Franciscan Church (Wetzlar)

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Lower town church from the former monastery garden
Music school from the west

The Franciscan Church on Schillerplatz in Wetzlar in Central Hesse is the early Gothic monastery church of the city's former Franciscan monastery. After the secularization , the choir still functions as a Protestant church, which is called the Lower City Church . The former three-aisled hall church was extensively rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries and has been used as a music school since 1967 . The building is a Hessian cultural monument due to its historical, artistic and urban development importance .

history

Franciscans in Wetzlar are first mentioned in 1248. The existence of a convent is documented for 1269 . The Franciscans' settlement is called claustrum Minorum fratrum in 1278 . Around 1300 they built a church north of the monastery complex. It was built over the Wetzbach , which ran under the altar. The swampy area was only opened up for building at the end of the 13th century. The cloister , the monastery cells and the farm buildings were connected to the south of the church . The convent belonged to the Trier custody in the Cologne order province.

In 1542, when the Reformation was introduced in the city, there were only nine brothers left in the monastery, which was increasingly falling into disrepair. With the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the "Barefoot Monastery" was abolished. A municipal Latin school was established in the monastery. From then on, the Franciscan church was used for Lutheran services and the elongated choir was made available in 1586 to the 60 families of Walloon religious refugees who had come to Wetzlar from the Spanish Netherlands via Wesel . Reformed services in French have since been held in the eastern part of the church . In contrast, Lutheran services were held in the main nave without any structural separation.

During the Thirty Years' War , the Franciscans took over the church again in 1626. 1632–1634, the Lutherans regained the monastery for a short time under Swedish occupation, but the Franciscans left the city in 1649. From 1650 onwards, Lutheran preaching and teaching at the city school were again. The Reformed believers received their privileges from 1586 back in 1656 and subsequently took up the choir again. The west and south wings of the monastery buildings and the main nave of the church have been used by Franciscans again since 1675. The choir was retained by the Reformed community and a third wing of the monastery was occupied by a Lutheran preacher. Since Catholic services were now taking place again in the nave, the Reformed community separated the choir from the nave with a half-timbered wall (probably in the place of the old rood screen ) in 1675 . The area in the west became finally Catholic, the eastern part became the "Lower City Church" (in contrast to the Wetzlar Cathedral , the "Upper City Church"). From 1690, the Reformed were allowed to hold church services in German.

In 1723 and 1737, the Franciscans rebuilt the nave in the Baroque style and enlarged it. When the Reformed had to leave the church in 1797 because of the French, they were accommodated in the hospital church for a transitional period . In 1813 there were eight priests and four lay brothers living in the monastery, there were only four brothers in 1824 and one in 1826. The Reformed parish in the eastern part joined the United Churches in 1833 .

The nave was dismantled in 1820 and converted into a food and salt store. It received rectangular double windows that replaced the Gothic windows that were adapted to the Baroque style in 1723. In addition, another row of windows was broken into on the ground floor. After that, the nave served as an archive for the files of the Reich Chamber of Commerce and then as barracks for the 8th Rhenish Jäger Battalion. Another storey was built into the hipped roof of 1723 in 1876/1877; the vaults of the central nave were broken out. The use of the western part was changed several times, so between 1877 and 1925 it housed a Protestant elementary school. In 1898 an extensive renovation took place.

Due to increasing moisture damage, the building stock was fundamentally secured and renovated in 1925–1930. In the course of this, remnants of medieval wall paintings were discovered, on the north wall a crucifixion group and on the eastern crossing pillar a knight with a cloak, leaning on his sword. After 1933, an NSDAP office moved into the adjacent monastery building . During the Second World War, the windows were damaged; otherwise the church remained largely unscathed. After the war, the Americans turned the former nave into a military prison. Before the music school moved in in 1967, it was a trade and business school . The depot of the Wetzlar volunteer fire brigade was housed on the upper floors and on the ground floor .

1979–1983 the eastern choir, the so-called “Lower City Church”, was extensively renovated, with the choir wall with the pulpit from the 18th century, the choir screen and the second floor of the three-sided gallery being removed. In 1989, the interior of the music school was renovated and the false ceilings were renewed in 1820. In order to finance further renovations, the parish started the collection campaign “Preservation of the Lower City Church” in 2013. In 2014 the “Förderverein Untere Stadtkirche e. V. “founded. In 2019, the roof structure was extensively renovated .

The Lower City Church belongs to the Dom district of the Evangelical Community of Wetzlar within the Evangelical Church District on Lahn and Dill in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland . It is mainly used for weekly devotions and cultural events.

architecture

Entrance to the music school with the symbol of the Franciscans, 1723
Vault stone above the organ with a lion

The early Gothic hall church, made of white plastered quarry stone masonry, which faces east-northeast, was built in the south of the old town center near the town wall. Originally the five-bay nave was probably asymmetrical with two aisles and had a three-bay choir with a five-eighth end . The western choir bay was extended to the north by a transept.

In 1737 at the latest, the church was expanded into a three-aisled complex; the vaults of the presumably baroque aisles have been preserved. It is possible that after the cloister was demolished in 1720 or 1737, a south aisle was added. According to the tradition of the mendicant order , the Franciscan Church did not have a church tower, but only a roof turret on the nave.

Due to the various renovations, the western part is hardly recognizable as a church. The surrounding walls in the north and west with the stepped buttresses and the green painted aedicula portal from 1723 at the western end of the north side, which today serves as the entrance to the music school, are still preserved. Above two pilasters with cantilevered capitals, it has a basket arch with three-leaf motifs in the spandrels . Above the architrave between the broken gable stands the symbol of the Franciscans: in front of a cross, two arms lie crossed one above the other, with wounds on the inner palms, framed by a four-fold knot of cowl , which is surrounded by tendrils.

Double windows illuminate the interior in three zones. The narrow west side has simple, upright rectangular windows. In the center there is a rectangular stair tower with bevelled corners, the top floor of which is also slated to match the sloped roof . A high arched window is divided into three parts by two sloping sandstone bands. The baroque hipped roof from 1723 was given an additional storey in 1877 between two cantilevered dormer windows .

The choir has largely retained its original design. The choir polygon has a ribbed vault that rests on consoles. The keystone above the organ shows a lion and a lamb, a symbol for Christ (cf. Rev 5 : 5-6  LUT ). Today's entrance is in the northern transept of the choir hall. The baroque shell portal with the beginnings of a blown gable made of red sandstone is marked 1720. The gussets of the basket arch show leaf ornaments.

Two-lane tracery windows with triple pass in the arched field illuminate the interior. The middle choir bay has had a six-sided roof turret since 1723 with rectangular sound openings for the bell, which Johann Peter Bach cast in Windecken in 1768 with the strike tone G sharp 1 . A small hood is attached to it, which is crowned by a tower knob and an ornate cross with a gold-plated weathercock from 1952.

Furnishing

Interior to the east
Classicist columns under the west gallery

The early Gothic eastern part has been kept simple since 1979–1983. Except for the tombstones, no medieval or baroque inventory items have survived. At the beginning of the 1980s, part of the classicist interior was lost. The (formerly two-storey) classicist gallery installation from 1820 is circumferential on three sides and rests on bulbous round columns with high cuboid bases and square capitals . The gallery is framed in elegant white and has gold-plated profiles. The parapet has simple, upright rectangular panels. The west gallery serves as the installation site for the organ. The church stalls form a block and are accessible below the galleries.

The floor is covered with slabs of red sandstone and the liturgical area is raised by three steps. Eight 18th century gravestones made of dark Lahn marble with white veining are attached to the walls of the Lower Town Church . They are reminiscent of Reformed burials in the church and in the cemetery who belonged to the chamber court. The youngest tombstone by the sculptor Wollenschläger dates from 1781.

organ

Ahrend organ behind a historic prospect from 1803

The brothers Johann Philipp and Johann Heinrich Stumm installed an organ with 30 registers in 1766 , which was donated to Trier Cathedral in 1830 , but not installed there. The current, seven-axis prospectus of the organ dates from 1803 and is the remainder of a new organ built by Philipp Heinrich Bürgy , who originally had 24 stops. A raised central tower is flanked by two flat fields. Two-story round towers adjoin the same cornice, followed by low harp fields on the outside.

In 1930 the organ building company Walcker built a new work with 16 registers behind the historical prospectus . In the course of the church renovation, the instrument was dismantled in 1979. Jürgen Ahrend designed a new building in the old case, which is based on Bürgy's organ without copying it. After the reconstruction of the church, the organ was installed in 1989 with around 1500 pipes in 22 registers and a new lower case and inaugurated in February 1990. Since then the disposition has been:

I main work C – f 3
Bourdun 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Bourdun 8th'
Viola da gamba 8th'
octave 4 ′
flute 4 ′
Nasat 3 ′
octave 2 ′
Cornett IV D
Mixture IV
Trumpet 8th'
II echo / breastwork C – f 3
Wooden dacked 8th'
Transverse flute D 8th'
Wooden flute 4 ′
Forest flute 2 ′
Sesquialtera II
Vox humana 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub-bass 16 ′
octave 8th'
octave 4 ′
trombone 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'

Technical specifications:

  • 22 stops, 2 manuals and pedal
    • Tone action: mechanical
    • Stop action: mechanical
  • Wind supply:
    • 3 wedge bellows with pedal system
    • Wind pressure: 67 mm water column
  • Mood :

literature

  • Irene Jung: Wetzlar. A little city history. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-715-0 , pp. 49-51.
  • Frank Werner Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. Wetzlar's church history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-9950-6 , pp. 201-203.
  • Werner Volkmar: Brown frocks define the cityscape. The monastery cells of the Franciscan monks in Wetzlar became prison cells. Heimat an Lahn and Dill, Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, Wetzlar 2009, Volume 619, p. 2.
  • Folkhard Cremer (Red.): Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I: Gießen and Kassel administrative districts. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 .
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Reinhold Schneider (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. City of Wetzlar (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1900-1 , pp. 18-19, 26-27, 39, 77, 144, 332.
  • Britta Geldschlaeger: From the history of a Wetzlar monastery. In: Home yearbook for the Lahn-Dill district. Volume 1, 1991, pp. 221-226.
  • Herbert Flender: The fate of the Wetzlar Franciscan monastery and the lower town church since the Reformation. In: Joachim Mehlhausen: Commemoration of the Reformation. Contributions to the Luther year 1983 from the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Rheinland-Verlag, 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0812-4 , pp. 261-290.
  • Herbert Flender: The Franciscan Monastery, the Reformed Congregation and the Lower City Church in Wetzlar. Magistrate of the City of Wetzlar, Wetzlar 1983.
  • Hans Pohl: The monastery of the "Little Brothers". Heimat an Lahn and Dill, Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, Wetzlar 1977, issue 77, pp. 1-2; Issue 78, pp. 1-2.
  • Adolf Lux: The Church of the Franciscans. Heimat an Lahn und Dill, Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, Wetzlar 1965, Volume 12, p. 116.
  • Gallus Haselbeck: The Franciscans on the middle Lahn and in the Westerwald. Contributions to the history of the Limburg diocesan areas. Frauenberg Abbey, Fulda 1957.
  • Friedrich Kilian Abicht: The district of Wetzlar presented historically, statistically and topographically. Part: 2. The statistics, topography and local history of the district. Wigand, Wetzlar 1836, pp. 14–15 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Franziskanerkirche (Wetzlar)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Schillerplatz 8 In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  2. ^ Thomas Doepner: The Premonstratensian Convent Altenberg in the High and Late Middle Ages. Investigations in the history of social and piety. Elwert, Marburg 1999, ISBN 3-7708-1128-3 , p. 305, note 1.
  3. ↑ Friends of the Lower City Church: The history of the Lower City Church in Wetzlar. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ Wetzlar, Lahn-Dill district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  5. ↑ Flender: The fate of the Wetzlar Franciscan monastery and the lower town church. 1985, p. 270.
  6. ↑ Walter Schmidt (arrangement), Archive of the Ev. Church in the Rhineland: Existing Protestant parish Wetzlar 4 KG 047 B , pp. 2–3.
  7. ↑ Flender: The fate of the Wetzlar Franciscan monastery and the lower town church. 1985, p. 285.
  8. ^ Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. 2009, p. 69.
  9. ^ Jung: Wetzlar. A little city history. 2010, p. 51.
  10. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008.
  11. ↑ Flender: The fate of the Wetzlar Franciscan monastery and the lower town church. 1985, p. 289.
  12. ^ Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. 2009, pp. 201-202.
  13. ^ Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. 2009, p. 454.
  14. ↑ Parish of Lahn and Dill: The renovation of the Lower City Church is imminent , accessed on April 13, 2020.
  15. ^ Lothar Rühl: Citizens fight for the lower town church. Refurbishment costs one million euros. In: Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung from November 5, 2013.
  16. ↑ Friends of the Lower City Church e. V. Website of the city of Wetzlar, accessed on April 12, 2020.
  17. ↑ Evangelical Church District at Lahn and Dill , accessed on April 12, 2020.
  18. ^ Jung: Wetzlar. A little city history. 2010, p. 49.
  19. ^ Jung: Wetzlar. A little city history. 2010, p. 50.
  20. ↑ Hellmut Schliephake: Bell customer of the district of Wetzlar. In: Heimatkundliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lahntal e. V. 12th yearbook. 1989, ISSN  0722-1126 , pp. 5-150, here p. 143.
  21. ^ Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. 2009, p. 480.
  22. ^ Franz Bösken : The organ builder family Stumm from Rhaunen-Sulzbach and their work. A contribution to the history of organ building on the Middle Rhine . Mainzer Altertumsverein, Mainz 1981 (special print from Mainz magazine. Vol. 55, 1960, p. 97).
  23. ^ Franz Bösken: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 7.2 ). tape 2 : The area of ​​the former administrative district of Wiesbaden. Part 2: L-Z . Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1370-6 , p. 843 .
  24. ↑ Uta Barnikol-Lübeck: Ahrend organ in the lower town church complements Wetzlar organs. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  25. ↑ Günter Lade (Ed.): 40 years of organ building Jürgen Ahrend 1954–1994. Self-published, Leer-Loga 1994, p. 66.

Coordinates: 50 ° 33 ′ 9.5 ″  N , 8 ° 30 ′ 4.2 ″  E