The Market Church

A guide to the oldest church in Detmold

 

The Tower From 1564 onwards the tower was being built on the south side of the church. Its tower and spire in the style of the Renaissance are dated 1592. Both are very distinctive. The square tower consists of 4 storeys, which can easily be seen from the outside.The height of the tower up to the spire amounts to 23.20 metres, but the complete height including the spire is 46 metres. The base is supported by additional slanting walls and the storeys have perpendicular ledges. On the west side of the tower a stone staircase can be found which leads up to the tower. Originally the tower could also be reached from the inside. Around 1596 two watchmen lived in this tower to watch for and to prevent fires from spreading in the town of Detmold. One bronze bell dated 1558 survived the two last World Wars of 1914 -1918 and 1939-1945. With its soft and deep sound it characterizes the "Market Church" as it is popularly called. We enter the church through the oldest part, which is on the west side, as the tower was originally on the west side until the great fire of 1547. The construction of the present tower on the south side of the church was begun in 1564. It took 15 years, until 1579, to build the stonework of the tower ; the spire was only finished in 1592.

The interior Coming from the west the visitor sees two short massive columns which subdivide the whole interior and take the eyes up to the impressive vaulting. A study of the ground plan shows three aisles. The square vaultings are partly decorated with plates which were designed by the late artist and sculptor Karl Ehlers and produced in 1957. Two glass mosaic plates each show one motif of our Lord`s supper (bread, a goblet ) the others a trebleclef and notes, a book (the bible )and a rose. In the western wall (behind the organ) are, as already stated, a few relics of an older church, which was enlarged around the year 1000. Towards 1300 a long aisle and a choir were added to the church. . Then around 1400 the small interior was enlarged. The church, as the visitor can see it today, derives from the years 1547-1564. The historian Otto Gaul suggests that the church must have suffered considerably during the Feud of Soest in 1447 and during the great fire which destroyed large parts of Detmold in 1547. The interior of the church is very much in the plain style of the Calvinist religion . There are no pictures as the Protestant Church is based on the word rather than the image. According to old documents there must have been 4 altars during the time before the Reformation : a St. Katherine 's altar (1443), a Holy Angels' altar (1464), an altar to the Virgin Mary (1448) and a St. Hubertus' altar (1526). After the introduction of the Reformation they must have been removed. It is not known what happened to them. The interior is characterized by pointed gothic windows , which are partly flamboyant in style in their upper part and contain quatrefoils. A neo-gothic window just above the stalls for the Prince and his family (on the north side) is undoubtedly the most recent stained-glass window in the church, as it was given by the last ruling Prince zur Lippe, Fürst Leopold IV, in the year 1908. A little inscription refers to it. It also mentions the glass painting school of Quedlinburg, which may have made the window. In the choir an ebony-coloured pulpit dating back to the 2nd part of the 17th century catches the eye. It is a beautiful example of the late Renaissance. This pentagonal pulpit stands on a plain round wooden column, above it a six-sided canopy. Opposite the pulpit is the font (made of sandstone) in the shape of a goblet . Its shaft has spiral fluting.The inscription runs "Anno Domini 1579". Foliage in flat relief decorates the font. Behind the font are blue wooden plaques for the deceased of World War I. Behind this wall is the sacristy which has always been used by the clergy to pray and to prepare for the service, in the old days as today. Since 1629 this "Gerkammer"(the sacristy) served as crypt for the ruling House of Lippe. After the construction of the mausoleum just outside Detmold (to the south) in 1856 a large number of the coffins were transferred there. After that time a part of the "Gerkammer"became a sacristy again. Yet another part remains inaccessible. Coming from the choir there are 2 oval plaques on the north side of the church. The one near the font commemorates the dead of the war 1870-1871, the other one on the side of the pulpit commemorates the dead of the war of 1866

The Organ Interesting for an historian as well as a musician is the organ. It was mentioned for the first time as early as 1555. Several renovations and restorations followed. In 1795 the famous organ builder Johann-Markus Oestreich from Oberimbach near Fulda created it in its present form. In 1962 it was thoroughly renovated and enlarged by keeping the registers from the time of the Reformation as well as 90% of the old baroque organ. The works were carried out under the instructions of Helmut Tramnitz, organist and Professor at the College of Music in Detmold ( the Musikhochschule Detmold). According to the present organist, Johannes Pöld, the organ now includes about 2000 pipes. The organ case in its late Baroque style is symmetrically decorated. The vases, flowers, garlands and palm leaves indicate a transition to Classicism

The South entrance On entering the church from the south we are directly in the tower, where there are two memorials worth mentioning. On the left there is a memorial to Margarete von Schwarz, nee von Kerssenbrock (+1567). It is probably an early piece of art by the Lemgo artist Hermann Wulf (1567/68). This memorial is a bas-relief in sandstone. In its centre is a crucifix flanked by two columns and underneath it two kneeling figures: the Droste Adolf Schwarz zu Braunenbruch (+1601) and his wife. Next to the knight are his insignia: sword and helmet and next to his wife an infant in swaddling clothes who died in its infancy. The crucifix is crowned with a host of angels' heads. On both sides of the centre piece are the coats of arms of the families Schwarz and Kerssenbrock. Underneath the crucifix is a square field with an inscription which says : Epitaph for the honourable and virtuous Margarethen von Kerssenbrock , wife of the right honourable Adolf Swartzen, departed this life on 29 January in the year 1567. Here I sleep in peace and comfort For the blood of Christ has redeemed me Now and evermore my body is without distress Yet my soul will live in eternity Therefore in trouble hope in Christ Who will save without fail from everlasting death He has us all in His keeping When body and soul part asunder The second memorial on the right commemorates Anna von Zerssen. She herself had been the comptroller (Haushofmeisterin) , of the princely court in Detmold. The memorial is in fact for a whole family and all the members of the family are carved in stone. There are many coats of arms. All apart from two have names: Zerssen, Reden, Rauschenplatt, Offensen, Landsberg, Wirte, Duienn, Sußstädt, Werpup, Busche, Bock, Quernheim, Trappen, Oeynhausen, Bardelagen, Kappel. On the memorial, left of the crucifix, is the knight with four of his sons, all in splendid armour and all with ruffs around their necks. Those already deceased are marked by an hour glass. On the right of the crucifix is his wife, above her a basket. The background shows the silhouette of a town surrounded by countryside. Besides the arch which spans the scene there are clouds and angels' heads. The inscription is not only in rhyme but in the form of a riddle: Here rests peacefully in the Lord The noble and virtuous Anna born Warpup She lived and produced in six years With her noble husband, The knightly Levin von Zerssen, Four little sons: Jobst(37) Simon (38) Niclas(40) and Levinn(41). Jobst came from France to Münster And found there in 1558 his death. Simon, a brave young officer in Denmark, Rests (1563) in Copenhagen in his coffin. Their father, through a mishap In the year of the Lord 1541, was killed in his early years. By the grace of the Lord Christ For forty five years She was father and mother To their orphans, whom she with teaching Educated to fear and honour God. She trusted in God and diligently kept house. Alms she gladly distributed. As comptroller of the princely household She came to the court and died. At which time this occurred, That you can read on this stone. Like many Renaissance memorials this inscription contains a riddle. Although the inscription does not directly give us the date of the death of Anna von Zerssen, if we add the forty-five years in which she was 'both father and mother' to her children to the date of the death of her husband in 1541 we shall have the year 1586. The date of her birth, however, is not given.

Literature 1. Georg Dehio: Westfalen. 1977. Darmstadt. 2. Karl Ehlers: Das plastische Werk. 1984. Verlag Coppenrath, Münster 3. Otto Gaul: Bau - und Kunstdenkmäler von Westfalen - Stadt Detmold.1968. Aschedorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 4. Ulrich Großmann: Detmold. Führer durch die Stadt, Schloß und Umgebung. 1981. Verlag Trautvetter und Fischer Nachfahren. Marburg a.d.Lahn. 5. Wilfried Koch: Baustilkunde. 1990. Orbis Verlag GmbH, München. 6. Burghard Meier: Das Mausoleum am Büchenberg bei Detmold. Lippischer Heimatbund. Detmold 1988 7. N. N. Die Kirche am Markt in Detmold. 8. N. N. Kleine Orgel-Chronik der Detmolder Marktkirche. 9. Dr. Margarete A. Rose, Cambridge: Übersetzung der Prosainschrift des Zerssen-Epitaphs und ergänzende Erläuterungen zu Renaissanceinschriften.

verfasst von Marianna Heldman im Januar 1991 und übersetzt im März 2002 revised and added to in March 2002 by Dr. Margaret A. Rose, Cambridge, England.