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24-410: Ludwigskirche and the surrounding Ludwigsplatz (Ludwig's Square) were designed as a "complete work of art", in the sense of a baroque place royale , by Friedrich Joachim Stengel on the commission of Prince William Henry . Construction begun in 1762. After the death of William Henry in 1768, work on it was stopped due to lack of funds. The church was finally completed in 1775 by his son, Louis , and it

48-754: A cadet . He served several months in Northern Italy during the War of the Spanish Succession . Stengel worked as a state surveyor for the duchies of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Eisenach from 1715 to 1719. While carrying out a "general state renovation" in Saxe-Eisenach, he met Adolphus von Dalberg which led to his employment in Fulda . There, he worked as a surveyor and building inspector until 1729 when he moved back to Gotha , hoping for work as

72-754: A Forster and Andrews pipe organ in The Great Hall of The University of Sydney that was installed between 1881 and 1882. One of the last organs manufactured by von Beckerath is located in the Baxter Theatre Centre of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, which was installed after his death. This article about a musical instrument company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This German engineer, inventor or industrial designer biographical article

96-479: A construction manager, although this was in vain. In 1733, Stengel moved to Nassau-Usingen and worked as a court architect for Prince Charles . His major projects for the prince were the conversion of the Prinzenpalais  [ de ] and the renovation of Biebrich Palace . In 1735, William Henry, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken commissioned Stengel to write a report on the structural condition of

120-704: Is not (in contrast to the Catholic church, St. Ludwig in Saarlouis ) dedicated to Saint Louis , but named after Louis, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken , who completed its construction. The Lutheran congregation of Ludwigskirche forms part of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , comprising Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant congregations. Friedrich Joachim Stengel Friedrich Joachim Michael Stengel (29 September 1694 – 10 January 1787)

144-526: The Saarbrücken Castle , which was to become William Henry's residence. Stengel reported on the structural deficiencies of the castle, and was subsequently commissioned to plan the new construction in 1738. The new palace was completed in 1748. Stengel and his family moved to Saarbrücken in 1740. Together with William Henry, Stengel renovated and expanded Saarbrücken as a Baroque residential city, and worked as chief building director in many of

168-405: The apostles , prophets and other Biblical people. The interior of the church is decorated with ornamental stucco ( cartouches , rocaille ). Each of the four arms of the cross has a gallery supported by two to four caryatids . The floor is made of sandstone . Special features of the interior are the arrangement of the church by and large along the width of the church, on the one hand, and

192-627: The Ludwigsgymnasium was housed) was split in two, in favor of a view toward St. Johann (the "Stengel axis", today marked by Wilhelm-Heinrich-Straße). Only the western building was kept (the orphanage at that time, today the seat of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar , Saar College of Fine Arts). The remains of the Gymnasium , which was severely damaged by the great bombing in 1944, was torn down in 1945. It stood approximately where

216-733: The President of the Forest Chamber and director of the Saarbrücken orphanage, poorhouse, and penitentiary, before retiring in 1775. In 1720, Stengel married Katharina Hoffmann. They had one daughter, Elisabeth Wilhelmina, born in 1722. Katharina later died in 1741. One year later, Stengel married Klara Storch, first maid of Princess Charlotte Amalie of Nassau-Dillenburg . They had two sons, Johann Friedrich and Balthasar Wilhelm. Both sons followed in their father's footsteps and became baumeisters . Stengel died on 10 January 1787 at

240-520: The age of 92. He was buried two days later in Saarbrücken. Rudolf von Beckerath Rudolf von Beckerath (19 February 1907 – 22 November 1976) was a German master organ builder . He was born in Munich , to the painter Willy von Beckerath , but grew up in Hamburg , where his family moved the year he was born. He initially pursued an interest in mechanical engineering . After encountering

264-560: The doors to the overall grounds, but he also fitted the church and the square into the two main viewing axes of the city's layout. One of these axes, from the "Alten Kirche" (Old Church) in the city district of St. Johann , through the Wilhelm-Heinrich-Straße of today and the main entrance, up to the altar, is still visible today. The other axis points over the exit, which faces the Saarland state chancellery today, toward

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288-435: The former royal summer residences on Ludwigsberg, the so-called Ludwigspark. The restoration of the original white paint on the exterior is still currently being disputed. Whether it was already lost during the 19th century or during the air raid 1945 is not clear, but it would be important for fitting the church into the surrounding buildings of the square. It has, however, become quite a strange idea to many local residents in

312-516: The organ) in 2009, the interior is more or less complete, but more than half of the balustrade figures on the outside are still lacking as well as the exterior finish (c.f. the reconstruction models). The ground plan is shaped somewhat like a Greek cross ; the arms are 38.5 m and 34.2 m long and are each 17 m wide. There are niches on the outside which contain statues of the four Evangelists by Francuß Bingh . The stone balustrades were decorated with 28 figures, also by Bingh, depicting

336-408: The past decades. The square surrounding the church, Ludwigsplatz, was an integral part of Stengel's concept from the beginning. The original plan provided for a long, rectangular square, with four differently designed types of noble city palaces along the long sides and two large public buildings on the ends. Even during construction, this concept was changed, so that the building on the east (in which

360-400: The placement of the altar, pulpit and organ over each other (a so-called " pulpit-altar "), on the other. The arrangement with the altar, pulpit and organ was rather usual for a Lutheran church built in the 1700s, and it had already been used by Stengel in some of his earlier buildings. Stengel designed not only the overall plan of the church and the surrounding palaces, from the handles for

384-557: The quality of northern German pipe organs, particularly that of master builder Arp Schnitger , von Beckerath's interest shifted. He trained as a cabinet maker at the art school in Hamburg, while studying the fundamentals of organ building on his own. In the cellar of his parents' home, he built a small house-organ, which was heard in a radio broadcast from the house and in concerts there. His training continued in France, where he moved on

408-1205: The recommendation of Hans Henny Jahnn . In Châtillon-sous-Bagneux , near Paris, he entered the workshop of Victor Gonzalez. By the 1950s and 1960s, von Beckerath's own firm became one of the leaders of the Organ Reform Movement in North America and Northern Europe. North American churches with noteworthy Beckerath organs include Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio; Holy Cross Lutheran Church (Wichita, Kansas); St Michael's Episcopal Church in Manhattan, NYC; Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal , Quebec ; First Congregational Church (Columbus, Ohio), Dwight Chapel, Yale University , New Haven, Connecticut ; St. Turibius Chapel, Pontifical College Josephinum , Columbus, Ohio ; and St. Paul Cathedral , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . St. Luke’s Cathedral, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. In Australia, an organ manufactured by von Beckerath in 1972 replaced

432-526: The towns that belonged to Nassau-Saarbrücken . He drew up building codes, surveyed, and planned and constructed new urban spaces, commercial buildings, and residential buildings. In 1751, Stengel was commissioned by Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp to rebuild Dornburg Castle. It was completed in 1758. Stengel was appointed the General Building Director and Real Chamber Councilor of Nassau-Saarbrücken in 1761. He also served as

456-432: The upper plateau of the stairs is today. In the lines of palaces planned for the long sides of the square, the four smallest buildings on the corners of the square were never erected – which made it possible to have a street running between the orphanage and the church, which detracts from the impression of the square as much as the trees currently there. In contrast to that is the place that Stengel intentionally left open for

480-439: The view toward Ludwigsberg, which is today occupied by the state chancellery. Until 1944 there was an organ of the company Stumm with 37 stops. The modern organ case is a reconstruction of the historical case. The current organ was built in 1982 by Rudolf von Beckerath / Hamburg . It has 47 stops and three keyboards. The tracker action and the couplers are mechanical. The organ has the following stoplist: In 1965, Ludwigskirche

504-599: Was a German architect and baumeister . Friedrich Joachim Michael Stengel was born to a Protestant family in Zerbst . At the age of 14, Stengel moved to Berlin under the care of his mother's brother. He received his education from the Prussian Academy of Arts where he studied fortification engineering, civil architecture, artillery, and geometry. In 1712, entered into military service in Saxe-Gotha as

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528-546: Was also named after him. The consecration of the church took place on August 25, 1775, with a church service and a cantata composed especially for the occasion. In 1885-1887 and in 1906-1911, the church underwent restoration. During the Second World War , Ludwigskirche was almost completely destroyed. After a bombing on October 5, 1944, only the surrounding walls remained. Rebuilding began in 1949, but it has still not been completed. The main reason for this long delay

552-530: Was depicted on the series of stamps, Hauptstädte der Länder der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Capital cities of the states of the Federal Republic of Germany). As the symbol of the Saarland state capital of Saarbrücken, Ludwigskirche is shown on the German 2 euro commemorative coin in 2009. Foreign language guidebooks often describe Ludwigskirche as "église St. Louis" or "St. Louis church". However, it

576-416: Was the fierce dispute, which lasted from the 1950s into the 1970s, about whether the baroque interior, which had been completely lost, should also be reconstructed according to the original plans. At first, it had been agreed to restore the exterior, with a modern interior, but this plan was finally abandoned. After the reconstruction of the " Fürstenstuhl " (i.e., the princely seating in the gallery across from

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