Holy Cross Church, Frankfurt-Bornheim - The Building

The Building

The church with a gable roof is an advancement of the sketch of the Bonifatius church in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen. The architect Martin Weber designed the church in iron concrete skeleton building method. The church ship is aligned in north south direction. The altar area is at the north end. After its inauguration the interior was first red-pink-cross-hatched painted. The original church windows were bearing bis letters which were readable from inside. They formed a translation in German language of the Latin hymn Vexilla Regis (Des Kreuzes Zeichen zieht einher) (=doth flash the wonder of the cross). At day the letters appeared dark before the light shining through the windows. At night the letters were glowing because they were reflecting the light of the lamps inside the church. The steeple crosses are shaped in width to height proportions typical for Martin Weber 1:4 (1,50 x 6,00 meters).

In the Second World War the church and the adjacent parsonage building in the Kettelerallee were damaged by several bomb hits. The windows of the church were destroyed 1943 by the pressure waves of bomb explosions in the proximity. The large main stairs at the steeple were destroyed 1944 by a bomb hit and the church roof was stoken through by incendiary bombs. After the reconstruction in 1951 the church interior has a white painting at the walls with an orange cover. The new church windows were again glassed in a yellowish colour. 1990 was begun extensive renovation work, during which the altar area was transformed. In 1992 for reasons of monument protection the interior got back its original painting. The church possesses a three voices peal of bells. Under the church is the crypt, which was submitted on the occasion of the establishment of the center for Christian meditation and spirituality of a basiclying renovation and transformation. Beside the crypt is a large meeting hall, the parish hall of the former Holy Cross fold. Inside the basis of the steeple is in addition the steeple hall, which is also used by the new St. Josef fold. At the walls in the rear part of the church inside and the external walls of the side courses is a painted cross way of the artist George Poppe. Also the Pietà of the sculptor Arnold Hensler forms a part of the cross way. At the altar side is a large cross transformed in the reconstruction 1952. The painting on it shows the resurrecting Christ. Up to the war two large painted angels were on the left and on the right beside the cross at the wall. At the southern external wall of the steeple ends the bell chair basic bar in four winged animal figures with the heads of a human, a lion, a bull and an eagle. They symbolize the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. On the four girders is an inscription with a text from the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1, 23-24): Wir aber predigen Christus den Gekreuzigten, Christus Kraft und Gottes Weisheit (=But we preach Christ crucified, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God). Below the four animal figures is a plaster relief of the Veil of Veronica. The relief was created by the sculptor Arnold Hensler from Wiesbaden. At the western and the eastern side of the bell steeple are each with a turret clock without cyphers. On property are in addition the 1957 established kindergarten, a parsonage building with a parish office and dwellings, a building with group and club areas, as well as a football pitch used by young people.