St. Nikolai (Hamburg-Billwerder)
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Nikolai , located in Hamburg-Billwerder directly on Billwerder Billdeich , is the newest church building at a location where churches have been mentioned in documents since the 13th century.
Former church buildings
The information about the church buildings before 1737 is very sketchy. Documentary evidence of a church in Billwerder dates back to 1251 and 1331, but it was not until 1402 that St. Nikolai was mentioned for the first time as an independent parish church . Up to the 18th century there were numerous reports of severe damage to the existing building from storms. The church probably had a pulpit by Hein Baxmann , an order to him is documented for 1632.
The oldest surviving pieces from these churches are two wooden sculptures that are now in the Museum of Hamburg History . One depicts the Evangelist John and the other from 1520 St. Nicholas as namesake.
Today's church and its predecessor
When the old church was finally classified as dilapidated, Johannes Nicolaus Kuhn built an urban-looking nave from 1737 to 1739 next to the free-standing wooden bell tower that still existed at the time . The nave of the church was already very different from that of other churches in the marshland , as wealthy Hamburg merchants had created summer residences in Billwerder and wanted a church with urban flair. At that time the pastor was Johann Andreas Geismer . For the inauguration ceremony, the Billwerder landlords Cornelius Poppe and Paul Jenisch commissioned the Hamburg music director Georg Philipp Telemann to create an oratorio ("See there! A hut of God with the people" TWV 2: 3), for which Michael Richey provided the text, in which he did not shy away from criticizing the Hamburg "summer visitors".
The new church experienced its first flood as early as 1771, when the water was knee-deep in the nave after a dike breached from July to September. It was not until 1884 that the old tower was replaced by the new 56 m high, slender neo-baroque tower designed by the architect Otto Ritscher .
The church burned down on September 5, 1911 while soldering in the tower down to the surrounding walls. Justus Brinckmann , the Bergedorf-based director of the Museum for Art and Industry , saw the burning nave from the train. He pulled the emergency brake, got out and hurried across country to the church. Fellow travelers remember that he was "The Altar!" had called. The reconstruction as a baroque building based on the old plans took place from 1911 to 1913 under the direction of Fernando Lorenzen . The vault of the nave and the spire were built fire-proof from reinforced concrete . The main building is now a brick hall with a barrel ceiling and a five-sided choir closure . The desired height effect is increased by the pulpit altar in the east and the organ in the west.
In 1978, extensive renovation work was necessary, during which the four stained glass windows today, which contain remains of old leaded glass windows, were installed in the altar area. All other windows were provided with light panes.
Furnishing
Two pieces by the sculptor Christoph Gruber have been preserved from the original furnishings from 1740, the baptismal font made of black marble and the sculpture of St. Nicholas above the entrance. The altar pulpit area is decorated with figures of the four evangelists , the floor tiles depict the fish as the early symbol of Christianity. The church has an epitaph for the Prussian general Gustav von Manstein , who spent the last years of his life in Billwerder.
Today's altar is a work by the sculptor August Henneberger from 1913. It was modeled on the altar that existed before the fire and is presented as a pulpit altar typical of the Baroque era . Through the symbolism used with images of the evangelists and well-known pastors of the community, the preacher is placed in a community with the evangelists and his predecessors.
On the former pastorate Billwerder Billdeich 140 , a bronze plaque commemorates the pastor's son and chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, who was born here .
Bells
During the First World War , the then existing three bronze bells, which together weighed over 3 tons, had to be handed in for armament purposes. In 1919 the church received three steel bells, tuned for es , gb and b , from the Franz Schilling foundry . These were in turn replaced in 1986 by new bronze bells.
Their inscriptions read:
- I was brazen, I became steely, I plead for peace
- From the depths, Lord, I call to you ( Psalm 130 : 1 ESV )
- O land, land, hear the word of the Lord ( Jer 22:29 ESV )
organ
There is evidence of organs in the churches at this location since 1627. However, when the church building was demolished in 1737, all older organs also fell victim.
In 1739 the church received an organ from the workshop of Johann Dietrich Busch . In 1870, Christian Heinrich Wolfsteller installed a new organ, which is no longer preserved due to the fire. The organ, completely redesigned by Paul Rother in 1911 and renovated by GF Steinmeyer & Co. in 1980/1981 , was installed one floor lower than its predecessor and is said to have largely taken over its disposition. During this renovation, the previously purely pneumatic action was electrified and a new console was installed. This intervention also changed the original game aids. Today's disposition is:
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Couple:
- Normal coupling: I / II, I / P, II / P
- Super octave coupling: I / II, II
- Playing aids : 2 free combinations , Organo Pleno.
graveyard
The cemetery and church still form a unit today, which is richly structured in the northern part with trees and hedges, in order to become more open in the south and seemingly merge into the pasture and meadow landscape towards the Elbe. Overall, the church and cemetery appear more spacious than in many other churches on the marshes.
Among the historical tombs northeast of the church is the boulder of Gustav von Manstein's grave decorated in relief . A whaler's grave from 1736 reminds of the history of seafaring and whale hunting , of which remains of the arch made of whale jaw bones are still present, but which are now kept inside the church.
Photographs and map
Coordinates: 53 ° 30 ′ 50 ″ N , 10 ° 7 ′ 36 ″ E
View of the church from the meadow side
Weathercock
Main entrance
Window in the choir
Stalls in the nave
Sculpture of St. Nikolaus in the Museum of Hamburg History
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See also
- List of cemeteries in Hamburg
- List of other churches named after St. Nicholas.
literature
- Ralf Lange: Architecture in Hamburg . Junius Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88506-586-9 , p. 323 .
- Gerd Hoffmann, Konrad Lindemann: Churches in town and country . Hower Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-922995-90-X , p. 116 ff .
- Church council St. Nikolai Hamburg-Billwerder (Ed.): 1739 - 1989 . Self-published by the parish, Hamburg 1989.
- Barbara Leisner, Norbert Fischer : The cemetery guide . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-7672-1215-3 , p. 166-168 .
- Ina-Maria Schertel: 250 years of Billwerder Church . In Lichtwark No. 53. Ed. Lichtwark Committee, Bergedorf 1989. (See now: Verlag HB-Werbung, Hamburg-Bergedorf. ISSN 1862-3549 ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Text on the information board of the monument protection office at the church. See photo on Commons.
- ↑ Gisela Jaacks (ed.): Churches, cannons and commerce, guide through the departments Middle Ages up to the 17th century. Museum for Hamburg History , Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-9809110-1-2 , p. 42 f .
- ↑ Gertrud Irwahn, daughter of Justus Brinckmann and wife of Martin Irwahn , in "Yearbook of the Museum of Arts and Crafts" No. 8 of 1989 Page 83. "A youth in Bergedorf"
- ↑ Entry in the organ database orgbase.nl . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- ↑ Günter Seggermann, Alexander Steinhilber, Hans-Jürgen Wulf: The organs in Hamburg . Ludwig, Kiel 2019, ISBN 978-3-86935-366-1 , pp. 152 .
Web links
- Homepage of the community
- Information about the church on the website of a civic association ( Memento from June 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- private chronicle of Bergedorf and the Vier- und Marschlande