Gedächtniskirche, Speyer
The building of the memorial church was a reaction to Johann von Schraudolph's structural renewal and painting of Speyer Cathedral in the years 1846 to 1856.
Originally the intention was to renovate the Baroque Trinity Church, situated near the cathedral, but it was decided that a new building should be built instead.
The announcement of the dogma of papal infallibility gave new life to the project in 1870, along with the foundation of the German Empire under a Lutheran emperor in 1871.
The red sandstone from Weidenthal that was used for the foundations could not be used for further building as it was riddled with pebble stones and therefore not suitable for statuary work.
The 100 metres (330 ft) high bell tower stands in front of the short nave, with the Memorial Hall in its ground floor.
In the spirit of the Gothic style, it is dominated by the split form, which doesn't leave any larger surfaces, but instead surrounds the whole structure with alternating with abutments and window hinges.
A bronze likeness of Martin Luther stands on a pedestal made of Swedish granite in the centre of the Memorial Hall.
In the haunches of the neighbouring portals are the coats of arms of the 14 Imperial cities which affiliated themselves with the Speyer Protest (Strassburg, Augsburg, Ulm, Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Nördlingen, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, Isny, St. Gallen, Weißenburg and Windsheim).
The two parts of the main portal include on the middle column a sandstone figure of King David with his harp, who greets visitors to the church with a psalm on a scroll, and draws attention to the importance of music in the Protestant church: On the inside of the portal an angel stands with an open book, warning visitors as they leave to heed God's word: The interior differs from a medieval cathedral in that there is no plastering or painting.
The main window in the apse was donated by the last German imperial couple, Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Victoria.
German: Früher war'n dat mal sieben Bengelchen, heute sind es Engelchen.
For this reason, there is a net hanging from the pulpit, in which fish have been caught in the shape of those legendary Palatinate figures, the Elwetrischen.
The lectern was donated by the American railway magnate John Pierpont Morgan, and the columns were a gift from fellow New Yorker William Ziegler.
The oak pews have decorations on the ends, which echo those around the church building, along with the arms and names of their benefactors.
[3] See the German Wikipedia page for specifications: Orgel The original bells were cast by Franz Schilling in Apolda in 1900–1903.
The four remaining bells returned to the church after the end of the war, but after their ordeal they were of such a poor quality that a whole new peal was cast by the Karlsruhe foundery the Brothers Bachert in 1959.
The eight bells, funded through donations, were named after well-known Reformation figures, along with the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf: 1.
In terms of the architectural style of St Joseph as opposed to the Gedächtniskirche it was said to be: "Catholic variety compared to Protestant austerity".
The Mainz cathedral builder Ludwig Becker developed the plan, including influence from Art Nouveau, late Gothic, Baroque and the Renaissance.
As a particular provocation against the Protestants, the bottom half of the right middle window above the high altar is a proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility, as this was the motive for the building of the Gedächtniskirche.
Critics included Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who, after a visit to the church, stated that "in the war, there was one bomb too few that fell in Speyer".
This led to some displeasure among the followers of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, as the remaining parishes had to restrict their building work due to budgetary problems.
