Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow
Encyclopedia
Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia
The Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia is a Protestant church body in the German states of Brandenburg, Berlin and a part of Saxony. The seat of the church is in Berlin. It is the most important Protestant denomination in the area....
Church of the Redeemer is located in the south of the village of Sacrow, which since 1939 is incorporated to Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, the capital of the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Bundesland
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
. It is famous for its Italian Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
with a separate campanile
Campanile
Campanile is an Italian word meaning "bell tower" . The term applies to bell towers which are either part of a larger building or free-standing, although in American English, the latter meaning has become prevalent.The most famous campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa...
(bell tower) and for its localization. It has been built in 1844. The design was based on drawings by King Frederick William IV of Prussia
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
, called the Romantic on the Throne. The building was realized by Ludwig Persius
Ludwig Persius
Friedrich Ludwig Persius was a Prussian architect and a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel....
, the king's favorite architect.
Localization
Jungfernsee
The Jungfernsee is located north of Potsdam, Germany. It was a glacial kettle and is now part of the River Havel, which runs along its southeastern shore, which is also the only part of its shores that is in Berlin...
, a part of river Havel
Havel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
, 300 metres south of Sacrow Manor at the edge of its park, designed and expanded in the 1840s by landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
. Both church and manor were restored in the 1990s. They are part of Potsdam Havel Landscape. This area of lakes, forests, parks, and castles has been classified as a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. Though the direct distance from Potsdam City across the Jungfernsee is no more than 1.2 km (2/3 mile), the distance by road is more than 10 km (6.2 mi).
Earlier Churches in Sacrow
Little is known about the first church at Sacrow. The first church stood in the middle of the village and was built of boulders Probably, it collapsed during the Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
(1618–1648). The first description is found in a chronicle
Chronicle
Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...
written in 1661, when the priest of Fahrland became responsible for the parish.
In 1694 a half-timbered church was erected at the same location, above the arches of the previous building's crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
.
Johann Andres Moritz, Pastor of Fahrland from 1774 to 1794, in his diary gave a detailed description of life in the village and of the changing owners of the manor house built in 1774. The writer Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...
integrated parts of these records in his novel Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (Hikes through the Mark Brandenburg). As quoted by Fontane, Father Moritz in 1790 expressed his aversions against caring for the remote parish : "Meine Pfarre ist eine beschwerliche Pfarre. Sakrow (nur Filial) liegt eine Meile ab...es ist in allem betrachtet ein verdrießlich Filial, und doch muß ich es alle 14 Tage bereisen. Gott! Du weißt es, wie ich dann...bis Abend fahren und reden muß, wie sauer es mir jetzt wird...." ("My parish is an exhausting parish. Sakrow (only a subsidiary) lies a league away... over all, it has to be regarded an irksome subsidiary, and nevertheless I must travel there every fortnight. God! You know it, how I then...must go and speak until evening, how desgusted it makes me now ....") After Father Moritz had died, in 1794 Sacrow was transferred to the parocage of St. Nikolai Church, Potsdam. After 1808 it was returned to Fahrland.
The small half-timbered church was unusable after 1813 and had to be torn down in 1822 for danger of collapsing. The congregation arranged to meet in a prayer room in a house near the manor. This was the situation until the Church of the Redeemer was finished in 1844.
Construction of the Present Church
Thaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
s and added it to his lands in Potsdam a month later. Long before the purchase, the king had sketched out a church building for Sacrow. The new building was appropriate for a cove, a port where fishermen on the Havel
Havel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
could seek shelter with their boats during storms. For the king, the location quite symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic: he saw the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
as a bulwark against the storms of life. The church seal alludes to this with its Latin inscription: S. Ecclesiae sanctissimi Salvatoris
Salvator Mundi
Salvator Mundi, or Saviour of the World, is a subject in iconography depicting Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding an orb surmounted by a cross, known as a globus cruciger...
in portu sacro (Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in the Sacred Port).
Ludwig Persius
Ludwig Persius
Friedrich Ludwig Persius was a Prussian architect and a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel....
, the court architect, turned the king's sketches into a building and put his colleague, Ferdinand von Arnim
Ferdinand von Arnim
Ferdinand von Arnim was a German architect and watercolour-painter. He was a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Ludwig Persius who mainly worked in Berlin and Potsdam....
, in charge of the construction process. The church extends into the water and gives the impression of an actual ship anchored near the lakeshore. This design took up a third of the actual overall construction cost of 45,234 thalers and 27 silver grosch
Grosch
Grosch may refer to:* Herb Grosch , Canadian-American computer scientist** Grosch's law, an observation about computer performance* Mathieu Grosch , Belgian politician* Mike Leon Grosch , German singer...
. The palace was used as the church's parsonage. Construction began in 1841, and the church's festive dedication took place three years late on July 21, 1844.
Beginning in 1842, the landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
designed the church grounds, the cove, the Sacrow Palace's park, and a rented house in the Italian style (1843/44) by Persius called "Zum Doctor Faustus", which stood farther to the east. In his usual fashion, Lenné designed wide walking paths and a wide view of the Parks of Glienicke and Babelsberg, of the Potsdam New Garden, and of the City of Potsdam itself. Through his transformation of the landscape, the over 24 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
(c. 60 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
) Sacrow Park was incorporated into the Potsdamer Havellandschaft.
After the dedication on July 21, 1844, Sacrow remained an independent congregation for only four years. Then it became part of the parish of the Church of Peace
Church of Peace (Sanssouci)
The Protestant Church of Peace is situated in the Marly Gardens on the Green Fence in the palace grounds of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. The church was built according to the wishes and with the close involvement of the artistically gifted King Frederick William IV and designed by the court...
at Sanssouci
Sanssouci
Sanssouci is the name of the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it too is...
, and after 1859, it was assigned to the parish of Bornstedt
Bornstedt (Potsdam)
Bornstedt is a borough of Potsdam, Germany. It is bordered by the Pappelallee and the Castle Park of Sanssouci to the south, the Amundsenstraße to the west, and by the Nedlitzer Straße to the north and east...
. The final change came in 1870, when the Church of the Redeemer congregation was merged with the parishes of Klein-Glienicke (later part of Neubabelsberg
Potsdam-Babelsberg
Babelsberg is the largest district of the Brandenburg capital Potsdam in Germany. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as for Studio...
) and the District of Stolpe (now Berlin-Wannsee), and the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul on Nikolskoë
Ss. Peter and Paul, Wannsee
Ss. Peter and Paul Church on Nikolskoë is a Protestant church in the Volkspark Glienecke in Berlin. Its today congregation forms part of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia....
, forming together the Evangelical Congregation of Neubabelsberg.
On December 22, 1941 the official German Evangelical Church called for suited actions by all Protestant church bodies to withhold baptised non-Aryans
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
from all spheres of Protestant church life. Many German Christian
German Christians
The Deutsche Christen were a pressure group and movement within German Protestantism aligned towards the antisemitic and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles...
-dominated congregations followed suit. However, the Evangelical Congregation of Neubabelsberg handed in a list of signatures in protest against the exclusion of the stigmatised Protestants of Jewish descent.
Decay and restoration since 1961
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in August 1961 led over the following decades to heavy damages of the Church of the Redeemer. The barrier along the border between the East German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(GDR) and West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
was built straight across the lot of the church property and the campanile was used as part of the protective wall of concrete. The church nave stood in the foreland between wall and border. In spite of these circumstances, regular worships were still celebrated in the church until Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1961. A few days later, the church's interior, which stood in an area strictly controlled by the GDR border troops, was spoilt – with some certainty by the troops. This way the church was disabled for further use. The border authority created a reason to seal off the church, completely, in order to prevent any escape in that section of the border.
Out of reach of its parish, the church deteriorated year by year. In the end of the 1970s, it became visible from the West Berlin riverside of the Havel, that the building was in danger, substantially. The tin surface of the roof had become fragmentary. Some edges of the nave were settled by plants. People in West Berlin started a campaign to stop the decay of the church. A great deal of the merit for the preservation of the building is held by Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...
, at that time Mayor of West Berlin. By protracted negotiations with the competent Protestant church body, the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg and authorities of GDR and the promise of sharing the costs, he won the East German section of Berlin-Brandenburg's evangelical church to organize the restoration of the exterior of the building. In the beginning of the works in 1984, the sculptures of the Twelve Apostles were saved and stored. Other wooden furnishing, such as the twelve corbels and the gallery, shown by photos taken in 1981, were lost.
In November 1989 the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
fell, and on Christmas Eve 1989, worship was held again in the Church of the Redeemer, after almost three decades. The interior was still in a wasted state.
In the years 1993 to 1995 the building enjoyed an extensive restoration. The preparatory investigations began in 1990. The architects assigned co-operated with the Monument Commission and the Church Building Authority. They used old drawings and black-and-white photos to reconstruct lost structures. However, the consoles for the apostle statuettes are freely modeled after historic originals from abroad. And the statuettes were placed without knowledge of their original allocation.
Eight hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s of the garden areas designed by Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
were completely destroyed in the course of fortifying the border and the park of Sacrow Manor was abused by the building of garages and kennels, as well as the typical border interface for the training of customs dogs. The park was reconstructed since 1994.
The parsonage was dissolved in 1977. Hence Sacrow parish is part of Protestant Pentacost parsonage in Potsdam. Since the restoration of the Sacrow building in 1995, it is the site of regular worships again. Several concerts have been given there as well.
Nave
Sanssouci Park
Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the structure. A baroque flower garden with lawns, flower beds, hedges and trees was created. In the hedge...
, the Church of the Redeemer used early Christian buildings, as well as Roman markets and forums, as inspiration for the final design. The early-Christian style building was, for Friedrich Wilhelm IV, an architectural reminiscence of early Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, whose unified community of the faithful inspired him. Part of this Mediterranean style was the shallow roof – in contrast to the much steeper roofs of ordinary German village churches.
The over 9 meter high, 18 meter long, and 8 meter wide church building, with its eastern apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
, is surrounded by a covered arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
. This gives the church the visual impression of a three-aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
. Since the arcade protrudes onto a semi-circular platform in the Havel, to those in the river or in Wannsee-Berlin on its opposite shore, the church looks like it an old ship anchored near the bank. From a distance, the bell tower looks like the chimney of a Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
, an impression the reflection in the water only enhances.
The fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
columns have a palmette
Palmette
The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has an extremely long history, originating in Ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art of most of Eurasia, often in forms that bear...
ring of cast zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
instead of capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
. At the front entrance the row of columns is broken by two wide pilars of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
. On them are Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
verses carved into the stone: the Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
verses 1-16 and 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Light enters the church's interior through the round arched window in the clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
and the rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
on the western gable. The outer walls, with their yellow-rose bricks, were striped with blue varnish broken by yellow tiles. The church resembles a Greek temple from pre-Christian times with its pitched roof and different devices. On the roof's peak is a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
cross made of the same cast zinc as at the front.
Interior of the nave
The simple church hall is dominated by ByzantineByzantine art
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
-style fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es in the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
. On it glazed gold underside is Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
enthroned holding the Book of Life, surrounded by the Four Evangelists
Four Evangelists
In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
, Matthew
Matthew the Evangelist
Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...
, Mark
Mark the Evangelist
Mark the Evangelist is the traditional author of the Gospel of Mark. He is one of the Seventy Disciples of Christ, and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, one of the original four main sees of Christianity....
, Luke
Luke the Evangelist
Luke the Evangelist was an Early Christian writer whom Church Fathers such as Jerome and Eusebius said was the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles...
, and John
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
with their symbols of the lion, eagle, man, and bull. Angels float in a half-circle above their heads. At the peak of the half-circle is the dove representing the Holy Ghost. Adolph Eybel undertook the painting in 1845, basing his work on a sketch by the most important German romantic painter, Carl Joseph Begas. In the half-circle of the bema
Bema
The Bema means a raised platform...
, the color sequence of the church hall, gold stars on a blue background, returns.
Cedar wood
Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...
altar table was wantonly destroyed in 1961. Since a reconstruction was not possible because of missing documentation, a stylistically similar one now stands in its place. The nave has a coffered ceiling with secure timber-frame construction. The unique fields are covered with blue cloth and painted light blue stars. Between the clerestory windows stand statues of the Twelve Apostles made of linden
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
wood. They were carved from 1840 to 1844 by Jacob Alberty. He used the apostle statues made by Peter Vischer for Sebaldus' Grave at St. Sebald
St. Sebaldus Church
St. Sebaldus Church is a medieval church in Nuremberg, Germany. Along with Frauenkirche and St. Lorenz, it is one of the most important churches of the city, and also one of the oldest. It is located at the Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, in front of the old city hall...
in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
(c. 1500) and Christian Daniel Rauch
Christian Daniel Rauch
Christian Daniel Rauch was a German sculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century.-Biography:Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of Waldeck...
's finished models for the Berlin Cathedral
Berliner Dom
Berlin Cathedral is the colloquial name for the Evangelical Oberpfarr- und Domkirche in Berlin, Germany...
as examples.
The pews originally stood parallel to the long walls but are now arranged in blocks of four in the direction of the apse. The pews' very high backs and the similarly high doors between rows of benches prevent distraction and keep the parishioners' gaze raised to the three stages of worship: the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
, chancel, and lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
.
The only entrance to the church is on the western side. Above it, there is the organ gallery. The original organ of 1844 had only five registers with an attached pedal. It was expanded in 1907 with more pipes, which gave it six manual and one pedal registers. It was destroyed by vandals in 1961. At the time of the general restoration interior in 1990, the parish could not afford a new organ. The new instrument was installd in June 2009. It is equipped with two manuals, a pedal, and 14 registers on slider chests. In order to complete the general view of the gallery, at present the organ space is held by a deceitfully real looking paper mockup.
Campanile
Exedra
In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical...
on the narrow side, stands the over 20 meter high campanile
Campanile
Campanile is an Italian word meaning "bell tower" . The term applies to bell towers which are either part of a larger building or free-standing, although in American English, the latter meaning has become prevalent.The most famous campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa...
(from Latin campana = bell). The tower has the same mixture of bricks and tiles as the rest of the church. The arched windows rise to the top and end in the last story with an open belvedere
Belvedere (structure)
Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
. The tower culminates in a shallow pavilion roof with a ball and cross atop it.
The Church of the Redeemer campanile contains an c. 600 year old bronze bell. Its traditional casting date is 1406, although this is impossible to prove. It was first mentioned in 1661. The bell presumably comes from the old stone church. A second bell was confiscated for armament production in 1917 and its replacement suffered the same fate in 1944.
In the summer of 1897, the bell tower was used by the physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
s Adolf Salby and Georg Graf von Arco to try to perfect Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
's radio technology. It was the site of the first German antenna for wireless telegraphs. On August 27, their signal transmission arrived at the imperial seaman station Kongsnaes on the opposite side of the Jungfernsee
Jungfernsee
The Jungfernsee is located north of Potsdam, Germany. It was a glacial kettle and is now part of the River Havel, which runs along its southeastern shore, which is also the only part of its shores that is in Berlin...
at Swan Alley in Potsdam 1.6 km away . A commemorative plaque was erected in 1928 by Hermann Hosaeus over the entrance door to the Campanile alludes to this incident (see the picture in the links). In the middle of the plaque, which is made of green dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
, is Atlas
Atlas (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa...
supporting the globe, surrounded by lightning and the commemoration: "An dieser Stätte errichteten 1897 Prof. Adolf Slaby und Graf von Arco die erste Deutsche Antennenanlage für drahtlosen Verkehr." (At this spot in 1897, Profs. Adolf Slaby and Graf von Arco erected the first German antenna for wireless communication.)