City Church of St. Peter and Paul (Weißensee)
The town church St. Peter & Paul stands at the highest point in the town of Weißensee in the district of Sömmerda in the state of Thuringia . The church was first mentioned in a document in 1301 and dates from the 12th century.
Emergence
The church of St. Peter and Paul is the most important church building in Weißensee. Although the city church over the centuries and thus not only repeatedly rebuilt and enlarged, but also badly damaged in several city fires and subsequently renewed, it is another Romanesque building within the city limits. The construction of the city of Weißensee around 1200 integrated the existing settlement south of the Runneburg (Weißensee Castle) and thus also its elaborate Romanesque hall church St. Nikolai. At the eastern end of the market facing the castle, the construction of a new church in an exposed location within the city began, which was largely completed during the first quarter of the 13th century. Around 1230, the Order of St. John settled in Weißensee. From the year 1300 the city church served the order as a monastery church. The church was first mentioned in a document around 1301 in connection with a certain Theodoricus, who desecrated the church through an unspecified bloody act. As a punishment, he had to deliver 3 quintals of wax to the church every year.
layout
The massive structure of the city church consists in its current state of a longitudinally rectangular hall, largely executed in late Gothic forms and a high Gothic choir building adjoining this from the east, with a two-storey annex attached to the north side. The pent roof of the extension, which extends up to the ridge of the choir, forms a uniform area with the same inclination with the northern roof surface of the choir. The high, gigantic church roof is hipped down on its west side, the ridge heights of the choir and nave are identical. The church does not actually have a steeple. The town's merian engraving from around 1650 shows the church only with a polygonal roof turret of enormous size. The tower originally above the crossing was demolished due to a council resolution from 1619 because of dilapidation " ... for the sake of all risk, the tower should be demolished and the bells on the kirchoff gocket ... " The transept was demolished shortly afterwards. The galleries on the outside of the north and south walls also date from this time. These stairways lead to the galleries inside the church, which extend over two floors. The more than 100 parapet fields are painted with scenic representations. Around 1673 the northern galleries were rebuilt and boxes built in. The so-called office chair and the council chair. The boxes have elaborate, colored structures and carvings. The evenly divided coffered ceiling was probably also created in the 1st half of the 17th century. It was also richly painted ornamentally, as evidenced by small remains, which escaped a “renovation” of the interior of the church towards the end of the last century when they were concealed.
Furnishing
altar
The oldest part, which still comes from the medieval furnishings, is primarily the altar. Its solid brick block ( stipes ) takes on a lockable niche on its back for the storage of relics. With the strongly fluted altar plate, it should belong to the new choir of the 14th century. It has a baroque front into which two carved altar shrines from the 15th century are integrated. A two-story shrine from the first half of the 15th century rises above the predella with a painted representation of the Passover meal. His figures are lined up on two levels, each crowned by filigree tracery: In the lower part, six saints on either side of Mary with the baby Jesus; above five saints on each side of a coronation of Christ. Originally the coronation of Mary was depicted here (when the Reformation also reached Weissensee, Mary was simply painted a beard and made her into Jesus). The altar wings seem renewed. The above-mounted shrine with two side wings (a triptych ) from the second half of the 15th century shows the Descent from the Cross in its middle - a multi-figure, richly animated representation of remarkable quality. The inside of the painted side wings depict Peter and Laurentius with the grate.
pulpit
The richly designed pulpit supported by a statue of Peter on the southern jamb of the huge triumphal arch and the multi-part choir stalls date from the first half of the 17th century. For 1621 editions for a new “preacher's chair” are mentioned. Both the stalls and the pulpit show minor baroque changes. Both are lavishly painted. The richly structured parapet fields and the similarly designed rear wall of the northern covered stalls show figures of still unexplained significance, as well as the simpler stalls on the south side of the choir. The pulpit, which has more elaborate forms than the choir stalls , is crowned by a multi-sectioned sound cover with numerous figures . The parapets of the pulpit staircase are painted with scenes that may have been illustrated by Bible illustrations by Matthaeus Merians the Elder. Ä. served as a template.
organ
The first organ was built into the church in 1584. In 1624 it was replaced by an organ made by the organ builder Greutzscher from Eisleben . In 1737 the organ was rebuilt again. The work was carried out by Conrad Wilhelm Schäfer from Kindelbrück . The organ approval was carried out by Johann Sebastian Bach on December 16, 1737. Another examination by him took place about six months later on July 21, 1738. The current organ work dates from the 19th century by the organ builder Otto Petersilie from Bad Langensalza . The baroque prospect from 1732 has been preserved. Due to the effects of the weather for years, the organ can no longer be played. But it should be restored again.
Organ work 1737
From the Schäfer organ from 1737/38 in the Weißensee town church, which was once examined by Johann Sebastian Bach, only the baroque prospectus remained. Inside it contains an organ from 1903, built by Otto Petersilie from Langensalza.
In 1737 the organ builder Conrad Wilhelm Schäfer from Kindelbrück built a new organ. The organ prospectus was created as early as 1732. There is historical evidence that Bach (at that time the high prince's bandmaster by default ) checked the organ on December 16, 1737 and July 21, 1738.
The Schäfer organ had 32 registers and 6 side trains, metal pipes and the following disposition :
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- Coupling : pedal cap, manual cap
- Secondary register : glockenspiel, star, fan.
- Playing aids : check valve to the main plant
The very decorative baroque prospectus (with ears and elaborate veil boards , everything is still well preserved) is relatively high and narrow; the structure clearly shows that the organ had the upper work and chest positive, the pedal was behind it.
Organ work 1902
It has 2 manuals, 1 independent pedal, 19 sounding stops . The prospect pipes were removed when they were confiscated in the war in 1917, and later they were replaced by new ones made of aluminized zinc. The prospect whistles were mute before and after the replacement. The magazine bellows has 2 inward folds and 2 parallel scoops with foot operation. The bellows was operated by 2 people until around 1940 and then converted to electrical.
The organ made from parsley consists of a box drawer and a pneumatic drawer according to the special construction of the builder. It has ancillary features: (1 manual coupler, pedal coupler 1, pedal coupler 2), 1 full operation, 6 combinations that can be set as required, and a foot swell (piano to pianissimo).
- The range of manuals from C – f 3 , 54 notes (= four and a half octaves).
- Range of the pedal from C – d 1 , 27 notes.
Todays use
The city church has been extensively renovated and restored. It serves the city of Weißensee as a civic hall and the parish also as a place of worship.
literature
- Jörg Sauerbier: A tour through the city of Weissensee . ISBN 3-86189-028-3 .
- Michael Kirchschlager among others: The history of the city of Weissensee from the beginning to the present . Hartmann, Günter, 2001, ISBN 3-932875-18-4 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 3.2 ″ N , 11 ° 4 ′ 4.6 ″ E