St Martin's Church (German: Martinskirche) is a Protestant parish church in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, Germany. It is also the preaching-church of the bishop of the

Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck The Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck (german: Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck; EKKW) is a United Protestant church body in former Hesse-Cassel and the Waldeck part of the former Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont. Constituti ...

. It is in the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and was begun in 1364 and completed in 1462, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. It became a Protestant church in 1524, when

Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (13 November 1504 – 31 March 1567), nicknamed (in English: "the Magnanimous"), was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestan ...

converted to Protestantism. From the 16th century until the end of the 18th century it was the burial place for the

landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...

s of Hesse. It was rebuilt to a slightly modified plan after the Second World War. It is a three-aisle six- bayed

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

with two towers at the west end. Its '5/8-Schluss' choir dates to the Gothic period - this style is named after the eight segments to the vaults in the five east-end arches. From 1960 until his death in 1993 the organist

Klaus Martin Ziegler Klaus Martin Ziegler (23 February 1929 – 22 September 1993) was a German choral conductor, organist and Protestant church musician. Career Ziegler was born in Freiburg. He studied music at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and matriculated f ...

was the church's cantor.

History

Early history

In 1330, with the construction of the new district of 'Freiheit', it was decided that Kassel needed another city-centre church. In 1343 the

Bishop of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

proclaimed an

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

to pay for it. This led to the construction of the quire of the present church, now used as the parish church. The church was dedicated the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

St Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

and

Elizabeth of Hungary Elizabeth of Hungary (german: Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, hu, Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet, sk, Svätá Alžbeta Uhorská; 7 July 1207 – 17 November 1231), also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, or Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia, ...

. A

stift The term (; nl, sticht) is derived from the verb (to donate) and originally meant 'a donation'. Such donations usually comprised earning assets, originally landed estates with serfs defraying dues (originally often in kind) or with vassal tenan ...

was settled on the new church to pay for a nave (like that at Ahnaberg Convent) run by the

Premonstratensians The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

. The stift was set up in 1366-67 and

Pope Urban V Pope Urban V ( la, Urbanus V; 1310 – 19 December 1370), born Guillaume de Grimoard, was the head of the Catholic Church from 28 September 1362 until his death in December 1370 and was also a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was the on ...

confirmed a new construction phase to provide a parish church whilst the quire was handed over to the canons. Several of the church's canons took offices at the Hessian court in the period running up to the Reformation. In 1437

Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse Louis I of Hesse (german: Ludwig) (6 February 1402 - 17 January 1458), called "the Peaceful", was Landgrave of Lower Hesse (Hesse) from 1413 to 1458. He was born at Spangenberg, the son of Hermann II, Landgrave of Hesse and Margaret, the daug ...

brought a relic of the

True Cross The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, althoug ...

back to Kassel, meaning the Martinskirche was also sometimes known as the Stift of the Holy Cross (''Stift zum Heiligen Kreuz).'' Work on the nave was slow and after two more construction phases one of the nave vaults collapsed in 1440. It only proved possible finally to consecrate the nave in 1462. The south tower was intended as a single tower until 1487 - it first received its distinctive octagonal structures in 1564-65, finished with an onion dome.

Modern era

During his time as king of Westphalia,

Jérôme Bonaparte Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1 ...

tried to transfer the seat of the Paderborn Archdiocese to Kassel and make the Martinskirche into a cathedral, but his brother

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

prevented him. At the end of the 19th century the unfinished building was redesigned and completed by the architect Hugo Schneider (builder of the Luther Church). From 1889 to 1892 he built the north tower and replaced the Renaissance-style south tower with one in the

Neo-Gothic style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The church was severely damaged by British bombing in 1943, causing the nave to collapse. During the raid on 22 October that year, the sandstone walls of the church were so badly damaged that they had to be repaired with

shotcrete Shotcrete, gunite (), or sprayed concrete is concrete or mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface, as a construction technique, first used in 1907 invented by Carl Akeley. It is typically r ...

and a wooden lattice-work. The reconstruction from 1954 until 1958 was headed by Heinrich Otto Vogel from Trier - the nave was reconstructed, but the steeples replaced with modern ones. The alabaster and marble monument to Philip the Magnanimous was moved to the middle of the central nave in 1955. A service of re-dedication was held on 1 June 1958. In 1964 a three-manual organ with 57 registers and over 5000 pipes was installed. Since 1997 a light-installation by

Christina Kubisch Christina Kubisch (born 31 January 1948) is a German composer, sound artist, performance artist, professor and flautist. She composes both electronic and acoustic music for multimedia installations. She gained recognition in the mid-1970s from h ...

has been housed in the church. It has also housed three contemporary art exhibitions - ''Documenta X'' in 1997 ('Staging and Visualisation - Aesthetic and religious experience today'), ''Documenta XI'' in 2002 ('The free view') and ''Documenta XII'' in 2007 ('Sight and Hearing - on the relationship between image, word and sound'). Between 2010 and 2012 Madeleine Dietz redesigned the church's altar, chancel, font and

ambo Ambo may refer to: Places * Ambo, Kiribati * Ambo Province, Huanuco Region, Peru ** Ambo District ** Ambo, Peru, capital of Ambo District * Ambo Town, a town in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia ** Ambo, Ethiopia, a capital of West Shewa Zone ...

Bells

Princely tombs

Organ

In September 1732,

J.S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suite ...

& his wife went to Kassel to inspect the renovated organ at the Martinskirche. A contemporary organ was installed in 2017 built by Rieger Organbau. Orgel Martinskirche Kassel 2017

Bibliography

* Alois Holtmeyer: ''Die Bau- und Kulturdenkmäler im Kreis Cassel-Stadt''. Verlag Elwert, Marburg 1923 (Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler im Regierungsbezirk Kassel; Bd. 6). * Peter Horst: ''Die Martinskirche in Kassel'' (

Große Baudenkmäler Große or Grosse is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Demetrius Grosse *Maurice Grosse *Katharina Grosse *Ben Grosse *Hans-Werner Grosse *Heinz-Josef Große *Julius Grosse Julius Waldemar Grosse (25 April 1828 – 9 ...

, Heft 212). 2. Auflage, München/Berlin 1977 * Franz T. Piderit: ''Geschichte der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Kassel''. Historische Edition Carl, Vellmar 2004, (Nachdr. d. Ausg. Kassel 1882). * Christian Presche: ''Die fürstlichen Grabstätten in der Kasseler Martinskirche''. In: ''Zeitschrift des Vereins für hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde (ZHG)'', Bd. 107 (2002), ISSN 0342-3107.

External links

Parish website

* https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a59f61798466cebb3c3719f322e101e7&prevstart=0
Recording of the 'Osannaglocke' bells

References

{{Authority control Churches in Kassel 1360s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1364 establishments in Europe Protestant churches in Hesse