Worpswede - Church of Zion and Cemetery

Church of Zion and Cemetery

Moor commissioner Jürgen Christian Findorff carried out the construction of Lutheran Church of Zion (German: Zionskirche), following the plans of Johann Paul Heumann, Hanoveran court architect of King and Elector George II Augustus of Great Britain and Hanover. The church was built between 1757 and 1759 during the wearisome Seven Years' War, which had its American version as the Anglo-French and Indian War.

George II, being as summus episcopus the supreme governor of the Hanoveran Lutheran church, provided financial support for the construction of the Church of Zion. The hall church is oriented. Its else rather modest interior is beautified by a typical Protestant Kanzelaltar, combining pulpit and altar table, created in Rococo forms. It bears the Tetragrammaton יהוה in a top medaillon and to the left of the pulpit the king’s ornamented initials GR (Georgius Rex, hidden on the photo by a painting).

There are heads of cherubim by Clara Westhoff and floral ornaments by Paula Becker at the pendentives and the columns, connecting to the ceiling. After in 1900 both artists, then still students, had rung the church bells for fun, which was generally understood as a fire alarm, they were fined. They could not pay and were allowed to perform instead by way of offering these decorative elements to the church. Lofts (or matronea) span between the outer walls and the columns.

The church tower with its spire in baroque forms had been added at the eastern end of the actual church building only in 1798. The Church of Zion is located on the Weyerberg, and with its tower it is a landmark, often used as subject of paintings by the artists.

The cemetery is a churchyard, thus it actually spreads around the church building. It was designed after plans of Findorff and attracts many visitors because of its elevated location on Weyerberg and due to the graves preserved there. Among them those of 80 known painters, authors, musicians and artisans, such as Fritz Mackensen and Paula Modersohn-Becker.