Michaeliskirche- Hamburg, Germany

Began around 1600 due to the many dead who had fallen victim to the plague, a burial ground was laid outside the city where the Little St. Michaelis Church stands today. A chapel was added, which soon became a small church. From 1625 to 1645, the number of inhabitants in the new town grew from 8,000 to 20,000, the church soon became too small. In 1647, the council and City Parliament passed a resolution to build a new large church approximately 200 meters to the west, where the Great St. Michealis still stands today. It was completed after 12 years and was consecrated in 1661. The tower was, however, only completed in 1669. In 1685, St Michaelis Church became the fifth pricipal church in Hamburg alongside the other four pricipal churches St Petri, St Jacobi, St Nikolai and St Katharinen.

On March 10th 1750, the church was gutted...a thundercloud formed and a terrible flash of lightning struck at once at the lower part of the spire. With the aid of a donation from a senator, the Little St Michaelis Church was able to be consecrated once again in 1757.

In 1906, both tower and church were totally destoryed due to unobserved workers using petrol blowlamp while replacing a number of copper sheets on the south side of the tower. Smouldering fire developed and the tower watch Beurle immidiately sounded the fire alarm but it was too late. Beurle was killed in the flames. The City Parliament decided to reconstruct the church following the old plans, the church once again rose up in almost exactly the same form as before. The tower and roof were now made of steel and concrete instead of wood. Finally consecrated in October 1912. In 1943, the surroundings fo the church wwew almost totally destroyed. The church itself escaped destruction until June 1944 when it suffered serious bomb damage. As a result, the roof and the interior of the church were severely damaged and the church was finally consecrated on October 19 1952.

At the end of 1970s, serious damage to the tower was discover, the concrete panelling from pumice, which had been attached directly to the stell truss behind the external copper covering without a gap, had been absorbing water for decades and passing iton to the steel, therby causing severe rust damage. The concrete was replaces by brazil wood and a gap was left between the steel truss and the brazil wood thus providing ventilation and facilitating the upkeep of the steel. Work was completed in 1996.

Michaeliskirche, Hamburg

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Michaeliskirche, Hamburg

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