St. Martin, Lutheran church in Tettens, Germany

St. Martin is a Lutheran church in Tettens constructed of granite blocks in late Romanesque style during the medieval period. The building stands elevated on a rise and displays the architectural characteristics typical of that era.

Built around 1143 on a 7.5-metre-high terp, the church replaced two earlier wooden buildings, as finds from 1965–66 renovations showed. In 1210 the Archbishop of Bremen licensed services through the pastor of Hohenkirchen; the church was formally consecrated about a century later, with Hero von Felde as first pastor. A bomb on 11 February 1943 damaged the roof and the rectory.

The late Gothic winged altar was carved around 1480 in a regional workshop. Its central panel shows the Crucifixion flanked by statues of St Martin and Thomas Becket; the side wings hold six reliefs each, on Martin's life and on Thomas Becket's consecration, murder in 1170 and veneration. Until the 1920s the right wing's saints were unidentified; pastor Hans Thorade (1925–1953) attributed them to Becket.

The south entrance is the main entrance today; the west portal is used mainly for funerals, and the north portal now leads to the heating room. The walls are 1.8 metres thick, and the deep window reveals resemble arrow slits. The church stands on a 7.5-metre-high warft, so expect a short climb from the village street.

The wooden ceiling was painted in 1717, and the church keeps a confessional bought around 150 years after the Reformation of 1531, when Tettens turned Protestant. The pulpit dates from 1564 and reuses late Gothic carvings from a pulpit of 1475 destroyed in 1538.