City Church (Bad Hersfeld)
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The Protestant town church is in the old town of Bad Hersfeld . Its distinctive church tower is the city's landmark .
The city church is a Gothic three-aisled, high-vaulted hall church . The hall has four bays with wide eight-sided pillars . The two-bay choir ends with a polygonal apse with a 5/8 end .
The history of the town church begins with the construction of the Romanesque market basilica around the year 1060. This building was then rebuilt and expanded over the next 420 years into the Gothic church building as it still stands today. The exterior has remained almost unchanged since then. The interior was significantly altered by Calvinist iconoclasts and by at least two major fires.
Previous buildings
First parish church on the Frauenberg
The first parish church was on the Frauenberg above the settlement at the Benedictine monastery . Parish rights then passed to the church in the town in the Fulda valley . In this respect, the Frauenberg Church is a predecessor of the city church.
Around the year 800 there was only the collegiate church in Haerulfisfelt for church services . Since this was in the monks' enclosure, the population of the growing settlement had no access to a place of worship. So the abbot had a small church built on the Frauenberg above the settlement, which he consecrated to Our Lady ( Maria ). The name of the Frauenberg is derived from the Church of Our Lady on the Mountain . The veneration of Mary has continued in the new town church to the present day.
The church consisted of a small rectangular room about 7 meters long and 6 meters wide. A rectangular apse connected to the east in full width. It was not until the late Romanesque period that the room was extended in the same width in an easterly direction by around 9 m. The population made a pilgrimage from the settlement to the mountain to worship. Today's street Alter Kirchweg still shows which way led to the church. With the construction of the city church in 1323 at the latest, parish rights were transferred from the Frauenberg church to the city church.
In 1422, a side chapel was added to the church, which was consecrated to St. Michael , the patron saint of the cemeteries. Presumably the churchyard in the city was cleared at that time and the mountain cemetery, which had not been used since 1323, was put back into operation. From then on, the sacred building served as a cemetery church and was a hermitage for beguines until the Reformation and the Peasants' War . The church then fell into disrepair.
The ruins, especially the rectangular east end of the church, were included in the new building of the Frauenberg chapel in 1959. The new building belongs to the Evangelical Youth Education Center in Frauenberg.
Romanesque market basilica
A first church building on the site of today's city church was a 12.6 m long and 7.4 m wide main room, to which a rectangular choir was attached to the east . Due to the chronological sequence in the settlement, this building is dated around 1060, after Abbot Meginher had rebuilt the collegiate church (Brunbasilika) that burned down in 1038 .
Between 1073 and 1074 Heinrich IV had his army gather here against the rebellious Saxons and Thuringians . He and his entourage stayed in the shelter of the fortified monastery. Due to the looming investiture dispute between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII , Hersfeld was at the center of events in the Holy Roman Empire . An advance by Magdeburg's Archbishop Hartwig von Spanheim and Bishop Burchard II von Halberstadt in 1086 led them to the fortifications of the monastery. Since the settlement in front of the monastery was still unfortified, it was destroyed.
It can be assumed that the second expansion stage of the market basilica took place after these disputes, probably in the course of a Romanesque rebuilding. During the expansion, a 17.8 m long and 8.1 m wide transept was added to the nave instead of the above-mentioned choir . In the middle of the east wall of the transept was an apse with a radius of about 3.2 m. A ridge turret picked up a bell over the crossing . In the west, an extension was probably built the width of the nave at the same time, which ended shortly before today's tower wall (the exact length of this extension can no longer be proven, as the foundation walls of the western end were destroyed by modern civil engineering). The patrons of this church were St. Vitus and St. Antonius .
The first pastors in the market basilica are known in documents from 1142. In this year a victory mode is mentioned as “clericus de doro” and 1160 as “forensis presbiter”. In a document from 1170 a "parochianus Heinricus in civitate nostra Hersfeld" is mentioned. The last known pastor in this church is the city pastor Ulrich von Laien, who is mentioned in a document dated April 5, 1222. It is mentioned in documents until 1244. The oldest preserved parish seal hangs on a document dated December 13, 1234. The pointed oval seal shows two ornamentally entwined dragons with the inscription SECRETVOPLEBANIIHERSFET (translated: Secret of the pastor in Hersfeld).
Gothic town church
Building history
Much knowledge about the church building was only gained after 1953, when the entire interior had to be restored after a fire. Excavations were undertaken under the church. This allowed the history of the town church to be traced back to the early 11th century. Since there is no written evidence, especially up to the 13th century, some events and circumstances in the history of the church could only be determined through these excavations. But there are some things that can only be speculated on the basis of the timing in the Hersfeld Abbey or in the market town or town of Hersfeld .
Choir and Lady Chapel
From around 1305 Hersfeld was ruled jointly by the three estates of convent, knight and town. However, there was probably peace between the abbey and the city, so that the planning of a larger city church can begin at this time. In the first construction phase, the small apse in the transept was replaced by a Gothic two-bay choir, the polygonal apse of which ends in a 5/8 end. The axis of the new choir was aligned more precisely in the west-east direction.
The height of the still Romanesque nave and the transept was several meters lower than the new choir after these construction measures. The choir was probably built on the model of the landgrave's residence in Marburg . The castle chapel there (inaugurated in 1288) and the choir of the oldest parish church in Marburg, the St. Mary's Church (built in 1297), show architectural parallels. The triangular struts drawn inwards can be found in all three church buildings.
This construction phase also included the construction of a small two-bay Marienkapelle (today sacristy ), which was built on the north wall of the new choir and leaned against the old transept towards the old city cemetery (today church square). The prominent importance of this extension ( praedictae ecclesiae annexa ) can already be seen on the outside, in the design of the buttresses . The buttress above the roof of St. Mary's Church has a pinnacle with tracery and finial . The remaining buttresses of the church hall, on the other hand, only have very simple pinnacles or they are even missing entirely. The buttresses of the chapel extension end in the form of tabernacles , which presumably contain figures of saints. These tabernacles are also not found anywhere else in the church. The vicar had access to the chapel through a narrow door from the choir. A niche in the interior of the small room, as is customary on the epistle side of altars , still indicates today that there was an altar here. On the two outer walls there were probably arched openings (with barriers) that also allowed larger crowds to look inside the chapel from outside. The importance of the Marian altar can also be seen in the number of vicarages donated . In addition to the high altar in the choir, it was only the Mary's altar that received two foundations. In the city church, the tradition of the veneration of Mary in the Frauenberg church was followed.
By one of John XXII. The papal memorandum of grace issued, which is only partially preserved as a copy, can be identified as August 6, 1323 as the day of the consecration of the new high altar. The church and the high altar were dedicated to Saints Vitus and Antonius . It is still likely that with this letter of grace, parish rights were transferred from the Frauenberg chapel to the town church. The first pastor (plebanus de Hersfeld) of the Gothic town church, who presumably also planned and supervised the new building, was Hermann von Boumilborg (today von Boyneburg ). On December 27, 1328 he donated a vicarie to the high altar of the new choir. He died on September 21, 1330, as evidenced by his grave slab, which today stands on the south wall to the left of the town hall exit. The trapezoidal shape of the grave slab and the structural conditions in 1330 suggest that his grave was in the Marienkapelle.
There are also indications that suggest that Hermann was also a pastor in Mecklar-Meckbach, where the Lords of Boyneburg had a neighboring seat at that time.
Tower construction
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As already mentioned above, from around 1305 the abbot could no longer pass the stalls and rule directly over Hersfeld. The contrasts between the city and the abbey became sharper, so in 1328 the abbot began building the heavily fortified castle to the oaks outside the city. That year the keep was raised there .
This may have been an occasion that around 1330 the expansion of the city church was not continued with a new church hall . Instead, at some distance to the west of the Romanesque nave, a single church tower was built as a defensive fortification. This tower was aligned in its axis with the choir built in 1323 and had two floors. The second floor can be reached via a narrow spiral staircase, which you still have to use to get to the tower. It can be seen from the outside on the south wall of the tower. A ridge turret was probably placed on top of this tower to accommodate a bell. The west portal on the ground floor of the tower was crowned by a circlet and flanked with pinnacles . This Wimperg also has stylistic parallels with a church portal in Marburg. It is the portal in the north tower of the Elizabeth Church, which was built after 1319.
Church hall
Construction of the church hall is scheduled to begin around 1350. The monastery was ruled by Johann von Elben (1343-1367), who was interested in compromise , so that they all started to build the three-aisled, high-vaulted hall consisting of four bays. The distance between the church tower and the choir was 100 Hessian feet (about 25 m). The side walls from the church tower to the choir were pulled up around the existing old basilica. In order to have continued access to it, a wide door was built into the southern wall of the choir. In order to give the choir gate more importance (it was only there for the abbot, the canons and high dignitaries), a small vestibule was added. For the population, the old narrow door from the market basilica was placed in the north wall of the church hall. When the octagonal pillars and the 18 m high ribbed vaults were built, only the former transept of the market basilica remained until the roofing of the new church hall was finished. Then the old transept was also demolished, which was now completely in the new hall. Only the shoulder pieces of this transept remained, as they served as the rear wall of the Marienkapelle on the northern side and as supports for the choir vestibule on the southern side.
Construction was delayed considerably. The first reason was the plague epidemic in 1356, in which 3000 Hersfelders died. A plague stone next to the choir vestibule (probably a remnant of a grave complex or a memorial) bears a Latin inscription. Loosely translated it says: In the year 1356 from the terrible plague, by divine counsel, three thousand fell and were buried here. You rest in blessed peace .
The second reason is an impending collapse of the north wall. This was countered by building four wider buttresses on the outside of the hall wall. You can still see this today, as the buttresses on the north wall are wider than on the south wall. The crowns of the vault were also placed higher than intended in order to reduce the lateral forces on the side walls.
In 1371 the new daffodil was hung in the church tower. It can therefore be assumed that the construction of the church hall was completed. This first big bell was an "assumptionis Mariae", a bell of Mary. This underlines once again the takeover of the veneration of Mary from the Frauenberg Church.
Ossuary and new Lady Chapel
The next changes can only be proven in the 15th century. The construction of a chapel on the Frauenberg in 1422 suggests that the mountain cemetery was used again and subsequently the churchyard in the city was no longer used. So the construction of an ossuary can be assumed at this time. It was added to the north side of the tower. A door to the ossuary was broken into the west wall of the church hall. The high Gothic windows suggest a building from the 15th century.
Two years could be considered for a more precise dating. It is believed that the room above the ossuary took up the Marien Altar from the old Lady Chapel. It was therefore probably the new Lady Chapel. The Vitalis Altar can also be found in this room. The old Marienkapelle became a sacristy , which was previously behind the high altar in the choir. From the year 1411 it is known that the Hersfeld family Kettenbur donated a second vicarie to the Marien Altar. This could be related to the move of the Marien Altar to the new Lady Chapel above the ossuary. Thus the ossuary and the Marienkapelle would have been built around the year 1410.
On the other hand, Albrecht von Buchenau (1418 to 1438) tried again at the beginning of his abbate to gain direct rule over the city. On the occasion of the Vitalis procession in 1418, he sought a confrontation with the city. However, he could not prevail. From 1432 the city and abbey had the same patron, the Landgraves of Hesse. In this environment, a friendship treaty between the city and the abbey was concluded in 1439, in which the abbot Konrad von Hirtzenrode confirmed the citizens' rights. In the same year, the great city fire also damaged the church. This means that the ossuary and the new Lady Chapel could have been built around 1440 as part of the repair work during this time of peace.
In the first half of the 15th century, a late Gothic star vault was added to the ground floor of the church tower . The still preserved guild coats of arms in the vault (the cloth makers and shoe makers) allow the conclusion that a guild or magistrate chapel was set up here. The room was probably not yet used as a passage to the church, as the bells in the tower were rung from here. The holes in the vault through which the ropes were led to the bells are still a reminder today.
Expansion of the church tower
The church tower was only expanded in the 16th century. Another four floors were added to the two-story tower stump. The tower's apartment was 40 m above the city (there are still 222 steps to climb to the tower's apartment). The tracery on the fifth floor and open on the sixth floor is in the late Gothic style of fish-bubble ornamentation . The stone parapet of the surrounding guard corridor, the four gargoyles and envious heads designed as demonic mythical creatures (three are located on the south side, one in the east and one in the west, all in the frame of the windows on the top two floors) point to the Late Gothic.
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The exact period can only be read off from two deeds of donation to the parish church's construction hut. One dates from April 24, 1505, when the wife of Johannes von Buchenau , Ymmel, transferred a garden to "repair and build the tower". The second document dates from January 14, 1508, in which the citizen Hentz Hainer donated "to the construction of the tower and to the maintenance of the parish church". In addition, Gülten (land charges) were mentioned in the Hersfeld Salbuch in 1532, which "served to build the tower on the town church". Thus, the time between 1500 and 1520 can be assumed for the expansion. After that, construction would no longer have been possible due to the Reformation , the Peasants' War and the subsequent occupation of Hersfeld by Hessian troops. A provisional roof will probably have been installed during this time.
The sandstone on the top two floors is much lighter in color than the rest of the tower. Therefore, there are also publications that argue that the first four floors were built around 1350. This cannot be proven due to the lack of construction joints (between the fourth and fifth floors) on the tower. If you follow this opinion, the last two floors could also have been built later. This could have happened in the years before 1584, because at that time the hipped gable roof stood over the tower keeper's apartment and the slender roof turret. This is evident from an inscription carved into the supporting beams that support the tower house and the roof. It literally says:
Topographia Hassiae
| ADAM RODT HN BROTHECKER |
| ANNO DOMININ 1584 |
| DEN IIAVGVSTII |
The inscription refers to the mayor Hen (Johann) Brothecker von Hersfeld, who was in office from 1565 to 1574 . Two copper engravings by Wilhelm Dilich , each from 1591 and 1604, also show the completed tower with roof.
A small, inconspicuous sundial dated around 1520 is located on the penultimate buttress on the south wall of the hall. This makes it the oldest public clock in Bad Hersfeld.
inner space
Frescoes
Medieval wall paintings were discovered in the choir . On both sides of the altar one can see two life-size images of saints that have turned pale. These holy images were mentioned in a letter of indulgence from the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Mainz. The document issued on September 9, 1503 speaks of an image of Mary and other frescoes of Saints Veronica, Katharina and Barbara.
Another very well preserved fresco can be seen above the sacrament niche in the back of the choir. It shows two angels holding a monstrance . The painting is dated to the 15th century and has Westphalian influences.
Keystones and other figurative representations
The keystones in the intersection and the accompanying decorative stones in the apex of the vault ribs represent the essentials of salvation history. Since many people in the Middle Ages could not read, Charlemagne asked for a biblia pauperum , a sermon speaking out of the stone.
The figures on the keystones in the choir face the preacher. There you can see Christ as the judge of the world, sitting with the five wounds in front of the mandorla , and an angel with the instruments of suffering.
The figures in the church hall face the congregation. In the main nave stands out the smiling Christ, depicted as a teacher. In his left hand he holds the open Bible (with gold alpha and omega ) and blesses the church with his right hand. This keystone is deposited with oak leaves (probably a symbolism that Christ triumphs over the Germanic god Donar , see also Donareiche ). This stone is framed with four decorative stones on the vault ribs, on which the symbols for the evangelists Matthew (man), Mark (lion), Luke (bull) and John (eagle) can be seen.
In the aisles , the keystones have the theme of charity, with female figures in the south aisle and male figures in the north aisle. This shows the old seating arrangements in churches, where women and men sat separately. In the south aisle you can find Maria with the child and in the north aisle St. Martin is represented as a knight . The corresponding kneeling beggar can be found on a separate stone at the edge of the vault.
There are also many keystones and decorative stones that represent plants. You can see vine leaves, oak leaves, clover leaves, celandine, beaver nelle, bunny beet, henbane, grapevines and dog rose. In addition to the symbolic meaning (e.g. the dog rose for Mary's virginity or the grapevine for Christ who offers vines), the stones also refer to popular knowledge about the healing properties of these plants. This probably happened in the tradition of Hildegard von Bingen , Albertus Magnus and Konrad von Megenberg . This must also be seen in the context of the plague year 1356. During this time the church hall was built.
A special keystone, which shows a face entwined with four leaves and a disc rim with nine flowers, is not oriented towards the community. Here the number symbolism of 9 refers to Germanic beliefs and old Franconian legal concepts. A newborn baby, for example, had to be nine days old to be hereditary, or nine herbs had to be eaten in the spring to cleanse and strengthen for the year. It was referring to magical earthbound powers in order to positively influence one's future. These forces therefore looked up from the earth and could see the keystone the right way round. According to medieval belief, they wanted to keep away the earth spirits or even the devil himself.
Stylistic comparisons to the keystones indicate that the first artist who created the choir keystones came from the construction works of the Elisabethenkirche in Marburg . Another artist (teaching Christ, Mary with the child) was based on the Rhenish Gothic (Freiburg, Strasbourg, Oberwesel). A third artist (St. Martinsstein, organ console stone in the Hersfelder Museum) can also be assigned to works in the Fritzlar St. Peter's Basilica (sacrament house).
In the late Gothic star vault in the entrance hall of the church tower two decorative stones with guild coats of arms can be seen. One shows leather knives and shoe lasts (shoemakers), the other shows rough scrapers and cloth scissors (cloth makers).
Above the west portal on both sides of the organ, the vault ribs converge on the west wall of the church hall and end on a stone console . At the time of the iconoclasm of the Calvinists, the console on the southern side was hidden behind the organ, out of reach, so the old jewelry with a devil's head has been preserved here. The console on the north side could be reached, however, here all images were removed. Another testimony to the iconoclasm is a chipped stone devotional image in the back of the choir. According to ancient scriptures, John and Mary were depicted there under the cross.
The only completely preserved stone statue of a saint is now in the church to the right of the west portal. A picture of the figure stands in its original location, outside on the north wall of the church hall next to the former Marienkapelle (today's sacristy). Due to the proximity to the former chapel, one can assume that it is a figure of Mary. Why it survived the iconoclasm can no longer be determined (it may have been hidden and later placed on the north wall).
Leaded glass window
The oldest lead glass windows in the church have stood the test of time in the Marienkapelle above the ossuary and in the sacristy . The Gothic windows date from the first half of the 15th century (probably after the town fire). After the Hessian landgrave had bought the Gothic windows from the choir and the church hall for his Löwenburg in 1798, the old stained glass windows were only in the tracery tips and in the above-mentioned rooms. The church fire of 1952 destroyed many of these old windows in the church hall. When the church was rebuilt, the remains of the old windows were removed and used for the windows in the Lady Chapel and the sacristy.
The choir was equipped with five new stained glass windows designed by the glass artist Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen . The three windows in the center of the choir have the basic colors of the Trinity , these windows are supplemented by an Old Testament window on the left and a window on the right. From left to right you can see in the choir:
- The Old Testament window, with scenes mainly from the first book of Moses ,
- the Christmas window, with scenes from the Christmas story in a golden basic color,
- the Passion and Easter window, with scenes from Matthew and John in a blue base color,
- the Pentecost window, with scenes from the Acts of the Apostles in red color
- the right window, with scenes on the subjects of God's grace and the call to service .
On December 14, 2006 the city church received the sixth window, the Magnificat window in the east over the south pore. This window was also designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen.
Further church equipment
The pulpit on the northern pillar of the chancel was made according to a design by state curator Prof. D. Bleibaum and has inlays made by the inlay cutter W. Dupont.
Organs
There are three organs in the church .
The outer shape of the main organ goes back to the swallow's nest organ , which Bruno Döring from Neukirchen built in 1974 above the west portal. This instrument had 57 registers , divided into three manuals ( Rückpositiv , Hauptwerk, Brustwerk, Echowerk [without its own manual]) and a pedal. In 2010 the organ building company Hermann Eule (Bautzen) built a new organ in the case of Bruno Döring. Five registers of unknown origin from the period around 1900 were reused in the instrument, which were already installed in the Döring organ in 1978. Today the organ has 49 registers (3,026 pipes) on three manual works and a pedal. The slider chests of the individual works as well as the old organ of a mechanical key action controlled and electro-pneumatic stop action. The organ is 7.80 m high and 6.90 m wide;
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On the northern gallery is the so-called Bach organ (II + P / 12), a two-manual organ for accompanying church services, built in 1987 by Reinhart Tzschöckel initially without a pedal . The instrument was retrofitted in 2001 by Orgelbau Vleugels (Hardheim). The organ has slide chests and a mechanical play and stop action. In the choir room (in front of the choir entrance) is the altar organ (I + P / 8), a single-manual organ, built in 1954 by the Emil Hammer Orgelbau company , Hanover, with a slider drawer with split loops and a mechanical game and stop mechanism. It was a gift from the Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck.
Bells
Today there are eight bells in the wooden belfry, which date from a total of four centuries. The overall bell has not changed in its existence for 340 years and is the largest medieval bell in Hesse.
The two smallest bells are cast in so-called sugar loaf ribs and can therefore be classified as being in the middle of the 13th century; their elongated bell bodies with a wide bell rim are neither decorated nor inscribed. The Klaus or Bede bell probably comes from the Klaus church , built around 1280, which probably stood in the open field in front of the Klaustor until the 17th century and then asked the landowners and house owners to pay the Bede in the town church . It had this function until the middle of the 19th century. The display or air conditioning bell had probably hung in the roof turret above the choir and could have served as a prayer or hour bell for the canons .
The designation of the cast in 1371 daffodil stems from nachreformatorischer time because it is a Marie bell according to its inscription ( "Assumptionis Mariae"). This sonorous bell - which was still hung in the unfinished tower stump when it was made - was used as a gloriosa , which could only be heard on the highest church holidays.
In 1382 another bell was raised in the tower. It is dedicated to Saint Lambert , the patron saint of cloth makers, whom the Flemings brought with them from their homeland at that time. In addition to the Lord's Prayer, it also rings between Michaelmas and Easter at 9 p.m. as a reminder of the medieval custom of ending the evening pint on time; the Lambertus bell was therefore also called beer or wine bell . The Bonifatius bell from 1429 (decorated with the Hersfeld double cross) and the monastery bell from the 15th century were taken from the Katharinenturm of today's monastery ruins. This handover was suggested by Prof. hc Siegfried Heinrich. Only the lullus bell hangs there now .
In 1606 and 1666 the fire or storm bell and Sunday or six o'clock bell were cast. The fire bell has a splendid ornament (palmette frieze and Hersfeld coat of arms) and was designed by Otto v. Hessen (son of Moritz ) donated. The Latin inscription on the Sunday bell identifies the Hersfeld master Ambrosius Ulrich (progenitor of a Hersfeld bell foundry family) as a foundryman, and Johann Lehn and Johann Rechberg as the incumbent mayors. According to the inscription, the bell is consecrated to the Holy Trinity and is intended to call the community to prayer. The bell rings as a prayer bell in the morning at 7 a.m. and in the evening at 6 p.m. For static reasons, both bells ring with upper weights and counterweight clappers.
The two baroque bells lay in the so-called bell cemetery in the Hamburg district of Veddel during the Second World War . They were hung up in the tower again in 1948.
Six bells (8 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 1) ring every Saturday at 6 p.m. for 10 minutes to ring in Sunday. On Sunday itself it will also sound from 9:50 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The Lambertus bell can never be heard in plenary. For the short service on Saturday morning, a partial ring of four bells (8 + 6 + 5 + 3) rings from 10:50 to 11:00 a.m.
| No. | Name (position) | Casting year | Foundry, casting location | Mass (kg, approx.) | Chime | Chimes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daffodil | 1371 | anonymous | 2,700 | cis 1 | Funeral , service on Sundays |
| 2 | Sunday or six o'clock bell | 1666 | Ambrosius Ulrich, Hersfeld | 1,700 | dis 1 | Ringing, worship on Sundays |
| 3 | Storm or fire bell | 1606 | Jacob Koenig, Erfurt | 900 | f sharp 1 | Noon bells, church service |
| 4th | Lambertus bell | 1382 | anonymous | 600 | a 1 | Ringing beer, ringing the Lord's Prayer |
| 5 | Boniface Bell | 1429 | anonymous | 570 | a 1 | Noon bells, church service |
| 6th | Collegiate bell | 15th century | anonymous | 390 | c sharp 2 | church service |
| 7th | Klaus or Bedeglocke | around 1280 | anonymous | 250 | f sharp 2 | Church service on feast days |
| 8th | Display or air conditioning bell | 13th century | anonymous | 210 | ice 2 | church service |
Since June 1997 the town church has had a carillon with 16 bells. Choral melodies can be programmed with it, but they can also be played using a keyboard.
Every Sunday at 9:30 a.m., a chorale resounds over the city from the tower of the city church, played by the trombone choir of the YMCA and the Evangelical Church in Bad Hersfeld, which has provided this service since May 5, 1901.
Events in and around the church after completion
reformation
Heinrich Fuchs was pastor in the Hersfeld town church from around 1515 . At that time he was one of the canons of the parish church. The canons included not only the pastor and his chaplain , but also clerics who owned independent foundations. They financed themselves with soul masses (believers donated them out of concern for the salvation of the soul) or vicarages (they looked after altars as vicars ). This meant that all the places on the walls of the church hall, the sacristy, the Marienkapelle and the guild chapel on the ground floor of the tower were occupied. There was no gallery back then. This shows the great number of canons. In 1528 there were twelve altars in the town church alone , on which 15 vicarages were donated:
| Vicarie | Remarks |
|---|---|
| St. Vitus and Antony I | High altar in the choir, donated in 1329 by Pastor Hermann v. Boyneburg |
| St. Vitus and Antonius II | Donated in 1411 by Hermann Kettenbür from Frauengasse |
| of the Virgin Mary I. | Marien Altar in the Marienkapelle |
| of the Virgin Mary II | donated in 1411 by Hermann Kettenbür vom Markt |
| of all apostles I. | donated in 1352 |
| of all apostles II. | donated in 1366 |
| of St. Cross | - |
| of St. Andrew | donated by the Gerwig family |
| of St. Oswald | Donated in 1436 by lay judge Oswald Franke and his wife, behind the churchyard |
| St. Peter and Paul | donated in 1428 by Johannes Budeker from Wallengasse |
| St. Catherine | Donated in 1336 by the priest Konrad von Zella in the lower Frauenstrasse |
| St. Anna | donated in 1507 by the priest Johann Rossbach |
| of St. Cyrillus | donated around 1490 by Johann Mushart and his wife |
| the 10,000 martyrs | second altar in the Marienkapelle, donated around 1490 by Johann Mushart and his wife |
| of St. Vitalis | the altar was in the new Lady Chapel above the ossuary |
There were another five vicarages on the Frauenberg, four vicarages in the hospital at Johannestor, three vicarages in the collegiate church and one each in the special hospital and one in the Klauskirche.
Around the turn of the year 1520/1521, Fuchs began to preach in Luther's style (from 1523 onwards, his chaplain Melchior Rinck too ). According to the sources, he was the first Protestant preacher in Hesse . How he came into contact with Luther's teachings is unknown. From the pulpit he said: “It is impossible for a person to achieve merit before God through his own human works”, and the many soul masses held several times during the day were “blaring with singing, blades, organs and fuss”. He stood openly against the canons and also against the Benedictine monks in the monastery and the Franciscans on Neumarkt, "because where there is only faith in Christ, there is no need to mediate salvation through the priests". Fuchs found a lot of approval for his sermons among the citizens , but there was initially a largely peaceful coexistence of the two teachings, since Abbot Crato I (bourgeois Kraft Myle from Hungen ) supported the new teaching.
Martin Luther's stay in Hersfeld marked the actual beginning of the Reformation . From April 30th to May 3rd, 1521, he was the abbot's guest in the monastery and on May 1st he preached in front of the convent in the collegiate church (Note: Luther had been promised safe conduct by Charles V on the condition "do not preach, write, in other ways, should make the people active ”). In the same month, Fuchs was the first priest to marry in Hersfeld, probably strengthened by the encounter he had with Luther. In other areas, many priests were charged by the clergy and put in jail for this, but in Hersfeld this did not initially happen.
In May 1523 Melchior Rinck (he knew Georg Witzel through his studies in Erfurt) began to preach as a chaplain in the town church. Fuchs and Rinck intensified the attacks and preached against the Roman sacramental theology and the ordination of priests (anointing oil was called "smear"). The sermons also began to affect the conduct of citizens. Fewer and fewer masses and vicarages were donated. The abbot could no longer accept these attacks on the foundations of Roman teaching. Negotiations between the city council and the abbot initially made it possible for Fuchs and Rinck to continue preaching in the evangelical sense in the city church. They continued to rail against the special position of the canons and monks.
The priests who lived in marriage-like circumstances (there were ten priests in 1523, which was tacitly accepted by the Church) came into the line of fire of Fuchs and Rinck. This prompted the city council , which was mostly evangelical , to pass an order calling on everyone “who are in public in the city in confusion” to marry or to leave the city within two weeks. The order should be announced by the pastor on the 3rd Advent from the pulpit . The council thus interfered in canon law . The abbot had the spiritual jurisdiction , who forbade the public proclamation. He also deposed Fuchs and Rinck at the end of the year and announced this in a letter to the mayor, the council and the common trades. Through the abbot's specific approach, the Catholic-minded people regained a majority in the council, which now also asked the pastor and the chaplain to leave the parish. But they did not put up with this and on December 17, 1523, despite the abbot's prohibition, they announced the city's decree regarding unmarried priests from the pulpit of the city church. They also announced their dismissal by the abbot and "complained about how they would be chased away without hearing their right to hear". This led to a large crowd in front of the town church, and rumors circulated that the chancellor of the monastery wanted to arrest the evangelical preachers. The crowd broke into Chancellor Caspar Schallis' town house and ravaged his house. This also happened to the houses of the priests who were accused of living in marriage-like circumstances. Since neither the chancellor nor the priests were found in their homes, many citizens moved to the monastery district . The mayors were able to prevent them from storming into the monastery. Under pressure from the population, the abbot gave in and initially withdrew the pastor and chaplain. The penetration into the houses of the chancellor and the priests and their devastation was a violation of the imperial peace , the patronage of the landgrave and the rights of the abbot as sovereign. The abbot informed his patron, Landgrave Philip I of Hesse , on the same day . This demanded accountability from the city and announced in Kassel before a delegation of the Hersfeld city council that the leaders of the unrest were to be arrested. Fuchs and Rinck and four other men were taken into city custody according to a letter from the council dated December 26, 1523.
The negotiation between the city and the abbey was to take place on February 11, 1524 in Kassel. But first the pastor and the chaplain were to be deported and they were to take an oath not to return to the abbey and the city. Neither of them take the oath, as the Hessian bailiff was asked in Friedewald to take her into custody. This would have meant that the evangelical preachers were at the mercy of the abbot's spiritual jurisdiction. Some citizens of Hersfeld got ahead of this arrest and helped Fuchs and Rinck to escape from the monastery and from Hesse to Thuringia. In the trial on February 11, 1524, the city was finally obliged to obey its sovereign, the abbot. The city paid 150 guilders to the injured priests, and the evangelical community was supposed to attack the abbot's clergy "neither with words nor physically". Citizens who fled the city because of the unrest on December 17 were not to be allowed back into the city. In addition, those who were still in custody should be released. The abbot was obliged to fill the pastorate with “pious, skilled people who preach the word of God”.
In Hersfeld there was only superficial calm, as the religious differences between the sovereign and large parts of the population continued to exist. At the end of 1524 Adam Krafft was appointed pastor in Hersfeld. When Philip I defeated the rebels in the Peasants' War in Hersfeld in 1525 , he heard Krafft preach in the town church. Philip then appointed him court preacher and visitor . Together with Philipp, Krafft pushed through the Reformation in Hersfeld and the Landgraviate of Hesse . Then Balthasar Raid , like Krafft from Fulda , came to Hersfeld as the first Protestant preacher.
Modern times to modern times
After the events of the Reformation, a common use of the city church by the large Protestant community and the abbey or the few remaining Catholic citizens can be established. The monastery was probably forced to use the town church due to the condition of the collegiate church in need of repair and the now very small convent . Furthermore, the abbot was still the sovereign and, as the owner of the parish fief, had key power over the church. A Catholic abbot was ordained in the now Protestant church in 1571. It was Ludwig V (Ludwig Landau from Hünfeld ) who received the consecration from the vicar of the Hildesheim archbishop. He represented the Archbishop of Mainz.
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Joachim Roell finally had two renaissance doors built into the church hall around 1594 , which also bear his coat of arms in their gable fields. This was probably the abbot's last attempt to retain the power of the keys in the Protestant Church. However, it indicates that there were separate services. Protestants use the old doors in the choir and the west portal in the tower. The Catholics used the new doors. The one door in the south wall of the church hall was, due to its location facing Neumarkt, probably intended for the students and professors of the monastery school (the later princely / royal school, now the Konrad-Duden school). The other door, on the southern side next to the church tower in the west wall of the church hall (towards the monastery), was therefore probably the entrance for the abbot, his servants and the few monks.
When the last abbot Joachim Roell died in 1606, his coadjutor Otto von Hessen (first son of Moritz ) took over as secular administrator of the abbey. For his introduction as Prince von Hersfeld, he had the storm or fire bell he donated hang up in the church tower. When Moritz converted to Calvinism , he wanted to establish his faith in all of Hesse. In 1605 he formulated three points of improvement that were supposed to steer prevailing Protestantism in the Calvinist direction. In Hersfeld, Moritz was the highest clerical authority only after the death of the last abbot, so that preaching and teaching were only started in the town church after these improvement points from 1606. All altars except the high altar have been removed. Movable pictorial representations, the splendid chasuble, the richly decorated golden chalices and crucifixes were sold. In the years of the iconoclasm (1608 and 1609) the colorful painting from the early 15th century inside the church was painted over with lime. Stone pictures, figures on pillars, vaults and wooden fixtures were chipped off. Only the vault keystones were simply over - lime, this was justified with an alleged endangerment of the vault stability.
During the Thirty Years' War , Tilly took Hersfeld as the first Hessian town for the Catholics in May 1623. He had his headquarters in the city until the summer of 1625. The emperor decided to restore the imperial abbey , which in the emperor's opinion had come into the possession of the Hessian landgraves illegally. This was the beginning of the Counter Reformation in the Principality of Hersfeld . Even Tilly arranged daily Catholic masses in the collegiate church. The Archbishop of Mainz , Archduke Karl II and then his son Leopold Wilhelm were appointed as administrators. However, since the military situation was still too uncertain, Protestant services continued to take place in the town church. In 1628 a Mainz commission came to formally take possession of the abbey by the archbishopric . Jornandes von Jngsterode became governor of Mainz. The commission initially recognized the existing religious constitution and the patronage of the Hessian landgraves. In 1629, the Fulda prince abbot Johann Bernhard Schenk zu Schweinsberg was appointed vice administrator. He was commissioned to restore Catholic teaching, legitimized by an edict of restitution by the emperor. On February 19, the entire princely cavalry escorted the prince abbot with monks from the orders of the Jesuits , the Benedictines (from St. Gallen ) and the Franciscans in eight carriages and three larger traveling wagons to Hersfeld. The Croatians stationed here received the deputy administrator in front of the city and escorted him into the city, where all the bells of the collegiate church rang and the armed citizens lined the streets.
The mayor, the city council, the Calvinist pastor and the chaplain were ordered to the city church, where the prince abbot removed them from their office. The Calvinist community was expelled from the town church. Thereupon the provost of the Petersberg in Fulda, Johann Adolf von Hoheneck, held a high mass in the town church and took it back as a Catholic place of worship. The Jesuit pastor Jakob Liebst was appointed city pastor. He wrote in Latin in the church book: EXPLICIT FELICITER (That is now happily over), because Wednesday, February 21st, before the solemn high mass to the Holy Spirit, the reverend Herr von Hoheneck, provost of St. Peter near Fulda, is through the Capelan, the worthy Father Bartholomäus, was proclaimed city pastor Jakob Liebst, Society of Jesus, i. J, 1629 .
Until 1631 there were again Catholic services in the town church, and the Jesuits reported that 6,000 citizens had found their way back to the Catholic faith. On August 23, Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar (a general under Gustav II Adolf of Sweden , with whom the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was also allied) came and took Hersfeld again for the Reformed. Many monks and preachers fled, only Christoph Hompe, the Guardian of the Franciscan monastery and a Benedictine priest Heinrich in Lengsfeld (today Schenklengsfeld ) stayed. On November 30th the Confession of Reformation was reintroduced and many returned to Calvinism. This was expressed on December 9th, when pictures and altars in the town church were again destroyed.
The Hersfelds got their nickname from an event at the church tower. When you saw a cloud of smoke on the church tower one day in the summer of 1674, many stormed the tower with buckets of water to put out the supposed fire. Once at the top, one noticed that it was just a large swarm of mosquitoes circling around the tower. This is how the local nickname Mückenstürmer established itself .
In 1709 the church was wooden side galleries and in 1753 a new baroque organ . Like today's organ, it was a swallow's nest organ that was fastened above the main portal in the west wall of the church hall.
The church tower received its current roof after lightning struck in a winter thunderstorm in December 1760. He had destroyed the slender roof turret. Because of the Seven Years' War, the tower's apartment was only covered with a blunt temporary roof. There have been several attempts to restore the original roof. For example, in 1899, under Mayor Carl Strauss, there were corresponding plans. However, it was never carried out, so that the tower still has the temporary roof today. Presumably because of this peculiarity, the tower became the symbol of the city.
In 1798 the city sold many windows (which were probably created after the city fire of 1439) in the city church for 100 Thaler to Landgrave Wilhelm IX. He had the windows built into the chapel of the Löwenburg in the Wilhelmshöhe mountain park , along with other windows from old Hessian churches . You can still visit them there today.
In the years 1898–1900 the church was restored with the help of Gustav Schönermark ; the baroque organ was replaced by a new one. In 1901 the last keeper left the church tower. The evangelical youth association (today CVJM ) has continued the tradition of blowing the tower from the tower watcher's former guard since May 5, 1901. Every Sunday from 9.30 a.m. chorales are played in all four directions. There is evidence of this custom from 1587, which goes back to a musical tower keeper. Therefore, the tower blowing was a fixed task for the tower keeper. In the 19th century this task was taken over by the military band of the war school and also by the city band . The former tower house is used by the trombone choir of the YMCA and the Evangelical parish of Bad Hersfeld.
present
When the Americans reached the city on March 30, 1945, the church tower received a shell hit (one of the few war damage in Hersfeld). The church fire on March 16, 1952, which was probably triggered by a short circuit, was far more devastating. The entire neo-Gothic furnishings were destroyed, but also many of the medieval windows still preserved in the tracery spikes. In the western part of the church hall, where the fire was strongest, the organ was destroyed and the vaults were in danger of collapsing. This made a fundamental renovation necessary.
This was used to carry out excavations under the church floor in 1952 and 1953, which then made it possible to trace the development of the town church (as explained above) back to the beginning of the High Middle Ages. The restoration work was directed by the state conservator Bleibaum, who restored the Gothic impression of the room (it was not taken into account during the renovation in 1900). Furthermore, during the restoration of the church, medieval jewelry that had long since disappeared was exposed again. The keystones in the vaults were stripped of their lime coating and repainted in their original bright colors. The church was consecrated in a service on May 30, 1953 by Bishop Adolf Wüstemann .
In 1986 and 1987, on the occasion of the 1250th anniversary of the city, the city church received a new painting. Colors were chosen which, according to studies from 1985, correspond to the painting before the Reformation.
The church tower can be climbed up to the surrounding gallery at the Türmerstube as a lookout tower .
swell
- Josef Hörle: History of the Hersfeld City Church. Ott-Verlag, Bad Hersfeld 1990
- Kurt Eisenberg: Works of art of the town church Bad Hersfeld. Ott publishing house, Bad Hersfeld
- Kurt Eisenberg: The pastors of the town church in Bad Hersfeld. Photos and life pictures from the last hundred years, Ev. City parish, Bad Hersfeld 2003
- Barbara Händler-Lachmann (ed.): Cultural history. historical sites, monuments, forgotten places and museums in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district. P. 70–71, Hessian Institute for Teacher Training Branch Bad Hersfeld, 1995, ISBN 3-9804841-0-6
Individual evidence
- ^ The pastors of the city church. page 4
- ↑ Works of art of the city church, page 15
- ↑ Works of art of the city church, page 16
- ↑ To the three organs in the church
- ↑ Dispositions of the Eule Organ (PDF file; 2.26 MB), viewed February 24, 2011.
- ^ Hersfelder Geschichtsverein (ed.): Wilhelm Neuhaus, Histories von Hersfeld , Hersfelder Geschichtsblätter Volume 3/2007, pages 90 and 91, ISBN 3-925333-95-9
- ^ Otto Bramm : The tower keepers and town musicians
- ^ "Chorales high above the roofs", article from May 9, 2011 in the Hersfelder Zeitung
- ↑ The Bad Hersfeld town church on the website of the district town of Bad Hersfeld
Web links
- Article with the title "The town church tower in Hersfeld" from the supplement "My home country" of the Hersfelder Zeitung as a PDF file (210 kB)
- Evangelical parish of Bad Hersfeld
- Music at the city church
- The former colored glazing of the Hersfeld town church (pdf-file, 1.6 MB)
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 7 " N , 9 ° 42 ′ 25" E