SS. Peter and Paul's Church, Göttingen

The St. Paul's Church in the Göttingen old town was completed in 1304 as a monastery church and is now the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen as event and exhibition space.

Abbey

From 1294 the Dominican Order was allowed to settle in Göttingen and began construction of a monastery in the western part of the old town. Built for the Order monastery church was built in the typical for the Order of a Gothic hall church style. With its completion in 1304, the St. Paul's Church is the oldest Gothic church in the old town Göttingen.

In 1331 the church was consecrated to the apostles Peter and Paul, and thus received its name. Since 1341 also rested here relics of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the annual induce attracted large crowds of pilgrims to Thomas trade and the monastery procured a well-known reputation.

The facilities of the church formerly belonged to at least two altars. One from 1445 and a second late medieval Passion altar with 41 tablets of 1499 from the hand of Hans raphon. Both were long considered lost. The latter probably came with the Reformation in the monastery Walkenried and is now in the National Gallery in Prague.

Reformation

Twelve years after Luther's theses in 1529 continued in Göttingen through the Reformation. For the Dominicans so broke on hard times. The Council of the City of Göttingen initially had no power to dispose of the parish churches. These were under the control of the Duke Eric I of Brunswick- Lüneburg, Prince of Calenberg- Göttingen. This still clung to the old faith and would not allow evangelical sermons in the parish churches under him. The City Council therefore decided to hold the Protestant religious services in the mendicant orders. As the Pauline church was the largest of these churches in the city, the services were held here in the first place. On October 24, 1529 pastor Friedrich Hüventhal could hold against the will of the monks the first regular Protestant church service in St. Paul's Church. Again, the first children were baptized Protestant in Göttingen.

From high school to university

Shortly after, the monastery was dissolved and used as Pädagogicum for school purposes since 1586. This institution eventually became the nucleus of 1737 opened Georg -August- University. Shortly before, in 1734, the Library of the University was founded. First, even to 1803 academic services were held but in the church. It was not until the space for the rapidly growing library was no longer sufficient, the services had to be relocated to the outside, and the library took over all parts of the building.

1812, the lower windows were under Jérôme Bonaparte broke in and fed a false ceiling. The upper part of the church was converted into a library room. 1820 joined the Nikolai Church in its place as the University Church.

An air raid on Göttingen on 24 November 1944, the church was badly damaged. After the Second World War, the church was rebuilt, and the books hall was initially built as a large lecture room again and then used for the Lower Saxony central catalog.

Today, since the new building of the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen 1992, a lecture hall occupies the top half of the room a full-length. The monumental hall with a length of 52 meters, the Group combines the old space character with modern requirements. Despite several structural changes, the Church has always been almost completely unadorned exterior and interior walls, so that the flat tensioned wall prevails. Within the lecture hall are on long shelves some of the books that have formed the foundation of the library in the 18th century.

The St. Paul's Church now belongs to the built on the former monastery complex of buildings of the University Library. The majority of stocks are indeed since 1992 in the Central Library on the campus, the historic holdings ( with year of publication until 1900) but are housed in historic buildings. In belonging to the historic building Prince Street building, a 1878 built until 1882 Gründerzeit Werkbau, are the reading rooms of Manuscripts and Rare and Old Prints, the Heyne - hall, the collection of maps and some magazines. Is the colleges house, which was built 1734 to 1737 wall from parts of the former monastery as a baroque stucco building with stone structure between this building and the St Paul's Church. Over its entrance into the road Papendiek today you get both in the library building and located in the upstairs exhibition and lecture room of St. Paul's Church.