part of a renovation from 2003, all bells were welded and hung in a wooden bell cage on straight wooden yokes and provided with new clappers. On New Year's Eve 2005, the bells rang for the first time after the restoration. By exchanging bells from Zeitz and Halle, two cast steel bells for the clock strike were brought to St. Martini.
|
No. |
Surname |
Casting year |
Caster |
Diameter (mm) |
Mass (kg) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
Bell chamber |
| 1 | Fire bell (citizen bell) | 1511 | Heinrich von Kampen | 2.129 | ≈5,700 | gis 0 -2 | South tower |
| 2 | Apostle bell | 1439 | unknown | 1,488 | 2,390 | dis 1 −3 | North tower, side by side |
| 3 | Poor sinners bell | 14th century | unknown | 699 | 260 | e 2 +5 | |
| I. | Striking the hour bell | 1922 | AG Lauchhammer, Torgau | ≈1,100 | f sharp 1 −2 | ||
| II | Quarter-strike bell | 1,180 | 650 | a 1 −5 |
literature
- Oskar Doering: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the province of Saxony, XXIII. Booklet, the districts of Halberstadt country and city . Ed .: Historical Commission for the Province of Saxony and the Duchy of Anhalt. Printing and publishing house Otto Hendel, Halle adS 1902, p. 387-408 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments. Saxony Anhalt I. District of Magdeburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-422-03069-7 , pp. 335–338.
- ↑ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt brennt , Halberstadt 2015, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Alexander Kluge: The air raid on Halberstadt on April 8, 1945 . Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-42035-5 .
- ↑ Fraunhofer Information Center for Space and Building - Building Information St. Martini. ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Soproni Múzeum, Sopron ( Hungary ), Inventory No. P. 2425 E 251 ( Storno Könyvtár): Gustav Kuntzsch folder , not paged .
- ↑ Oskar Doering: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the province of Saxony, XXIII. Booklet, the districts of Halberstadt country and city . S. 392 .
- ↑ Video recording of the loud bells (02:11) on YouTube .
- ↑ Constanze Treuber u. a .: Cast diversity. Bells in Saxony-Anhalt . Hinstorff, Rostock 2007, pp. 53–55.
Coordinates: 51 ° 53 '43.6 " N , 11 ° 3' 3.9" E