Conrad Wilhelm Hase and St. John's Church in Lüchow

"They're all building things his way ..."

by Volker Dobers

On April 3, 1866,  actual work on the major reconstruction of St. John's church was begun.  
The man behind the work which later altered the church significantly was the Hanover-based architect and church building consultant (Konsistorialbaumeister) Conrad Wilhelm Hase.  He was born in 1818 in Einbeck, and he attended the local high school (Gymnasium) until 1834.  In October 1834,  Hase  received a grant from the Higher Commercial School (later, the Polytechnic Institute) in Hannover.   There in the administration building foyer he met a fellow Lüchower, August Tacke, with whom he maintained a life-long friendship.  Presumably, for the then sixteen year old Hase this was a first indirect contact with Lüchow.  From 1834 to 1838, he studied architecture in Hannover, then brick construction, and then he served as an apprentice for several years.  In 1843, he began as a foreman for the Royal Hanoverian Railway Administration.  By the end of 1849 he was working alongside his former professor, Ernst Ebeling (1804-1851), as an instructor (professor) of architecture and architectural history at the Polytechnic Institute in Hannover.  He held this position until 1894.  From 1863 to 1897 Hase served on a part-time basis as church building consultant for the regional Church of Hanover, a position which included the oversight of all building and renovation projects for all church and school buildings.  He died in 1902 at the age of eighty-three in Hannover.   In 1853, Hase probably made his first direct contact with the church Lüchow.  The exact reason for this contact is unclear.  Perhaps it had to do with a possible mediation concerning the prior church building consultant, Ludwig Hellner (1790-1862). Whatever the case, on March 18, 1853, Hase submitted two very different design proposals for the complete renovation of the church building.  And the matter appeared urgent.  Two construction reports dating from 1852 mention that the Lüchow church interior had suffered a "long period of deep decline."

In one of his two initial design proposals Hase proposed leaving the existing ceiling of 1691 and not altering its appearance.  Yet thirteen years later things would change, and Hase would claim that he preferred  his own entirely different architectural interpretation for the Lüchow church.  However, based on cost alone this proposal was doomed to fail.  The unimplemented alternative proposal featured new open roof trusses, a characteristic feature of Hase's architecture.

The architectural construction (with structural supports left visible) and the building material itself (uncovered wood finished in a natural finish which highlights its grain) are prime examples of one of the architect's basic concepts: that of "truth" in the art of building.  "Truth in art" meant for those interested in nationalism and motivated by Christian-moral concerns that Hase should utilize only the Gothic style which had been invented by Germans ("Germanic architecture") and the Christian symbolism most likely to fit with it for contemporary society.  Romanesque style, moreover, was rejected as "an immoral act of appropriation of foreign and pagan cultural values.... ".

Consequently, from the year 1860 Hase worked exclusively in the neo-Gothic style, but according to his own unique designs which often had little to do with Gothic.  His students thus designated this self-made style as "Hasik."  One student painted a saying on the wall of his house in Hannover as a humorous way to call attention to Hase's unique style:

"I have built my house my way
if you scorn and laugh away:
Every imitator brings me fame
Conrad Wilhelm Hase is my name."

Hase's principles are carried out in Lüchow in the neo-Gothic designs of the window frames and doorways.  The same applies for the design of the altar, pulpit and sounding board.

In a letter dated May 2, 1866,  Hase flatly rejected plans forwarded to him by the Church Council for a redesign of the altar, pulpit, and sounding board which had been submitted by Hugo Stieger (1845-1920) of Lüchow.  He wrote that "on all these drawings and outlines there is not even a stroke which conveys the true sense or essence of Gothic.  This is a completely unsound, unreasonable piece of work.  This man has no idea of the significance of Gothic forms."

In the same letter Hase recommends that it would either be good to restore the existing pulpit and altar or to ask him, Hase, to submit his own designs for these furnishings.  The latter is what happened.  Some time between May and July, 1866 the Church Council commissioned Hase to submit appropriate proposals, and the proposed drawings were sent on July 20, 1866 from Hannover to Lüchow.  These consisted of draft drawings for a pulpit and altar.  A rendering for a sounding board followed in October of that year.

For the design of the altar for Lüchow Hase relied heavily upon his recently completed design for the altar of Christ Church in Hannover.  In the design submitted for the Lüchow altar there was little truly creative; it was based largely on the earlier work.  The two altars differ primarily in the selection of the materials used.  The Christ Church altar is made of gilded bronze; the Lüchow altar is made of wood.

In just under three months the Lüchow altarpiece and pulpit were completed by the Hannover sculptor Carl Dopmeyer (1825-1899).  This is indicated on Hase's invoice to the congregation which is dated November 3, 1866.  The sounding board was installed following the formal rededication of the church which took place in December 2, 1866.

The renovation work in Lüchow took place during the middle of Hase's life and career and during the last and long-lasting phase of his stylistic development.  With the variety of his tasks and functions, especially during the sixties, it seems he took local building matters somewhat casually. "Spring brings so much business that it is difficult for me to keep track," he reported in a May 2, 1866 letter to Provost Herman Seebold.  Looking back in his autobiography Hase makes no mention of the Lüchow project.   In any case, he seems to have skipped over much of his work.  This is not surprising when over the course of his life he handled over sixty church renovation and rebuilding projects and almost the same number of church restorations.