The Friedrichswerdersche church is a monument on Werderschen Markt in the Mitte district of Berlin. Built on behalf of the Prussian crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm in the years 1824–1831 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the style of neo -Gothic, she was the first representative brick building since the Middle Ages. After serious damage in the Second World War, the single -nave, double -towered sacral building was reconstructed in 1982–1987. The altar, the pulpit and the colored glass windows inside are still reminiscent of the original use as an Evangelical Church. She is currently home to sculptures of the 19th century from the Collection of the National Gallery.
The first baroque city expansion of Berlin began around 1658 on an
island on the left Spree arm, called "The Werder". In honor of the great
elector, the area received the name Friedrichswerder in 1660. After this
area was raised to the third independent community next to Berlin and
Cölln, and the town hall building that started in 1673 was completed in
1678, the need for its own church was recognized for this community. In
addition, there has been a French-reformed community since 1685, the
members of which lived mainly in Friedrichswerder and who also needed a
church.
In 1699, the German communities of the Lutherans and the
Calvinists (Reformed) and the French-Reformed community were assigned a
building for common use (Simultankirche), known under the name "Elector
Long Stable Building" or also riding house. This building had been
rebuilt around 1648 after it had been completely decayed beforehand. It
was a very long (288 feet, approx. 90.4 m), but narrow buildings that
were aligned due to the development of the area in the north-south
direction. In 1700/1701, Giovanni Simonetti realized a design by the
construction director Martin Grünberg to convert as a double church. In
the northern part, the Calvinist French -speaking community came and the
German -speaking communities in the southern part. The opening ceremony
in French took place on May 16, which took place in German on July 12,
1701.
Now the former riding house was a two -storey, sober, sober
purpose building, which was only slightly loosened. The high gable roof
was interrupted by an unfinished tower under which there was a middle
risalit. This also documented the separation into two different
communities. The tower structure was completed in 1801. In 1806 French
occupation soldiers stored in the church. In 1809, among other things,
the first elections were held here according to the Prussian city
regulations. After 1817, the two German -speaking communities had united
as part of the Prussian Union. The French community remained
confessional Calvinist, but also followed the Evangelical Church in
Prussia, like the other two communities. Around 1819, the generally poor
condition of the building, which was partially in danger of collapse,
was to be restored by a comprehensive renovation. However, a new
building was already in the same place at this time.
Schinkel
received the order for a new building from the Crown Prince Friedrich
Wilhelm. He presented several classicist designs in the basic form of
Roman temple or as a wall of the pier with four domes, but was unable to
convince the client. The Crown Prince demanded a "medieval style"
building, from a romantic inclination and, according to the official
reason, this style "better fits into this somewhat narrower area of the
city, which is approaching the ancient times due to the irregularity of
its streets".
Planning of the church
Schinkel's development plan
Schinkel
as a departmental in Prussia's superstructure deputation had
submitted a large building plan to almost half of the city in 1817.
In it, instead of a double church for two communities, he proposed
the new building of two symmetrical churches. These should be built
to the east of the predecessor building on the site of the old
Packhof, which was to be relocated to the north. The Berlin Building
Academy was later built on this square. Only floor plans are known
of these planned churches.
With this development plan,
Schinkel tried to combine the effect of existing buildings with new
and planned. It was due to the previous irregular development of the
Friedrichswerder area decisively and to have a clear relationship
with the pleasure garden and its edge development.
Schinkel
noticed:
“The very lively area between Schloßplatz and the
Friedrichsstadt can gain the long -desired order and beauty through
the set -up set in the tarpaulin and loses the often life
-threatening tightness. If the bad buildings of the current
Friedrich-Werderschen churches get the specified place, the
perspective from the dog bridge [note: later castle bridge] would be
of the greatest effect. ”
The basic ideas of this plan to
provide the area of the street Unter den Linden, the places at the
Zeughaus and the Lindenoper via the dog bridge with the Lustgarten
and the Berlin Castle as well as Friedrichstadt were implemented in
the coming years. However, the construction of the proposed two
churches was dispensed with.
First draft
The farm
inspector Johann Gottlieb Schlaetzer and the antiquity scientist
Aloy's shepherd submitted drafts to a new building of the
Friedrichswerder church around the end of the year. Schinkel as a
planner, however, rated these designs very critically in an expert
opinion. He developed an independent, very clear design, which he
countered on a drawing sheet together with the submitted.
He
added his opinion to his report. He described this as follows:
“With the style of architecture, we followed the genus of temple
buildings, which is called according to Vitruv Pseudoperipteros,
where the architecture of the free -standing portico on the gable
continues through half -columns on the sides of the building. One of
the most beautiful monuments in antiquity served us as a model, the
so -called Maison Carrée to Nîmes […]
The whole inner room of the
church is freely illuminated without obstacle in seeing and hearing
from a reasonable number of large, not too high window. In ancient
style buildings, a tower building is difficult to connect. In the
plan, it is expected on the system of the tower, but it would be
better, he fell away and would be in isolation near the building in
the manner of the Italian bell towers, and then far more space in
the church would also be won. For this reason, the tower is drawn in
isolation on a special leaf and three places are indicated in the
floor plan of the entire square around the church where this tower
could stand. ”
The king and the responsible Ministry of
Building Scheduled all designs in this style.
Second draft
By 1822, the construction project rested after the rejection of the
antique designs. Schinkel filed a new proposal, of which no
explanations or files have been handed down. Now he favors a four
-year -old wall of the wall with one round dome per yoke and a
semicircular choir. The opposite main entrance side was dominated by
a high portal in a conch extended to the main cornice. The
associated bell tower should be executed as a four -storey, massive
campanile. Particularly noteworthy is the pubic wall that connects
the tower and nave, even in later designs. The interior would be
dominated by the structure of the mighty wall pillars and the
divided dome rooms, which in turn develop their effects through
galleries on Ionian columns.
Building specialists agree that
this building and especially the campanile have determined the view
of the neighborhood. It would have been a successful addition to the
new construction of the Prussian coin built by Heinrich Gentz in
1798-1800, an almost majestic work of Berlin classicism.
Schinkel worked very detailed this proposal, so that it seemed to
him to publish this extremely successful draft in issue 8 in 1826 to
his collection of architectural designs. There he wrote the
following:
“The location of the building site, as it was
determined higher, gave the reason for the present arrangement of
the building. On three sides of narrow streets, in which a rich
architecture would be inedible, the building was given a very simple
appearance, for which the only very moderate scope of the whole
asked even more. The fourth side of the gable with the large
entrance gate has returned to the market and to give this front more
importance, the inner vault of the building here is indicated in its
full ratio through a deep niche, in the background of which the
large entrance gate, in its wings Richly decorated, cast in bronze,
surrounded by marble places, grabbed […] The prescribed building
site, which did not allow any expansion as little as a length, is
then divided in such a way that the vault of the church from four
cobbles, cut off by strong vigilante consists between the opposite
of the two long sides of the two long sides in the column building
[…] The arches on the two long walls are comfortably space, simple
large windows to be attached to an appropriate height […] The lower
walls are kept in a marble paneling and the column Worked in white
marble with her beam. A bell tower should be listed in isolation on
an empty corner of the market because neither the limited building
site nor the style of the building allowed an immediate connection
with it. "
1822-1823 was King Friedrich Wilhelm III. From Prussia on a longer
stay in Italy. This was used by Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (from
1840 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.), Also interested in romantic,
feudalistic tendencies in the medieval-Gothic architectural style in
order to motivate Schinkel to make new plans for a church on Werderschen
and at the same time with his request for "" To combine medieval style
”. So Schinkel took up this thought in mid -1823 and outlined first
thoughts in the form of medieval English chapels. He was based on
literature recommended by the Crown Prince, such as The Architectural
Antiques of Great Britain by John Brittons and Cathedral Antiques by the
same author as well as other publications. In these sketches, he tried
the size and design elements. The double tower facade, which later came
to the execution, the window with the large window rose and the double
portal first appeared.
Schinkel further developed this idea into
a first draft. He took into account the special situation of the two
parishes. For the German community, who growing up to the personnel, he
designed a monumental building, but wanted to recognize the northern
part of the riding house, well on the sketch, for the small -facing
French community. Despite the conflict that prevails on site, the new
building to be built should include three yokes and each show a double
tower facade at the northern and southern end as well as an economical
use of decorative accessories. The most important new idea, however, was
the absolutely consistent use of bricks and terracotta for the facades.
Schinkel explained this draft on March 2, 1824:
“In this somewhat
narrower area of the city, which is approaching the ancientity due to
the irregularity of its road complexes, a church in medieval style is
likely to be in place. However, since the construction site is not very
large, it would not be advisable to follow the large domes from the
Middle Ages; So I kept it expedient to give the building more of the
character of English chapels, in which some great conditions work and
the whole thing is closely related. The advantage here should be that if
one wanted to renew the French church in the following times, the
construction could be continued in the same way and ultimately closed
with two bell turrets, which means that six turrets then take over over
the mass and certainly of several Pages from afar would make an
impressive effect. The pillars of the narrow gallery in the church, as
well as the window sprout and the roof railings could be made of cast
iron; The whole rest of the building would be built from brick and would
remain in careful wall work without plastering, like the churches of the
Middle Ages of our areas. ”
King Friedrich Wilhelm III. asked to
see the Schinkel designs at the beginning of spring 1824. For this,
Schinkel put together his concepts on a sheet. So he drew the pseud
opera temple in a Corinthian and a Doric version. He was based on the
Langhans perspective, which for the first time was looking at the Doric
style at the Brandenburg Gate and at the same time at the coin of
Heinrich Gentz, which was also carried out in this style. In both
designs of the antique form, a cylindrical circuit is integrated in the
northern part, which covered an inner dome. The two Gothic designs shown
on top of each other have roughly the same floor plan. Just like the
previous four-door draft, both the one and the second tower in the cubic
character inherent in them are further variations of the classicist
schemes.
In March 1824, the king decided to have the second
-tower draft carried out, but contrary to Schinkel's original planning,
the building site was reset a piece by the Werders market. In this way,
the additional pubic wall or glare architecture could be avoided, which
had been considered to "cover the bad buildings in Falkoniergasse" at
the old location of the church.
Schinkel added the following
explanation to the six plans in 1829, which he had included in the 13th
issue of his collection of architectural designs:
“Since the draft
was made a duty in the draft, I assumed to carry out the assumed
medieval style in the greatest simplicity and to work solely through the
circumstances. The creation of a single tower, if it was to have the
width of the church to cover the gable completely, would not have taken
up a lot of space from the base area, but would have caused a cost due
to the very considerable amount, which was proportioned after its width
with the recommended economy in no ratio. For this reason, I chose a
gable front that is bordered by two small bell turrets. These turrets
could now take on fine and dainty conditions without significantly high,
and the work gained a richer effect with minor means than in a single
colossal tower building, because the perspective shifts two tenders far
more varied in their views. With the very low base area each of these
turrets, the performance of a proportionate tip would have been petty; I
therefore preferred to end these turrets against the air in their full
width, so that the purpose of forming a plateau for the prudence at this
level at the same time. The dainty border of these areas with opened
railings, which close in teaked cornerstones, adequately refers to the
ending of these buildings and at the same time contributes a lot to make
the effect more enriched [...]
In the simplicity of the building, it
was important to give architecture a peculiar interest; This was
obtained by the fact that the construction was left everywhere in a
careful and specially expedient brick material for each component.
Afterwards, the building demanded a significant amount of very different
forms and size shaped brick to the columns, capitals, structure, window
sticks, cornices and ornaments. "
With the presentation of the four alternative designs by Karl
Friedrich Schinkel, the planning phase for a new church for the two
parishes on the Friedrichswerder came to an end. King Friedrich Wilhelm
III. In March 1824, under the designs developed by Schinkel, two
versions in antique and two in Gothic formal language, ultimately
selected the design that shows the second -tower variant. Construction
of the city's first neo -Gothic church started immediately.
A
special feature in the execution was the determination of a single
building for two different parishes, which should not be expressly
recognizable by the external form.
Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse mainly
took care of the execution planning and the construction management
until the completion in 1830. He had to have his execution plans
personally approved by Schinkel. These plans are various with
handwritten changes or additions to Schinkel. During the execution
phase, Schinkel's proportion as an architect was primarily to monitor
detailed planning and to solve the problems that are up to the
construction.
Schinkel was forced by considerable financial
restrictions to do without plans for the fialt tower over the buttresses
on the nave. He hoped that by emphasizing the two towers, the upper end
of the building was adequately emphasized, each with four fiales. Even
in the design phase, the architect had dealt with this aspect, this
shows the perspective representation as a double tower church without
the fibers on the ship on which the four different alternatives show.
However, the serious effects of this decision were not predictable for
those involved.
After his trip to England in 1826, Schinkel took
the decision to do without the emphasis on the emphasis on the upper
butchers on the nave. He was able to study the buildings on site, on the
representations of which he had oriented himself as a copper engraving
and realized that the Berlin building would look imperfect. In February
1828, he enforced the king that the buttresses were given the intended
tips. To do this, he had to make concessions from the cost reasons given
above to carry out these components in an economical variant. This was
then done by using the masons by hand by using the masons on site
instead of specially produced shapes. This middle ground between the non
-execution and the perfect use of form stones then led to initial plans
for far -reaching changes in the external form three years after
Schinkel's death.
The outer building of the church was completed
in the middle of the year. The building, which was carried out in
comparison to other buildings, which was carried out during this time,
was due to two causes. For one thing, there were always problems with
the financing. On the other hand, the executors, from the bricklayers
and other craftsmen up to the overhead architects, were no longer used
to processing the brick. The different heights of the hand -controlled
Reichs form set seal caused special problems in the millimeter range. In
order to achieve a uniform joint picture, it was therefore necessary to
stick exactly to the guideline; What is not necessary for masonry that
is later plastered. Despite all efforts, it was therefore necessary to
give the masonry up to the first cornice at the level of the window.
The Tuncore manufacturer Tobias Feilner was commissioned to
manufacture the more complicated and artistically demanding form and
decorative stones. He was able to bill a total of 9,000 Reichstaler for
this project. His deliveries included the 141 massive acanthus leaves on
the main cornice, all parts of the window measure including the
associated ratio stones as well as the richly decorated capitals of the
revish on the portals. The 1,800 Reichstaler -expensive terracotta
figure of the Archangel Michael on the main portal was manufactured in
seven parts and then assembled; At that time the work was considered a
great technical performance. Ludwig Wichmann had made the model for this
almost round -plastic figure, the same applies to the two angel figures
carried out as relief to the left and right of it. The Archangel figure
was initially replaced in 1904 by a copy in copper, in 1986/1987
replaced by a bronze replica, in the Feilner workshops, also due to the
high demands of Schinkel, a perfection that is sufficient for the
highest demands in the coming decades set for the production of building
ceramics.
In 1828 the decision was made that "instead of the main
entrance doors of wood ... those of cast iron are manufactured". In
doing so, Schinkel created the prerequisite for an additional decoration
of the door wings with flat relief medallions, which at the same time
enhanced the input situation both to the south and the double portals
that were pointed to the east. The sculptor Friedrich Tieck modeled the
20 medallions with the representation of genius. The door wings and the
image plates used therein were cast in the Berlin iron foundry and
installed in August 1830.
The altar of the church was decorated
with paintings by Carl Joseph Begas and Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow.
The ceremonial consecration of the Friedrichswerder church took place on
July 10, 1831.
Finally, Schinkel designed, in the free appropriation of Gothic role
models and stylistic reference to English chapels, a building that
expresses significantly classic sensation in its cubic structure. The
gable roof typical of Gothic churches are missing and pointed helmets on
the two towers. Rather, the roof is very flat and served the Berliners
as a popular viewing platform for a while; From here, the Veduten
painter Eduard Gaertner painted his famous panorama of the Residenzstadt
Berlin (the picture section shows Gaertner with his wife, child and work
equipment on the roof, the view goes via Schinkel's building academy to
the southeast).
The brick facades of the church hardly remind of
the slim, absolutely striving for the top of Gothic structures. Acanthus
leaves and Corinthian capitals as forms of jewelry refer to classic
antiquity. Two pointed arch portals with tracery rosettes form the main
entrance, Friedrich Tieck provided the draft for the cast iron wing
doors, the models for the portal plastic were by Ludwig Wilhelm
Wichmann. The interior refers to Gothic originals more clearly than the
outside of the building. Narrow, bundled buttresses with elegant
profiles pass into illusionistic mesh vaults on the high ceiling. The
illusion was created by painted vaulted and impressively painted
shadows. In fact, it is a cross-rib vault. Schinkel had a brick masonry
on the vault, painting on the pillars of sandstone block masonry.
Clearly pronounced trains can be seen in the interior. The five
cross-rib vaults over the incoming, i.e. bundled, bundled butchers give
the hall to the hall. Narrow wooden galleries are installed between
these buttresses. Their Gothic arcades were initially intended in cast
iron design, but due to cost reasons of a supporting structure from
domestic needle wood with a cladding made of oak wood in the
construction phase.
The self -contained, upward spatial effect is
completed by the polygonal choir with its painted lead glass windows. In
the external picture, the referrers to the English late Gothic are
clearly recognizable, but inside, however, Schinkel reached back on the
Gothic of the German Order of the Knights of the 13th century. He
referred directly to the palace chapel of Marienburg with the cross-rib
vault, but also with many other details. The use of bricks in the
outside as a visual masonry, in particular the terracots supplied by the
Feilner Teuwarenfabrik are achieved a complete visibility and, above
all, conclusiveness.
In contrast, there is an illusionistic work
inside and through. Both the brick vaults, the ribs of the vaulted
network, as well as the appearance completely carried out in a light
marble masonry for the walls and bundle pillars are an illusion, albeit
in all details. In the interior, all areas with white plaster and stucco
are covered from the cost reasons already listed, in order to be
transformed into brick and sandstone imitation (incorrectly called
marble) in the highest craftsmanship.
The finished building initially found little public recognition, even
appeared in the literature as a "Schinkel's Gothic child". On the other
hand, Schinkel gave the impetus to a large number of neo -Gothic brick
churches in Berlin, Brandenburg and the province of Saxony, which mostly
took over the historical canon of shapes completely and unreflected and
neither approached the architectural quality of the Gothic originals,
nor to that of the Friedrichswerder church. Their former client, now
King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
Schinkel had essentially ended the
towers at the top, with a broken cast iron railing with four passes and
four small, pointed cornerstones (fials), which corresponded to 16 other
fials on the nave. However, for cost reasons, these have only been
carried out with the fialty tips that are hewn, and not, as in the area
of the fial sockets, with form stones. This less quality led to early
destruction by weather influences.
The king commissioned the
architect Friedrich August Stüler with designs, which should add two
Gothic tower helmets to the building. These plans, stylistically and
proportionally without a right relationship to the existing
architecture, remained unfinished due to the lack of finances. To
prepare for the renovation, however, the eight fials of the towers have
already been removed up to the base height. Students also had the fialps
in another form walled up and the fial tips were replaced by new in a
different form, made of solid cast zinc (material thickness at least 3
mm). While the Schinkel tips showed simple shapes made of brick with a
gold-plated ball as the top that can be seen on the panorama of Eduard
Gaertner, the Stülersche zinc casting fial bumps, each with four crabs
on the ridges and a cross flower, deviate considerably from the simple
and clear Schinkel's design language.
During the first
restoration, the construction management and the monument protection
authorities determined the shape of the fiales and in particular the
resulting forms of the newly producing hand shape tiles on the nave as
an analogy of the existing Schinkel fial stumps on the bell towers. Much
of these bricks had already been manufactured and delivered to the
construction site. After the bricking of the second fiale (seen from the
tower) had already started, the workers found two unrequited original
shape while demolishing the Stüler's fialps in the socket of the fifth
fiale on the west side. The work was then stopped and new bricks in the
now historically correct form were manufactured and used. In this form,
which is unsatisfactory for architectural critics, the building then
survived almost 150 years.
During the Second World War, the
church building was badly damaged by multiple bomb hits. The hardest
damage caused the artillery fire on April 29, 1945, especially on the
tower facade and inside. The outsourced originals 5 choir windows were
restored and reinstalled in 1986. The reconstruction of the glazing of
the ten nave windows and the larger tracery window of the south facade,
which was completely destroyed as a result of the war, took place based
on the traditional colored design boxes (LAB). The average of the altar
of Begas was destroyed by the effects of war. Cartel collection, in the
1950s the ruin was secured and Erich Honecker's direct instructions were
repaired, reconstructed and restored to the direct instructions of Erich
Honecker. Originally, only the tower front showed south was to be
restored with the large tracery window, but without the archangel, which
is enthroned above the portal. After a long discussion about principles
of monument conservation - changes and damage that had occurred over
time should remain visible as traces of history or not - one decided to
restore the original condition. The sculptor Achim Kühn carried out a
professional repair and restoration of the Archangel. However, use for
church purposes did not take place afterwards - the house became an
exhibition building, Schinkelmuseum. After the German reunification, a
renewed repair began in 1997-2001, now also with materials that had not
been available in the GDR. The stone imitation painting of the interior,
which was carried out in Kalkkasein in 1987 in 1987, is not a marbling,
but a sandstone simulation that Dipl.-Restaurator Gottfried Grafe
specified as a project restaurant based on sample areas and the
execution of the entire interior time as well as the repair and
restoration measures in the church professionally and artistically
monitored .
In June 2007, 20 graves were discovered during
management work in addition to the Friedrichswerderschen Church, which
belonged to the former cemetery of the church. The approximately 300
-year -old graves were scientifically documented and the exhumed
skeletal residues were examined anthropologically.
Until 1872, the construction was a Prussian-united and
French-reformed simultaneous church (hence Temple du Werder in French).
After that, the unites acquired the proportion of the reformed, who have
not held their own services in the church since 1835. Over a hundred
years, until the end of the Second World War, the Friedrichswerdersche
Church served as a church for the Lutheran local community of
Friedrichswerder, which has now emerged in the Evangelical parish of St.
Marien-Friedrichswerder.
Due to the war damage, the
Friedrichswerder church remained unused for a good four decades. On the
occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin, it was again made
accessible in 1987 as a branch of the National Gallery and the
Schinkelmuseum. Works by representatives of the Berlin sculpture school
were set up in the nave: sculptures by Johann Gottfried Schadow,
Christian Daniel Rauch, Emil Wolff (sculptor), Friedrich Tieck, Theodor
Kalide and others. Many exhibits are original designs from plaster. The
double statue of princesses Luise and Friederike von Prussia, the
so-called princess group of Schadow, is particularly well known, whose
original plaster model is shown in the church room. Kalides,
particularly damaged for the exhibition, was specially damaged and
recovered from the rubble of the National Gallery on Panther. In
addition to works from the Berlin Castle, portraits of mental sizes such
as Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the Humboldt brothers
are also exhibited. An exhibition on the life and work of Karl Friedrich
Schinkels can be seen on the gallery.
In October 2012, the
Friedrichswerdersche Church was closed for construction damage and the
sculptures were outsourced. The damage caused by the lifting of a
construction pit for the two -storey underground car park of a large
building with luxury apartments ("Crown Prince Gardens") close to the
church and through new buildings on both sides of the church, against
which the Evangelical State Church and the Prussian Cultural Ownership
Foundation protested. Critics complained that the church would disappear
from the cityscape as a landmark as a landmark. Proponents argued that
the church had also been close to the war destruction and GDR tears. The
damage was remedied by early October 2019; On January 18, 2020, the
church was reopened after the renovation, since the end of October 2020
it has been used again for exhibitions of the old National Gallery.