Yes, there is a pastor, who is in charge of the house theologi- cally and artistically and who has managerial responsibility. An expert curatorium advises him in all questions relating to the program and realization of any projects. Classical Sunday services we leave to the churches in our neighbour- hood. Our spiritual focus lies on experimental rituals which often take place at different times, for example our noctur- nal ‘Petrivision’. A simple prayer ‘Solo Verbo’ takes place on weekdays. And furthermore there are also staged theme evenings.
Sometimes, yes. Yes, because there are topics which you can explore best when wandering around in the church. However, we have hidden approx. 1,200 chairs which can be set up when and where they are needed. At some festive occasions and theme evenings St.Petri gets really crowded.
For the arts, culture, science and education, concerts, lectures, discussions, theological and religiophilosophical theme evenings, experimental rituals (mostly in the evening or at night), receptions, celebrations, festive occasions of the Lübeck universities.
Tourists and Lübeck citizens use the viewing tower and enjoy the panorama view over the city. The nice café is a lovely place to linger. In summer we host lectures and concerts outdoors in the churchyard, as well as a unique craft market during Advent.
Yes. With reformation the Libeck churches became Lutheran. It was only around 1900 that with the church ‘Herz-Jesu’, situated between St. Petri and the Cathedral, a catholic church was built again in Libeck’s city centre.
In the apsis you find the Bretterkreuz ohne Titel (‘Cross Made of Planks Without Title’) by the famous Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer. Sometimes, when we are hosting art exhibitions and the artists want to design the apsis differently, we keep the cross in the sacristy for a while. Under the cross is a plain octagonal altar table which is sometimes also placed in the centre axis of the church. In addition, there is a somewhat bulky movable pulpit which we only set up when it is needed. The baroque style baptismal font in the northern side aisle is the only principal liturgical item which withstood the demolition. Occasionally, baptisms, weddings and funeral services take place in St. Petri, too.
Yes. St. Petri is and has (incessantly) always been a real church and it shall stay one. Being a city church without parish, as a place for culture and science (university church), however, it works completely differently to all the other chur- ches in the city centre: as a venue for festivities (for example for the graduation ceremonies of the Lubeck universities), as exhibition space, as a space for personal encounters. Questions of faith play an important role, however, they are confronted in a very general manner. We like to call St. Petri the ‘church at point zero of religion’, and we are pursuing our ambitious objective to design models for ecclesial work of the future.
In March 1942 (Palmarum) St. Petri was destroyed by a British bombing raid. The bombing of Libeck is seen as retaliation move after the bombing of Coventry. In the 1960s the reconstruction began (spire and roof were renewed). From 1982 to 1987 the nave was renovated. In 1987 service was resumed in St. Petri, however, no longer as a parish church, but as a church for the whole city.
Yes, there still are mural paintings, however, no complete ones. They date from between 1170 and 1500. At some places in the northern vault and in the access to the spire the conservator-restorers made them visible, elsewhere they were covered with Japanese paper for preservation purposes and were then carefully covered with paint.
In the night of the fire even the mural paintings fell victim to the flames. During gothic times St. Petri was painted with frescos; the style change in Baroque meant: white paint as a background for the dark altars and liturgical items. Until the Second World War the walls and vaults had been white.
No. Sometimes workmen are here to do minor repair works, or sometimes conservator-restorers, too. Sometimes we have to close the church interior for safety reasons because we are in the middle of setting up an exhibition or another big event. After a three-year, work-intensive phase of reno- vation of the spire and the complete westwork St. Petri is currently in good shape. The room is not empty as it is be- cause it is supposed to be equipped in a new way, as one might suggest. It is that empty because it is supposed to be this way now and because it is supposed to stay like this, too.
During the Second World War the church burnt out and the interior was destroyed. In the 1980s an architectural com- petition took place to which drafts for the church’s interior design were submitted, too. However, none of those drafts convinced. So, the church’s construction director of that time, Zimmermann, decided to leave the interior pure and to equip the church only with some movable principal litur- gical items (pulpit, organ, altar). This results in a clear, empty space full of light which offers an endless variety of usage possibilities: space for the arts, for concerts, rituals and all sorts of experiments.