St. James' Church (german: Hauptkirche St. Jacobi) is one of the five principal churches (''Hauptkirchen'') of Hamburg. In 1529, it became a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

church. It is located directly in the city centre, has a 125 m tall tower and features a famous organ by

Arp Schnitger Arp Schnitger (2 July 164828 July 1719 (buried)) was an influential Northern German organ builder. Considered the most paramount manufacturer of his time, Schnitger built or rebuilt over 150 organs. He was primarily active in Northern Europe, es ...

from 1693. It is dedicated to

St James the Greater James the Great, also known as James, son of Zebedee, Saint James the Great, Saint James the Greater, Saint James the Elder, or Saint Jacob ( Aramaic ܝܥܩܘܒ ܒܪ ܙܒܕܝ, Arabic يعقوب, Hebrew בן זבדי , '' Yaʿăqōḇ'', Latin ...

and often incorrectly referred to in English as ''St Jacob's''.

History

The history of the church goes back to 1255 when St. James' was a small Roman Catholic chapel located outside the Hamburg

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s. After these were extended in 1260, it became part of the Hamburg city territory. It is now in the heart of the city, hidden behind one of the main shopping streets (''Mönckebergstraße''). Between 1350 and 1400, the chapel was replaced by a

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 three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

s, similar to St. Peter's. Around one hundred years later, a fourth nave was added to the south side of the structure. The

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually locate ...

in the northeast also comes from this time (1438) and is today Hamburg's only example of secular

gothic 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 ...

architecture. From 1806 to 1813, when Hamburg was occupied by Napoleonic troops, the church was used mainly as stables. The second tower, erected in 1826/27 after the previous one had become dilapidated, was destroyed in 1944, along with the rest of the church building, by bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Only the historic interior furnishings were saved. It was not until 1963 that St. James' re-emerged, built to the medieval design, albeit with a modern

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

Notable features

The building sits a few metres east of the 10th meridian east longitude, which runs through the city centre. The famous Arp Schnitger organ of 1693 in the west gallery, with 60 registers and around 4,000 pipes, is the largest

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

organ in Northern Europe. From 1989 to 1993, the organ was completely restored, and since its rededication at

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

1993 it can be heard every Sunday during services. The 34 pictures in the organ gallery are the works of Otto Wagenfeldt and Joachim Lundt. They were created to portray the Bible in illustrations which everyone could appreciate and understand. St. James' has three medieval altars: the Holy Trinity Altar in the Main Choir (c. 1518, the St. Peter Altar in the first south nave (1508), and the St. Luke Altar in the second south nave (1500) that originally comes from the

Hamburg Cathedral Saint Mary's Cathedral in Hamburg (german: link=no, Sankt Mariendom, also ''Mariendom'', or simply '' Dom'' or ''Domkirche'', or ''Hamburger Dom'') was the cathedral of the ancient Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg (not to be confused with ...

. The St. Luke Altar was built by the former Guild of St. Luke. All three were built originally to serve as Roman Catholic altars. Also worthy of notice is the Ministers' Room, which originally served as a library. Since 1543, it has been the collection room of the Cathedral ministers, and was remodelled in 1710. The ceiling murals, with their civic virtues, show the importance of maintaining parish to the city regiment. They were painted, like the landscape paintings on the wall, by Johann Moritz Riesenberger. Coats of arms on the walls name the pastors, vicars, and jurors who have served the parish since the sixteenth century.

Windows

The stained-glass windows are the work of

Charles Crodel Charles Crodel (September 16, 1894 – November 11, 1973) was a German painter and stained glass artist. Life Crodel was born in Marseille, he studied in 1914 with Richard Riemerschmid, one of the founders of the Deutscher Werkbund, at the Mun ...

, who also created the windows of St. Matthew's Church in

Winterhude Winterhude () is a quarter in the ward Hamburg-Nord of Hamburg, Germany. As of 2020 the population was 56,382. History Winterhude was first mentioned in the 13th century, but archeological findings of tools, weapons and grave-mounds were dated t ...

and those of St. Mary's Church in Fuhlsbüttel. The windows depict in the main important events in the

ecclesiastical {{Short pages monitor