The Paulinerkirche in the historic city center of Göttingen

Göttingen

Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

 was completed as a minster

Minster (cathedral)

Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England, most famously York Minster. The term minster is first found in royal foundation charters of the 7th century; and, although it corresponds to the Latin monasterium or monastery, it then designated any settlement of clergy living...

 in 1304. Today it serves as a convention and exposition center for the Göttingen State and University Library

Göttingen State and University Library

The Göttingen State and University Library is the library for Göttingen University as well as the central library for the German State of Lower Saxony , and the library for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences...

.

In 1294 the Dominican Order

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 was permitted to settle in Göttingen and started to build a monastery in the western part of the city center. The minster was constructed in the style of a gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 hall church

Hall church

A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....

 typical for the order. Upon completion of the minster the Paulinerkirche became the most ancient gothic hall church in the historic center of Göttingen.

It was dedicated in 1331 to the apostles Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

 and Paul

Paul of Tarsus

Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...

. This is the origin of the name of the church. Since 1341 it has been the repository of important relic

Relic

In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s of saint Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...

. These drew great numbers of pilgrims to Thomasmass every year and provided the church with a good reputation even in distant places.

Twelve years after Martin Luther's

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

 publication of the 95 Theses

95 Theses

The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences , commonly known as , was written by Martin Luther, 1517 and is widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation...

, Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 took hold in Göttingen in 1529. This resulted in hardships for the black friars in the subsequent years. The city magistrate in the beginning did not have full administrative control over the parish churches. These were under the authority of duke Erich I  of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Brunswick-Lüneburg

The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...

, prince of Calenberg-Göttingen. He stayed faithful to the old beliefs and did not want to permit Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 sermons in his churches. The city magistrate therefore decided the mendicant order's masses would be delivered in the two churches. The largest one of these was the Paulinerkirche, so most of these masses were delivered primarily here. The first regular mass was given by reverend Friedrich Hüventhal against the wishes of the monks on October 24, 1529. Also, in this place the first children in Göttingen were baptized to the Lutheran faith.
Shortly afterwards the monastery was dissolved, and the building was then used as a paedagogium for educational purposes. This later lead to the establishment of Göttingen University in this building in 1737. A short time before this, the foundation of the university library of Göttingen took place. Masses for the students and adademics continued in the church until 1803.

The rapidly growing library resulted in a shortage of available space, so the masses had to move to another place and the library took over all parts of the building. In 1812, under the rule of Jérôme Bonaparte

Jérôme Bonaparte

Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...

, king of Westphalia

Kingdom of Westphalia

The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...

, the lower windows were taken down and an additional floor was integrated. The upper part of the church was converted to a library hall.

The church suffered heavy damage in an Allied

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 air raid

Airstrike

An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...

 on November 24, 1944. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the church was rebuilt and the library hall was opened as a lecture hall. Later it was used for the central catalogue of Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

.

Today, since the 1992 opening of a new building for the Göttingen State and University Library on campus, the lecture hall covers the entire length of the former church. The monumental hall building, with a length of 52 meters, meets all requirements for modern use, yet retains its ancient character. In spite of several renovations of the church building, it is still almost completely unadorned, inside as well as outside. In the lecture hall there are long rows of bookshelves holding the books which formed the base for the library in the 18th century.

The Paulinerkirche today is part of a building complex of the university library at the site of the former monastery precinct. The most important stock of books has been stored since 1992 in the new building on campus. However, in the adjacent Gründerzeit

Gründerzeit

' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...

 style building remains the manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 reading room, the research library, the Asia-Africa library, the map collection as well as several storage rooms. The Kollegienhaus (college house) is located between this building and the Paulinerkirche which was constructed as a baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 building between 1734 and 1737 from material of the old monastery. In this building on Papendiek street is the main entrance to the library as well as to the lecture and exposition hall in the Paulinerkirche on the first floor. In front of the building is a bronze statue of important Göttingen professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany...

.

Literature

• Wulf Schadendorf, Göttinger Kirchen, Göttingen, 1953
• Elmar Mittler (Hrsg.), 700 Jahre Pauliner Kirche - vom Kloster zur Bibliothek, Göttingen, Wallstein, 1994, ISBN 3-89244-188-X

External links

• Homepage of Pauliner Church