The St. Michael's/ Sankt-Michael Church built in 1851–1856 is the third oldest Roman Catholic church in Berlin, which was built according to the Reformation. The Michaelskirche was partially destroyed during the Second World War and was then not completely rebuilt. The church is located in the Mitte district in the historic Luisenstadt on the border between the districts of Mitte and Kreuzberg. It is considered a brilliant implementation of the round arch style typical of Karl Friedrich Schinkel by his student August Soller. The building is a historical monument.
The Sankt Michael Church is the name of the Michaelkirchplatz on the Engelbecken, which is part of the former Luisenstadt channel. After the channel, which was filled in 1926, was converted back to the green area and the stroll along the turn of the Berlin Wall along the turn, a clear view of the Sankt Michael Church was offered from a southern direction. But only the fall of the wall opened the visual axis again, so that the church today fulfills its original urban idea again and forms the accent point of the Luisenstadt channel. Michaelkirchstrasse runs from Michaelkirchplatz zum Spree over the Köpenicker Straße, which has existed since the 16th century. In the immediate vicinity there are also a listed house of the German Verkehrsbund and the St. Marien-Stift.
Outside
The three -aisled brick building is 55 m long and 30 m
high, the nave is 19 m wide. The church is overwhelmed by the 56 m high
dome covered with copper sheet, which is enthroned on the drums
decorated with arched arcades, which rises above the crossing. On the
cornerstones of the crossing, statues of the four evangelists were on
high postards before the destruction.
There is a bell floor with
three arched windows above the towerless front. The figure of St.
Michael on the entrance facade comes from the sculptor August Kiß. It is
a replica because the figure has not been designed specifically for the
Sankt Michael Church. The construction is decorated with buttresses,
Frisians and figures as well as two -tone bricks.
Inside
The
transept is completed with a barrel vault. The church is a hall church,
that is, the three long ships were equally high before destroying.
Soller planned the church as a central building. He took over this idea
in the basilica and coupled every single yoke, so that as a result it
appeared to be merged with central buildings.
The three long
ships are rounded off by an apse, which corresponds to a Romanesque
design. In the two side apsids, there used to be a Marien and a Josefs
altar. In the middle apse there was a picture of the Archangel Michael
in the fight with Lucifer in dragon shapes and in the semicircle of
Christ as a pantocrator.
Not all decorations and pictures were
restored during the restoration. The organ destroyed today was installed
on the gallery above the main entrance. The pulpit was on the eastern
four -way pillar. In the church there was also an altar tabernacle with
a portrait of Mary in Marble, which was designed by the sculptor
Heinrich Pohlmann.
As a result of the partial destruction of the
church, the services take place in the transept, whereby the eastern
side entrance is now the main entrance over which the new organ gallery
is located. The organ was built in 1960 by the W. Sauer organ building
Frankfurt (Oder).
Architectural classification
The church is
considered a successful synthesis between classicist and medieval
architecture. Soller used in a historic manner. Northern Italian
churches from Padua and Venice from the time of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance are mainly style. Soller undertook a five -month study trip
to Italy in 1845, immediately before his first draft work. Venice was
also inspiration for the interaction of water surface and architecture.
The facade with the filigree archangel at the top is reminiscent of the
Venetian church of San Giorgio Maggiore. The floor plan with its three
apse and the extensive nave, on the other hand, is strongly based on the
San Salvatore in Venice. The connection between central building and
nave was important for several Berlin -based successors of the second
generation of the Schinkelschule. The church building hit the nerve of
the time, even critics of the Schinkel School recognized their
successful execution.
Planning (1846–1850)
Protestant King Friedrich Wilhelm IV approved
the construction of a second representative Catholic church in Berlin
after the Reformation, which was primarily planned as a garrison church
at the beginning. It was supposed to give the Catholic soldiers living
in Berlin a spiritual home and relieve the Hedwigskirche. Another
existing church is the Church of St. Marien am Behnitz, consecrated in
1848 in the then independent city of Spandau.
Soller made the
first designs for the church in 1846. He first planned a double tower
front with Gothic elements, which he later refrained. He later rejected
the plan to create the church as a central building. By giving up the
double towers on the front, the church was now missing a far -visible
structural accent. The geometrically strictly strict octagonal roof,
originally planned instead of the dome, could not offer this. In 1848,
Soller decided to the wishes of Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the then
architectural preferences for the dome building with the long -drawn
drum.
Bau (1851–1856)
Friedrich Wilhelm IV had previously
named Michaelstrasse (since 1849: Michaelkirchstrasse) after the
Archangel Michael and brought the building commission to decide to also
put the church under the patronal feast of Archangel. On July 14, 1851,
the founding stone was laid in the presence of the king and his family,
by church and secular dignitaries, military and civil servants. There
were several thousand people on the angel bank.
Soller died three
years before completion and was then buried in 1856 in the church he
designed. After the financing of the church had come to a stop, Andreas
Simons, Martin Gropius and most recently Richard Lucae completed the
construction in his sense. The construction costs were estimated in 1896
to the equivalent of 438,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in
today's currency: around 3.58 million euros).
From the military
to the civil community
After the consecration of the church in 1861,
a military community was founded for 3,000 Catholic soldiers. Two years
later, a local community was added, which constantly grew until the
church finally passed its possession in 1877. In 1888 the municipality
was raised to the parish. With the settlement of the surrounding area of
the church, which was still largely Heideland at the beginning of
construction in 1851, the community continued to increase. When the
municipality was founded, there were 6000 members, at the turn of the
century, 20,000 Catholics belonged to her, which called themselves
"Michaeliten".
Social conflicts and social commitment
The area
around St. Michael with its many rent barracks was a social focus in the
period around 1900. On February 26, 1892, there were riots and looting
by unemployed people who attacked business. Wealthy parishioners tried
to establish auxiliary associations to dampen the problems. In 1888 Mary
sisters came to the community from Wroclaw and founded the Marienstift
in 1909, which they looked after until 1995. The Marienstift also
included social institutions such as outpatient nursing, a kindergarten
and accommodation for maids. The blessed cathedral propstation Bernhard
Lichtenberg, who later resisted National Socialism, was chaplain at St.
Michael in 1903-1905. The social commitment of the church was expanded
in 1917-1926 under Maximilian Kaller, which, like Lichtenberg, was later
to turn against National Socialism. Maximilian Kaller band as part of
the lay apostolate, also in parishioners in pastoral care.
Angel
basin
When the Luisenstadt channel was filled in in 1926, the angel
basin named after the patron saint of the church should be converted
into an outdoor pool. This was outraged by Berlin Catholics; With the
help of the center party, the implementation of the plan in the Prussian
state parliament was finally prevented and the angel basin was expanded
into a swan pond with a green area.
War destruction and
reconstruction
In the last months of the Second World War, the
Luisenstadt was almost completely destroyed on February 3, 1945 by an
U.S. air raid with over 950 machines. The Sankt Michael Church suffered
serious damage from fire and explosive bombs. The organ was also
destroyed, which was considered one of the most beautiful and largest
church organs in Berlin. The interior was also largely destroyed.
However, the surrounding walls and the dome and the front were largely
preserved. Because of the destroyed roof, the dome can be seen through
the portal window, over which the bell floor rises. At the bottom is the
mosaic with the preaching of the Lord. Because of the protruding at the
beginning, it partially survived the destruction.
With the
services, they now joined the Marienstift. The apse, the sacristy and
the transept were rebuilt under Pastor Franz Kusche, so that services
could be held for the first time in 1953. The inscription "Who is like
God?", The translation of the Hebrew name Michael stood above the altar.
In 1957 three new bells and in 1960 the new Sauer organ were inaugurated
after the construction of an organ gallery.
With the construction of the Wall in 1961, the municipality was torn
into an eastern and now homeless western part. The West Berlin community
received its own Sankt Michael Church in Waldemarstraße
(Alfred-Döblin-Platz) directly on the wall strip, which was built
according to the plans of the architect Rudolf Schwarz, who died in 1961
and is one of his last works. After a possible reunification, the newly
built church space should then serve as a community hall. The hundredth
anniversary of the consecration of the church in October 1961 was
celebrated separately.
However, during the time of the
separation, both parts of the municipality had developed very
differently: the municipality of St. Michael had opened in the west of
the 1980s of the district work in Kreuzberg and prepared more on younger
Christians, the municipality in the east remained more of traditional
pastoral care and Liturgy. So after the reunification it remained with
the separation. Since January 1, 2021, St. Michael in the east and St.
Michael in the west belong to the parish of Bernhard Lichtenberg
Berlin-Mitte.
In 1978 the church was under monument protection.
From 1978 to 1980 the dome was newly covered with copper, the masonry
was repaired and the newly gowned cross was put back on. In 1984 the
rectory moved from Michaelkirchstrasse to the rectory built in the
church ruins as a flat building in 1985 to 1988.
After the fall of the wall, the bell tower was renovated and the
restored figure of the Archangel Michael was put back on the tower
(1991–1993). The mosaic above the portal was also restored in 1999. It
represents the preaching of the Lord. Nevertheless, the longitudinal
ship still does not wear a roof. The services are held in the transept.
On March 7, 2001, the support association was given the preservation of
the Catholic Church of St. Michael Berlin-Mitte e. V. founded, which is
intended to support the preservation of the church building and the
associated activities.
On October 31, 2003, the parish of St.
Michael, which at that time had 800 members, was incorporated into the
neighboring cathedral community of St. Hedwig at the decision of the
Archdiocese of Berlin. The church is therefore no longer a parish
church, but services take place to a previous extent.
In August
2005, plans were known to be accommodated against displacement of the
federal government from autumn 2006 in the longitudinal ship to be
built. The negotiations of the parish with the Association of the
displaced people were demolished on August 15, 2005, according to the
archbishopric "due to the lack of social consensus for a settlement of
the center in a church".
The clear view of St. Michael from
Oranienplatz was not possible between 1961 and 1990 by the Berlin Wall.
The lower half of the church, the view of which was blocked by the
concrete segments, was supplemented in 1986 on the initiative of the
Berlin architect Bernhard Strecker by the artist Yadegar Asisi living in
Berlin on the western side by an illusionist painting, the
"permeability" of the wall demonstrate ("wall through view"). After the
concrete parts of the wall was reduced, the Italian Marco Piccininni was
able to buy the painted segments near the Waldemar Bridge at an auction
in Monte Carlo in 1990 and later gave them away to the Vatican, where
they were set up in the Vatican gardens in August 1994. The other
graffiti on the Berlin Wall along Waldemarstraße are documented in ten
compounded poster photos by photographers Liselotte and Armin Organ Froe
(as of 1985).