St. Michael (Jena)
The Protestant city church of St. Michael in Jena has been the center of church life in the city for over 750 years ( Parochialkirche ). There are regular invitations to church services - usually starting on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. - at times of prayer and silence, as well as for church music events. Located in the city center, it shapes the cityscape.
Building history
The town church had two previous Romanesque buildings. One of these belonged to the Cistercian convent that was connected to the north. Archaeological finds indicate a sacred building in the 11th or early 12th century in a building as early as the 7th / 8th century. Century laid out cemetery. Remains can be seen in the crypt under the choir. The building of today's hall church has been built in several construction phases since 1380 - after the completion of the Jena town hall. In the first construction phase up to 1450, the choir, the vaulting of the chancel, the three eastern bays of the nave and the south facade up to the sixth nave bay were built. After a construction stoppage of around 30 years, the nave was completed in a second construction phase from 1474 to 1557 (i.e. up to a year before the Friedrich Schiller University Jena was founded ) and the church tower was erected (by order and at the expense of the City Council - only since 1933 has the tower legally belonged to the church).
Several repairs were carried out on the church building in the 17th century. The city's savings bank , which had made a total of 4,000 thalers available for construction work from 1871 to 1874 , donated 6,000 marks in 1880/1881 for heating and another 3,000 marks in 1886/1887 for lighting the building.
During the Second World War, the town church, like the entire town center, was badly damaged. In the post-war years until 1956, the interior was reconstructed with octagonal pillars and star vaults under the direction of the Jena architect Hans Schlag. The tower and nave were given simple roofs. In memory of the destruction on March 19, 1945, the vault on the tower side is designed more simply, while the vault of the undestroyed eastern nave is more richly structured and the keystones are set in gold.
Since 1996, the town church has been and is being restored based on the shape of the mid-16th century under the direction of master builder Wolfgang Deurer . The building owner is the Kirchbauverein Jena e. V. During the first restoration phase (1997–2001) the church tower was repaired with the reconstruction of the Renaissance hood (hood festival on May 26, 2000). In the second phase (2002–2007) the baroque mansard roof was reconstructed and the facades including the court portal restored. The extensive restoration of the bridal portal in a third construction phase began in 2008. This phase of the restoration was completed in December 2011.
City and church patron Michael
The patron saint of the town church, the Archangel Michael , has also been town saint since the 13th century and, as a dragon slayer, is the central figure in the town's coat of arms as well as often an artistic element in and on other sacred and secular buildings of the town. The town church was decorated one after the other with various sculptures of the archangel. The late Romanesque wooden sculpture of Angelus Jenensis ("Michael I") was once placed outside in the tower niche. There is a modern bronze sculpture of the Archangel from 2002, while "Michael I" in the 1950s - iconographically correct - stood above the court portal and is now placed inside the city church (see "Equipment"). A late Gothic sculpture of the Archangel ("Michael II") is currently in the Erfurt Angermuseum and a contemporary copy can be seen in the Christian Gymnasium Jena .
Outer shape
The city church in Jena is a three-aisled late Gothic hall church with a 40 meter long central nave and high aisles. The longitudinal axis of the ships is bent by 3 ° between the third and fourth yoke, so that the axes at the end of the central ship differ by more than 1 meter.
The 75-meter-high octagonal tower with a Renaissance dome and single-hand clock is visible far in the Saale valley . On the west wall of the tower, a stone relief shows the crucifixion scene and the donor family (1487).
In the south facade - the front side - of the town church there is the court portal and further to the east the richly decorated bride portal. The weddings, which in the Middle Ages were considered secular acts, took place in front of the bride's door. After the outdoor wedding ceremony, the priest and the newlyweds moved into the church to celebrate the bridal mass. The bridal portal was extensively renovated and reconstructed by 2014, for which 1.6 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund were used. The arch field between the historical curtain frieze above the portal and the arch was designed in a modern way, as no representations of the original version were available. Christine Triebsch ( Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein ) created a modern, partially transparent arched field in collaboration with the Peters Glasmalerei , which can be opened.
Barrier-free access to the church is on the western side of the tower.
A special feature is the former processional cavate, a passage under the high choir ( sanctuary ) that is open from the street . It is the first of the “Seven Wonders” of Jena ( Ara - Altar) and served the nuns of the Cistercian monastery as a path for liturgical processions.
Passage under the choir of the town church St. Michael.
Bridal portal of the town church St. Michael in Jena
South front with bridal portal
Keystone ceiling vault with sheet mask
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Furnishing
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The most important work of art is the wooden sculpture of the Angelus Jenensis , Archangel Michael with a lance, sword and dragon, from the late Romanesque period (around 1240, linden and oak wood). It was created in the first half of the 13th century in a Bamberg workshop. When the old Jenaer Merkvers was still "Angelus, Ara, Caput, Mons, Pons, Vulpecula Turris", Angelus was the angel that referred to St. Michael, the most important of the Jena landmarks. Since the interior renovation was completed in summer 2014, it can be seen opposite the main entrance (court portal) on a rear pillar of the north arcades.
The pulpit, from which the reformer Martin Luther preached several times, dates from before 1507. The bronze grave slab of Martin Luther , made in 1549 by the Erfurt bell founder Heinrich Ziegler based on a picture by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. was originally intended for installation in Wittenberg . As a result of the Schmalkaldic War, however, it remained in Jena, while a copy was set up in Wittenberg. A carved figure of St. Wolfgang from the early 16th century was stolen in 1992.
In the choir , around the high altar, the four evangelists can be seen as wooden figures under stone canopies (19th century). The painting below shows the consecration cross in the form of the wheel cross. Above, in the middle of the choir, glass art windows show St. Michael (with lance and dragon) and to the left and right of it the archangels Raphael (with Tobias ) and Gabriel (with Maria ). They were designed in 1954 by the Jena artist Fritz Körner .
Under the choir is a so-called lower church, the northern part of which served as the crypt of the dukes of Saxony-Jena at the end of the 17th century ( prothesis ). The artistic vault above the nave with an alternation of star and line figures deserves special attention. Ribs in 4, 6, 7 or 8 rays extend up from the columns to multi-shaped keystones. Also noteworthy are (builder and one monkey) consoles on the pillars.
The northern gallery was originally reserved for the nuns of the adjoining Cistercian convent, who could take part in the church service here. A special feature of this gallery is a confessional window that connects two small rooms, one room with now closed access for the nuns and one for the confessor with access to the interior of the city church.
organ
There must have been an organ in the town church as early as the beginning of the 16th century, as the repair of an organ is documented for 1518. Around 1700 the construction of a new organ is documented in connection with the organist and composer Johann Nikolaus Bach . Max Reger was one of the organists at the Jena town church . Today KMD Martin Meier is organist and cantor at the St. Michael church. His predecessors were Ernst-Otto Göring and Eike Reuter .
Until 1945 St. Michael housed a large organ , which was built in 1909 by the organ builder Wilhelm Sauer . The instrument, which had over 100 registers , was destroyed in a bomb attack on Jena in March 1945. Today's organ was built in 1963 by the organ builder Alexander Schuke (Potsdam). The slider chest instrument has 51 registers (approx. 4,500 pipes ) on three manuals and pedal . The action actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electro-pneumatic.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / II, I / P, III / P.
Bells
The ringing of the town church St. Michael in Jena consists of five bells . They were cast by the bell foundry in Apolda in 1947 . With the sound pattern based on the Parsifal motif egac by Richard Wagner, the bells proclaim the central message of salvation of Christian faith. It symbolizes the communion fellowship .
|
No. |
Surname |
Mass (kg) |
Chime |
inscription |
| 1 | Seer | 2,800 | c 1 | See, I make everything new, I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. (Revelation John 21, 5.6) |
| 2 | Preacher | 970 | e 1 | Is God for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) |
| 3 | Comforter | 550 | g 1 | Come to me all who are troublesome and burdened! (Matth. 11, 28) |
| 4th | Reminder | 390 | a 1 | The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalm 111, 10). |
| 5 | Caller | 210 | c 2 | O country, country, country, hear the word of the Lord! (Jeremiah 22:29) |
Bell scratch drawings
The 1415 cast Fixed Bubble (also: Big bell called) and the weather Bell (also: Small bell ) were rare, historically significant art bells engravings that are recognized Ingrid Schulze from 2006 in a work of art historian.
Church history
The history of the parish of St. Michael can be traced back to the middle of the 13th century based on written sources. Before 1252 the previous building of 12 to 15 m in length was replaced by a larger church building of 25 m in length. A pastor was first mentioned in a document in 1282. An indirect reference in a document from Burgrave Otto von Kirchberg is 30 years older .
The Cistercian convent of St. Michael, founded in 1301, bordered the parish church of St. Michael to the north. The nave of the parish church was open to the municipal parish, but remained closed to the nuns who were bound by the monastic enclosure. In the late Middle Ages, the eastern gallery in the north aisle served as a monastery church. The monastery was dissolved in the course of the Reformation in 1525/1526 (as were two other monasteries, the Dominican monastery founded in 1286 and the Carmelite monastery founded in 1414).
The Reformation was of decisive importance for Jena and the surrounding area. Martin Luther preached several times in the town church. He disputed several times with students, friends and critics in Jena (Hotel Schwarzer Bär) and the surrounding area.
literature
- Friedrich Möbius : The city church St. Michael zu Jena. Symbolism and building history of a late medieval parish church . Glaux Verlag, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-931743-05-5 .
- Volker Leppin , Matthias Werner (ed.): In the middle of the city. St. Michael in Jena. Past and present of a city church . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-25-1 .
- Jenaer Kirchbauverein eV (Hrsg.): The tower of St. Michael in Jena. Past and present. Festschrift for the completion of the renovation of the tower of St. Michael in summer 2001 . Dr. Frank GmbH Gera, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-934805-08-6 .
- Matthias Rupp: City Church of St. Michael. Pre-urban and early urban predecessor buildings . In: Rüdiger Stutz, Matias Mieth (ed.): Jena. Lexicon on city history . Tümmel Verlag, Berching 2018, ISBN 978-3-9819706-0-9 , p. 603 .
- Margarete Schilling : Incised drawings on the bells of the Michaeliskirche in Jena. Apolda 2000.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ev.-Luth. Church district Jena
- ↑ City Church of St. Michael
- ↑ Jens Peter, Astrid Bartsch: Three savings banks - three currencies. From the GDR mark via the DM to the EURO . Publishing house Dr. Busse & Stadeler, Jena 2008, ISBN 978-3-932906-87-9 .
- ↑ Kirchbauverein Jena eV
- ^ Gerhard Jahreis, Friedrich Bürglen: City Church St. Michael - restoration of the bridal portal . In: Rüdiger Stutz, Matias Mieth (ed.): Jena. Lexicon on city history . Tümmel Verlag, Berching 2018, ISBN 978-3-9819706-0-9 , p. 605 .
- ^ Heinrich Elle, Evangelisch-Luth. Parish (ed.): The Jena city church of St. Michael and its works of art . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1951, p. 45 .
- ^ Otto Löw: Church music . In: Rüdiger Stutz, Matias Mieth (ed.): Jena. Lexicon on city history . Tümmel Verlag, Berching 2018, ISBN 978-3-9819706-0-9 , p. 355 .
- ^ Ingrid Schulze: Incised drawings by lay hands - drawings by medieval sculptors and painters? Figural bell scratch drawings from the late 13th century to around 1500 in central and northern Germany. Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-939404-95-8 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 44.8 " N , 11 ° 35 ′ 16.9" E