Apostelkirche, Lutheran church in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, Germany.
Apostelkirche is an Evangelical Lutheran church built in 1893–1894 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel to a design by Erwin von Melle and Peter Gottlob Jürgensen. Its exterior uses neo-Romanesque elements, while the interior is laid out as a central space covered by a dome. It was the first building in the area and stood alone on open field for over ten years.
The church was built in 1893–1894 to designs by Erwin von Melle and Peter Gottlob Jürgensen, on a plot a private owner gave the city free of charge; earth from the Holstenwall was used to raise the ground. It opened on 24 October 1894 as the first building in the area, remaining the only one for over ten years. An organ followed in 1898, and three years later Heinrich Saffer's apostle paintings were hung above the altar. Spared in the Second World War, it burned out almost completely on the night of 25–26 September 1977; the cause was never established.
The name refers to the twelve apostles, but the altar windows installed in 1990 show six women and six men of the 20th century honoured as modern apostles, among them Sophie Scholl, Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Simone Weil. The glasswork was made by Wilhelm Derix in Taunusstein. The painter Heinrich Saffer had supplied apostle pictures above the altar in 1901, before the 1977 fire.
The church stands on ground raised with earth from the Holstenwall before construction began. Since the 1977 fire, the interior is reached via an intermediate floor: a foyer occupies the new ground level, with the church hall above and multi-purpose rooms alongside. The 1984 Jehmlich organ has 19 stops on two manuals and pedal.
The fire of 25–26 September 1977 was never explained as arson or negligence. Architect Bernhard Hirche rebuilt from 1978, finishing in 1982, and had a stone from Israel shipped for the baptismal font, carving a relief of the Sea of Galilee into its base.
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