The Dreikönigskirche (English: Church of the

Three Kings In Christianity, the Biblical Magi ( or ; singular: ), also known as the Three Wise Men, Three Kings, and Three Magi, are distinguished foreigners who visit Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in homage to hi ...

) is a Lutheran Protestant church and parish in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, the city's largest Protestant parish. It is located on the south bank of the

Main Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

in Sachsenhausen, opposite the

Frankfurt Cathedral Frankfurt Cathedral (), officially Imperial Dome of Saint Bartholomew (), is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. It is the largest religious building in the c ...

. The present church building, replacing an older church, was erected from 1875 to 1880 on designs by Franz Josef Denzinger in

Gothic revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

. It features stained glass windows by

Charles Crodel Charles Crodel (September 16, 1894 – November 11, 1973) was a German Painting, 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, ...

, installed in 1956, and an organ by

Karl Schuke Karl Ludwig Alexander Schuke (6 November 1906 – 7 May 1987) was a German organ builder. The son of the organ builder Alexander Schuke, he continued, together with his brother Hans-Joachim Schuke, to run their father's company in Potsdam unti ...

from Berlin completed in 1961. After World War II, the church developed into a centre of church music, with Kurt Thomas as the church musician and

Helmut Walcha Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German Organ (music), organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German Baroque music, Baroque masters. Blind since h ...

as the organist. It offers cantata services and concerts. The church is a listed monument, basically preserved as originally designed.

History

At the location of the present church, in Sachsenhausen on the

, across the river from the

, a hospital chapel was consecrated to the

(''Drei Könige'') in 1340. The three Kings were the

patron saints A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fam ...

of travellers, and suitable for a city at the trade road along the Main. The church was a simple

hall church A hall church is a Church (building), church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one s ...

with two naves in

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

. For a long time, the priests came from the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

parish, which meant that no priest was available during the night when the gates of the city were closed. In 1452, the Dreikönigs parish finally became independent, and the church a

filial church A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin ''filialis'', from ''filia'', “daughter”. Description The term ''fi ...

. The

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

began in Frankfurt in 1522. In 1525, the Dreikönigskirche was the first church in Frankfurt with exclusively Protestant pastors. In 1531, the city employed a third pastor, Peter Pfeiffer from the Barfüßerkloster, which ended the discrimination that Sachsenhausen Christians had felt for centuries. From 1690, the interior was remodelled in

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

. When the church building deteriorated in the 19th century. Friedrich Heß, responsible for building in the city, voted for demolishing it and replacing it with a new church. The 1829/30 contract () between Frankfurt and its Christian churches made the city responsible for the maintenance of church buildings, including organs. In 1869, Franz Josef Denzinger was called to Frankfurt to restore the Frankfurt Cathedral which had been destroyed by fire in 1867. He suggested a new building of the Dreikönigskirche. His plans were accepted in 1872 by the . The last service in the old church was held in April 1872, and it was demolished in 1875. The new church was completed in 1880. It was consecrated on 8 May 1881. Under the Nazi regime, the parish was the first in Frankfurt to join the

Bekennende Kirche The Confessing Church (, ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See drop- ...

in 1934. Unlike other churches in Frankfurt, the Dreikönigskirche was not severely damaged by bombing during World War II. The windows were destroyed when the bridges were dynamited in 1945. In 1956, stained-glass windows by

were installed. A new organ was built by from Berlin in 1961, following a disposition by Helmut Walcha. The interior of the church has basically been preserved as originally designed. It is a listed monument for historic reasons. The parish runs a parish hall in the Tucholskystraße. It belongs to the

Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (, EKHN) is a United Protestant church body in the German federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. There is no bishop and therefore no cathedral. One of its most prominent churches is Katharinen ...

, and is its largest parish in Frankfurt.

Architecture

Denzinger designed the church in

, the first and last major church in Frankfurt in that style. The main entrance of the church in the west tower is reached from a small square. The high tower on a square floor dominates the skyline. It was planned to correspond to the Cathedral tower and was at the second-highest building in the city at the time. The

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-type ...

extends over five bays. Three front bays are lined by side aisles with sandstone balconies. The choir is a

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

. Denzinger took elements such as

net vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic a ...

ing of the nave, the pulpit, and filigree tracery from late-Gothic style, while round pillars belong to an earlier style. The interior features remnants of the Baroque period of the older church. The church seats 840 people.

Church music

After World War II, church music became a focus at the Dreikönigskirche, with Kurt Thomas as the church musician (''Kantor'') from 1945 to 1957, and

as the organist from 1946 to 1981. Thomas founded an a cappella choir at the church, first called Chor der Dreikönigskirche, then

Frankfurter Kantorei Frankfurter Kantorei (Frankfurt chorale) is a German mixed concert choir established in 1961 by Kurt Thomas in Frankfurt. In 1969, Helmuth Rilling assumed leadership, and the choir began recording the complete Bach cantatas in 1972. From 1982 to ...

, which received international recognition. The choir performed the world premiere of

Kurt Hessenberg Kurt Hessenberg (17 August 1908 – 17 June 1994) was a German composer and professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt. Life Kurt Hessenberg was born on 17 August 1908 in Frankfurt, as the fourth and last child o ...

's ''St Luke Passion'' at the Dreikönigskirche in 1978, initiated and conducted by

Helmuth Rilling Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Internationale Bachakade ...

, also many

Bach cantatas This is a sortable list of Bach cantatas, the cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His almost 200 extant cantatas are among his important vocal compositions. Many are known to be lost. Bach composed both church cantatas, most of them for ...

and compositions by Thomas. The church was a leading venue of major church concerts in Frankfurt until the opening of the

Alte Oper Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destr ...

as a concert hall in 1981. The present

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

was completed in 1961, with Walcha's , by the organ builder

from Berlin. It has 47 stops on three manuals and pedal. The instrument was a gift from the city of Frankfurt to honour Walcha's achievements as the organist. In 2020, during the

COVID-19 epidemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, regular cantata services were resumed with solo cantatas. On the first Sunday in

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

, Georg Böhm's cantata ''

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland "" (original: "", English: "Savior of the nations, come", literally: Now come, Saviour of the heathen) is a Lutheran chorale of 1524 with words written by Martin Luther, based on by Ambrose, and a melody, Zahn number, Zahn 1174, based on ...

'' was featured, with soloists Gabriele Hierdeis, Lieselotte Fink,

Anne Bierwirth Anne Bierwirth is a German contralto, focused on concerts and recordings of sacred music, appearing internationally. Besides the standard repertoire such as Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio'', she has explored rarely performed Baroque music such as B ...

Georg Poplutz Georg Poplutz is a German tenor, a soloist in Baroque music, opera and oratorio, and a Lied singer. He has been a member of vocal ensembles such as Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and Cantus Cölln, and has participated in a project to record the ...

and

Markus Flaig Markus Flaig (born 1971) is a German bass-baritone who has focused on concerts and recordings of sacred music. Career Markus Flaig was born in Horb am Neckar. He studied sacred music and school music, then voice with Beata Heuer-Christen in Fre ...

, and the Telemann Ensemble Frankfurt, conducted by Andreas Köhs. A cantata service on New Year's Eve 2020 featured Bach's cantata ''Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende'', BWV 28 (Praise God! For now the year is ending), with soloists Simone Schwark, Julia Diefenbach, Poplutz and Flaig. In a service during

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

, they performed Telemann's cantata '' Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen'', composed while he was music director in Frankfurt, on 21 March 2021 with Johannes Hill as the soloist.

History

Architecture

Church music

References

Further reading

External links