St. Elizabeth's Church, Marburg

The Elisabeth Church in Marburg was built from August 14, 1235 at the foot of Marburg Castle Mountain. The German Order it built with significant promotion of the Landgrave of Thuringia in honor of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. The church hall was built over the tomb of Elizabeth, what the Church made ​​it an important place of pilgrimage in the late Middle Ages. The grandson of Saint Elizabeth, Landgrave Henry I, already the Church of Our Lady built in 1286 according to their model in Frankenberg.

Masterpiece of early German Gothic

The Elisabeth Church is the first purely Gothic church building in the German cultural area. Especially three more buildings are often mentioned in this context:

  • The Church of Our Lady in Trier (begun 1230) dated prior to the Elisabeth Church. However, due to their unusual and completely " ungotisch " rounded floor plan, the Church of Our Lady is not for the flawless start of German Baugotik. Nevertheless, it served the builders of the Church of St. Elisabeth in some respects as a model.
  • The Magdeburg cathedral (begun 1209) contributes to many Romanesque elements in themselves to already be considered as purely Gothic.
  • The Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248. He is based barely on the Elisabeth Church, but rather cites the Baugotik France.

The spiers of the Church of St. Elizabeth are about 80 m high. The two towers are crowned by a star ( North Tower ) and a Knight of the Order ( the South Tower ). The sandstone building has a cruciform plan, the hall consists of three aisles, each reach over 20 m arch height, and ends in a tripartite Chorbau from Elisabeth Choir, Choir and Hoher Landgraf choir. In between is located in close proximity to the high altar by a stone, erected in 1343 rood screen separated from the nave crossing. On the cross altar before the rood screen is a crucifix by Ernst Barlach, which was donated to the church in 1931 for 700th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth.

The high altar of the church dating from 1290, is made of sandstone. He shows how Mary of female saints (right) and male saints ( left) is worshiped. The middle glass window behind the altar in the high choir belong to the part of the church consecrated in 1249 and are important pieces of stained glass.

In the north transept which had resulted in 1250 Mausoleum Elizabeth is with a younger surrounded by 100 year sarcophagus, whose relief decoration depicting the laying out of Elizabeth, in the presence of Christ and numerous dignitaries.

The gothic, richly decorated Elisabeth shrine built around 1326 sacristy is the most important treasure of the church, along with other exhibits from the sacred art can be visited. The shrine was started in 1235. The closed housing with a gable roof is pierced in the middle by a transept. There are on the transom figures of Christ, Mary, Elizabeth, and a Crucifixion group, the long sides show the twelve apostles, as well as scenes from the life of the countess.

History

With the construction of the canonization of Elizabeth ( 1235 ) was started in the year and he was consecrated in 1283, even if the work on the two towers still dragged on until 1340. The church belonged to the Teutonic Order; some of the buildings of the Order, the so-called Deutschhausgut, are still today at the church. There are now, inter alia, the mineral museum and the Department of Geography, Philipps- University housed. Originally the church was to be dedicated Mary the mother of Jesus.

In the Church of the Blessed Christian of Prussia is to be buried.

Until the 16th century, the Church of St. Elizabeth grave lay the Landgrave of Hesse. 1539 Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, the bones of the Saint Elisabeth remove to drive the pilgrims from the Protestant Marburg. Relics of Elisabeth are now in the monastery Elisabeth in Vienna, the City Museum of Stockholm as well as in the Slovak city of Kosice.

The front portion of the church interior was once reserved for the Knights. During the 16th century the once Catholic monks converted almost all to Protestantism, so that in the Elisabeth Church now the Protestant service was held. For most of the originally rich character jewelry Landgrave Moritz 1605 destroy. At the beginning of the 19th century the church was briefly a Simultaneum, ie there were spatially separated instead of both Catholic and Protestant services.

In the meantime, in 1945 the coffins of Prussian King Frederick II and Frederick William I were emplaced in a Thuringian salt mine and spent by the U.S. Army of Thuringia in the Elisabeth Church and arrived in 1952 - on the initiative of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia - in the chapel of the castle Hohenzollern.

In the north tower of Chapel of St. Elisabeth's Church are the tombs of the former Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and his wife Gertrude. These were located since 1934 in the Tannenberg Memorial in East Prussia. In order to prevent the bodies fall into the hands of the Russians, Hitler was on 12 January 1945, one day before the opening of the Battle of East Prussia by the Red Army, creating the coffins of the couple of units of the Armed Forces of the monument and of Königsberg transport with the light cruiser Emden to pillau, from where they brought the passenger ship Pretoria to Stettin. When the war ended, the two coffins were in a salt mine in Thuringia, where they were discovered in the summer of 1945 by units of the U.S. Army. In August 1946, the coffins were interred in the tower hall of the Church of St. Elizabeth.

2004, the church received a Ambo, the sculptor John Cherry had created from Petersberg. He also produced the Paschal candle of the Church.

Community

The Evangelical Church of St. Elizabeth parish comprised in 2013 about 4,800 members and is part of the parish of Marburg. The area extends over the Marburger downtown Districts Old town, Grass Mountain, Ortenberg, North District and wooded valley. The Elisabeth church has three church pastors and parish visitors. In addition, she is preaching church of Probst of Waldeck- Marburg. From the church a church stand, a guest house for pilgrims is operated. There are also in the field of church music lots of offers, such as the choir and the brass ensemble of the Elisabeth Church.

Bells

The modern addition of the historic bells inventory done by the recast of the four bells in the bell foundry Rincker of sense ( Hessen) in the years 1965 / 66th The oldest bell is Mary's bell from around 1280th The cast around 1380 Elisabeth Bell is one of the most beautiful bell sounded the end of the 14th century in Germany represents the small silver bell hanging in the roof skylights. In Elisabeth choir is still the former and currently Paternoster cracked bell from the year 1320.

Organ

The organ was completed in 2006 by Johannes Klais organ building. It has 57 registers on three manuals and pedal. The key action is mechanical, the key action is mechanical / electrical. The inauguration of the organ took place on 5 November 2006. The organ is at the same location as its predecessor instrument, namely before Elisabeth window. However, the organ loft was adapted and slightly offset from the instrument for acoustic reasons forward. The prospectus of the organ absorbs some colors of Elisabeth window. The disposition is as follows:

  • Pairing: Normal Couplers: II / I, III / I, III / I Electric, III / II, III / II electrical, I / P, II / P III / P,. .
  • Suboktavkoppeln: III / I, III / II
  • Superoktavkoppeln: III / I, III / II, III / III, III / P

Exterior views of the church

Recent Developments

On the ground in front of the main portal extensive archaeological work was from June 2006, ahead of a planned redesign, instead, in which not only the remains of buildings of the Teutonic Knights numerous pilgrims tombs and graves of members of the Order were exposed on a forgotten burial ground.

In 2007, on the occasion of the 800th birthday of Elizabeth of Thuringia, the " Elisabeth Year" committed.

Model

Besides the already mentioned Church of Our Lady in Frankenberg, which probably comes from the same building workshop and on the Elisabeth Church had probably the biggest architectural influence, they still stood model for several other churches from the 19th and even the 21st century:

  • The Protestant St. Paul's Church ( Église Saint -Paul ), a neo-Gothic religious building in Strasbourg, was built from 1892 to 1897 as a Protestant garrison church after presentation of the Elizabeth Church.
  • The Parish Church of St. Elisabeth in District VII ( Elizabeth City, ung Erzsébetváros ) in Budapest, which was built in 1891-1903 to designs by Imre Steindl in neo-Gothic style in brick construction, based on their appearance recognizable by their Marburger model.
  • The St. Sebastian in Berlin was built also by their example.
  • On 16 May 2004, inaugurated a replica of the Elizabeth church after two years of construction in the St. Martin 's Episcopal Church ( a congregation of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) in Houston (Texas ). The 1500 seats comprehensive church was built in steel, externally similar but very much to the original, albeit with respect to this the typical Gothic ornaments and details are missing. Occasion of the new building was the lack of space in the old church building in the community. On the occasion of the project, contacts were established and meetings between members of the two communities in Marburg and Houston.

Trivia

The Elisabeth Church in Marburg is referred to colloquially as "E- Church."

Hall church Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse Gothic art Liebfrauenkirche (Trier) Steeple Hohenzollern Castle Adolf Hitler Ambon (liturgy) Sinn, Hesse Konrad von Marburg
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