City Church (Vaihingen an der Enz)
The city church in the city center of Vaihingen an der Enz is the parish church of the local parish and the main church of the Protestant church district Vaihingen an der Enz and is a station on the Heinrich-Schickhardt-Kulturstrasse of the Council of Europe .
history
The former St. Peter's Church was originally the parish church of Vaihingen. This church of Romanesque origin was enlarged in the 15th century and the choir was rebuilt in 1490. It contains numerous tombstones from the 15th and 16th centuries and later served as a cemetery church and then as a gym. It is municipal property.
At the place of a three-aisled Marienkapelle with a semicircular choir apse and tower from the 13th century, the foundation stone for the current Protestant town church was laid on August 2, 1513. The name “Marienkirche” or “Church of Our Lady” ”was only replaced by the name“ Stadtkirche ”in the middle of the 19th century. On the evening of the Reformation commemoration in 1617, the church was spared from a city fire, but was destroyed almost a year later Another fire in the interior of the church, including the stalls, pulpit, altar, ceiling and melting bells in the tower. The reconstruction in 1619 on behalf of Duke Johann Friedrich von Württemberg was led by master builder Heinrich Schickhardt . A city fire raged on August 17, 1693 in the Palatinate War of Succession even worse Arson by a large French army in the city and the surrounding area of Vaihingen: only the walls remained standing, the pillars of the nave had suffered badly. After painstaking efforts to finance the restoration of the church and tower from 1698 to 1701 by the hospital master and building inspector Johann Christoph Hegelmayer (1663 –1706) only to the bare essentials Two centuries later, a thorough and stylish renovation is urgently needed and was carried out in 1892 by building officer Heinrich Dolmetsch . The architecture and artistic furnishings of the Vaihingen city church were given a neo-Gothic character, which was largely reversed during the thorough renovation of the church, which was largely spared from World War II damage, by architect Gottfried Wendschuh (1924-2014) in 1967–1968 .
architecture
Previous construction
Old Romanesque and early Gothic architectural forms are still recognizable in the current building and show that the previous building from the 13th century was by no means unadorned and small.
16th Century
The stormy urban and population growth at the transition to the 16th century and during the reign of Duke Ulrich von Württemberg then made a more generous dimensioning necessary, with the expansion in width to almost 24 meters, in length to the east to 34 meters and in the height of a good 19 meters resulted in the shape of a late Gothic basilica - with an unusually high central nave, supported by ten strong octagonal columns, with upper aisles and two high aisles, but without the originally planned choir. The latter would have resulted in the purchase and demolition of a Teutonic Order building and further construction costs, but became superfluous with the Reformation, as a place for canons and a high altar was no longer needed.
17th century
The pulpit was much more important as a place for the preached word of God. At the latest from the fire damage renovation by Heinrich Schickhardt in 1619, the middle of the five northern pillars carried the pulpit, where the preaching service was directed with the three-sided west, south and east gallery and the entire pylon alignment. For the seldom celebrated communion, the altar stood free in the church. As in most of his church buildings, master builder Schickhardt implemented the sermon churches and transverse churches concept common for Württemberg and this direct post-Reformation period . In 1619 a new organ was placed above the east gallery on the walling up of the choir arch and a double flight of stairs in the Renaissance style was placed in front of the south portal to access the south pore. Despite the town and church fire from 1693 to 1892, the interior design of the church was preserved, although essential details such as the collapsed vaults in the side aisles and in the north porch were only temporarily renewed after the last fire.
19th century
Architect Heinrich Dolmetsch then turned the spatial orientation according to the Eisenach regulation from the previous transverse to the longitudinal direction of the church by moving a new pulpit to the more eastern of the north pillars, a new altar also further east and in front of it the baptismal font, symmetrical to the existing one Sacristy built in a coal room on the south-east corner and thus created a choir or altar room, moved the organ from the east wall to the larger west gallery, which is also suitable for the church choir, and by removing the walling of the choir arch with a new construction of a short east choir, a new visual effect of depth achieved by the spatial staggering of arch and end wall. A less deep east gallery replaced the old version, and a five-part small tracery window underneath and a monumental tracery rosette above gave the east part of the church better light. This new situation can also be seen on the outside and is well resolved: The doubling of the gable shape between the elongated east buttresses connects the window openings optically, giving the impression of an independent choir extension. The new seating for the whole church was then adapted to the partially changed listening and viewing directions and the church was completely furnished with neo-Gothic paintings, ornaments and symbolic images in the windows and walls.
20th century
In addition to the war damage-related re-glazing of the choir wall rosette in 1954, there were some renovation work on the exterior of the church from 1957–1966, which was caused by the fire of 1693 in the window tracery and tower cornices. The interior renovation by the architect Wendschuh from 1967 to 1968 brought far-reaching changes: the altar and choir, which has been so named since 1893, was redesigned with wood paneling after the five-part east window was bricked up and the east gallery and the choir stalls were removed. The south pore from 1619 and its access, the damaged Renaissance staircase, was removed and the west gallery with organ redesigned. Thus, only the stalls, the pulpit, the altar and the baptismal font remained from the interpreting version from 1893. In the years from 1992 to 2001, extensive work on the renovation of the outside of the church under the supervision of architect Jörg Förnzler was necessary, mainly through an elaborate high-pressure cement injection process to secure the Romanesque foundation, which was not deep enough for the tower, which was growing more and more, and then the facade and stone carving work on the east side, and inside the renewal of the central nave lighting.
Steeple
The tower base is the oldest surviving component from the time between 1250 and 1270. Its square widens above the tower passage and the first closed floor to the first octagon and so far is probably a “one-piece” building, which can be concluded from the stone carving of a construction hut . The tower passage is adorned with a ribbed vault with console stones and keystones in the form of heads with leaf ornaments, which are now heavily damaged, probably grimacing heads, which according to Romanesque custom were supposed to keep demons away from the church. The octagon section with three large tracery windows next to the tower approach dates from the 16th century. After the fire, Schickhardt gave the stump of the tower an octagonal half-timbered floor over 5 meters high, on which the 20-meter-high, pointed, slender tower helmet with tower decoration (knob and weathercock) was placed. Both fell victim to the fire in 1693 and were rebuilt and strikingly redesigned from 1706 in their current form in half-timbered construction with a " Welschen hood " and the attached lantern .
Furnishing
Stonemasonry and sculpture work
The design of the ribbed vault in the tower passage has already been mentioned. The Gothic south window on the first floor of the tower also comes from an early construction phase, the tracery of which was made from a single stone until it was restored true to the original in 1964. Also in 1964, the only remaining stone gargoyle, a jumping dog, was reconstructed on the west side of the nave. The beginning of the extension in 1513 is documented with an inscription on the outside of the north-western buttress of the nave. This then had beautiful tracery and richly articulated soffits and vestments in the windows, some of which were damaged in the fires. In 1521 an artist from the stonemasonry school of Hans Seyffer in Heilbronn created the tympanum , a relief in the gable field above the south portal, in which Christ carrying the cross is depicted. It was restored in 1966 and 1998. In 1610 a door with a Renaissance frame was installed below the tower, which can be seen today as a replica. In the church only a stone epitaph has been preserved in the south aisle: the baroque monument to the building inspector Johann Christoph Hegelmayer, who directed the reconstruction of the church around 1700.
Wall painting
Nothing is known of early fresco or secco painting in the church. The church fires would have caused destruction anyway. During the renovation in 1893, construction councilor Dolmetsch responded to the wishes of the community for the walls and ceiling to be painted. It was executed in the figurative parts, possibly also in the large-scale stencil painting , by the Stuttgart church painter Theodor Bauerle : the wooden ceiling of the central nave with sun, water of life, plants, fruits, flowers, star frieze, leaf framing, fields with angel figures; then in the frieze of the large choir arch nine medallions with Moses, Abraham, prophets, disciples and apostles; Singer David playing the harp on the west wall high above the organ. All of this no longer corresponded to the taste of the times and art in the middle of the 20th century and was removed during the interior renovation in 1967/68. The short choir room, however, was given a colored wall design.
Pulpit, altar area and choir wall
The principles , i.e. the wooden pulpit with carved half-length portraits of the Evangelists in the panels, the baptismal font and the altar, come from the renovation in 1893. The original pulpit from 1619 stood on the middle of the five north pillars. The reconstruction after the fire damage of 1693 put a new pulpit there around 1700. During the neo-Gothic redesign in 1893, the third pulpit including the sound cover was placed around a pillar further east and in 1967 finally on the eastern of the five north pillars. During the redesign of the chancel at the time, the artist Wolf-Dieter Kohler created a large, colorful wall surface with building and city structures of the Heavenly Jerusalem , which thematically arise from the window rosette: the place of the Promise, which is preceded by the glass Greek cross , the sign of the resurrection, on the weave of the wrought-iron Roman crosses of suffering of human everyday life. The sculptor Ingrid Seddig (1926–2008 Nellmersbach) created the christening chandelier with the cross motifs as a sign of hope for the two wrought-iron altar candlesticks and in 1990 the ambo , a wooden lectern with the relief of the parable of the fourfold field.
window
The first glass paintings were installed in the north window under the gallery on the occasion of Martin Luther's 400th birthday. They are works by the Stuttgart portrait, genre and glass painter Christian W. Anemüller , donated by citizens of Vaihingen. The middle window with the blessing figure of Christ has been preserved, was restored in 1998 and is now presented in a backlit glass frame. The glass painting in the large east wall rosette was based on a design by the artist of the other wall paintings in 1893, Theodor Bauerle (1865–1914 Stuttgart), with the motif from Albrecht Dürer's picture for the first chapter of the secret revelation , the candlestick vision of the enthroned Son of Man (Christ) at the beginning of the Revelation of John ( Rev 1,12-16 LUT ), executed by the Munich glass painting Gustav van Treeck . The war-torn glazing was replaced by a private foundation in 1954 with a work of the same motif by the Bochum painter Fritz Mannewitz, although Wolf-Dieter Kohler had won first prize in the artist's competition. He then came into play in 1968 with the design of the chancel and the restrained, non-representational color scheme of the remaining windows, each of which has a different color scheme.
Organs
Main organ
In 1521 the newly built church received its first organ ; this was sold to Wildberg in 1615 . In 1619 the organ builder Jakob Gansser built a new instrument for the town church, which was completely destroyed in a fire in 1693. Today's organ goes back in part to an instrument which was built with twelve registers in the years 1712 to 1713 after the fire damage renovation was completed by the organ builder NF Lamprecht (Dettelbach am Main, 1655–1720) . In particular , the prospectus of the main work covered with gold leaf has been preserved .
The instrument has been changed several times over the years. In 1877 the organ builder Carl Schäfer (Heilbronn) added the instrument, in 1893 he set it up again on the west gallery and changed the layout again. From 1939 to 1940 Oskar Walcker (Ludwigsburg) expanded the organ to 23 stops. In 1967/1968 the instrument was extended by a further manual and expanded to 35 stops. Currently (since 2015) a technical new construction of the instrument is planned, which includes an addition to the disposition .
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- Pair : III / II, III / I, II / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
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Mood :
- Tuning pitch: a 1 = 444.4 Hz (at 18 ° C)
- Tuning: after Neidhardt (1729)
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Organ positive
In the nave there is a positive organ with an attached pedal . It was artistically designed by Rolf Gröger from Pforzheim . The instrument has been part of the church's inventory since 1968 and has the following disposition:
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Bells
The ringing of the town church has had an eventful history since 1418, in which it was about attempted bells to be exchanged with other parishes, from big five-bell chimes from 1513, two bells melting in the big fires, hiding and protection money payment to plundering troops in 1692, hiding of the smelting bronze in the Enz In 1693 and in the 20th century, two forced deliveries were made as a metal donation by the German people for the armaments industry. The oldest and smallest surviving bell from 1621, cast in Stuttgart by Wolfgang Neidhardt , the so-called “little silver bell” in the tower lantern, does not ring but strikes the quarter of an hour. From 1698 hang the bell founder Johann Rosier III from Lorraine. Bells cast from the bronze remains of that time and additional material are still in the tower today and again. In 1742 Gottlieb Jakob Rechlen cast a bell weighing 349 kg in Stuttgart, which has been missing since delivery in 1918, as well as a bell cast in 1927 and delivered in 1942. After the Second World War, the ringing was completed by two bells from the Heinrich Kurtz bell foundry in Stuttgart. Since 1959 the full bells have been ringing in E flat major non chord (E flat - f - g - b), known as the opening notes of many chorales, for example praise the gentlemen, the mighty king or happy my heart should jump .
The individual bells and their inscriptions:
- es'-1/32 prayer bell (diameter 1240 mm, weight 1200 kg) Founder: Johannes Rosier II., Lorraine, 1698. Anno 1693, August 17th, when the enemy's fire melted and purified, how sad was the sound that this indicated. Now I am poured into the hand of an artist, how happy is the sound that echoes
- f '+ 2/16 cross bell (1170 mm, 950 kg) Foundry: Heinrich Kurtz, Stuttgart 1959. Watch and pray. Donated by the Friedrich Häcker family, Vaihingen 1959
- g'-6/16 drawing bell (1000 mm, 620 kg) Johannes Rosier II., Lorraine, 1698. Let us ring together so that all ears may fall to the powerful tone. Come on and don't stay away, this is the house of God. Who is a true Christian, comes and does not stay away. Anno 1698
- b'-1/16 baptismal bell (865 mm, 387 kg) Founder: Heinrich Kurtz, Stuttgart, 1950. O country, country, country, hear the word of the Lord. Evang. Parish Vaihingen an der Enz
- as '' Silberglöcklein (560 mm, 115 kg) Founder: Wolfgang Neidhart III., Stuttgart 1621. Through the fire flos me, wolfgang neidhart in studgart gos me 1621
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich-Schickhardt-Kulturstrasse - Die Straße In: heinrich-schickhardt-kulturstrasse.de , accessed on October 9, 2018.
- ↑ Hartmut Leins: The Evangelical City Church in Vaihingen an der Enz. Ed. Ev. Kirchengemeinde Vaihingen / Enz, 2nd, improved and supplemented edition, Vaihingen / Enz 2013.
- ↑ Sorrow and joy of a Swabian church. Editorial article (signed: HM = editor: Prelate Heinrich Merz) in the Christlichen Kunstblatt, 35th year, issue 1, Stuttgart 1893, pages 12-16.
- ↑ Ellen Pietrus: Heinrich Dolmetsch. The church restorations by the Württemberg builder. Stuttgart 2008, pp. 362-366.
- ↑ Two floor plans with seating by Heinrich Schickhardt, 1618 see [1] and [2]
- ↑ Information on the organ
- ↑ Current disposition on the parish website, accessed on April 29, 2017. (PDF)
- ↑ Planned disposition on the website of the parish, accessed on April 29, 2017 (PDF)
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 55 ′ 58.5 " N , 8 ° 57 ′ 23.7" E