Marktkirche: Protestant Church at Essen’s Former Market Square
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page9 sections
History
Marktkirche is a Protestant church in Essen, Germany, standing at the former market square in the city center. Its first church probably arose around 1043, after Abbess Theophanu received market rights for Essen from Henry III, a medieval German king and Holy Roman Emperor. The church was originally dedicated to Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, a Christian saint associated with travelers and merchants, and was officially known as Gertrudiskirche until the late nineteenth century.
Medieval origins and civic role
The church’s earliest written reference appears in Theophanu’s testament, which ordered candles to be lit at Saint Gertrude’s for her memorial. The building served the people who came to the market and belonged to the ecclesiastical community of Essen Minster. Until the Reformation, it was also a station in the minster’s processions. After Essen was divided into two parish districts, the church became the parish church for the southern part of the city, while St. Johannis served the northern inner-city parish.
The name Marktkirche was in use by the fourteenth century. During the Middle Ages, the church also functioned as an electoral and meeting place for the city council, reflecting the market square’s wider economic, political, and religious role.
Reformation and confessional change
In 1543, citizens occupied the church to demand the appointment of an evangelical preacher. The city magistrate prevailed in 1563, beginning a period of confessional and political conflict with Essen’s princely abbesses. A princely abbess headed a major religious foundation while also exercising territorial and political authority.
Heinrich Barenbroch, the reformer of Essen, preached the first evangelical sermon in the Heilig-Geist Chapel on 28 April 1563. On 2 May, he administered Communion in both forms for the first time in the Gertrude church. After his death in 1587, he was buried in the choir beside the entrance to the sacristy.
During the Spanish occupation, Abbess Maria Clara von Spaur restored Catholic worship in the church. After the Spanish withdrawal in 1630, the Protestant preacher Wittgen vom Aschenbruch restored Protestant services. The church remained Protestant thereafter.
Alterations, mining damage, and wartime destruction
Alterations in 1786 added a small vestibule to the southern nave. An extensive renovation in 1871 and 1872 changed the interior’s appearance and included new colored windows donated by Gustav Ernst Waldthausen. Coal mining caused damage to the church in 1877 and 1878, followed by further mining damage in 1894 and 1895.
After a new Catholic Gertrude church was consecrated in southern Essen, the historic church officially adopted the name Marktkirche. Strategic bombing during the Second World War almost completely destroyed it. Although planners initially treated the ruined building as an obstruction to traffic and did not intend to rebuild it, building official Sturm Kegel secured a partial reconstruction. The decision to restore the church was made in 1952.
Postwar reconstruction and contemporary use
The reconstruction retained only the two eastern bays as a church. The tower foundations and the remaining parts of the building were demolished, reducing the floor area by almost half. A changed roof form and roof turret left the rebuilt structure as a shortened remnant of the original church. Bronze reliefs of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were placed on the newly created western portals in memory of war and destruction.
In 2006, architect Eckhard Gerber redesigned the church and added a blue-glass west choir. The former western portals were moved to the gallery. Since September 2006, the Protestant church at Marktkirche has also housed a central church-reentry office. It remains an active Protestant church.
Remains
Rebuilt medieval structure
Marktkirche stands on Flachsmarkt near Essen Minster, occupying the site of the former market square. The original building was Romanesque, a medieval style characterized by substantial masonry and rounded architectural forms. It later became a Late Gothic hall church, in which the central nave and side aisles were approximately equal in height, creating a more unified interior. Before its destruction, the church had three naves.
Wartime destruction left the exterior walls and two bays, while the tower largely collapsed. The postwar church therefore consists of the two eastern bays rebuilt on a smaller ground plan. The tower was not reconstructed, and the roof form and roof turret were altered. These changes preserve part of the earlier building while giving the surviving church a reduced form.
Western portals and blue-glass choir
The newly created western portals carry bronze reliefs of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Their placement commemorates war and destruction. During the 2006 redesign, the portals were relocated to the gallery, while a new west choir made of blue glass was added to the church.
Organ
The church formerly contained an organ built by the Georg Stahlhuth organ-building company. That instrument was sold and replaced by a digital organ made by Ewald Kienle. The replacement has 26 stops, two manuals, and a pedal.
