Tragheim Church, 1930
Tragheim Church (german: Tragheimer Kirche) was a
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
in the
Tragheim quarter of
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
History
At the beginning of the 17th century the
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 th ...
residents of Tragheim attended
Löbenicht Church and were buried in
Steindamm's cemetery.
[Gause I, p. 411] Because Löbenicht Church was too small for the growing community, Duke
George William sold to Tragheim a square containing an old brick or tile manufactory on 23 May 1624. The Tragheimers moved their cemetery to their new square and constructed a small chapel from 1626 to 1632.
The new church was dedicated in 1632
and received its own pastor in 1636.
[Albinus, p. 318] The first five pastors of the church were non-Prussians: Johann Benedikt Reinhardi was from
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
, Mauritius Karoli was from
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
, Wolfgang Springer was from
Holstein
Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...
, Daniel Erasmi was from
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
, and Thomas Masecovius was from
Königsberg in der Neumark. In 1696 Jacob Heinrich Ohlius (1650-1725) became the first native of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
to be pastor in Tragheim.
Because the original church collapsed in 1707, a new church was constructed from 1708 to 1710 according to designs by architect
Joachim Ludwig Schultheiss von Unfriedt Joachim Ludwig Schultheiss von Unfriedt (variations include Schultheiss von Unfried) (1678 – 10 June 1753) was a German Baroque architect, official, and councillor most active in Königsberg and throughout East Prussia.
Life
Possibly born ...
(1678-1753), with patronage from Friedrich Kupner. Its
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 t ...
steeple was completed in 1723. When Tragheim Church burned down after a lightning strike in 1783, it was rebuilt the following year according to Schultheiss von Unfriedt's original design, under the direction of Johann Samuel Lilienthal (1724-1799) and Johann Ernst Jester. Its tented roof steeple was incomplete at that time, however.
Ehregott Andreas Christoph Wasianski (July 3, 1755 - April 17, 1831) - a secretary (amanuensis), confidante, and biographer of the great German philosopher
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
(1724-1804) - became the pastor of Tragheim Church in 1808.
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
married
Minna Planer
Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (5 September 180925 January 1866) was a German actress and the first wife of composer Richard Wagner, to whom she was married for 30 years, although for the last 10 years they often lived apart. At an early age, ...
(Christine Wilhelmine Planer) in Tragheim Church on 26 November 1836.
The church was heavily damaged in the
Bombing of Königsberg
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanic ...
(1944) and in the
Battle of Königsberg
The Battle of Königsberg, also known as the Königsberg offensive, was one of the last operations of the East Prussian offensive during World War II. In four days of urban warfare, Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussia ...
(April 6–9, 1945).
The last pastors of the Tragheim Church were Schwandt, Friedrich Werner, Eduard Korallus (pastor from 1900 to 1933), and Paul Knapp
[Paul Knapp (1880 - April 1946) - for additional details see: :de: Paul Knapp (Königsberg)] (pastor from 1933 to 1944).
The remnants of the church were demolished by the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
administration in
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
during the 1950s.
Sights
The church contained a
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
chancellery and pulpit with beautiful carvings made in 1784 by tischlermeister (master carpenter) Carl Johann Grabowski of Königsberg. The
neoclassical altarpiece was created by the wood-carver Christian Benjamin Schultz from
Heilsberg, and donated to the church by the apothecary Johann Sigismund Tiepolt and his wife Susanne (née Bulle), who both died in 1800. The organ was designed in 1793/1794 by orgelbaumeister (master organ-builder) Christoph Wilhelm Braveleit (1751-1796). The church also contained an oil painting of E. A. C. Wasianski by Johann Friedrich Andreas Knorre (1763 - May 11, 1841), a distinguished portrait painter who was Director of the Provinzial-Kunst-und Zeichenschule (Provincial Art and Drawing School) in Königsberg from 1800 to 1841.
Knorre also held the position of Professor of Drawing at the School.
Gallery
image:ID003845 B275 TragheimerKirche.jpg, Tragheim Church, ca. 1908
image:ID003844 B274 TragheimerKirche.jpg, Tragheim Church, ca. 1908
image:ID003843 B273 TragheimerKirche.jpg, Exterior and interior
Notes
References
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{{Coord, 54, 43, 04, N, 20, 30, 29, E, region:RU-KGD_type:city_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title
Former churches in Königsberg
Buildings and structures in Germany destroyed during World War II
Destroyed churches
Lutheran churches in Königsberg
1624 establishments in Europe
1944 disestablishments in Germany
17th-century Lutheran churches in Germany
Religious organizations established in the 1620s
Baroque church buildings in Germany