Franciscan Monastery in Paderborn
Franziskanerkloster Paderborn
The Franciscan Church in Paderborn was built between 1668 and 1671 and is dedicated to Saint Joseph. The church and monastery were destroyed in a bomb attack on March 27, 1945. Only the outer walls remained standing. The rich interior of the church burned down. The baroque cross - vaulted hall was later restored. The interior was initially very simple. It was not until the 1950s that a baroque statue of the Jesus Mother and a statue of St. Anthony by the Munich artist Hermann Rösner were placed where the side altars used to be. During the penultimate renovation in 1985/1986, an attempt was made to re-paint the church and add more sculptures and paintings. The painting in the spandrels, around the keystones of the vault and in the triumphal arch above the altar is reminiscent of the French Régence style (transition from baroque to rococo). The design of the choir wall was provisional until the very end. During the last renovation in 2011, the Rottweiler artist Tobias Kammerer was commissioned to paint the church walls. You can now see his work.
Warm tones in various nuances of brick red fill the church interior. Earth colors such as real ocher and brick red have been used in painting according to historical models. The elements were also quoted along with the coloring. The base in the chancel and chancel arch area is worked with light yellow ochre. So a warm glow comes into the room. Fine vertical and horizontal lines accompany to structure the painting. The gold and yellow stripe in the door to the confessional chapel continues offset upwards on the wall. Here it forms the background for the figure of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of the church building. The pieta under the gallery has a purple background, symbolizing the Passion.
True purple can only come about through the effect of light and is therefore considered a symbol of light. In addition, it is completely light - resistant, making it the symbol color of eternity. The exciting but also connecting effect between the expressive values of the vital red and the transcendent blue is expressed here. Purple is reminiscent of the curtain in the temple in Jerusalem that is said to have been destroyed at the instant of Christ's death. The shade of purple thus becomes a symbol of the connection between death and eternity, crucifixion and resurrection. Below the choir organ, the figure of Johannes has been given a blue background. Behind the figure of the saint Francis on the opposite side stands out against a green background. Green is considered a symbol of paradise and the color of renewal and resurrection. Green also reflects Francis's connection to nature and all living things. Elemental colors are now represented in the church interior. Through the windows themselves you can see the sky and see the changing of the day and the seasons. On the chancel arch the figures of the Mother of God and Anthony have a sky-blue background.
Blue as the color of the sky represents divine peace and heavenly wisdom. In addition, the transcendent blue is considered an expression of spirituality and knowledge. Its transcendence also makes it synonymous with the permeability of the worlds of this world and the hereafter. At all times, blue has been the color symbol of the spiritual, distant and sublime. On the chancel wall itself, a band stretches up behind the altar. Still colored red in the lower part, it runs upwards in one glowing shade of orange. In its moving dynamics it seems as if it were letting the crucifix float in the air. Free amorphous forms and accompanying lines form the composition on the choir wall. Bright yellow-orange fills the room. In the glowing yellow we experience the experience of light, it appears to us as the color of divine revelation and knowledge. The color closest to the sun is considered the color of enlightenment. Its luminosity appears pleasantly warm and joyful. As a color of paradise, the green of the narrow accompanying lines is reminiscent of resurrection and the perpetual cycle of nature.
Tobias Kammerer's design for the glass front in the chapel of the Franciscan monastery is based on the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi. The four elements are symbolized by color symbolism.
The composition appears painterly, with great gesture, watercolor - like and light, corresponding to the material of the glass in its transparency. The middle part of the window area is filled with a moving amorphous blue. It refers to water as the origin of life. The water in the creation story was receptive to the Spirit of God hovering over it. The dark lines are intended to indicate the movement and swell of the water. The symbol of movement points to time, change and becoming. All other elements dissolve in the water and are carried everywhere by it. That is why water is the ultimate global element. For Hildegard von Bingen, water was the element that, like rain and evaporation, was above and constantly connects the below with each other. For them, being baptized also meant a lifelong connection to water. The narrow glass strips in the window front are sandblasted. The moving deep sandblasted structure is intended to indicate the air, here in the form of wind, since the Hebrew word for spirit also means wind or storm. God's Spirit moves and refreshes. The round skylight is filled with warm yellow and orange tones. The golden yellow symbolizes the divine heaven of fire.
The love and mercy of God find their expression in it. It conveys a feeling of warmth and bliss and represents the mild reflection of the setting sun. The near-light glowing yellow is considered the color of knowledge. Its luminosity appears pleasantly warm and joyful. As the connecting element between heaven and earth, we encounter light, in a figurative sense Christ, as the light of the world. The sandblast structure can be found again on the circle around the yellow area. A beam of fresh green protrudes into the circle. This stands for the fertility of the earth.
