Stephanuskirche (Berlin-Gesundbrunnen)
The Stephanuskirche is a Protestant church in the Berlin district of Gesundbrunnen in the Mitte district (formerly: Wedding district ), which was built from 1902 to 1904. It bears its name after the deacon and arch-martyr Stephen .
location
The church is located in the so-called Soldiner Kiez on the corner plot of Prinzenallee 39/40 / Soldiner Straße .
history
The Stephanus church was a daughter foundation of at the intersection Pankstraße / Badstraße nearby St. Paul's Church . Since around 1890 the population of Gesundbrunnen had grown to 33,000, the parish council considered the construction of a second church to be urgently needed. That is why the pastor at the time, Wilhelm Neveling , got in touch with Ernst von Mirbach , the chief steward of Empress Auguste Viktoria and co-initiator of the Evangelical Church Building Association , in 1891 . He hoped, through his mediation, to win a plot of land that would become vacant when the Berlin-Stettin railway line was relocated at the intersection of Grüntaler and Christianastraße (today Osloer Straße ). After everything went according to plan at first, difficulties arose on the part of the church leadership, so that the current property could not be acquired until July 19, 1899.
The foundation stone was laid on October 31, 1902 . The design came from the architect and Prussian construction clerk Adolf Bürckner (1846–1932), who, as a former employee of the church construction department in the Prussian Ministry of Culture, was recognized as an architect of sacred buildings. On December 4, 1904, the church was inaugurated by General Superintendent Wilhelm Faber in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II . The altar Bible was donated by Empress Auguste Viktoria and was personally dedicated. The separation from St. Paul and thus community independence did not take place until October 1, 1905.
In 1927 and 1937, considerable funds were raised for renovation measures. In 1937 the entire tower was scaffolded and repaired. That is why the buildings were in very good condition at the beginning of the Second World War .
The first war damage occurred in 1943 when bombs detonated on Prinzenallee on the night of September 22nd to 23rd, the air pressure lifted roof tiles and the windows in the parish hall broke. When the fighting ended in 1945, almost all roof tiles and all leaded windows were - including the central window of the altar space with the colorful image of the stoning of Stephen - completely destroyed. Otherwise, the church had survived the Second World War relatively well and was repaired by 1958.
In 1958, the architect Lichtfuß built a day-care center with a youth home on the adjoining property at Soldiner Strasse 21 .
In 2004, the joint parish council of the three parishes Stephanus , St. Paul and Martin-Luther Pankow-West ( part of the Pankow parish until the Wall was built in 1961) was elected, with each parish still forming its own voting district. However, the stated aim was to achieve a merger during this electoral term. On Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007, the new parish on the Panke with the three locations St. Paul , Stephanus and Martin-Luther was formed in a festive service in the Stephanuskirche . According to the Church Law, this became legally effective on June 1, 2007. Thus, the Stephanus church is reunited with its former mother church. The Christian Values Life Association has now taken over the Stephanuskirche as a tenant.
Building description
Exterior
It is a neo-Gothic brick building in a slightly picturesque, asymmetrical grouping.
Its off-axis tower, placed on the street corner, is almost 80 m high and dominates the cityscape for a long time. It initially has a square floor plan and is surrounded by mighty buttresses . Triangular gables then lead to the octagonal storey on which the steep, copper-clad tower spire sits. The three-meter-high cross on top of it was gilded in 1927 and was not damaged in any way during World War II, as were the three bells. Although they had to be handed in to the metal collection point, they were not melted down as they were just steel bells .
In the bell tower with a square base (5 m side lengths) was the bells that the Bochum club had been cast. An inventory list of the foundry contains the following information: the ensemble of bells with clapper, bearings, axes and chime levers cost 5,913 marks to manufacture (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 40,000 euros).
| size | Chime | Weight (kg) |
lower diameter ( mm) |
Height (mm) |
inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| greatest | H | 2163 | 1773 | 1565 | unknown |
| middle | d | 1392 | 1490 | 1315 | unknown |
| smallest | f sharp | 828 | 1260 | 1120 | unknown |
From the outside, the large gable fronts and the high, intersecting roofs make the Stephanuskirche look like a cross-shaped system. The richly decorated street fronts are designed according to models of the Brandenburg brick Gothic and are lively structured by tracery windows, friezes and long, white blending fields.
To the left of the main portal - crowned by an eyelid - is a polygonal stair tower as a counterweight to the mighty main tower. It leads over to the four-storey, monastery-like parish hall , which adjoins the line of houses on Prinzenallee. This octagonal staircase opens up the organ loft and three community halls.
Interior
The church has 1000 seats, 700 of them in the nave and 300 in the galleries . The room is decorated with numerous pictures that refer to the theological foundations of the Evangelical Church. The inside is designed as a central building, as the cross arms indicated on the outside are in fact very short. A polygonal choir adjoins this centralized nave .
The architectural structures made of brick alternate with white plastered wall surfaces and floral capitals and parapets made of sandstone . The capitals above the six pillars of the central room carry life-size statues of men who, like Stephen, were witnesses of faith in their time. They are set behind by structures staggered like a tower. On the eastern pillars stand Peter by the pulpit and Paul by the baptismal font . On the street side you can see Boniface and Martin Luther , opposite on the courtyard side Jan Hus and Friedrich Schleiermacher . They were all created by the sculptor Edmund Wende. The head of the statue of Peter fell during an Allied air raid , but was preserved to such an extent that it could be put on again in 1958. During this repair work, the colored painting of the vault was whitewashed.
The neo-Gothic furnishings were donated by residents of the Gesundbrunnen and have been almost completely preserved. The altar , baptismal font and pulpit are based on Adolf Bürkner's design and were only slightly damaged during World War II. The figure of Christ, which stands in the choir on the altar in front of a neo-Gothic arched niche, is modeled on Bertel Thorwaldsen's blessing Christ by Bertel Thorwaldsen in the Frauenkirche in Copenhagen with her invitingly outspread hands . The painted glare fields under the choir windows showed important theologians and reformers. There were three martyrs from the church under the left window: Bishop Ignatius of Antioch , Petrus Waldus and Ulrich Zwingli . Under the middle window three princes who proved to be the protectors of persecuted people: the Great Elector , Gustav Adolf and Friedrich Wilhelm I. Under the right window three men from the church's charitable activities : August Hermann Francke , Theodor Fliedner and Johann Hinrich Wichern . Because the glazing was destroyed by the effects of the war, the pictures had suffered greatly from the effects of the weather. That is why they were simply whitewashed during the repair work against the will of the community. But in the summer of 1968 a collection of money began, through which the middle picture showing Gustav Adolf could be restored. In 2004, the depictions of Petrus Waldus and Theodor Fliedner were also restored. In 1964, a collection campaign was also intended to restore the glass image of the stoning of Stephen in the central window of the choir . Although the willingness to donate was great, the sum was not enough to have a true-to-original copy made. Simple lead glazing adorns the windows.
Among other things, the hundred-flame bronze chandelier with a diameter of eight meters survived the era of purification . It weighs more than 30 quintals and is suspended from a double-secured pulley. It was created in the workshop of Wilmersdorfer art locksmith Paul GoldeG based on the model of medieval wheel candlesticks . It is probably the largest preserved round chandelier in Germany.
The original organ has also been preserved - the only one in Berlin from the beginning of the 20th century. It is Opus 681 from the company Schlag & Söhne from Schweidnitz / Silesia and was shown at the exhibition for handicrafts and arts and crafts in Wroclaw even before it was installed in the church . Although in the 1960s experts had suggested a rescheduling that was customary at the time, the sound of the Stephanus organ was completely retained thanks to Karl Schuke's influence . In 1971 Schuke only electrified the keyboard. The new gaming table still corresponds to the original romantic disposition . More information about the organ is available here.
All in all, today's spatial experience - apart from the overpainting and the lack of the original lead glazing - comes very close to the original condition.
literature
- Franz Gottwald (Hrsg.): Heimatbuch vom Wedding. Kribe-Verlag, Berlin 1924, p. 196.
- Günther Kühne, Elisabeth Stephani: Evangelical churches in Berlin . 2nd edition, CZV-Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-7674-0158-4 , p. 294 f.
- Matthias Hoffmann-Tauschwitz: Paths to Berlin Churches. Suggestions for exploring church sites in the western part of Berlin . Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-88981-031-4 , p. 44.
- Parish Church Council (ed.): Stephanus Church in Berlin-Wedding 1904-2004. Festschrift . Berlin 2004.
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
- Stephanuskirche becomes media church ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ The Prussian ministers of education and their officials in the first century of the ministry 1817–1917. Stuttgart 1918, p. 131.
- ↑ a b compilation of the bells delivered to Berlin and the surrounding area ; Bochum Association, around 1900. In the archive of the Köpenick Church of St. Josef, viewed on August 6, 2019.
- ↑ Information on the organ
Coordinates: 52 ° 33 ′ 31 ″ N , 13 ° 23 ′ 13 ″ E