Heidelberg’s two oldest churches, only blocks apart, share an unusual distinction: both commissioned major series of stained-glass windows from modern master Johannes Schreiter, but the similarity ends there.
The Holy Spirit Church commissioned 22 windows in the 1980s, but after the first, above, was installed, designs for all the rest were rejected and a dozen years of controversy followed. Other windows were installed instead. At Peterskirche, or St Peter’s, 20 years later Schreiter completed a nine-window series in a style similar to the Holy Spirit proposal, but with more religious themes.
Schreiter’s dramatic windows are not the only glass at Peterskirche; behind the altar is a 19th-century ensemble by Heinrich Beiler, showing royal figures and theologians.
\
But it is the bold Schreiter windows that bring the most visitors; they were installed between 2006 and 2012, and represent a variety of themes, most of which I cannot interpret from looking at the windows themselves. The upper right-hand one, above, is said to represent the Holy Spirit.
Schreiter, who is now 96, has had a long career in German graphic arts; his stained glass work is connected to abstract expressionism, readily apparent. But he has been a pioneer in stained glass per se, using the lead divisions as intentional graphic elements and mixing different types of stained, painted and plain glass, as well as incorporating images of modern life—a good part of what cost him the Holy Spirit commission.
The church itself is not especially large, and has been rebuilt a number of times from its original style, most recently in the mid-19th century when it had the good luck to own land along the Odenwald hills next to the church that was needed for a railway tunnel. That money, in effect, ‘paid the freight’ for a lot of work; since 1896 it’s been the official university church. As the university church, it’s also the site of a plaque commemorating the professors dismissed by the Nazis.
Its roots go back to the 12th century, older than the city itself, but it’s been altered so many times no one knows what it originally looked like. During the 19th century work, many of the plaques and tombs that had lined the floors and walls of the church were relocated to the outside.
Quite a few remain inside the church as well…
The sandstone columns and fittings, mostly from the 19th-century work, give a rich tone to the interior.
This large canvas painting titled “Christus als Gärtner” (Christ as Gardener) was created in 1901 by the German artist Hans Thoma. It depicts a scene whose description seems surreal: Mary encounters the risen Jesus and mistakes him for a gardener. I mean…
A highlight of my visit was listening to the modern organ as the organist rehearsed. It was build in 1984, but has old-fashioned mechanical trackers. Organ aficionados appreciate that; they are not silent, and historically organ composers wrote around them so that their sound became part of the performance.
The organ also comes with an unusual ‘help-wanted’ ad, seeking, literally, ‘pipe cleaners’ to volunteer for maintenance of the organ’s pipe array. That’s a great word, ‘Pfeifenputzer.’
