St. Martin (Memmingen)

About

The cultural heritage management city parish church of St. Martin in Memmingen is one of the oldest churches in Upper Swabia. The church is a landmark of the city and is located on the edge of the northwestern old town, in the old Protestant church district in front of the old abandoned cemetery on a rise of the Memminger Achtal. Its tower is visible from afar and, at about 65 meters, is the tallest building in the city. Its history can be traced back to the 9th century. It was a scene of the Memmingen Reformation in the 16th century, which radiated to Upper Swabia and the Allgäu. The reformer was the preacher Christoph Schappeler. The three-nave basilica, begun in its present form around 1325 and completed around 1500, is the main church of the Protestant-Lutheran church district of Memmingen, a regular place of preaching for the Memmingen dean and the center of one of the city's four Protestant-Lutheran parishes. The basilica, financed by the citizens, was the largest Gothic town church between Lake Constance and the Lech River after its completion. It houses many works of art, including the choir stalls, which are over 500 years old, are among the best late Gothic carvings in southern...

Traces of settlements at the site of the church have been proven as early as the 2nd century AD. During excavations in 1912, remains of a Roman burgus were discovered under the building. The first church building on this site cannot be dated precisely. Researchers assume that it was built around the year 800. It is not clear whether St. Martin's or the Frauenkirche in the southern part of the city was the royal court church. The church, which had been Guelph until then, became Hohenstaufen in 1178/1179. In 1214, Frederick II handed over the patronage to the Antonines, who founded their first settlement on German soil in Memmingen. In the next years, accelerated by the growth and wealth of the city, the church became the city parish church. At the end of the 14th century the choir and the tower were built. This was followed by further interior reconstructions until the 20th century. In 1562 the patronage of the Antonines ended and the church was finally handed over to the town. The financing of all extensions and reconstructions was taken over by the citizens of the town. The Antonines (also called Antonians) built the Kinderlehrkirche opposite the eastern porch as an abbey church and limited themselves to this and their preceptory.

In the 10th century, the town of Memmingen came to the Guelphs. As a result, St. Martin's must have become a Guelph church of its own. It can be assumed that a strong building activity began. The building history of this time can be traced on the basis of chronicles. According to them, St. Martin was built in 926, extended in 1077 and remodeled in 1176. However, these dates cannot be proven by findings. The remodeling of 1176 fits well into the history of the city's development, so it can be assumed that this date is correct. Due to various irregularities within the present structure, it can be assumed that consideration was given to an earlier development. Thus, the eastern arch bay is 1.20 meters wider than the other bays, the sixth differs by 80 centimeters from the usual arch span. The southeast portal is not in harmony with the Gothic arcade rhythm, so that when entering one looks at a pillar. Presumably, a Gothic porch was added to the Romanesque structure. Researchers assume that the previous building was a basilica with a pair of western towers. According to this, the transept had its location in the first bay, while the towers were located in the sixth bay. According to the proportions of the time, there would have been room for six Romanesque bays between the towers and the transept. A reconstruction of the basilica on this basis would fit in with other Guelph buildings. In 1216, St. Martin became a pilgrimage church. A blood relic was transferred to the church from nearby Benningen. As early as 1446, its status as an altar sacrament was withdrawn by the Bishop of Augsburg and Cardinal Peter von Schaumberg, after the host had gradually decayed. He only allowed its veneration as a relic. During the Reformation, the blood host is said to have been walled up in an unknown place.

Around 1325, the church had become too small for the greatly increased number of citizens of the town, so the first extensions were made. The tower and a choir were added. A buttress and a window tracery in the northern choir are preserved from this high Gothic building. The dating is based on a preserved fresco fragment on the wall of the lowest tower storey. Following this construction, the first pairs of pillars of the nave and the northern row of arcades with the more strongly dimensioned wall field rising above them must have been built. Around 1345, the construction measures came to a standstill, although in the same year Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian gave "the two bread tables" (probably Memmingen's first market) for the expansion of the cemetery. Whether this was connected with the political unrest around Emperor Ludwig IV or with the plague epidemic of 1349 could not be clarified. Only in the middle of the second half of the 14th century is there evidence of a renewed start of building activity. The unknown master builder must have enjoyed a good education in the Gothic architecture of his time, since the ponderous construction of the first buttresses was changed from the second bay into a slimmer, high Gothic architectural style. With the start of construction of the fourth bay with a plain console construction, the master builder must have changed again. After the fifth bay was completed, there was a longer pause in the building activity. Researchers assume that the Westwork of the Guelph basilica was located there and that it was thus provisionally completed.

From 1404/1405, work began on the expansion of the sixth yoke. However, the city workers could not cope with it, so the city council turned to Munich. In 1405 Conrad von Amberg was engaged for the extension. Presumably, the old west work made the extension extremely difficult, since it partly served as a structural system for the arcades and had to be partly demolished and partly integrated. The sixth bay had to be 80 centimetres wider than the existing bays. Conrad raised the central nave walls to their final height. By 1407, the roof structure had already been erected. It is one of the earliest examples of the recumbent chair in the German-speaking world. This made it possible to include the first attic in the central nave. It is assumed that only Master Conrad completed the fourth tower floor with the high tented roof. Similar examples of this Gothic church tower roofing can be found in Woringen and in Westerheim. By 1409/1410, Conrad vom Amberg had completed the church as a six-bay basilica.

In the following years, activities concentrated mainly on the interior construction. The eastern porches were built in 1438, and the vaulting of the side naves, begun in 1458, was only made possible by massive donations from the Besserer and Wespach families. The Funk Chapel marked the beginning of a series of chapel endowments in the basilica. Thus, the Vöhlin Chapel was added in 1476 and the Vöhlin Chapel in 1482. In 1489–1491, the demolition of two houses in Zangmeisterstraße enabled the nave to be extended by two bays. Since the Memmingen master builders were overburdened with this delicate task, the city council was able to win over the Ulm master builder Matthäus Böblinger. From 1496 to 1500, the choir was rebuilt, thus completing the largest city parish church between Lake Constance and Lech.

Under the Swiss preacher Christoph Schappeler, the Reformation spread in Memmingen starting in 1524. Schappeler held a well-paid preacher's post at the Vöhlin Chapel in St. Martin's. In that year, he performed baptism in German for the first time. Together with Lindau, Constance and Strasbourg, the city, which initially had a Zwingli orientation, presented a special confession, the Tetrapolitan Confession (Quadrennial Confession), at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.

A city council decision from 1531, which stated that all ecclesiastical cult objects had to disappear from the city's churches, led to the greatest loss of St. Martin's furnishings. The church lost 21 side altars and the late Gothic high altar in the choir room. Of the furnishings of the high choir, only the choir stalls remained.

In 1532, the city professed the Lutheran doctrine by adopting the Augsburg Confession. Finally, Memmingen and thus also St. Martin's became committed to the Lutheran doctrine in 1536 by accepting the Wittenberg Concord.

During the Thirty Years' War, Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution, according to which all property expropriated during the Reformation was to be returned to the Catholic owners. This also affected St. Martin, but the town successfully defended itself against it. During the shelling by the imperial forces and the Bavarians in 1647, the church was also hit, damaging the wooden ceiling. Hans Knoll replaced it with a board vault made of ribs and keystones with painting, similar to the choir vault. Knoll also created a musicians' and singers' matroneum in the first nave aisle in 1656. The medieval churchyard wall was demolished in 1810. At the same time, the former churchyard was transformed into a park-like landscape with tree plantings. The ceiling of the nave was redesigned starting in 1845 and a false vault was added. The nave and tower were re-roofed with slate in 1867 and 1872. From 1926 to 1927 the church was renovated and the roofing was taken back. From 1962 to 1965 and from 1984 to 1988 the church was renovated again.

Nothing remains of the predecessor towers of the Guelph Basilica on the west side. The first tower construction on the present site is dated around 1300. The lowest floor of the present tower was built around 1325. A further construction of the fifth floor must be dated to around 1370. The brick format of 34×16.5×7.5 centimeters used there was also bricked in the Frauenkirche tower built around 1370. The other floors were added around 1405 to 1410 by master builder Conrad von Amberg. At that time, the tower was topped with a high pointed helmet with green slab roofing. The spiral staircase leading from the north nave to the second floor burned down in 1420. In 1428, the current belfry was built into the tower as a scaffolding structure. Until then, the bells hung in a beam system connected to the masonry. Two years later, the pointed spire rising above four stone gables was completed. Due to the vaulting of the side naves within the church, the tower entrance was moved to its present location in the northeast corner. After a lightning strike in 1470, the tower received a spire knob and it was re-roofed with green-glass tiles. The tower was saved in 1482 by quick extinguishing measures of the population after four lightning bolts had struck the tower and set it on fire. Chronicles record two nightly lightning strikes in 1494, when the later Emperor Maximilian I entered the city. The tower helmet, destroyed by another lightning strike in 1535, was replaced in 1537 by the present octagonal structure on the tower stump. A wooden bay window was added above the clock face of the tower clock in 1573. The master carpenter Jacob Britzel and the coppersmith Bartholomäus Seybrand erected a Welsh canopy made of copper above the helmet. Since then, the tower has had a height of about 65 meters. In 1872 the dome was covered with slate, which was reversed during the renovation in 1927. The tower was renovated in 1966 and for the last time in 2012. Since its construction, the lower part belonged to the parish, the upper part to the city. In 1927, the city also gave its part to the parish.

In the 10th century, the town of Memmingen came to the Guelphs. As a result, St. Martin's must have become a Guelph church of its own. It can be assumed that a strong building activity began. The building history of this time can be traced on the basis of chronicles. According to them, St. Martin was built in 926, extended in 1077 and remodeled in 1176. However, these dates cannot be proven by findings. The remodeling of 1176 fits well into the history of the city's development, so it can be assumed that this date is correct. Due to various irregularities within the present structure, it can be assumed that consideration was given to an earlier development. Thus, the eastern arch bay is 1.20 meters wider than the other bays, the sixth differs by 80 centimeters from the usual arch span. The southeast portal is not in harmony with the Gothic arcade rhythm, so that when entering one looks at a pillar. Presumably, a Gothic porch was added to the Romanesque structure. Researchers assume that the previous building was a basilica with a pair of western towers. According to this, the transept had its location in the first bay, while the towers were located in the sixth bay. According to the proportions of the time, there would have been room for six Romanesque bays between the towers and the transept. A reconstruction of the basilica on this basis would fit in with other Guelph buildings. In 1216, St. Martin became a pilgrimage church. A blood relic was transferred to the church from nearby Benningen. As early as 1446, its status as an altar sacrament was withdrawn by the Bishop of Augsburg and Cardinal Peter von Schaumberg, after the host had gradually decayed. He only allowed its veneration as a relic. During the Reformation, the blood host is said to have been walled up in an unknown place.

Around 1325, the church had become too small for the greatly increased number of citizens of the town, so the first extensions were made. The tower and a choir were added. A buttress and a window tracery in the northern choir are preserved from this high Gothic building. The dating is based on a preserved fresco fragment on the wall of the lowest tower storey. Following this construction, the first pairs of pillars of the nave and the northern row of arcades with the more strongly dimensioned wall field rising above them must have been built. Around 1345, the construction measures came to a standstill, although in the same year Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian gave "the two bread tables" (probably Memmingen's first market) for the expansion of the cemetery. Whether this was connected with the political unrest around Emperor Ludwig IV or with the plague epidemic of 1349 could not be clarified. Only in the middle of the second half of the 14th century is there evidence of a renewed start of building activity. The unknown master builder must have enjoyed a good education in the Gothic architecture of his time, since the ponderous construction of the first buttresses was changed from the second bay into a slimmer, high Gothic architectural style. With the start of construction of the fourth bay with a plain console construction, the master builder must have changed again. After the fifth bay was completed, there was a longer pause in the building activity. Researchers assume that the Westwork of the Guelph basilica was located there and that it was thus provisionally completed.

From 1404/1405, work began on the expansion of the sixth yoke. However, the city workers could not cope with it, so the city council turned to Munich. In 1405 Conrad von Amberg was engaged for the extension. Presumably, the old west work made the extension extremely difficult, since it partly served as a structural system for the arcades and had to be partly demolished and partly integrated. The sixth bay had to be 80 centimetres wider than the existing bays. Conrad raised the central nave walls to their final height. By 1407, the roof structure had already been erected. It is one of the earliest examples of the recumbent chair in the German-speaking world. This made it possible to include the first attic in the central nave. It is assumed that only Master Conrad completed the fourth tower floor with the high tented roof. Similar examples of this Gothic church tower roofing can be found in Woringen and in Westerheim. By 1409/1410, Conrad vom Amberg had completed the church as a six-bay basilica.

In the following years, activities concentrated mainly on the interior construction. The eastern porches were built in 1438, and the vaulting of the side naves, begun in 1458, was only made possible by massive donations from the Besserer and Wespach families. The Funk Chapel marked the beginning of a series of chapel endowments in the basilica. Thus, the Vöhlin Chapel was added in 1476 and the Vöhlin Chapel in 1482. In 1489–1491, the demolition of two houses in Zangmeisterstraße enabled the nave to be extended by two bays. Since the Memmingen master builders were overburdened with this delicate task, the city council was able to win over the Ulm master builder Matthäus Böblinger. From 1496 to 1500, the choir was rebuilt, thus completing the largest city parish church between Lake Constance and Lech.

Under the Swiss preacher Christoph Schappeler, the Reformation spread in Memmingen starting in 1524. Schappeler held a well-paid preacher's post at the Vöhlin Chapel in St. Martin's. In that year, he performed baptism in German for the first time. Together with Lindau, Constance and Strasbourg, the city, which initially had a Zwingli orientation, presented a special confession, the Tetrapolitan Confession (Quadrennial Confession), at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.

A city council decision from 1531, which stated that all ecclesiastical cult objects had to disappear from the city's churches, led to the greatest loss of St. Martin's furnishings. The church lost 21 side altars and the late Gothic high altar in the choir room. Of the furnishings of the high choir, only the choir stalls remained.

In 1532, the city professed the Lutheran doctrine by adopting the Augsburg Confession. Finally, Memmingen and thus also St. Martin's became committed to the Lutheran doctrine in 1536 by accepting the Wittenberg Concord.

During the Thirty Years' War, Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution, according to which all property expropriated during the Reformation was to be returned to the Catholic owners. This also affected St. Martin, but the town successfully defended itself against it. During the shelling by the imperial forces and the Bavarians in 1647, the church was also hit, damaging the wooden ceiling. Hans Knoll replaced it with a board vault made of ribs and keystones with painting, similar to the choir vault. Knoll also created a musicians' and singers' matroneum in the first nave aisle in 1656. The medieval churchyard wall was demolished in 1810. At the same time, the former churchyard was transformed into a park-like landscape with tree plantings. The ceiling of the nave was redesigned starting in 1845 and a false vault was added. The nave and tower were re-roofed with slate in 1867 and 1872. From 1926 to 1927 the church was renovated and the roofing was taken back. From 1962 to 1965 and from 1984 to 1988 the church was renovated again.

Nothing remains of the predecessor towers of the Guelph Basilica on the west side. The first tower construction on the present site is dated around 1300. The lowest floor of the present tower was built around 1325. A further construction of the fifth floor must be dated to around 1370. The brick format of 34×16.5×7.5 centimeters used there was also bricked in the Frauenkirche tower built around 1370. The other floors were added around 1405 to 1410 by master builder Conrad von Amberg. At that time, the tower was topped with a high pointed helmet with green slab roofing. The spiral staircase leading from the north nave to the second floor burned down in 1420. In 1428, the current belfry was built into the tower as a scaffolding structure. Until then, the bells hung in a beam system connected to the masonry. Two years later, the pointed spire rising above four stone gables was completed. Due to the vaulting of the side naves within the church, the tower entrance was moved to its present location in the northeast corner. After a lightning strike in 1470, the tower received a spire knob and it was re-roofed with green-glass tiles. The tower was saved in 1482 by quick extinguishing measures of the population after four lightning bolts had struck the tower and set it on fire. Chronicles record two nightly lightning strikes in 1494, when the later Emperor Maximilian I entered the city. The tower helmet, destroyed by another lightning strike in 1535, was replaced in 1537 by the present octagonal structure on the tower stump. A wooden bay window was added above the clock face of the tower clock in 1573. The master carpenter Jacob Britzel and the coppersmith Bartholomäus Seybrand erected a Welsh canopy made of copper above the helmet. Since then, the tower has had a height of about 65 meters. In 1872 the dome was covered with slate, which was reversed during the renovation in 1927. The tower was renovated in 1966 and for the last time in 2012. Since its construction, the lower part belonged to the parish, the upper part to the city. In 1927, the city also gave its part to the parish.