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Church of St. John of Kronstadt (Hamburg)
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The Church of St. John of Kronstadt (Hamburg) is a Russian Orthodox Church located in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Within Hamburg, the church is located specifically in the quarter named St. Pauli.
The church had previously been called the Gnadenkirche (Church of Grace). It had been home to a congregation of Evangelical Lutherans and was previously owned by a larger St. Pauli Protestant community and even though very little money changed hands, it still made financial sense for them to separate themselves from this building which was in need of renovations.
Gnadenkirche
[edit]Fernando Lorenzen, already the architect of several churches, including the Kreuzkirche in Hamburg-Ottensen, designed the Gnadenkirche (Church of Grace) that was built on Karolinenstrasse in 1907.[1] The church was built in the Neo-Romanesque style. The floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross (a cross with four equal branches).[2]
The building was part of the organization of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church until it was sold for a nominal fee to the Russian Orthodox Church. The church belonged to the Evangelical Lutherans of St. Pauli's North until 2004. That is to say, it was part of the community of Evangelical Lutherans in the portion of St. Pauli's, Hamburg, where it was located). However, it still need renovation due to World War II.[1] Church attendance was declining beginning in the 1960s.[2] The church could not be financially supported, although there was an attempt to turn the building into an "art church,"though this did not make the church financially viable. Therefore, the building was sold for a nominal price to the Russian Orthodox Church in 2004.[1]
Acquiring the church
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The building needed to be modified to make it suitable for a Russian Orthodox congregation. The sandstone altar was moved to St. Pauli Church. It was not until 2007 that the church was fully renovated in the Russian Orthodox style and in that year, the Lutherans and the Russian Orthodox congregation celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the building together. In the same year Hamburg celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its city-partnership with St. Petersburg.[3]
Modern use
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There are about 2,000 members of the congregation, many of whom come from Russia or Ukraine.[4] It is presently the largest Russian Orthodox Church in Germany. The languages of worship are Church Slavonic and Russian, with parts of some services in German.[5]
The church has an iconostasis, a fixture of Eastern Orthodox churches that stands between the nave and the chancel. It was made by some of the best icon-painters in Moscow. Among other saints, it includes three Germans who were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.[2] The paintings were made with pastel pinks, oranges and greens as well as shining gold and other colors.[4]
The church building is also known as Tschaikovsky House (Tschaikowskyhaus) in its role as a community center where pilgrims and believers can give a donation to sleep in one of their furnished attic rooms.[1][5] The square where the church is located, as well as part of the nearby street, were renamed Tschaikovsky Square (Tschaikowskyplatz) in 2011, while the neighboring Tschaikovsky Hall (Tschaikowskysaal), a center for music, art and culture, opened in 2014. Although the Tschaikovsky Hall has a wider cultural mission, two of its primary focuses are Russian culture and cross-cultural collaboration between Germany and Russia.[6] The Tschaikovsky whose name is used here is the famous Russian composer responsible for Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture. He also visited Hamburg six times between 1861-1893.[7]
St. John of Kronstadt
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John was ordained in 1856 and was unusually devoted to helping the poor. He worked with the destitute in Kronstadt, which was where many of the poorest people from St. Petersburg were sent to keep the city looking clean. Aside from the material good that he offered many of the needy who he met, he was also widely believed to have the power to perform miracles. In the 1860s, he also wrote against the unequal distribution of wealth in Russia, describing the rich as vultures.
However, the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 caused John to disassociate himself from anti-czarists and swing to the political right. He soon declared in sermons that God supported Russian autocracy, and a number of right wing groups claimed him as an honorary member. His beliefs reflected those of the members of the lower class who felt threatened by change.[8]
In response to the Kishinev Pogrom, John and a bishop signed a letter condemning the attacks made by Christians who killed 49 Jewish people and raped many Jewish women. The anti-Jewish mob would claim that it was reacting to rumors of ritualistic murder carried out by Jewish members of the community. John would later change his tune and claim that the Jewish population of the town had provoked the attacks. At least one source suggests that his thought process was that the attacks were provoked intentionally for political gain.[9][10]
- ^ a b c d "Fernando-Lorenzen-Platz". Nachricht auf Kulturkarte.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-02-25.
- ^ a b c "Öffnungszeiten, Bilder, Informationen". Hamburg.de Startseite (in German). Retrieved 2025-03-04.
- ^ "Kultur-Stadtplan von Hamburg". Gnadenkirche in Hamburg auf Kulturkarte.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-02-26.
- ^ a b Geißlinger, Esther (2022-03-22). "Russisch-orthodoxe Kirche in Hamburg: Bloß nicht von Krieg sprechen". taz.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-02-25.
- ^ a b "Willkommen". Kirche des Hl. Johannes von Kronstadt zu Hamburg. 2024-03-17. Retrieved 2025-02-25.
- ^ "Über uns". Tschaikowsky-Saal Hamburg (in German). 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
- ^ "Tschaikowsky und Hamburg". Tschaikowsky-Saal Hamburg (in German). 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
- ^ Kizenko, Nadieszda (1998). "Ioann of Kronstadt and the Reception of Sanctity, 1850—1988". The Russian Review. 57 (3): 325–344. doi:10.1111/1467-9434.00027. ISSN 0036-0341.
- ^ "Was Saint John of Kronstadt an Anti-Semite and Pogromist?". ORTHODOXY AND WORLD RELIGIONS. 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
- ^ Ireland, Corydon (2009-04-09). "The pogrom that transformed 20th century Jewry". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2025-03-01.