St. Nikolai (Göttingen)

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Southwest view of St. Nikolai with the west building from 1781 in front of the Gothic nave
South-east view with sacristy

The St. Nikolai Church in Göttingen's old town is a Gothic hall church with Romanesque origins. As a university church, it has been owned by the Georg-August University since 1822 and is subordinate to the respective dean of the theological faculty .

Building history

The church is located in the Nikolaiviertel of Göttingen's old town, which is named after it and which, in terms of urban planning, was somewhat isolated between Groner Straße and the southern city wall and was already populated by linen and wool weavers from Flanders in the Middle Ages . The Nikolaikirche in the center of this historic district goes back to Romanesque origins at the end of the 12th century. Today's three-aisled Gothic hall made of ashlar (red Weser sandstone ) was started at the end of the 13th century, partly on the foundations of the previous buildings, and was completed around the middle of the 14th century. The existing Romanesque twin tower system was taken over. A polygonal choir adjoins the nave, with a sacristy in front of it on the south side.

St. Nikolai suffered damage in the Thirty Years' War , the repair of which lasted until the beginning of the 18th century and ended in 1709 with the replacement of the Romanesque towers with pointed church spiers. St. Nikolai was badly damaged by the explosion of the powder tower near the Albanikirche in 1762, so that the southern of both towers collapsed in 1777. A towerless west building was then placed in front of the church naves and inaugurated in 1781. In 1802 St. Nikolai was profaned and used as a magazine by the military of the Göttingen garrison during the French period.

The original university church was withdrawn from the young Göttingen University when the Paulinerkirche was converted into a university library in 1803. The shared use of the Johanniskirche by the university led to friction and in 1819 the student body requested the Nikolaikirche as the new university church in a petition. This was then acquired by the university as property, expanded according to plans by the university master builder Justus Heinrich Müller and rededicated in 1822. Since then, St. Nikolai has been used as a university church. It was last extensively repaired between 1983 and 1988.

Furnishing

Crucifixion group from Bardowick Cathedral

The St. Nikolai Church has a three-aisled Gothic nave, covered by three cross vaults . The choir is also equipped with a cross vault , which also takes up the width of the central nave and ends with five sides of an octagon. The tracery of the windows is in Gothic form. At the northern side entrance, foliage can be seen in the coves of the pointed arch. The keystones of the cross vaults show symbols of the Evangelists with winged people, lions, bulls and eagles , as well as symbols of Christ with lamb and pelican. Other images show Bishop Nicholas and St. Laurentius . The keystones are artistically elaborate with a strongly articulated relief and worked out in detail. The choir as the highlight of the decoration and the sacristy were provided with sheet masks . The construction time of the two towers is unknown, but it is reported that one tower was built in 1490. The two bells, on the other hand, date back to 1402 and 1458.

The old furnishings largely fell victim to the profanation at the beginning of the 19th century. However, the sculptural keystones of the yoke vaults still refer to the Gothic. The epitaph in memory of the first university chancellor Johann Lorenz von Mosheim was moved here from the Paulinerkirche. Otherwise, the church interior was redesigned and redesigned in 1861 under the direction of the Hanoverian architect Conrad Wilhelm Hase in the style of the neo-Gothic style, which was then fashionable, including the pulpit and the gallery. The organ was made by the organ builder Wilhelm Sauer in 1888. In the course of the renovation in 1988, the church also received a late Gothic crucifixion group from the Bardowick Cathedral, St. Peter and Paul .

preacher

The first pastors of the church have been handed down from 1356. The Göttingen reformer Johann Sutel became the first evangelical preacher to St. Nikolai in 1530 and superintendent in Göttingen in 1535.

Well-known university preachers were until the Second World War:

After the war followed Wolfgang Trillhaas (1946), Martin Doerne , Götz Harbsmeier (1965), Manfred Josuttis (1978), Jörg Baur (1981) and Erik Aurelius . Jan Hermelink and Florian Wilk are currently the holders of this office.

The church is used both by the Protestant student community and, since 1949, by the Catholic university community .

literature

  • Karlheinz Blaschke : St. Nikolai in Göttingen. A merchant church from the 12th century . In: Peter Johanek (Ed.) With the collaboration of Uwe John: Stadtgrundriß und Stadtentwicklung. Research into the development of central European cities. Selected essays by Karlheinz Blaschke (= urban research: series A, representations vol. 44). Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau 1997, pp. 352–356. ISBN 3-412-06897-7 . 2nd, unchanged edition, ibid. 2001. ISBN 3-412-02601-8 .
  • Ines Barchewicz and Steven Reiss: "St. Nikolai". In: Jens Reiche and Christian Scholl (eds.): Göttingen churches of the Middle Ages . Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2015, pp. 232–265. ISBN 978-3-86395-192-4 .

Web links

Commons : Nikolaikirche  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Albrecht Saathoff: From Göttingen's church history. Festschrift for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation on October 21, 1929 . Verlag des Göttinger Gemeindeblattes, Göttingen 1929, p. 27 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '53 "  N , 9 ° 56' 2.4"  E