St. Paul’s Protestant Church
30.1 Julius Ludwig Rothweil
Prince Carl August (r. 1719-53) appointed Julius Ludwig Rothweil, a pioneer of the “l’esprit baroque” in the Middle Rhine-Hesse region, as architect for St. Paul’s Church.
Rothweil (1676-1750) was in the service of Protestant princes with his palace and church buildings in Hanau, Neuwied, Hachenburg, Waldeck, Weilburg and Kirchheimbolanden. He thus belonged to an “artistic sphere that extended from Berlin, Hanover-Wolfenbüttel via Kassel, Arolsen, Westerwald and Taunus to Saarrücken and whose circle of artists included L. R. de la Fosse (Hanover, Kassel, Darmstadt), the du Ry family (Kassel) and Fr. J. Stengel (Dornburg/Elbe, Berlin, Nassau).”
In Kirchheimbolanden, Rothweil created the Paulskirche in 1738-44, a court and town church in rococo-classical forms, similar in architectural concept to his high baroque Weilburg castle church from 1707-13. Both churches are thus architectural “sister churches”.
Architecture of the Protestant idea of worship
The pulpit organ altar – the superimposition of altar, pulpit and organ – can be explained not only by its juxtaposition to the royal box, but also by the Protestant concept of worship.
For, according to Martin Luther, Paul famously said that he had been sent as a preacher. The mass celebrated by the priest was now replaced by the reading and interpretation of the Bible. Luther added another: congregational singing accompanied by the organ, so that the word of God would remain among the people through song.
The idea of the pulpit organ altar gave expression to this. The architecture of St. Paul’s Church is therefore not only to be understood as a residential church.
Symbols of the Christian
Martin Luther also set the tone for the pictorial decoration of a Protestant church: images should have a threefold effect: as a testimony, a memorial and a sign.
In St. Paul’s Church, this applies to four “picture locations”:
● the five-part cycle of pulpit back wall paintings, which change thematically depending on the phase of the church year: Christmas, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Easter, Pentecost;
● the figures on the pulpit lid: Moses on the left, John the Baptist on the right, with five putti in between, representing the virtues of peace, faith, love, hope and joy in the fulfillment of life guaranteed by faith, love and hope;
● the ceiling painting, in the center of which a dove spreads its wings and brings together the symbolism of the four ceiling segments: Death and Life (raised serpent and cross and lamb), Baptism and Communion (watering vessel and dove as well as host and chalice);
● The ceiling stucco in the royal box as a symbol of the Christian idea of rule: Moses leading his people in the middle, key, laurel wreath, palm and crown on the outside.
The pictorial decoration of St. Paul’s Church (from left to right: Christmas, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Easter, Pentecost) thus unfolds the Protestant thinking of the 18th century in a Baroque implementation.
Christmas
Transfiguration
Crucifixion
Easter
Whitsun
Silent organ
St. Paul’s Church also has a special musical significance, as its organ is one of the most important of the 18th century in Germany.
Built in 1745 by Johann Michael Stumm, it has three manuals and 38 stops. (This includes a carillon).
In total, around 400 instruments are associated with the name Stumm in Germany. This is because the family continued to build organs in the five generations that followed. Their works can mainly be found in the Mosel-Hunsrück-Nahe region, on the Middle Rhine and in Rheinhessen and the Palatinate.
The organs by Johann Michael Stumm (1683-1747) play a particularly prominent role here. He is mentioned by connoisseurs “in the same breath as Arp Schnitger and Gottfried Silbermann”.
Its Paulskirchen organ, which was extended from its original 1,850 to 2,830 pipes in 1936/66, is the most historically significant in the Palatinate.
The full sound of the organ can be experienced in the period from Pentecost to Thanksgiving in the Sunday services, during guided tours (by appointment) and in the concerts of the “Kirchheimboland Organ Summer”.
(More details in the information box on the Paulskirchen forecourt.)
Mozart organ
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) visited the princely court in Kirchheimbolanden for a week in January 1778, he also played the organ on request. This refers to the organ in St. Paul’s Church, which was built by the organ maker Stumm.
The fact that Mozart did not write more about this organ playing can certainly be attributed to the time of year. In the 18th century, the church could only be heated in the royal box.
Mozart was certainly impressed by the organ created by Johann Michael Stumm. Its richness of sound has also been made accessible on recordings by its organists: Johannes Pröger / Wolfgang Bauer (n.d. ca. 1970), Wolfgang Bauer (2008) and Martin Reitzig (2002).
