Frauenkirche, Dresden

About

The Predecessor Gothic church of the Frauenkirche, Dresden was the predecessor building of the now‐famous baroque Frauenkirche designed by George Bähr. It was constructed in the 14th century and, despite its location outside the city walls, remained the mother and principal church of Dresden until the 16th century. The introduction of Protestantism in Saxony in 1539 marked a turning point in the church’s history; worship services were suspended there and held exclusively in the Kreuzkirche (Dresden). Only in 1559 were services resumed in the Frauenkirche, although by then it had been relegated to the status of a village church serving the poorer part of the population.

Although the Frauenkirche and its churchyard held special significance as burial sites for the nobility and the higher bourgeoisie, protest arose among the populace when the dilapidated Frauenkirche was slated for demolition at the beginning of the 18th century and its churchyard secularised. Only once the church became imminently unsafe for collapse could planning for a new building under George Bähr proceed. The construction of the baroque Frauenkirche and the concurrent use of the Gothic church initially ran in parallel...

In 968 the Diocese of Meissen was founded, subordinate to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg. From Meissen the missionizing of the Sorbian population then living in the Saxon region commenced. To this end, by around the year 1000 a church organisation with numerous mission churches developed, largely at the initiative of the bishops but also of the margraves. It is considered probable that a Meissen bishop founded the Frauenkirche in the former Gau Nisan and held the patronage over it. Initially around 30 Sorbian villages on both sides of the Elbe, up to ten kilometres from the church, were assigned to the Frauenkirche parish. The Sorbian village of Poppitz also provided the Frauenkirche, from its foundation, a dower (Dos) for its material endowment.

The Frauenkirche was dedicated to “Our Lady” ( Unserer Lieben Frauen ) in honour of the Virgin Mary. As many churches in the Middle Ages bore the Marian dedication, this gives no precise indication of founding date. Research suggests that the first Frauenkirche began as a “mission station without a fixed district” and stood outside a burgward centre. This first church must have been built by the late 10th or early 11th century. During the refurbishment of the roof about 1580 an old year-number (probably 1020) was found and the age given as “in the 560th year”. Thus chronicle authors of the 17th and 18th centuries considered a foundation around 1020 plausible. According to Slavic tradition the (probably wooden) Frauenkirche was consecrated by Přibislav (likely the court chaplain of the Bohemian duke Oldřich) on 8 September, the feast day of the Nativity of Mary. Archaeologist Reinhard Spehr dated construction to “around 1060”; his 1987 excavations on the former churchyard uncovered burial remains likely from the 11th/early 12th century. Later excavations yielded finds that even date back to the late 10th century. As no structural remains of the first Frauenkirche exist and stone construction was still uncommon at the time, the first building likely was of wood.

In the course of the 12th century, the church’s wealth and significance increased and the surrounding settlements must have grown such that a plan for a stone building was realised. In 1987 excavated wall-foundations comprised Planer-schiefer (Pläner slate) set in clay. Foundations of purely Planer-schiefer found in Dresden beneath the city wall date to the last quarter of the 12th century. Small fragmentatory finds in the clay of the Planer walls, broadly datable to the 12th century, suggest that a first stone Frauenkirche existed before 1170. It is thought to have been built as a three-aisled basilica.

The first indirect documented mention dates to 1240: Margrave Heinrich III. named the parish priest of Dresden in his charter for the Leipzig Katharinenkirche as a witness. The first direct written reference to the Frauenkirche dates from 1 October 1289 when Abbot Heydolf of the Monastery Berge near Magdeburg informed the archdeacon Arnold of Nisan that he had “appointed the priest Albert of Lobeda … as pastor in the [Frauen]church in Dresden and imposed a ban on his adversary Adolf in that church.”

The patronage over the Frauenkirche changed several times up to the 15th century. Until shortly before 1288 it belonged to Margrave Heinrich III.; it then passed to the Clarissan convent of Seußlitz and in 1316, by exchange, to Bishop Withego II. of Meissen. In 1404 the Margrave of Meissen Wilhelm I. acquired patronage rights from Bishop Thimo of Colditz in exchange for the church‐fief Ebersbach and the Nikolaikirche in Freiberg.

Construction in the 14th and 15th centuries

The rebuild of the Frauenkirche took place in the 14th century. It was “built around the Romanesque predecessor, thus encircling it like a bell”. Whether the church consecration recorded in 1388 refers to the new build is uncertain but not unlikely, as excavation evidence points to a late 14th-century structure. The new build was a flat-roofed hall church with two aisles. The plan shape of this nave was almost square, similar to its predecessor. In 1395 the church received a donated altar, and minor modifications are recorded in 1452.

The date when the sacristy was added is unknown. In 1468 stonemason Paul created a window and a keystone for the sacristy; it was given a new door and likely vaulted in 1469. Although not clearly proven, art-historian Heinrich Magirius sees these works as “in connection with the building of a sacristy”.

From 1470 to 1483 the Frauenkirche was redesigned in the late Gothic style. Between 1470 and 1472 the church and its sacristy received new roofs; at that time the church already had a small tower. From 1477 to 1483 a long choir was added, giving the church a total length of 38 metres. The choir, soon called “the high choir”, was vaulted. Cornelius Gurlitt and Heinrich Magirius suspected this late Gothic choir replaced an earlier one, though no direct evidence of a predecessor choir survives. The period of the choir’s construction likely also saw the addition of a side-chapel and possibly the rebuilding of the sacristy. On 6 November 1483 the main altar in the newly completed long choir was consecrated.

In 1497 the Frauenkirche received a new ridge turret crafted by Caspar Beyer. Two years later a new spindle on a golden sphere was placed atop the tower. At this point the Frauenkirche had acquired its iconographic appearance, as seen in 18th-century prints, offering the impression “of a centralising building with east-attached long choir”.

In 1539 the anti-Lutheran Saxon Duke George the Bearded died. His successor, the Lutheran-leaning Heinrich IV, Duke of Saxony, introduced Protestantism in Saxony that same year. This marked a decisive moment for the Frauenkirche. Although the Nikolaikirche had already been built nearby in the 12th century (and re-consecrated as the Kreuzkirche in 1388), over time the Kreuzkirche evolved into a rival for the status of main church of Dresden. It was inside the city walls, while the Frauenkirche lay beyond them. Nevertheless, the Frauenkirche retained its status as mother and main church until the 16th century. With the Reformation of 1539 that changed. Worship at the Frauenkirche was suspended, and services were held exclusively in the Kreuzkirche. It appears the Dresden city council assumed services could take place in a city church alone, despite the fact that 26 surrounding villages were parished to the Frauenkirche. The church’s furnishings were sold off; the Annaberg mint and later the Dresden mint acquired its altars, and its bells were melted down. The church remained empty for some time, though it continued to serve as a burial site.

Already by 1520, under the rule of George the Bearded, fortification works around the settlement at the Frauenkirche site had begun. The old city wall remained, but from 1546 the construction of the Dresden fortifications commenced under Caspar Vogt von Wierandt. Completed in 1556, these works visually incorporated the Frauenkirche into the city. The Neumarkt quarter to the city-side of the church developed into a lively construction zone. Nearby the Frauenkirche and its churchyard, the mint (1556), the armament house with foundry and salt-house (1559–1563) and the Powder Tower (1565) were built.

By the 1550s it had become apparent that the Kreuzkirche alone could no longer accommodate services for both the city population and the 26 parished villages. The city council therefore resolved to reopen the Frauenkirche for worship. Because of its disuse since 1539, it had fallen further into disrepair and required refurbishment from 1556: the nave ceiling was removed in 1556 and replaced the following year with a frail ceiling which soon received a painted decoration. The new two-storey galleries in the nave were painted ash-white; the interior walls were whitewashed, and the seating renewed. Sculptor Hans Walther II made a new pulpit in 1556-57, regarded as a “masterpiece of the Renaissance”. Elector August gave the church three bells from the secularised Cistercian monastery Altzella in 1556. In 1559 the church received a new Steer organ and was reopened for services on Judica Sunday in the same year.

The Frauenkirche served as the parish church for 26 villages incorporated into Dresden’s parish jurisdiction. Baptisms, however, were only permitted in the Kreuzkirche, which since the Reformation had become Dresden’s main church. Funerals took place in the Frauenkirche and on the Frauenkirchhof. The latter had become a prestigious burial ground for bourgeoisie and nobility after the completion of 112 exclusive hereditary burial niches (Schwibbögen) around 1565.

By the 16th century the quarter around the Frauenkirche had been upgraded by the presence of the Stallhof and the Gewandhaus. The Neumarkt district, at the beginning of the 18th century, gained further importance through the aristocratic building boom — Hôtel de Saxe (1709), Palais Brühl (1712), Palais Flemming-Sulkowski (1714) — yet the Frauenkirche itself had remained externally unchanged since the 15th century; the decay of the medieval structure could no longer be halted by the 17th century. From 1714 Elector Frederick August I pressured the secularisation of the Frauenkirchhof and the erection of a new representative church in place of the aged building. Both the Oberkonsistorium and Dresden’s citizens resisted the dissolution of the churchyard, where generations of families had interred their dead. On the elector’s orders the churchyard was closed in 1715 and partly cleared to allow for a new regiment house.

By no later than 1722 the city council of Dresden began planning a church rebuild. In 1721 the large bell of the Frauenkirche lost its clapper and damaged the church roof. Further cracks developed in the masonry, and by 1722 the ribs of the choir vault and the roof turret had to be removed. The bells were hung in a newly erected interim bell-tower north of the church.

Before the new building could be constructed the burial ground had to be cleared; the Frauenkirchhof was overburdened with graves and there were over 100 massive hereditary burials (Schwibbögen) in the church and churchyard wall. In July 1724 labourers began removing tombstones and breaking down the Schwibbögen; these works continued until 1727. The Oberkonsistorium ordered that citizens arrange new burials for their deceased; where this was not possible, the town council ensured re-burial at the Johannis cemetery.

In January 1725 the still-used Frauenkirche was at risk of collapse. The masonry cracks increased from 1721. By May 1725 scaffolding and timber props had been erected internally; at the same time the exterior walls were reinforced with supports (despite adjacent resident protests). From 1725 the churchyard was used as storage for materials for the new church.