Stephanus Church (Berlin-Zehlendorf)

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Stephanuskirche

The Protestant St. Stephen's Church , built by Otto Risse and his partner Hans Geber in the architectural style of post-war modernism 1960–1961, stands on the corner of Hochbaumstrasse and Mühlenstrasse in the Berlin district of Zehlendorf in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district . The building ensemble consisting of the central building of the church and the free-standing bell tower is a listed building .

history

The parish of Zehlendorf was divided into four preaching districts in 1948; in the southern district, services were first celebrated in a barrack in today's Leo-Baeck-Strasse. In the eastern part of the South District, who broke away to Stephanus community (it was called so from the beginning), in 1950 an old Wehrmacht - barracks / situated at the corner of Mill Street Mill field, and on September 9, 1951 inaugurated . At that time, the church leadership had given the motto to build small churches on site . In view of the size of both parts of the community, both of which gathered in barracks, it was decided that both parts of the Zehlendorf-Süd parish should receive their own churches and both should be separated from each other. A church building association had been founded as early as 1952, which had to carry out the preparations for the building of the home church , such as the procurement of land, financing and construction planning. On February 10, 1955, the church building association for the Stephanus parish was founded. The church dedicated to the martyr Stephen was to be built in its current location from the beginning and also to form the center of a community center. With effect from November 1, 1955, the Evangelical Church Congregation Stephanus was formally founded. In 1957 Otto Risse began planning the church and the community center. The planning and execution lasted from 1957 to 1961. The laying of the foundation stone was on March 30, 1960, the inauguration on September 2, 1961. The total costs were 509,728  DM (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 1,159,000 euros).

Building description

In the Nurdachhaus , the rafters run down to the ground in the lower area. In addition to this pure tent shape, there are also concepts that only allow the tent to begin above a low wall, as in this church. The nave has a fourteen-cornered plan . Its wall skeleton consists of a ring anchor that rests on supports that are provided with struts on the outside . All components are made of reinforced concrete . The wooden rafters of the tent roof rise above the buttresses . From the inside, the roof skin consists of wooden cladding, from the outside it is clad with copper sheet . The roof has a skylight at the top . The altar , as well as the pulpit and the baptismal font stand on the ambo , which has been raised by three steps and is located on the west side, directly in front of the three wall panels between the colored glass supports that extend from the floor to the ring anchor. Willy Rakuttis designed the abstract stained glass . A low band of windows made of colorless glass, high above the concrete wall to below the ring armature, the other wall panels span up to the region of the organ - loft . In the wall panel next to the pulpit there is a door that leads into the annex for the sacristy . The Stephanuskirche is a martyr church, in which the altar is set up in the west according to the old church building tradition, although in a central building the altar can also be in the middle.

The campanile has four floors and tapers towards the top. At ground level, it consists of four supports. Above it, between two concrete panels, it is open. Only the sound holes are covered with lamellas to reduce sound propagation.

Peal

Campanile hang three bells of bronze , the 1961 in the bell foundry Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock were produced.

Chime Weight
(kg)
Diameter
(cm)
Height
(cm)
inscription
g sharp ′ 550 98 79 ASK
H' 310 81 64 THANKS
cis ′ ′ 220 71 59 PRAISE

The roof skin only extends to the skylight. In the top above where the rafters meet, hangs a fourth bronze bell, the Our Father Bell, also cast by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock. It weighs 150 kg, measures 63 cm in diameter and 54 cm in height and sounds dis ′ ′ on the strike.

organ

The organ designed for the barracks was dismantled and rebuilt in the newly built church. However, it turned out that the instrument did not do justice to the acoustics of the building, which resembles a rotunda . That is why in 1964 the Karl Schuke Berlin organ building workshop received the order for a new organ, they had already built the first.

The new instrument on the gallery has 17 registers and a tremulant with the following disposition :

I main work C–
1. Principal 08th'
2. Reed flute 08th'
3. octave 04 ′
4th Pointed 04 ′
5. octave 02 ′
6th Mixture IV 0
II breastwork C–
7th Dumped 08th'
8th. Dolcan 04 ′
9. recorder 04 ′
10. Pipe whistle 02 ′
11. Sesquialtera II 0
12. Cymbel III 0
13. Krummhorn 08th'
Tremulant
Pedal C–
14th Sub bass 16 ′
15th Gemshorn 08th'
16. Coupling flute 04 ′
17th trombone 08th'

literature

  • Michael Bollé (edit.): Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Berlin. 3rd edition, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2006, ISBN 3-422-03111-1 .
  • Parish council of the Evangelical Stephanus Church Community Berlin-Zehlendorf (Ed.): 50 Years of the Evangelical Stephanus Church Community 1955–2005. Berlin 2005.
  • Christine Goetz , Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Churches Berlin Potsdam. Berlin 2003.
  • Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin (ed.): Sacral buildings. (= Berlin and its buildings , part 6.) Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-433-01016-1 .
  • Klaus-Dieter Wille: The bells of Berlin (West). History and inventory. (= The Buildings and Art Monuments of Berlin , Supplement 16.) Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7861-1443-9 .
  • Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin. Christian Zeitschriften-Verlag, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-7674-0158-4 .

Web links

Commons : Stephanuskirche (Berlin-Zehlendorf)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 51.1 ″  N , 13 ° 16 ′ 29.4 ″  E