St. Michael is a Lutheran church and parish in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany, also called Stadtpfarrkirche St. Michael, indicating that it is the town's most prominent church. Building began in the 12th century. After Fürth became Protestant the building was remodelled in Baroque style, including balconies. An organ and stained-glass windows were installed in the 20th century.

History

The present church was built in phases. The was built c. 1100 as the oldest part, but was remodelled often. It is dedicated to Michael the archangel, who has been patron saint of Fürth from the 13th century. The tower was added in the 1380s or 1390s, with a portal dated between 1390 and 1410, due to comparison with art in Nürnberg.Heinrich Habel: Fürth (= Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege ds. ''Denkmäler in Bayern''. vol. V.61). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, München 1994, , pp. 196ff. The tower was a place of refuge in times of war in a town that had no fortification.Kirche St. Michael und Kirchenplatz
(in German) tourismus.fuerth.info The choir was added around 1480. The

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al top of the tower was built around 1530. The church and parish became Protestant following the Reformation in Nürnberg on 5 June 1524. The date of the first Visitation on 3 September 1528 is usually accepted as the beginning of Reformation in Fürth. As the oldest church building, a Martinskapelle, was probably destroyed in the Thirty Years War, St. Michael was the only church in town until 1824. The church was for centuries the only monumental building in Fürth, and its tower dominated its skyline. The interior was remodelled in Baroque style in the 17th century, and balconies in U-shape were installed to seat more people. The only feature from the Gothic period is a housing for the sacrament, created from sandstone by

Adam Kraft Adam Kraft (or Krafft) (c. 1460?January 1509) was a German stone sculptor and master builder of the late Gothic period, based in Nuremberg and with a documented career there from 1490. It is not known where Kraft was born and raised; his hand ...

around 1500. In the 19th century, the interior was converted to neo-Gothic style.

Windows

Hanns Gottfried von Stockhausen, artist and later professor of glass design at the Stuttgart Kunstakademie, created stained-glass windows in the church that were installed between 1958 and 1969, showing Biblical figures and scenes, such as Michael the Archangel, the

Crossing of the Red Sea The Crossing of the Red Sea ( he, קריעת ים סוף, Kriat Yam Suph, parting of the Sea of Reeds) forms an episode in the biblical narrative of The Exodus. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egyptia ...

, the Baptism of Jesus, and Christ as Judge.

Church music

The main organ was built in 1979 by Ekkehard Simon from

Landshut Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...

. It included the Gothic-revival front from 1904. It features 45 stops on three manuals and pedal.St. Michael, Fürth
fuerth-evangelisch-musik.de From 1923 to 1964, the composer

Frieda Fronmüller Friederike Helene Emma Fronmüller (8 September 1901 – 13 March 1992) was a German Lutheran church musician and composer, who published as Frieda Fronmüller. Life and work Born in Lindau, Fronmüller was a daughter of Paul Fronmüller, ...

was church musician at the church as the

Kirchenmusikdirektor Kirchenmusikdirektor (KMD, director of church music) is a German title for professional church musicians (' who have responsibility for not only a parish but a larger region, in both Protestant and Catholic church music. The title is also sometimes ...

in.

References

External links

*
St. Michael um 1630
In ''Stiftungsbuch'' by Benedikt Köler, Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Fürth with St. Michael in 1760
in ''Prospecte aller Nürnbergischen Stædtlein, Markt-Flecken, und Pfarr-Dörffern Nürnberg'', 1760, p. 102 {{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Furth Protestant churches in Germany

History

Windows

Church music

Further reading

References

External links