The Interior of the Cologne Cathedral
The Cologne Cathedral Treasury Museum
The Cologne Cathedral. View from the Rheinufer Park behind the Ludwig Museum
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By the time the
cathedral was
finished with a neo-Gothic nave (the central open space of the church)
and west front, Germany had been unified by Bismarck. But the
unique validity of the Gothic style to represent German national
identity was still contested as new national buildings were erected,
such as the Reichstag in Berlin. This was completed in a
grandiose classical style, much to the chagrin of such Gothic advocates
as August Riechensperger, who had sustained the Cologne efforts for
decades.
The History of the Cologne
Cathedral
Kölner Dom Köln Germany
Kölner Dom Köln Germany
It is more than 750 years since the foundation stone was laid, but still this gigantic, bold, and world-famous edifice has lost none of its fascination. In recent centuries, Cologne Cathedral became a veritable metaphor for the unfulfilled aspirations of German unity. For almost a century, the project to complete it played out in close parallel to the evolution of the politics of German unity, evolving from impassioned pleas during the Wars of Liberation against France and a touchstone of the politics of Protestant Prussia in its Catholic Rhineland provinces after 1815, to the great neo-medieval dedication pageant in 1880, which celebrated in consolidated Germany's recent unification. Todays, the cathedral in Cologne is one of the most splendid churches in the whole of Christendom, and in 1996 was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. The cathedral's maintenance and upkeep costs nearly €8 million a year, but this expense is more than justified by its popularity, which includes between two and three million visitors a year.
Upon entering the cathedral, visitors will experience a feeling of infinite space and light. One hundred and thirty feet above their heads, they will see the vault ceiling, supported by slender pillars. In the Middle Ages this was something new and fascinating. The whole mass of the building borne by a daringly lightweight, pointed arched construction. After all, the cathedral is composed of no less than 200,000 tons of raw materials. And when you think of the technological planning that goes into a major building today, you can not help but admire the medieval architects who, without benefit of computers, motorized cranes or sophisticated structural mathematics, nonetheless succeeded in putting up such gigantic edifices. This particular bold venture has withstood not only the test of time, it also survived the hail of bombs that destroyed most of its surroundings in World War II. It would have taken just one mistake in the calculations for the whole thing to come tumbling down, as happened often enough in France, the country where the new Gothic style was born. There, architects tended to be overambitious, most spectacularly at Beauvais Cathedral, where the entire quiet collapse like a house of cards in 1284. At Cologne, by contrast, the first architect, a man named Gerhard, must have been a genius. He built the ideal cathedral, which exploited the new Gothic style to perfection. The laying of the foundation stone in 1248 was the occasion for a major celebration by church dignitaries and citizens alike.
Gerhard's grandiose plans filled all people involved with enthusiasm. Never again has Cologne experienced such a coming together of artists of such a variety: sculptors created the fourteen figures on the columns of the choir - visible from the end of the nave (the central open space of the church); painters adorned the interior stonework and the altars of the seven choir chapels; glass painters designed windows of size and colors that put all existing ones in the shade. Just as the choir (the raised area with the the benches on both sides) is the oldest part of the cathedral, require Windows (behind the shrine of the Three Wise Men or Magi) are largely original, dating from 1260. Quite generally, the stained glass in Cologne, including the modern work, is among the cathedral's artistic highlights. During World War II, most of the windows were dismantled and removed for safekeeping.
Most
visitors today into the church from the
west side, the side with
the two towers. In World War II the large window that was
above
the entrance was destroyed. The exterior stone frame of the
window, called tracery, was restored in 1956. The interior
tracery in 1993. Since then the stained glass made by Julius
Milde in Lübeck from 1865 to 1870 has been reinserted (during
the
war it had been removed and stored in safety). The theme of
the
window is the last judgment.Building work on the main structure went on for 615 years in five separate phases. Even the choir (the raised area with the the benches on both sides), the first section to be built, took 74 years to complete. At its west end, for no less than 541 years, it was separated from the rest of the structure by a wall 180 feet high. Generations of architects came and went. For 295 years, from 1528 to 1823, the cathedral was the world's most famous unfinished building. The main problem was that financially, the Church authorities had simply overreached themselves.
Things changed only in the 19th century, when a new popular passion for this unfinished Gothic symphony broke out. In 1814 Georg Moller discovered the medieval architectural drawing, the front elevation of the North Tower in Darmstadt, and in 1816 Sulpiz Boisserée acquired the medieval front elevation of the South Tower and ground plan from an art dealer in Paris. This discovery led to a sixty-six year rebuilding of the cathedral, a reconstruction that mirrored the battle for political unity of the German lands. Since Germany, like the cathedral, was in an incomplete state, the cathedral was to be rebuilt as a symbol of the completion of Germany itself. This image of Germany as a medieval ecclesiastical building would be used throughout the 19th century is an image of the old order that stood as a viable alternative to the sectarianism, violence, and destruction of political revolution.
Work finally restarted in 1842 when Emperor Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia laid the foundation stone foundation stone for the completion of the Cologne Cathedral. In his speech at the event, he said:
Gentlemen of Cologne, a great event is taking place among you. This is, as you are aware, no ordinary undertaking. It represents a common effort of Germans and of all creeds. When I think of that fact, my eyes are filled with tears of joy and I thank God that I have lived to see this day... this spirit which builds these portals is the same which broke our fetters twenty-nine years ago, which brought to an end the humiliation of the Fatherland and the alien occupation of this province. It is this spirit of German unity and strength... I pray to God that the Cathedral of Cologne may soar over the city, may soar over Germany, over age is rich in peace until the end of time.
The continuing construction of the cathedral in Cologne stood out as a symbol of the new German government's pro-monarchial positions. It was Emperor Wilhelm who led the celebration marking the completion of the cathedral in 1880, an occasion that brought the reigning German princes together in order to honor German unity under a single throne. The political magnitude of this event is evident in the fact that the largest bell in the cathedral was also the largest and heaviest bell hung anywhere in the world. It was named the Emperor's Bell, the Kaiserglocke, in honor of the Emperor. Along with the smaller bells, it was cast from French guns captured during the Franco-Prussian war. Therefore, when the bells were rung, they sounded of military prowess and the unity of altar and throne.
And yet the Catholic community in Germany was in anguish at the completion of the cathedral. Germany was in the midst of the culture wars, the Kulturkampf, led by Bismarck. The priest seminary in Cologne had been closed in 1875 by the government. The Archbishop of Cologne had been sent into exile. Thus the bizarre situation arose of the Emperor of the state dedicating a medieval cathedral in which no high-ranking Catholics were present. What was needed a joining of forces between those who supported the medieval institutions of the Church, and those who supported the conservative ideals of the state.
With such common interests, Pope Leo XIII and Bismarck decided that there was nothing to gain from continuing the culture war. By 1884 bishoprics were functioning normally once again. State funds began to flow back into the Catholic Church. In 1887 the seminaries were allowed to reopen, free of state control. Many religious orders were permitted to return and given back their property. However, the Jesuits were not allowed to return until 1917 in the German state retained control of the elementary and secondary schools.
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The Weathervane on the Wrought Iron Fencing Installed in 1995 to protect the South Entrance facing Roncalliplatz from Grafitti Artists
It will be finished!
Water Color by Vincenz Statz, 1861