St. Michael (Berlin-Wannsee)
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The Roman Catholic Church of St. Michael is the earliest church building in Greater Berlin in the Expressionist architectural style . The building designed by Wilhelm Fahlbusch is located at Königstraße 43 in the Berlin district of Wannsee in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district . The church, consecrated on June 12, 1927 , is a listed building .
history
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As early as 1844, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV had given permission to build a Catholic church. But it wasn't until 1905 that an emergency church was built in Nowawes , a district of Babelsberg . The local pastor of St. Antonius has held services in Wannsee since 1915, in the auditorium of a school. Since the opening of the station Wannsee the Wannseebahn in 1874, the population had grown substantially. A church was built for the Wannsee Catholics in 1927 after wealthy Catholics made the property available and donated significant sums for the construction. One of them arranged that the church with its three points, which was originally to be called Dreifaltigkeitskirche , was named after Michael , the patron saint of the Germans.
The Michaelskirche was looked after from St. Antonius until 1938, then it received its own pastor . On November 1, 1942, St. Michael was elevated to the status of an independent curate of the mother parish of St. Antonius in Babelsberg and in 1949 to an independent parish . On February 28, 2004 the merger with the neighboring parish of the Twelve Apostles in Nikolassee took place .
Pastor Carl-Heinz Mertz from the parish Herz-Jesu in Berlin-Zehlendorf has been looking after the parish of St. Michael in Wannsee since 2014.
Building description
Although Expressionism shaped the modern design in Catholic church construction, many churches remained stuck with historical-medieval concepts. St. Michael was praised as a modern building in the contemporary press , but the focus was on reminiscence of the architectural traditions of the Province of Brandenburg , which is documented by mixed examples. The dimensions of the roof, the narrowness of the windows and the high crossbar of the tower fit into the old times, but the interior of the building corresponds to the style of the new era.
Outdoor area
The exterior of the hall church is also a modern building . No additions protrude beyond the rectangular floor plan . Only at the rear of the flat wall of the choir is a low and narrow extension for the sacristy . The masonry building , faced with brownish-red bricks, faces south in order to emphasize the urban development next to the town hall . The entire building stands on a concrete base left visible. In front of the nave in the north is a rectangular tower in the style of a western building, the structure of which only jumps back slightly in the bell storey above a cornice .
The facade is windowless and has a wide ogival portal . The side walls of the nave, which has a gable roof , have four axes of equal height with two-lane, tall rectangular windows that are divided in a cross shape with tiles. The wall of the fifth axis is pulled up over the eaves and contains a significantly higher choir window.
Peal
At the height of the bell chamber there are three cross-shaped openings on the transverse sides and one on each of the narrow sides of the transverse building, which are cranked with the cornice. The narrow sides of the tower are banded by slightly protruding brick strips that are drawn a short distance around the corner to the facade . Three pointed helmets grow out of the flat hipped roof of the tower , which sit exactly over the cross-shaped openings, without any architectural transition. The pointed helmets, angled on each side, form a folding roof . There are three cast steel bells in the tower that were cast by Schilling & Lattermann in 1927 .
| Chime | Weight (kg) |
Diameter ( cm) |
Height (cm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d ' | 2200 | 180 | 152 | HOLY ARCHANGEL MICHAEL, DEFEND US IN FIGHT. |
| f ' | 1300 | 148 | 123 | ST. MARY, MOTHER OF GOD AND MAID, YOU ARE SUITABLE FOR ALL OUR NEEDS. |
| G' | 900 | 132 | 110 | IF I TALKED THE LANGUAGE OF ANGELS AND PEOPLE, BUT HAD NOT LOVE, I WOULD BE A SOUNDING ORE OR A CLINGING BELL. |
inner space
The interior is arranged by four at a distance, in the space projecting supports of reinforced concrete in five yokes divided. On the outer edge, they have the shape of the gable triangle above the eaves height and support the roof, while they converge in an ogival shape towards the ridge purlin . The eaves beams and the ridge beam under the roof boarding protrude inwards. The last yoke of the nave , the non-retracted chancel, grows up out of the slope of the roof. This creates the impression of a transept , which, however, does not protrude laterally over the nave. The walls above a brick base are plastered.
Furnishing
The stations of the cross, the wooden portal and the relief of St. Michael fighting the dragon come from Otto Hitzberger , Carl Blümel's Man of Sorrows .
When the chancel was redesigned in 1972, the somewhat lavish side altars were removed and the previous high altar moved forward. An organ from the Walcker company, which was taken over from Heidelberg, was installed on the gallery above the vestibule .
In 2001/2002 the interior was renovated with a view to the 75th anniversary. The interior walls were painted in the original colors and the arches were gilded.
Carpets
Heinrich Schelhasse's carpets were woven in the Hozak carpet factory in Nowawes , today Potsdam-Babelsberg. They are coordinated with the dark red of the clinker bricks on the floor as well as the steps of the chancel and round off the color of the church interior. The original carpets are in the church.
White travertine as a new objectivity
The font is a travertine cube with a lid made of stainless steel. It has stood on the right rear wall of the church since 1927. It is inscribed with the words from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, verse 15: "Go and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
literature
- Michaela Schmitz: Church leader of the Catholic Church St. Michael in Berlin-Wannsee Berlin 2015.
- 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.
- Gerhard Streicher and Erika Drave: Berlin - city and church. Berlin 1980.
Web links
- Church of St. Michael on the website of the parish to the Hl. Twelve Apostles in Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 5.5 ″ N , 13 ° 8 ′ 58.2 ″ E