History
The German guild of St. Gertrude was founded on the location for the present church in the 14th century. While the guild was created by German merchants, their Swedish counterparts were often invited to take part in its activities. For example, King Charles VIII was elected in the guild's building in 1448. The headquarters of the guild was gradually rebuilt into a church starting in the 1580s. Among the architects involved were Wilhelm Boy, the Flemish architect of King Eric III, the Dutch Hubert de Besche and also Hans Jacob Kristler, the architect from Strasbourg who designed the Makalös Palace in present day Kungsträdgården for Jacob de la Gardie.
Though there was an abundant number of German merchants and craftsmen in Stockholm during the Middle Ages, they didn't possess a separate site for their religious sermons until 1558 when King Gustav Vasa permitted them to hold separate sermons. In 1571, King John III authorized the German expatriates in the city to form a separate parish, including summoning priests from Germany, and it thus became the first German ecclesiastical parish outside Germany, It first held its sermons in the Greyfriars monastery on Riddarholmen (today Riddarholmskyrkan) but within five years relocated to the building of the German guild where the king earlier had a chapel built for the Finnish parish. The two parishes shared the space, with the Germans managing the maintenance of the chapel and also inaugurating a German school in 1580, soon relocated to Tyska Skolgränd and still in existence until 1888.
In 1607, however, King Charles IX transferred the premises exclusively to the Germans. Hans Jakob Kristler enlarged the chapel in 1638-1642 to the present two-nave church. During the 17th century, while the choir of the school participated at the royal concerts, the church became an important centre for church music in Sweden. A crypt, construction on which was started in 1716 but was interrupted 1860-1992, is still in use by the parish. By 1800, the German congregation had dwindled to a mere 113 people, and in 1878 a fire destroyed the tower. Today the German parish sorts under the Church of Sweden but as a so-called non-territorial parish, the approximately 2,000 members of which are found all around Stockholm. Sermons in German are still held every Sunday at 11 am, and the church is open daily during summers and at weekends during winter.
Read more about this topic: German Church, Stockholm
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