CHAPTER VII.NORTHERN GERMANY.(Baltic Provinces.)BRICK ARCHITECTURE.

CONTENTS.

Churches at Lubeck—in Brandenburg—in Ermenland—Castle at Marienburg.

Alongthe whole of the southern shores of the Baltic extends a vast series of sandy plains, now composing the greater part of the kingdom of Prussia, with Hanover and Mecklenburg and the duchies of Brandenburg and Brunswick. This district was to a considerable extent cultivated during the Middle Ages, and contained several cities of great commercial and political importance, which still retain many of their ecclesiastical and civil buildings.

These plains are almost wholly destitute of any stone suitable for building purposes, and brick has alone been employed in the erection not only of their houses, but of their churches and most monumental buildings. This circumstance has induced such a variation in the character of the architecture as to justify the Baltic provinces being treated separately. The differences which are apparent may also be owing to some extent toethnographic differences of race, though it is not easy to say how much may be owing to this cause. In early Christian times the whole province was inhabited by the Wends, a race of Sclavonic stock; they have been superseded by the Teutonic races and their language has disappeared, but their blood must still remain, and a knowledge of this fact would at once account to an ethnologist for the absence of art. A Teutonic race, based on a Celtic substratum, would have wrought beauty out of bricks, and the constructive difficulties would not have prevented the development of the art. But a Teutonic formation overlying a Sclavonic base is about as unfortunate a combination for architectural development as can well be conceived. This, added to the deficiency of stone as a building material, will more than suffice to account for the special treatment we meet with on the southern shores of the Baltic.

769. Plan of Cathedral, Lubeck. (From Schlösser and Tischbein, ‘Denkmäle Lubeck.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

It is true that in the hands of a refined and art-loving people like the inhabitants of the north of Italy, brick architecture may be made to possess a considerable amount of beauty. Burnt clay may be moulded into shapes as elegant, and as artistic as can be carved in stone; and the various colours which it is easy to impart to bricks may be used to form mosaics of the most beautiful patterns; but to carry out all this with success requires a genuine love of art, and an energy in the prosecution of it, which will not easily be satisfied. Without this the facilities of brick architecture are such that it can be executed by the commonest workman, and is best done in the least artistic forms. While this is the case, it requires a very strong feeling for art to induce anyone to bestow thought where it is not needed, and to interrupt construction to seek for forms of beauty. In brick architecture, the best walls are those with the fewest breaks and projections, so that if relief and shadow are to be obtained, theymust be added for their own sake; and more than this, walls may be built so thin that they must always appear weak as compared with stone walls, and depth of relief becomes almost impossible.

Another defect is, that a brick building almost inevitably suggests a plaster finishing internally; and every one knows how easy it is to repeat by casting the same ornaments over and over again, and to apply such ornaments anywhere and in any way without the least reference to construction or propriety.

All these temptations may of course be avoided. They were so at Granada by the Saracens, who loved art for its own sake. They were to a considerable extent avoided in the valley of the Po, though by a people far less essentially art-loving than the Moors. But it will easily be supposed that this taste and perception of beauty exerted less influence in the valley of the Elbe. There the public buildings were raised as simply as the necessities of construction would allow, and ornaments were applied only to the extent absolutely requisite to save them from absolute plainness. Thus the churches represent in size the wealth and population of the cities, and were built in the style of Gothic architecture which prevailed at the time of their erection; but it is in vain to look in them for any of the beauties of the stone Gothic buildings of the same period, though the variety which they gave to their moulded brickwork, and the dexterity with which they treated it, imparted a character to it which is not without its interest.

770. Plan of Marien Kirche, Lubeck. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The principal group of churches in the district is found at Lubeck, which was perhaps, in the Middle Ages, the wealthiest town on the shores of the Baltic. The largest of these is the Dom Kirche or Cathedral (Woodcut No.769), a building 427 ft. long over all. The nave is 120 ft. wide externally. The vaults of the three aisles spring from the same height, the central one being 70 ft. high, those of the side-aisles a little less. This, with the wide spacing of the piers, gives a poor and bare look to the interior. The choir is better, showing a certain amount of variety about the chevet; but even this is leanerthan in any stone building, and displays all the poverty so characteristic of the style.

The Marien Kirche is a more favourable specimen of its class, though not so large. It is of a somewhat earlier age, and is built more in accordance with the principles of Gothic design. The central aisle is 130 ft. high; the side-aisles only half as much. This allows space for a very splendid clerestory, which, if filled with stained glass, would redeem the flatness of the mouldings and the general poverty of the architecture of the interior.

771. View of Marien Kirche, Lubeck. (From Schlösser and Tischbein.)

The church of St. Catherine is smaller than either of these, though of about the same age as that last mentioned, and of as good a design. It possesses the somewhat curious peculiarity of having a double choir one above the other like that of St. Gereon at Cologne (Woodcut No.740), but more complete and extensive than in that example. The whole of the lower choir is vaulted over, and a second, at a height of 20 ft., forms an upper choir over its whole extent.

There are several smaller churches in Lubeck, none of which show any peculiarities not found in the larger. The same faults which characterise the interior of these churches are also found in the exterior. The Marien Kirche (Woodcut No.771) is the best of them in this respect, but though its outline is good, it is far from being a pleasing specimen of architecture. Its two western towers are of the form typical in Lubeck. They are just 400 English ft. in height, and with these dimensions ought to be imposing objects, but they certainly are not so, being in fact as bad specimens as could be of Gothic towers.

As usual in Germany, there is no door at the west end of any of these churches, and the principal entrances are in all cases lateral; one of those attached to the cathedral is an elaborate and beautiful piece of stone architecture, but it is the only one apparently that is at all remarkable.

Some of the rood-screens are covered with carving, and the tabernacles, or receptacles for the holy elements, are, as in most parts of Germany, elaborately ornamented. They are nearly of the same age and of the same style as those at Nuremberg, one of which is represented in Woodcut No.762.

Dantzic possesses several large churches very similar, both in style and arrangement, to those of Lubeck. The principal of these is the cathedral, or Marien Kirche, commenced in its present form in 1343, and completed in the year 1502. It is 316 ft. long and 105 in width, with a transept extending to 206 ft. The whole area of the church is about 42,000 sq. ft., so that though not among the largest, it may still be considered as a first-class church; and, being of a good age, it is as effective in design as any of the brick churches of the province. It has one tower at the west end 230 ft. in height.

772. Tower in the Kœblinger Strasse, Hanover.

The church of St. Catherine is in part older than the cathedral, having been founded in 1185, though it was to a great extent rebuilt at a subsequent period. Its dimensions as it now stands are 210 ft. long, and 120 ft. wide over all. Neither it nor any of the other churches of the town seem to have any remarkable feature of design or construction worthy of being alluded to.

Other churches of less importance but of similar style are found in the Marien Kirche and St. Nicolas at Stralsund; in the Marien Kirche at Stargard, which has its west front richly ornamented withmoulded-brick tracery; in the churches of Wismar, in the Marien Kirche at Prenzlau, where the west gable is the most elaborate in North Germany, and in other churches in Neu-Brandenburg, Anclam, and other towns.

The form of church tower found in Lüneberg, and indeed generally in the district, is a modification of that at Paderborn (Woodcut No.706), and is well exemplified by that in the Kœblinger Strasse at Hanover (Woodcut No.772). It is an honest and purpose-like piece of architecture, but without much pretension to beauty of design.

773. Church at Frauenburg. (From Quast, ‘Denkmäler der Baukunst in Ermeland.’)

Further east in Ermeland, as Eastern Prussia used to be called, there are many brick buildings, which from their picturesqueness and the appropriateness of their form half disarm the critic. Among these, for instance, such a church as that of Frauenburg (Woodcut No.773), with its light graceful spires and its brick tracery in its gables, is an object, if not of grandeur, at least of considerable beauty in itself, and in this instance is grouped with so many others as to form a more picturesque combination than is usually to be met with on the shores of the Baltic. The church itself is 300 ft. long by 80 in width, and has three aisles in the nave, of equal height but unequal width. Itsworst defect is in the plainness and bulk of the octagonal piers which support the vault.

The next illustration, of the church at Santoppen (Woodcut No.774) is of a type infinitely more common in Ermeland. In Quast’s work[81]are some dozen churches varying only slightly from this in design, but in many the western tower is more like a many-storeyed warehouse than a building designed either for ornament or any church-like use. They all, however, possess some character and charm from their novelty, being very unlike anything found elsewhere.

774. View of Church at Santoppen. (From Quast.)

The Marien Church at Brandenburg (Woodcut No.775) exhibits this style carried to an excess which renders it almost bizarre. The lower part is unobjectionable, the ornament around the doors and under the windows being appropriate and well placed; but the windows themselves are too plain even in this style, and above this the ornament is neither constructive nor elegant. The building might be either a dwelling or a civil building, or anything else, as well as a church, andit is difficult to find on what principle the design is varied or arranged. In true Art the motive is apparent at a glance, and should always be so.

At Hamburg, fires, and the improvements consequent on modern activity and prosperity, have nearly obliterated all the more important buildings which at one time adorned that city.

775. Façade of Marien Kirche, Brandenburg. (From Rosengarten.)

At Königsberg, at the opposite extremity of the district, there seems to be little that is remarkable, except a cathedral, possessing an enormous façade of brickwork, adorned with blank arches, but without the smallest pretensions to beauty, either internally or externally.

Civil Buildings.

776. Façade of the Knight-hall in the Castle of Marienburg. (From Rosengarten.)

The most remarkable among the civil buildings of the province is the castle at Marienburg, which was for nearly a century and a half the residence of the masters of the once powerful knights of the Teutonic order. The Alte Schloss was built in 1276, the middle castle in 1309; so that it belongs to the best age of Gothic art: and, being half palace, half castle, ought to possess both dignity and grandeur. It betrays, however, in every part the faults of brick architecture in this province, and though curious, is certainly not beautiful. All the windows are square-headed, though filled with tracery, and the vaultings of the principal apartments are without grace in themselves, and do not fit the lines of the openings; eventhe boldly projecting machicolations, which in stone architecture give generally such dignity to castellated buildings, here fail in producing that effect, from the tenuity of the parts and the weakness of their apparent supports.

The town-hall at Lubeck is imposing from its size, and singular from the attempt to gain height and grandeur by carrying up the main wall of the building high above the roof, and where no utilitarian purpose can be suggested for it. Indeed there are few towns in the province that do not possess some large civic buildings, but in all instances these are less artistic than the churches themselves; and, though imposing from their mass and interesting from their age, they are hardly worthy of notice as examples of architectural art.

The town of Lüneburg retains not only its public buildings, but its street architecture, nearly as left from the Middle Ages; and its quaint gables and strange towers and spires give it a character that is picturesque and interesting, but cannot be said to be beautiful.

The town-halls of Tangermünde, Rostock, and Stralsund, have façades of similar style to that of Lubeck. In all these cases as a rule these façades are mere decorative screens, which, like the churches in Italy, rise high above the roofs of the main building. The Rathhaus at Stralsund is surmounted by six lofty gables with large circular openings in them open to the sky, so that there is no attempt at concealment, the fact probably being that, proud of their dexterity in the moulding of the brickwork, and repetition being easy and inexpensive, they were not content with the small elevation which the height of their buildings gave them. In this respect the Rathhaus at Hanover is an exception, and here the decorative features are confined to the gables of the principal hall and the lofty dormer windows—to deep friezes or bands of boldly-modelled terra-cotta work—enriched plate tracery in the windows of the great hall, and (in contrast to the simple brickwork of the two lower storeys) to elaborate detail in their gables and dormer windows, which are divided up by vertical buttresses placed anglewise, composed of five or six semicircular shafts grouped together, and in alternate bands of yellow and green glazed bricks. The effect of these bright colours must have been somewhat startling when the buildings were new, but, in the unrestored portions, their brilliance has been toned down by time, and their effect is now harmonious and agreeable.

The most interesting series of structures in the Baltic provinces are the gateways of their towns, which are not only extremely picturesque objects both in outline and colour, but display great fertility of invention and variety in form. Among the more important may be noticed the Holstein Thor and Burg Thor of Lubeck; the two gates at Stendal, and the four gates of Neu-Brandenburg.

As the examples just enumerated are types of the best buildingswhich exist in the province, they are sufficient to characterise the style, and at the same time to show how much can be done even with the restriction imposed by the absence of stone. As many of the towns were populous and wealthy during the Middle Ages, they of course had large and commodious churches; and although they are wanting in those high qualities which we find in the French cathedrals, their size and the excellence of their vaulting render them well worthy of study.

In addition to the buildings above referred to, in many of their towns, such as Anclam, Lubeck, Dantzic, and others, will be found fine examples of the pointed style of Hanseatic architecture.

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