The Franziskaner monastery church in Klosterstraße in the Mitte district of Berlin is the ruin of a church returning to 1250. It is one of the most important buildings of brick gothic in the region and was once the church of the gray monastery of the Franciscan order. The church may be the oldest building of old Berlin, preserved in its former form. It is a monument today and has been used for cultural events since the 1980s.
The history of the church is closely linked to the earliest city
history of Berlin. The Franciscan order had founded a monastery in the
immediate vicinity of the seat of the Askanian sovereigns, the Hohen
House. Today's church ruins represents the last visibly remaining part
of the gray monastery. From 1249, its existence can be detected, but can
be assumed for earlier times. Both the exact data at the start of
construction and the course of the establishment are controversial in
research and were tried to illuminate by building historical and
archaeological studies. The attempts at dating vary between the middle
and the end of the 13th century.
One of the hypotheses is that
there was a predecessor building made of field stone at the site of the
brick church. Fieldstone residues in the outer wall of the northern
aisle of the ruin and under the choir end could come from this
Feldsteinkirche. This could have been built in 1249 and had the shape of
a longitudinal right -wing hall church. In the second half of the 13th
century, around 1250–1265, or in 1260–1270, the construction of the
early Gothic beggar orders of the Franciscans started and the existing
building fabric integrated. Around 1300 the choral polygon on the
existing choir was added.
Alternatively, the thesis is
represented that the church was built with a design change at the start
of construction but in a coherent construction campaign. The field stone
remains came from the first construction phase, but not an independent
predecessor building. In recent research, based on archaeological
examination after the turn of the millennium, this thesis is
increasingly represented and a erection period in the last third of the
13th century is accepted. The few handed down sources on the history of
the monastery could be reconciled with this late dating: the property of
the Franciscan monastery, originally the southern part of the Margravial
Sent in Berlin, was left to the Order in 1271 by the Margrave. In 1290
the Margrave donated a brick factory to the Franciscans. Both events
were recorded in a later inscription on the choir stalls lost today.
With this historical interpretation, the archaeologist Stefan Breitling
concludes, the "nimbus of the oldest Gothic brick building in Berlin"
puts into perspective.
Nevertheless, the church differed from the
existing churches of the then double town of Berlin and Kölln (St.
Nikolai, St. Marien; St. Petri) and took a pioneering role for the
development of the Gothic architecture in Berlin. It was a three
-aisled, four -year -old and cross -vaulted basilica with a two -year
-old choir narrowed to the width of the central nave. The nave measures
29.5 m × 23.7 m, the choir 22 m × 9.10 m. The choral polygon has a
seven-tenth closure. A two -year -old chapel and a stair tower to the
roof originally joined the choir north.
Although the nave has an
almost square floor plan, the church, still noticeably today, looks
comparatively narrow. This spatial effect arises from the highly
towering, only with services and few fighter capitals made of burned
tone, walls of the upper gods, which only has small, pointed -arched
windows. The rather wide -arched pillar cads open the construction of
the two side aisles, which were illuminated by their own window at their
respective east ends. The monastery buildings joined the northern aisle.
In contrast, the choir is clearly out of the central nave. This is
solely due to the more complex wall structure: the base zone under the
windows is divided here with a pointed arched blind niche with
cloverleaf parameters under the windows. The walls between the niches
were decorated with representations of sanctuary in Fresko (including
those of St. Andreas and Bartholomew). The very high pointed -arched
windows with profiled walls also clearly illuminated the Chorhaupt. Due
to the slight widening of the polygon to the outside, an almost central
space impression is created. This type of chort is seen as a model for
the Brandenburgers and the Stettin Franciscan Churches.
Another
peculiarity of the construction form of the monastery church is the
pillar forms that alternate on both sides of the central nave. The
pillars and bases still preserved can be seen that bundle pillars with
polygonal floor plans and those with a square pillar floor plan, a
semicircular service per side, changed each other.
Nothing has
been preserved from the simple cruess vault of the church after the
destruction of the church. Its approach can still be guessed at by
remaining arches. The church was towerless, according to the order rules
of the Franciscans; The roof was wearing a rider.
In 1365 the
Brandenburg Elector Ludwig d. J. of Bavaria buried here.
The construction work on the brick church lasted until the first half
of the 14th century. The construction was renovated around 1500. As a
result of the Reformation introduced in Berlin in 1539, the monastery
was dissolved. From 1571 there was the first Berlin print shop in the
rooms of the former monastery. In 1574 the Berlin High School was opened
here for the gray monastery. Famous students and teachers such as Karl
Friedrich Schinkel, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Otto von Bismarck also
visited the monastery church. Leonhard Thurneysser, who also put on the
printing company, had the church restored in 1583/1584.
Small
structural changes were made in the second half of the 17th century. The
old stair tower was demolished and a new half -timbered staircase was
built on the west side. In 1712 the Lettner, who separated the sanctuary
from the nave, was demolished in the central aisle. In the same year
there was a fire in the roof structure. Restoration work was carried out
seven years later, with the floor being increased by one meter and the
two northern choir windows were bricked up.
Extensive renovation
work was carried out in the first half of the 19th century. The gable
tower was removed in 1826; From 1842 two new towers were built on the
west side; The floor was lowered again and a new sacristy was built. The
construction work was preceded by various blueprints from Karl Friedrich
Schinkel, Christian Gottlieb Cantian and the then senior building
inspector Wilhelm Berger. Only the second plan of Berger was
implemented. The construction work lasted until 1845.
Most of the
19th century changes were reversed from 1926 after the church was closed
from 1902 due to strong moisture in the masonry. The new consecration
took place on May 24, 1936.
Destruction
The building was destroyed in the Second World War at an Allied air raid
on April 3, 1945. From 1950 the debris was removed and the ruins were
secured from 1959 to 1963. The remaining, also ruinly preserved
monastery buildings were completely demolished. The surrounding area of
the church ruin was designed as a green area, on which the business
building is bordered beyond Littenstrasse for some of the civil
departments of the Berlin Regional Court and for the district court in
Mitte.
Todays use
In the 1980s, the use of the monument began
as an exhibition and event location. Since 1987, art, including
Sculptural work, presented. This usage concept survived the political
change; In 1992 Berlin art and cultural workers founded a support
association that supervised the site from now on. In the years 2003/2004
there was a further restoration of the ruin. It is currently used for
exhibitions, theater performances and concerts. In 2016, the district
office took over the care of the location.
Remodeling of the whey
market
The old urban settlement core, the whey market, which is
adjacent to the area of the gray monastery, is to be redesigned at the
decision of the Berlin Senate of 2016. A small -scale development of the
neighborhood is planned based on historical block structures. Both
winning designs of the competition for the redesign in December 2021
provide for an architectural integration of the monastery church; One
even the reconstruction of the destroyed arcades between church ruins
and Klosterstrasse.