Tabor Church - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tabor Church is the church of the Evangelical

Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)

The Prussian Union was the merger of the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Prussia, by a series of decrees – among them the Unionsurkunde – by King Frederick William III...

Tabor Congregation, a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia

Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia

The Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia is a Protestant church body in the German states of Brandenburg, Berlin and a part of Saxony. The seat of the church is in Berlin. It is the most important Protestant denomination in the area....

. The church building is located in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is the second borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg...

, in the quarter Outer Luisenstadt or colloquially SO 36

SO36

The SO36 club, is a music club on Oranienstrasse near Heinrichplatz in the district of Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany.It takes its name from the historic postcode of that area SO36, in which the SO stands for Südost...

. The church was named in memory of the Transfiguration of Jesus

Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the New Testament in which Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it....

, which allegedly took place on Mount Tabor ‎הר תבור

Mount Tabor

-Places:*Mount Tabor, a hill in Israel near Nazareth believed by many to be the site of the Transfiguration of ChristIn the United States:*Mount Tabor, Indiana, an unincorporated community...

in today's Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

The parish's district belonged to the Congregation of Emmaus Church (part of today's Emmaus-Mount of Olives Congregation). Due to the high number of parishioners the district was divided into subsections by 1904, which were provided their own prayer halls. The future Tabor parish then used to be called Emmaus North.

The Church Building

On 1 June 1903 the cornerstone

Cornerstone

The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...

for Tabor Church was laid. Baurat Ernst Schwartzkopff designed the plans. The church is inserted into the alignment of houses in Taborstraße, but facing Wrangelstraße, a long street directed northwest starting opposite of the church façade. The tower of originally 71 m height was built to be a landmark viewable through all of Wrangelstraße. Due to the position of the site inserted between neighbouring houses the quire of the church is not properly oriented

Orientation of Churches

The orientation of churches is the architectural feature of facing churches towards the east .The Jewish custom of fixing the direction of prayer and orienting synagogues influenced Christianity during its formative years. In early Christianity, it was customary to pray facing toward the Holy Land...

, but directed to the southeast.

Schwartzkopff died before finishing his work and thus Baurat Adolph Bürkner accomplished the constructions. The Evangelischer Kirchenbauverein (Evangelical Association for the Construction of Churches), a charitable organisation then headed by Empress Augusta Victoria

Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Her full German name was Auguste Victoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.She was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess...

, financed the constructions.

The church was inaugurated on 20 December 1905. In 1906 the parish subsection Emmaus North was legally established as the parish Tabor Congregation, becoming the proprietor of Tabor Church.

The church is built from red brick stones in anachronistic neo-Brick Gothic style. A trass statue of Jesus of Nazareth by Julius Wucherer (a 1905-copy after Bertel Thorvaldsen

Bertel Thorvaldsen

Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...

) is standing on top of the entrance portal. The street section of the building includes some apartments. The prayer hall is built as a centralised auditory hall, typical for Protestant church architecture. The prayer hall is topped by a central stellar vault with a skylight.

The church weathered the Second World War with little damage. But the high conic spire of the tower had been shortened after considerable damage. The remaining stump consists of the massive brick stone construction of the lower parts of the tower.

Furnishings as of 1905

Wall paintings with scenes from birth and resurrection of Jesus by Birkle & Thomer, mosaic tympana

Tympanum (architecture)

In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....

at the portals by A. Becker.

The Cemetery of Tabor Congregation in formerly East German Ahrensfelde

Tabor Congregation, located in what used to be West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

, has its own graveyard section in the denominational Eastern Churchyard in formerly East Berlin's eastern suburb of Ahrensfelde

Ahrensfelde

Ahrensfelde is a municipality in the district of Barnim, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 13 km northeast of Berlin ....

. Between May 27, 1952 and 3 October 1972 West Berliners were banned from free access to the East German German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

proper - as distinguished from East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

. In this time all West Berliners, wishing to visit the grave of a late relative or friend in the cemeteries in East Germany, were excluded, as well as late widows and widowers, who wanted to be buried side by side with their earlier deceased spouses buried there. Between 1972 and December 22, 1989 West Berliners had restricted access, because they had to apply for East German visas and to pay for a compulsory exchange (officially in , i.e. minimum exchange).

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